Trust the Process

Readings; Psalm 99, Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9, 2 Peter 1:16-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, March 2nd, 2014

A printable PDF file can be found here

Matthew's gospel gives us an account of the events that we recall on Transfiguration Sunday. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain to pray. Whilst in prayer the mountain top is bathed in light and they see two great figures from the old Testament, Moses and Elijah standing with Jesus. A voice is heard form the Father in heaven “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him”. It truly was a mountaintop experience that prepared them for the difficult days of Christ's betrayal and crucifixion.

The second letter of Peter, from which our reading this morning was taken, is thought by most scholars to be one of the later writings in the new Testament. By the time it was written the church had already started to become established throughout the Roman empire. At that point in history they had no canon of Scripture and there were many different stories and accounts of the life and significance of Jesus in circulation.

One of the aims of the writer of the second letter of Peter is to invite the reader to discern which stories were reliable and which should be discarded. The writer addresses the problem in two ways.

Firstly, the author insists that the true gospel message was built upon events that actually happened, upon things that the first disciples had seen and heard. The first letter of John begins in a similar way. 1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” So in 2 Peter 1:18 we read, “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Hm on the sacred mountain.”

There was a well known Welsh comedian by the name of Max Boyce, who was a marvelous story teller and used to finish up his stories with lines that become his catchphrase - “I know” he would say, “Because I was there!”

The second way the writer of second Peter seeks to affirm the validity of the gospel message is to remind the reader of the intricate relationship between Old Testament prophecy and the life of Jesus. The gospel writers, and in particular Matthew, were insistent that everything that happened in and through and around the life of Jesus was not an accident, but part of a plan that God had had for the world since the dawn of creation.

The life of Jesus was the fulfillment of everything that the law and the prophets had said would come to pass. Nowhere is that theme more dramatically reinforced than on the mountain of Transfiguration, where we see the greatest representative of the law, Moses who had brought down the 10 commandments from the mountain, and Elijah, the greatest representative of the prophetic tradition, standing there, alongside Jesus, and a voice from heaven declares... “This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.”

Of course it's been a long time since even the later books of the New Testament were written down. We are removed from them by a vast distance of time, and also have to travel across barriers of culture, language and understanding to truly appreciate the significance of the 66 books that make up that amazing collection of sacred scripture we collectively refer to as 'The Bible'.

Even as some of the later letters of the New Testament, like Second Peter, were being written, there were questions being raised as to what could be trusted and how the gospel story should be told. For 2000 years those questions have been asked by every generation and in every land. Some seek for fresh revelation, some seek for historical verification, some seek for external proof or outside evidence before they feel comfortable accepting  the gospel message as being genuinely the word of God.

Where does that leave us? Twenty first Century disciples trying to define our lives with documents dating back to the first and second centuries! We would never dream of going to a dentist or doctor who practiced first century medical techniques, so why do we trust our spiritual health to prescriptions that are from such a distant age?

Maybe the second letter of Peter can help us.
One of the things that it encourages us to do is to 'Trust the process.'

Second Peter is thought to belong to a body of literature known as 'testament' – as in a  last testament or a will. It reflects the thoughts of a person nearing the end of their life  and passing on what is of most importance. Often, and many scholars suggest this is the case with second Peter, such 'testaments' may not have been composed by the person whose book bears their name, but are the reflections of an anonymous author who speaks for them. Usually this would be somebody close to them and well acquainted with their ways. This was a common practice at the time such writings were composed.

There is a lot that we will probably never know about who actually wrote many of the books in the bible, when they were written or exactly why they ended up being amongst the 66 we know as the Bible. Yet we believe in a living God, whose Holy Spirit was active and working throughout the process and is still active and guiding us to understand those things God needs us to know in our day and our time.

There is a fascinating passage in Matthew's gospel (22:31- 32) where Jesus is debating with the Sadducees over the question of resurrection. The Saduccees were a group of people who held to a very narrow interpretation of Scripture and rejected many of the traditional religious ideas.

They had come to Jesus with a trick question about whose wife somebody would end up being if they had married multiple brothers who had all passed away. Jesus answers them like this:- “About the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

Jesus is telling them that they didn't get it! There was a process. There was a bigger eternal picture that they were totally missing. God had been at work in history. God was at work on the mountain when Jesus stood there with Moses and Elijah. God was God of the living, not of the dead. Peter suggests we trust the process by which the scriptures have come to us, as an expression of our faith in the living God.

A whilst ago I was able to visit the Discovery exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Times Square. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of scriptures discovered in a cave in a place called Qumran in 1947. Some of the scrolls date back 250 years before even Jesus was born.

It was a goose-bump moment to view such an ancient version of the first chapter of Genesis, and realize the care that had gone into maintaining the message over countless centuries. To be doing so at one of the hubs of twenty century life, Times Square, NYC, just made the experience all the more a mountain-top type experience. Trust the process!

I sense that second Peter also encourages us to seek for our own transfiguration experiences. Of course, in saying that, it's not as if such an experience can be engineered or orchestrated. Such moments... call them 'epiphanies', call them 'thin-places', call them 'transfiguration’s', rarely come our way.

What is needed is a consistent Christian life. The disciples who witnessed the light of that mountain-top moment had been faithful in hearing Jesus call and seeking to follow. They were there when He said, 'Let's go up the mountain'. They'd still be there as they came down from the mountain. Such experiences were not those of casual or part-time disciples.

The transfiguration was also an experience that was preparing them for something. It was not a random act to make them think good thoughts about Jesus. Trouble was coming. Jesus, as He came down from the mountain, set His face and headed for Jerusalem. There would be no turning back. The shadow of the cross loomed over them.

The disciples were about to face different kinds of darkness. Peter totally misinterprets the events, tries to talk Jesus out of His mission and is accused of being a mouthpiece of the devil. All of them would, in different ways, deny, betray and abandon their Lord. None of them were truly prepared for either the crucifixion or the resurrection.

Yet in days following those awesome events they would reflect back on that time they went up a mountain and witnessed the presence of Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus and heard a voice saying 'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” It was only after the fact that it truly started to make any sense to them.

We all experience those times in our lives that as we pass through them, we ask 'Why?” 'Why did this happen?” or 'Why didn't that turn out when it looked like everything was so right?” Relationships, opportunities, life events... often can only truly be interpreted retrospectively.

So I finally suggest that this passage encourages us to  nurture our lives through spiritual disciplines. To be regular in our devotions and worship and service. To be consistent and faithful in pursuing those things we believe discipleship of Jesus Christ invites us to.

For each of us that doesn't have to be the same. There are as many different ways to serve as we are different people. We are not all made the same. Some of us gravitate to one thing, some to another. That's part of what being a community is all about.

But one place we are invited to all come together is around a table laid with bread and wine. As we do so, we remember our purpose and our calling. That we are called to be disciples of One who so loved us that He laid down His life. One who suffered as redemption for sin. One who died that we may live and was raised that we may have life in all it's abundance.

There are times when the communion table can be a place of transfiguration. A time when we realize we are at this table, not only with Moses and Elijah, but as part of a huge cloud of unseen witnesses. That we see here how God's beloved Son was content to give His life that all may know God's love.

Returning full circle I'd again say, 'Trust the Process'. Travel down the ancient paths that lead to this table. Trust in God's ability to guide our lives through scriptures that resonate with authenticity. Trust in the daily disciplines that guide us and lead us. Trust in God's presence to be our inspiration in the here and now.

Hear for yourself... the words spoken on the mountaintop... "This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.”. And to God be all glory, honor and praise. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.