Transfiguration Sunday, 2022

 Each of the synoptic gospels records Jesus’s experience of transfiguration on the mountain with Peter, James, and John. Each has a different spin on the experience. Mark’s gospel indicates it was for the benefit of the three disciples. Luke’s gospel (this year’s lectionary gospel) indicates the experience was for Jesus’s benefit. Of course, the experience was for all involved, Jesus and the three disciples … and us.

Jesus had taken the disciples north of the Sea of Galilee into the region of Caesarea Philippi so that he might teach them without the distraction of the ever-present crowds. From there, he journeyed to Jerusalem, knowing what would happen to him there. It was at Caesarea Philippi that the disciples, for the first time, acknowledged to Jesus that they believed he was the messiah. Affirming their understanding, he began to teach them about what he would experience in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration: suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. Of course, they could not understand, much less embrace, what he was teaching them. What he described was outside the realm of their understanding of the messiah. In their minds, following the world’s way of thinking, the messiah would be a warrior king like David, defeating their enemies and reestablishing the nation as a dominant world power. Naturally, they resisted what he was teaching them.

“About eight days after these sayings” at Caesarea Philippi (Luke 9:28), Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him to a mountain to pray. There, on that mountain retreat, Jesus was transfigured before the three disciples. “And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white” (Luke 9:29). They saw Jesus fully immersed in the glory of the spiritual realm. It was as though the veil that separates the physical and spiritual realms was pulled aside so that they could see the reality of the spiritual realm that infuses the physical. They saw Moses and Elijah with Jesus, talking with him.  

Luke alone identified what Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus. “They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). They were talking with him about his death. The experience was for Jesus’s benefit. Moses and Elijah were there to support Jesus as he grappled with the death that awaited him in Jerusalem. Their presence is a metaphor for the Hebrew Scriptures, commonly known as the Law and the Prophets. Moses represented the Law; Elijah, the prophets. The teaching of scripture validated Jesus’s understanding of the suffering he faced. In addition, the spiritual realm in whose light he was bathed validated his understanding. The ways of God were the ways of self-giving love, the ways of the servant. In his death, as in his ministry, Jesus went against the thinking of the world, challenging the ways of the world. He rejected us-them thinking that used power over others for personal benefit. He embraced the servant ways of God. As he set his face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), he drew strength from these two resources — the teachings of scripture, his personal relationship with God as Father. He would draw on them again when he prayed in Gethsemane just before his arrest.

The transfiguration experience was not just for Jesus. It was also for the three disciples. A cloud overshadowed them and a voice spoke to them from the cloud. The cloud was a metaphor for God. God spoke to them, affirming their understanding that Jesus was indeed the messiah. “This is my Son, my Chosen” (Luke 9:35). The words are from the psalm used in the coronation of a new king, Psalm 2. Then the voice commanded them to listen to what Jesus was teaching them about his death. “Listen to him!” (Luke 9:35). The same two resources Jesus drew on for strength — scripture, a personal experience of God through prayer — called them to embrace the different way of thinking Jesus was teaching them.

The transfiguration experience is for our benefit, as well. It calls us to move beyond the way the world trained us to think: us-them, better than-less than, power over the other for personal benefit at the other’s expense. It calls us to learn from Jesus the grace-based, servant ways of God. It calls us to quit resisting what Jesus taught. The transfiguration experience reminds us that the Spirit guides our understanding of the scriptures so that we see in them the ways of God that Jesus taught. It reminds us to cultivate, through prayer, our own personal experience of God and of the Spirit’s presence in our lives. The transfiguration experience calls us to prayerfully seek God with an open, teachable spirit rather than stubbornly holding to the way the world trained us to think and live. Just as Jesus grappled with his impending death, the transfiguration experience calls us to grapple with our own death — death to our ego-centric, merit-oriented self that the world created. The transfiguration calls us to find our true identity in Christ as we embrace the servant ways of God he taught.

The Good Ole Days

 Every congregation that is experiencing decline can, and generally does, talk about the good ole days. The good ole days – back when … back when things were different, not like they are now … back when there were more people, especially more children and youth, in the church … back when there were more people in the pews … back when things were good. These congregations spend much of their energy looking back at what was, longing for what was back then, and wishing things were like they were back then. Any vision they might muster is always in terms of what it was like back then, in the good ole days.

Holding onto the memory of the good ole days provides a bit of comfort in the face of what is. It provides a sense of value for who they (we) are today based on who they were back then. Holding onto the memory of what was is, at best, a topical salve that masks the pain of the symptom, but doesn’t address the underlying sickness.

By masking the pain, holding onto the memory of the good ole days prevents healing. It prevents them (us) from dealing realistically with what is. It keeps them from doing the evaluating, learning, and adapting that are necessary if things are ever going to be different from what they are now. Holding onto the memory of what was blinds them (us) to God’s presence and God’s work in what is. It acts as though God was at work back then, but not now. Consequently, holding onto the memory of the good ole days blocks any openness to what God wants to do in and through them in the current situation. Ultimately, it keeps them from changing, thereby guaranteeing that things will never be any different than what they are now. Having turned their back on what God wants to do now, the only thing the future holds is continuing decline. The decline will continue until the congregation ages out and dies.  

“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

 

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl LVI will draw the largest TV audience of any event this year. The game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will hold the attention of the vast majority of this nation for much of the evening. Fans that have no interest in either team will choose sides and yell with joy over with the success or groan at the failure of their chosen team. They will gather in homes for Super Bowl parties, something that has become a tradition in our culture. Advertisers have spent millions of dollars developing and running creative ads that will catch our attention and generate conversations as an alternative narrative to the game itself.

