Getting Our Hands Dirty

Text: Mark 9:2-9

Title: Getting Our Hands Dirty

Thesis: Jesus leads his disciples to go into the world to share the love of God.

Time: Transfiguration Sunday, B

My parents visited last week.  While they were here my mom reminded me of the first sermon I ever preached.  According to her my first sermon wasn’t after I felt a call to ministry.  She said I preached my first sermon when I was only three years old.  We were at home at the time and I told my mom I wanted to preach her a sermon.  So, she sat on the couch and I stood on the coffee table with a Bible in my hand.  My first sermon was this, “Jesus loves you, and ring around the collar.”

I’ll admit, my sermons are now a little longer.  They’re now preached behind a pulpit and not standing on a coffee table.  But I’ve thought about the content of my sermons.  I still preach “Jesus loves you.”  And reflecting even more, the Gospel in a way is about ring around the collar.  The Gospel is God’s way of removing the stain and dirt of sin that resides within us, through Jesus we are made clean.

Right after the text we read from Mark 9:2-9, what happens next is a messy, dirty, bloody episode in the life of Jesus.  The story will unfold that Jesus will walk closer and closer to the city of Jerusalem where he will die on the cross for the sins of the world.  Jesus will die for the sins of the whole world.  It doesn’t matter how permanent and stubborn sin is, Jesus will take upon himself all our sins, so that we can be made totally and completely clean and pure. 

So imagine the contrast of Jesus in the later chapters of Mark, which describes his body sweating and bleeding and dying to this scene in Mark 9:2-9.  Here Jesus is described as one who has no ring around the collar.  Listen to Luke 9:3, “And his clothes became dazzling white, such that no one on earth could bleach them.”

Mark 9 is called a theophany, it means the power and holiness of God has broken through.  It means God is so present and so completely revealed that there is no doubt about what God is saying.  God is going to say something about Jesus here in Mark 9:2-9 that is so important there is to be no room for doubt. 

For example, another important event where the Bible describes a theophany is in the Book of Exodus when Moses is given the Ten Commandments.  Do you remember in the story that when Moses came down from the mountain his face was glowing.  Moses had been so much in the presence and holiness of God that he came down the mountain still reflecting the glory of God.  And Moses said to the people, God has spoken an important word to us.

So what important word does God have to speak here in Mark 9, of such great importance that there is a theophany?  It is this, in Mark 9:7, “This is my Son, the beloved, listen to him.”

This word from God comes at a critical juncture in Jesus’ ministry.  If there is ever a time the disciples need to listen to Jesus it is now.  For Jesus is going to tell them something they don’t want to hear.  Jesus is going to lead the disciples somewhere they don’t want to go.  If they are truly Jesus’ disciples, they will listen to what Jesus has to say.”

What Jesus is going to many times tell the disciples following this theophany is that he must go to Jerusalem.  The disciples aren’t dumb; they know that Jesus is not well liked by the leaders of Jerusalem.  He might even die if he goes to Jerusalem.  Jesus will even tell them he must go to Jerusalem; he must be handed over to the rulers.  He must die.  They aren’t words the disciples want to hear.

Here’s what the disciples would like.  They want to play it safe.  They  want to stay on top of the mountain.  Peter says this Mark 9:5, “Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  Peter is ready to call the mountaintop home.

We’ve all had these mountaintop experiences –times when we felt so in tune with God, experiencing the holiness and presence of God.  Mountaintop experiences are renewing and refreshing, those times when it seems everything is going so well.  But we are reminded as are the 12 disciples that we aren’t called to live on the mountaintop.  We are called to go into the world, a world that is dirty and stained with sin to announce the message, “Jesus loves you.”

Even in the church we are tempted like Peter, “It is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings.”  There’s a story about a man who was the lone survivor of a plane crash at sea.  Miraculously, he washed up on a deserted island where he lived for years in complete isolation.  And then one day, he was rescued!  The first question he was asked by the rescue party was who else lives on the island with you?  He said, what do you mean, I’m here by myself.  And the rescue party said, “The reason we ask is that there are three huts here.  If you’re the only person on the island why did you build three huts?”  He responded by saying, “That’s easy to explain.  That hut is the one where I live.  That one is where I go to church, and that other one is where I used to go to church.”

Our mentality as the church can be this is where we dwell.  This is the place where we come to experience God’s presence, this is where we come to get in tune with God.  This is the place we come to escape the sin and filth of the world.  We can say that when everything is going well in the life of the church, this is a mountain top experience.  I’ve been a part of worship services like that, where God’s spirit is so present, where God is moving, and nobody wanted to go home.  We need those experiences. 

But we are also never to forget that as Jesus’ disciples we are called to go back down the mountain.  Over and over in this Gospel of Mark Jesus will tell his disciples “follow me.”  The people and places Jesus leads his disciples are to some of the dirtiest and sin infested places one could ever imagine.  But it is in these places, for these lives that the message is shared, “Jesus loves you.”  Being disciples means we have to get our hands dirty.  We have to be willing to provide ministry to those who have never experienced the cleansing power of salvation.

In the book “How to Build a Magnetic Church,” the question is asked, “What is our primary business?”  The answer is then given if the primary business of the church is Christ plus something then the church will shrink, losing it’s magnetic power, and eventually die.  Examples are given such as Christ plus programs, Christ plus programs, Christ plus civic religion, Christ plus rationalism, Christ plus emotionalism, Christ plus institutionalism, Christ plus social action, Christ plus Church growthism –all these things fall short of the primary purpose of the church which is to take the good news Jesus loves you to those who have never received the cleansing power of salvation.  

For our church, my prayer is that as we are gathered we have those mountaintop experiences.  I would like any time we are gathered as the church we would leave saying, “I felt I was in God’s presence.”  But as much as we would just like to sit and dwell here forever, we also listen to Jesus.  As we listen we hear Jesus say, “follow me.”

Follow me to those who need to hear a way out of sin.  Follow me to those who have lost all sense of hope.  Follow me to those who need to hear of a better way.  Follow me.

Next Sunday we being a forty day season of Lent.  During lent we become aware of our own ring around the collar.  We become aware of those ways we are not listening to God’s Son, the beloved.  We discern ways we still need to grow in our discipleship.  And we will follow Jesus.  We will read about a Jesus, who was willing to trade in his dazzling white clothes, who being totally pure and sinless was willing to take upon himself our sin. 

Brothers and sisters, may we sense God’s presence as the church gathered together.  And may we hear Jesus speak to us, follow me, as we are willing to get our hands dirty by providing ministry to others.