Transfiguration Sunday

The Commissioning of Deaconess Janet Nicol

Text: Matthew 17:1-9

What is God doing in my life? That is a question that Christians ask from time to time. A concern that Christians often have. It seems that we are more likely to ask that question when there is some significant event that has come up: a tragedy or an illness or a loss. What is God doing? Why is God doing it? Christians often want to know.

Christians want to know. Maybe… you want to know. What is God doing in your life? Why has God brought you to this place, with all those things you’ve got going on.

Well, if you want to know what God is doing today, it is always helpful to know those things that God has done in the past, those things that God has done in the lives of his people before. It is helpful to see that pattern that God has established in the past for intervention into the lives of his people. Knowing what God has done in the past, helps us to understand what God is doing today. If you want to know what God has done in the past, then… we have to study the Word of God, the Bible.

So what is God doing today? This is the question before us. Well, today God is changing the direction of the life of one of our own.  Janet Nicol’s life Is changing in a big way based on what is going to happen later on in the service. She is being commissioned. We are going to authorize her to serve us here as a deaconess. It’s kind of a big deal. And our authorization is not just our own – it’s not just St. Paul Chuckery authorization, it's Lutheran Church Missouri Synod authorization. All those congregations that we walk together with in our doctrine and practice are likewise giving their approval. Saying Janet is a worthwhile candidate for this service and they would be happy to have her serve any one of them. (That why we have certificates, that why we have distinguished and honored guests). This is kind of a big deal. So that’s one thing that God is doing today. And It is important, but it’s not the most important.

Today is also Transfiguration Sunday. Transfiguration is kind of a big deal. Why? Well, because it makes us ask that question – what is God doing? There is an event, a pretty significant event, a doesn’t-happen-every-day sort of an event and there are obviously some big things going on. It’s important to understand these things so that we know what it is that God is doing.

So what are those big things that are happening here in our text.

Well, to begin with, Jesus takes three of his disciples, the inner circle three and he goes up on a mountain. Right away we know that this is important, because in the Gospel of Matthew, mountains are important. Important things happen on mountains.  Jesus preaches a sermon on a mountain. Jesus battles the devil on a mountain.  The Gospel ends with the command to make disciples, baptizing and teaching. And this all happens on a mountain. Here, Jesus is transfigured on a mountain, so just by virtue of the location, we know that this event is one that is important.

But there’s more… There is more going on than just the mountain. There are important things that happen on this mountain. Things are signs… signals for us that this event is an important event. 

• Jesus’ face starts to glow. He starts to shine like the sun. He starts to shine with the glory of God.
• There are two distinguished guests that show up to talk to Jesus – Moses and Elijah, who represent the scriptures – the Law and the Prophets, are there and they are talking to Jesus.
• There is a cloud. More than just telling us that there was a weather system moving in, we area to understand this as the Glory Cloud, the physical manifestation of the Glory of God. This is the same cloud by the way that descended on Sinai in our Old Testament reading from Exodus 24.
• There is the voice of the Lord speaking from the cloud telling the disciples that they should listen to Jesus.

All of these things add up to one pretty important event that is taking place here in our text, here before the very eyes of Peter, James, and John. Here today before you.

But what does it all mean, and what is God doing?

Like we said, if you want to understand what God is doing today, you need to look back and see what God has done in the past. Was there a time before when there was a mountain, a shining face, a cloud, glory from heaven, and the voice of God? As it turns out, there was. There was a time when all of these things happened. And we read about it already today. Our Old Testament lesson from Exodus 24 tells us that there was a pretty significant event that occurred in which God did all of these same things before. God descended upon Mount Sinai in a cloud. Moses went up the mountain and saw God. He came down and had to put a veil over his face because it shone with the glory of God. And God’s people heard God’s voice speak from heaven as he shared with them the Ten Commandments.  A historically and theologically significant event in the lives of God’s people.

In this event God had come down to be with his people. He had come down to establish a covenant with them: that he would be their God and they would be his people. And to ensure that this would happen, God gave to them the divine service. After this event, God gave to Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle and the procedures for how to conduct the divine service. All of this would ensure that God would dwell in the midst of the people, quite literally in a tent in the middle of the people. And through this divine service, God would lead them and guide them, God would bless them, God would protect them. They would his people and he would be their God.