All the time, energy, and money we invest in this event leaves me wondering: what about this event creates such interest? (Would the word obsession be a better term than interest?)

It seems to me the annual Super Bowl embodies the values of our nation. We are doing more than watching a game. We are celebrating our nation’s values.

Looking at our nation through the eyes of the Super Bowl, it seems to me we as a nation value . . .

·        Competition. We are passionate about anything that pits us against them. Us-them thinking and relating is deeply embedded in our culture. It goes far beyond the game of football or sports. This kind of us-them thinking plays a huge role in our sense of who we are.

·        Winning. We don’t like to lose. We want to be the champion, #1, second to no one. We tie our sense of value to being at the top of whatever hierarchy we are in. As a result, anything other than winning means we have failed. When we fail, we look for someone to blame. (Coaches will lose their jobs, players will be traded based on this season’s win/loss record.)

·        Power. In order to win, we have to be better than the other. We have to use our power to defeat them. We use our power over, down against them so that we can win. We over-power them. Our winning comes at their expense.

·        Self-reliance. Our success is tied to our effort, our discipline, our level of commitment.

·        Winners. Losers have no value or place in our culture.

·        Wealth and affluence. We reward those who are the strongest, the fastest, the best at their position, the smartest, the most successful. They are the highest paid because we value winning.

·        Keeping score. Keeping score is the way we know who wins.

It strikes me that all of these values have to do with the ego. These values suggest we are seeking to establish a sense of identity based on something outside of ourselves. We are seeking to fill an inner void. We are seeking to prop up a fragile sense of self. (Notice how we piggy back on the Super Bowl champion as though we ourselves had won the championship?) These values suggest we are worshipping at the altar of the false god of our own ego.

 As I reflect on these values, I call to mind the teachings of Jesus.

·        If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their own life? (Mark 8:34-36).

·        Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all (Mark 9:35).

·        You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:41-45).

Jesus taught an alternative way of thinking that produced a different way of thinking. Rather than living out of an ego-based identity, he taught his followers to die to that sense of self — “let them deny themselves.” His followers reject the hierarchal, us-them ways of the world — “take up their cross.” Rejecting the way the world measures greatness, the standard they use to determine greatness is a servant spirit. Rather than using their power over others for their own benefit, they use power to serve, addressing the needs of others, often at great cost to themselves. 

It seems to me that Super Bowl Sunday offers us an opportunity to reflect and reevaluate if we have ears to hear and eyes to see. 

What's Missing

In every congregation that is experiencing decline, in every denomination that is experiencing decline, one key element is missing. This missing element is a major factor in the decline. It is a barrier to growth and, at the same time, prevents us from doing the work that is necessary to address the decline.

This missing element is spiritual formation.

The transformation of our hearts and minds into the likeness of Christ — spiritual formation — is the heart of the spiritual journey. It is the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus — discipleship. It is Paul’s definition of salvation as presented in his letter to the Romans.

It seems to me most churches have a different definition of salvation. Salvation, in these churches, is accepting Jesus as my savior so I can go to heaven when I die. (I addressed the bankruptcy of this theology in last week’s blog “A Fatal Flaw.”) In the churches built upon this theology, spiritual formation a secondary focus. It is an elective rather than the core curriculum required of all. It is not even offered in some of these congregations. Evangelism — getting people “saved” — is the central focus of these churches. In these churches, Bible study is generally substituted for spiritual formation. Rather than leading to “the renewing of the mind” (Romans 12:2) and the mind of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:16), the study is used to reinforce how we already think and what we already believe. It does not lead to spiritual growth. This heaven-oriented theology produces church members, many of whom can quote scripture to validate what they believe. It does not produce any significant change of heart and mind. It often produces a religious version of the person they were before they “accepted Jesus as my savior.”

Spiritual formation deals with the heart. It shifts the focus from externals — right belief, right behavior (morals, church involvement), right worship — to the interior dimension of our lives. It addresses the attitudes that shape how we treat others and the underlying, self-serving spirit that fuels those attitudes. Spiritual formation leads us to deal with those things in ourselves that we don’t see and don’t want to see — what is called the shadow. It addresses our deep-seated emotional wounds. It shines the healing light of Christ on our “issues” that are the faces of those wounds. It calls out the old messages that keep those issues alive in our hearts. It calls us beyond the unhealthy relational patterns we use to reduce the anxiety created by those issues.

Spiritual formation results in a transformation of our hearts and minds. How we think along with what we think is transformed. Our hearts are cleansed along with the attitudes that reside in our hearts. A servant spirit displaces our inherent self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit. The transformation that grows out of this inner work produces the character of Christ in us. We love as Jesus loved. We love those whom Jesus loved.

Without this kind of inner, transformative work, we continue to live out of our ego-centric, constructed self and its self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit. We avoid any honest look at ourselves or our lives. Blind to our shadow, we project what is in our shadow onto others. We judge, criticize, and blame. We remain stuck in us-them, black-and-white, right-and-wrong thinking.

Spiritual formation is what is missing in every church that is experiencing decline. Apart from it, the thinking and attitudes of our ego-centric, constructed selves permeate our churches. We live out of an unrecognized what’s-in-it-for-me spirit that resists change, clinging to what is comfortable and familiar. We live out of us-them thinking that judges and excludes those not like us. And to complicate matters, we cannot do the kind of self-evaluation that helps us see the things we do that contribute to the decline.

P.S. – Spiritual formation questions: How am I more like Christ today than I was a year ago? How have I grown in Christ this past year? What is the Spirit addressing in my life right now? What am I doing — what spiritual practices do I regularly engage in — that nurtures my growth in Christ?