Sermon – The Message We Have Received
Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Peter 1:16-21
2/15/26
I’m guessing that you have gotten news or a message at some point in your life that you had a hard time believing. It was most likely too good to believe or too hard to hear. Something like 10 years ago, I tried to make a career change involving service in the VA National Guard in addition to regular church work. Everything about that pointed to God’s hand, and based on how this kind of thing had happened in my life previously, I fully expected it to happen. It didn’t. When I was told that it was not going to happen, I could not believe it. It didn’t make sense, but it did throw my life and sense of call into question.
Of course, your experience with news may not have been as serious or dramatic. Honestly, this sort of news happens very regularly today. If you spend any time on the internet or social media, you have been told things that never happened. There are voices online that are literally designed just to make you mad so that you stay engaged, and they will say whatever they need to keep you in your seat. When some people receive news that they do not want to accept, it is dismissed as “fake” news. It is hard to know what to believe. I have tried to talk my own loved ones back from edge of outrage over news that had been completely fabricated. It helps to remember that if you learn something that makes you angry, assume that it might not be true. Check before investing your emotions.
Even something as silly as the childhood game, “telephone,” makes the point that we cannot trust everything we hear. Passing a secret down the line of people means that the truth or the message will change. Maybe it is part of our human nature to hear things incorrectly.
People have always struggled with this. Ever since the first human figured out how to tell a story, the second human had to figure out whether it was true. Back then, it could be a life-or-death situation, “Nancy, there is a saber-toothed tiger around the corner.” “Bob, I’m having a hard time believing you.” Cavewoman Nancy didn’t make it to her bridge game (which was difficult to play in that day with large stone playing cards). Caveman Bob tried to warn her.
The Bible is one giant story that can be hard to believe. That is somewhat the point. If you were raised accepting the Bible as I was, we can forget that simple fact. The Bible says lots of things that are not easily accepted or believed. How did Moses endure 40 days of fasting in the very fiery presence of God on top of a mountain that was so holy that to touch it was to die? I met someone back in the 90s who had done his own 40 days of fasting. Of course, this was done under a doctor’s supervision, but I’m not sure how you can even do that – just the fast. We do have stories of people surviving in extreme situations for long periods, but the body needs food and drink. Even more, Moses was up on a mountain with God for that time, something that caused him to glow the rest of his life At the time, the people assumed Moses was dead. After a week or two or three or FOUR was no way that he could still be alive. That’s why the Israelites turned to Aaron, Moses’ brother, and he made that golden calf. I guess they wanted a god that didn’t seem quite as scary.
The Apostle Peter, the same Peter who fished and was one of Jesus’ closest friends, is connected to these books of the Bible with his name. He was also one of the three people who found themselves up on a mountain with Jesus when he was transfigured and became unbelievably white, and Moses and Elijah showed up, and God spoke directly to them. Peter in today’s reading is justifying what he shared with his readers, his story and its meaning here – trying to convince his readers that it was true. Peter and the others really did see Jesus transfigured and everything else that happened there. Peter’s reasoning is a bit tough, however: prophecy is not something that comes from humans but from the Holy Spirit, i.e. God, so it must be true. In fact, people can and do say all kinds of things. Claiming something to be prophecy has gotten people into trouble for generations.
How many cults have begun because someone claimed to have divine prophecy? Some are still around today. Some have resulted in the deaths of the people who believed. It is absolutely tragic that some have abused the voice of God for their own twisted purposes. We cannot let those tragedies of bad news, however, take away our ability to find good news. We cannot let our doubts steal our ability to have faith.
This brings us to Transfiguration. Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the Sunday before the season of Lent. In case you do not know, Lent is the time of preparation that we have before Easter or Resurrection Sunday. Interestingly, it is 40 days excluding Sundays, and it is more than eating fish or giving up things. It is about trusting yourself, again, to a story that is hard to believe.
I have never been a contestant on a game show, but my wife has. In fact, she took my place on a game show in 2003, the Pepsi Play for a Billion tv show. She was one of the contestants that ended up being the audience, but there was a real shot – a better-than-the-lottery – shot that she would win the guaranteed 1-million-dollar prize. One of the 100 contestants actually left with 1 million dollars. Now, what if it had all been a sham. I thought it was, myself, at first. It turned out to be real, though. On the other hand, a game show that does not actually reward any of the prizes it promises is fast tracked to its end. It must follow through with the hard to believe claims if it will last more than one show.
The time of Lent is not a game or a show, but it promises even more. Before Jesus marched to his death, he was transfigured on a mountain in an unbelievable way. Moses and Elijah from history were present, and God spoke. It was terrifying and full of wonder. This light in the darkness signaled that the world was about to change. Jesus himself changed, and we received a glimpse behind the curtain. The world was about to change. Within days, Jesus was given the greatest injustice in human history, but he did it out of the most loving reason. He broke the world of rules and replaced it with a world of grace. He set us on a path of repair and redemption. He gave us love to light a way of hope. He gave us community and family and a home forever. He made it possible for us to live differently now, today, this very minute, and to be different all of the rest of our days.
We will not see the fullness of this promise today or, most likely, in our lifetimes. That may be a struggle. It may be hard to continue hoping in a message that seems too good to believe. Peter spends the entirety of his second letter defending this faith in the face of doubt. We need these days and the change they bring. We need this reminder of what God did and of what God is doing. It is hard when we are waiting at the bottom of the mountain for the glory going on up there on the top, but this is where life happens. I am less worried about what went on up there than how we keep the message alive. Find a way to devote yourself to the truth of God’s grace through these days of Lent. They will grow darker before we see the light, but as Jesus proves to us, the light can never be extinguished.
To God be the glory. Amen.