So today, Transfiguration Sunday, Jesus is on the mountain with Moses, doing the Moses thing all over again. Only he isn’t the old Moses – restoring or repristinating the old divine service, he is a new Moses establishing a new divine service – with his own body to be the sacrifice and the food.

So Moses is there, but so is Elijah. Elijah is sort of the prophet’s prophet. A prophet who stands out among the rest of the Old Testament prophets, and so he is important for that. But more than that, Elijah is important because of the work that he was called to do. Elijah was called to be prophet during a time when the Israelite monarchy had become corrupted and defiled. It was the job of the kings to make sure that the Divine Service was conducted at the temple according to God’s command. Only Ahab the king had abandoned God’s temple and was instead promoting the service of false gods. Elijah was called by God to confront the wickedness of the kings and move them back to their proper role of overseeing and promoting the worship of the true God.

So Moses was there on that mount of Transfiguration because there was a new divine service, with a new temple and a new sacrifice. And Elijah was there because there was new King. Not like the old kings and a new kingdom. A new reign of heaven. And they were both there because this new priest and this new king was the one who was standing there before them with a shining face. And as they stood there talking to Jesus, the Lord came and spoke into the ears of the disciples and they heard God say, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.  Looking back and seeing what God did in the past, in the Old Testament, with the Old Covenant, has helped us to see and understand what God was doing here on this new mountain of transfiguration.

So what is God doing today? Well, like we said earlier, today is Janet’s commissioning. In some ways, or at least on the surface, noting will have changed. Janet has been serving here at St. Paul for forever – with the choir, with the youth, on boards and committees, doing all kinds of things. The fact that Janet is serving is not new. But the fact that Janet will be authorized, with the full backing of our own congregation to serve on our behalf, but also with the authorization of the larger church. This will be new. And Janet’s authority, well Janet, it isn’t really a “bossing people around” sort of authority. It’s a ministry authority.

When God the Father wanted his disciples to know what they were supposed to do when they walked down the mountain he pretty much just came right out and said it – Listen to Jesus. That goes for you too. Listen to Jesus. Hear his Word and his command and don’t say anything that he hasn’t said. Don’t do anything that he hasn’t given you to do. It’s kind of like that 500^th Anniversary Reformation Theme from the Synod – “It’s still all about Jesus”. Listen to Jesus. IT’s still all about Jesus. So what God is doing today is He is giving to us a servant who will help to point us to Jesus through the things that she says and the things that she does as she serves with mercy’s hands and the gospels voice. This is one thing that God is doing here today.

But what about you? We started off this whole conversation with an assumption and a question. You have come here today carrying with you things that are going on in your life. We have talked about the way that Christians want to know how to interpret and understand those things that God is doing in their lives. We have talked about how we need to look back through the scriptures to understand what God was doing then, and then use that to inform us about what God is doing now.  So what did God do then? God sent Jesus. And Jesus went up on this mountain and he was transformed so that his face shone brightly with the glory of the Lord. The mediators of the Old Covenant – Moses (the divine service giver) and Elijah (the king preacher) were there talking to Jesus about the new divine service and the new reign of heaven that he was going to establish when he went to Jerusalem to die on a cross.

Jesus went. He died. He gave a new sacrifice. He gave a new meal. He gave forgiveness/absolution to be spoken by a new office. He gave baptizing and teaching to be done to make disciples even out of all the nation. He did all of this so that he could be your God and you could be his people. He has given you his name. He has washed away your sin. He has given to you his body and blood to eat and to drink. He lives with you and walks with you through each and every day of your life. He has given to you a family of faith here at St Paul to walk beside you in faith and share your walk with you. He has done all of this for you. Whatever it is that you are experiencing, see it through this lense and in this context. See it through all of those things that Jesus Christ has given and that Jesus Christ was you to have.

And know this: when Peter and James and John were up on that mountain witnessing that remarkable event, seeing the shining face of Jesus, the conversation with Moses and Elijah, the cloud, the voice of God, the command to listen to Jesus who is God’s beloved son… the whole thing was over rather abruptly. Suddenly it all disappeared. And the text tells us that they were terrified by the whole thing. Jesus came. He touched them. He spoke to them. The father says Listen. Jesus says, “Rise and have no fear.” And they lifted up their eyes and so no one but Jesus only.

Dear friend, Look to Jesus. Have no fear. Look to Jesus.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.