02.19.2023 - Shaped By Christ (Transfiguration Sunday) - The Witnesses of Christ

Scripture: 2 Peter 1:16-21

2 Peter 1:16–21 NRSV

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

The Witnesses of Christ

War of the Worlds

In 1917, after three long, violent years in Europe, the US entered what was called “The War to End All Wars,” inspired by a story from H.G. Wells. We use that phrase with a bit of sarcasm now because the history books call it World War I since it was followed by an even bigger war that began in 1939. That is all common knowledge in history books. What is less common knowledge today is that there was an even bigger world war that was fought in the imaginations of Americans in 1938, the year before World War II broke out in Europe. That year, Americans faced a threat far more significant than Germany, Japan, Russia, or any other nation or group of countries we have ever encountered. That was the year we faced the planet Mars in the War of the Worlds.

I remember reading the play adapted from the aforementioned H.G. Wells, who wrote the story as a satire of how easily the mighty colonizing empires could fall. Orson Welles, a young Hollywood actor, director, and screenwriter, produced a radio version of the story and performed it the night before Halloween in 1938 on his regular program that performed works of science fiction and other literature for listening audiences all over. In our present terms, “it went viral,” and Orson Welles became a celebrity overnight. But, unfortunately, the circumstances of his fame were not good.

Through a series of unfortunate events and lack of foresight, the science fiction play was heard and interpreted by audiences as a factual newscast. The listeners were terrified. Many made life-changing and life-ending decisions because they believed the story they were being told was true. They had genuine, honest faith in something that was total fiction, which led to their destruction, and we all grew up in a different world, not because the War of the Worlds happened but because it was believed by many.

The world has accused the Church of this misleading and giving misinformation about God for the past 2000 years. Many today all over the world, deny the truth of God that we find in the scripture and summarized in our creeds. Many people reject the truth of Christ because admitting it would require them to acknowledge that there is something wrong with the way they live or have lived their lives. Others, though, deny the gospel out of a real fear that it is not true. They have been told and taught that it is a fairy tale and not based on reality, and they believe those who live and give their lives for Christ are living and dying for a lie.

Those are the people Peter wrote about in our scripture today. He wrote to share that He was an eyewitness of Jesus and the power of the Gospel to save and change lives. He wrote to show us today that the Scripture passes on the true accounts of Christ to and through us.

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The Truth

Truth is often stranger than fiction. It is easy to stand up and give a list of facts, but facts do not usually lead to actions or applications without time spent interpreting them. The difference between a good detective and a bad one is not in the facts. It is in how they interpret them.

Over the years, science has taught us that we should somehow be unbiased, cold, objective, and purely logical when solving life's great mysteries. Some of us were taught that our personal experience could cause us to be prejudiced towards one interpretation over others. We have trained our younger generations that the correct interpretation can be whatever you want, so believe whatever you want.

One of the most famous fictional detectives worked with logic and facts but did not shy away from his personal experience. Like a true scientist, he tried to learn as much as possible about everything, probably to a fault. He wanted to narrow down the possibilities until no interpretations were left but the truth. Doing that took time.

We have a special Ash Wednesday service this week at 6:30 pm, where we will dig deeper into the Scriptures. Rather than reading it once and moving quickly to what we need to do with it, we will meditate and immerse ourselves in it, inviting God to lead us to a right understanding and asking Him to help us experience the power of His Word in our lives.

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Eyewitnesses

What is better than a detective? An eyewitness. Peter wrote:

“16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.” - 1 Peter 1:16 (NRSV)

When we recite our communion liturgy together, we identify the “mystery of our faith” with these three statements:

Christ has died.

Christ has risen.

Christ will come again.

I remember hearing that as a teenager and a young adult and being confused about which part was the mystery and what the answer to that great mystery must be. It almost looks like a list of facts. Christ died - that is a fact. Christ rose from the dead - that is another fact. What about Christ will come again? Is this supposed to read like one plus two equals three? If Christ died and rose, therefore, He will come again?

We need an interpretation of those facts. We are detectives, and we need a witness to get to the truth. What does the death and resurrection of Christ have to do with us today? What does it mean that He will come again?

So Peter gave us an answer:

17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. - 1 Peter 1:17-18 (NRSV)

Peter could have written about the miracles of Jesus. He could have mentioned his death and resurrection. He knew many of the people reading this might have access to the Old Testament prophecies and had probably heard of the significant events in the life of Jesus. But they needed something that showed Jesus to be unique. Everyone dies. Some even had come back from the dead. What made Jesus different?

Peter told them that He heard the voice of God claim Jesus as His beloved Son. On the mountain, the gospels tell us that Jesus was transfigured. He was covered in God’s glory, and Peter saw Him speaking with Moses and Elijah, prophets representing all of the Old Testament. They were witnesses of the work of God that was coming to completion in Jesus and, at that moment, got to be eyewitnesses of Jesus, their Messiah, whom they had told their people about hundreds of years earlier.

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Becoming a witness

Moses and Elijah were not the only eyewitnesses that day, though. Peter, James, and John all saw the same thing from a few feet further back. They had heard the prophecies of Moses and Elijah (as well as others from the Old Testament). They had walked with Jesus for three years and been transformed by their experience and training. That day, God gave them an important piece that would help them interpret the facts in the days that followed.

Here is the issue. Many people have died. Some people came back from the grave. Moses and Elijah even came back from the grave for a moment. So how do the facts of the life of Jesus line up so that He becomes the answer to sin and death in our lives?

Peter told us that it is because Jesus is the Son of God, the only one who has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus is the Son of God, the only one with the power to overcome death. Jesus is the Son of God, the only one worthy of coming back and judging the world. How did Peter know that? He witnessed the Old Testament prophecies, He saw them fulfilled in Jesus, and He heard the voice of God declaring that Jesus was His Son. Peter saw prophecies “fully conformed,” as he wrote in our passage today. It was not a matter of interpretation to Peter. He was a witness.

Jesus wants you to be a witness too. Not an interpreter of the Bible. He wants you to witness Jesus in your life, fulfilling those prophecies. If you were put on the stand in court or questioned by the police and asked what you could tell them about Jesus, what could you honestly say? If they had the facts that Jesus lived, died, and rose again, would you have a personal account of why that made any difference in your life? Or is Jesus just a matter for the history books?

The facts have stayed the same for the last 2000 years. But just down the road, a few young people got up and gave a witness to what Jesus was doing in their life, and the whole world stood up and took notice last week. They filled in the gap left by those who only gave them facts. The Bible is not a magic book that makes people Christian when they read it. It works when the Holy Spirit of Jesus works through those words and the followers of Jesus that surround the reader so they can see Jesus in the past prophecies and see Him in their present life. You and I are made to be like the scriptures brought to life.

There is someone out there whom God loves, and Jesus died for and who is trying to interpret the gospel on their own, and they are still dead in their sins. Your witness, your story of what it means to have Jesus in your life today, might be the piece that someone is missing as they try to understand the gospel's mystery. Will you share with those God brings into your life and be the person that makes the scripture come alive to them and helps them see Jesus today?

Join us at 6 pm for our evening service, where Gus Lavin will be sharing with us.

I invite you right now, as Julie plays the postlude, to stay seated or move up a few rows as we transition into our All-Church meeting, led by our Discernment Team.

Come, Lord Jesus, and help us be the Church you call us to be.