Do Not Be Afraid

Sunday morning, I preached at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Valley Falls, KS. It is the oldest Lutheran congregation in Kansas, founded in 1857. The building that they worship in now was built in 1887, but the original building still stands and is located 3 blocks from the current building.

Sunday was my first time out to Valley Falls, which is about 45 miles northwest of Lawrence, 2 lane highways all the way. It was also very foggy...thick, all encompassing, pea soup fog. That foggy air, mixed with the snow on the ground, was very bright, so bright that I wished I had brought my sunglasses with me so I didn't have to squint.

That brightness of the fog and the snow as I drove through the countryside of Kansas on Sunday came to mind as I have been pondering Matthew's account of the Transfiguration of Jesus. I can imagine Peter, James and John following Jesus up the mountain and then suddenly in the presence of Elijah and Moses. I don't doubt that my reaction probably would have been similar to that of Peter if I were there that day...being in the presence of two of the most famous figures of the faith? heck yeah I want to stay here! Let's build some tents, at the very least they can be markers of where Elijah and Moses appeared to Jesus. That's what Abraham and Jacob would do!

Oh, poor Peter...he never quite gets it...but then again...do we?

But God doesn't even wait for Peter to finish what he has to say before interrupting with another idea. The cloud appears, Jesus is transfigured and his clothes become a brilliant white...and then Peter, James and John realize that not only are they in the presence of Elijah and Moses, but they are also in the presence of God...and that's what scares them. To be in the presence of Moses and Elijah is incredible, awe-some even (in the original intention of the word, not the over used version of it)...but to be in the presence of God, to see that presence in the transfigured Christ (their dear friend) and hear that presence in the voice of the heavenly father? There really are no words to describe this feeling, I imagine. Maybe to fall down on their faces was the only response they could come up with. Maybe in seeing the awe-some nature of God not with them but also and simultaneously speaking to them, they realized just how unprepared they really were to take on the task of being disciples of the Son of Man.

Just before this, in chapter 16, Peter makes his bold confession of who Jesus is "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God" but almost immediately he goes from "Peter", the rock on which Christ will build his church to "Satan" after he rebukes Jesus upon the revelation that Jesus must be handed over to the authorities and be killed and three days later rise again. He gets it, but he doesn't. And it's the same thing here on the mountain, he gets the importance of the appearance of Moses and Elijah, but he doesn't.

Tangent: Do you ever wonder if Jesus was going by the ancient tradition of giving people nicknames based off of who you knew them to truly be? If so, in giving Simon the nickname Peter, he was basically calling him a blockhead. :End Tangent

Here's what I think: I think that God covered the mountain with the cloud when he did, not only because that's how God seems to roll when it comes to mountain top experiences, but also because Peter (and possibly James and John, they don't say anything but they could have been in agreement with Peter) needed to be focused. When you drive or walk through the fog, you really need to focus on where you are going because you cannot see too much further ahead of you or behind you. You are forced to see only what is in close vicinity to you. In the same way, I imagine, this is what happened to Peter, James and John. Caught up in the excitement over seeing Moses and Elijah, they needed focus...and that focus was to be upon their leader, the friend, their savior and the voice speaking to them from heaven.

"This is my Son, the beloved, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

Listen to him...
is that necessarily an easy thing to do?
Because I do my best to listen and my friend who is a baptist pastor does his best to listen and yet we hear slightly different things. Do you suppose it was the same way among the disciples. And you know what the really scary part is? If we really take the time to listen and truly understand what Jesus is saying to us, we can't claim ignorance when the poor come to us for help or when we see government officials creating unjust laws that affect the most vulnerable in our world. If we really obey the words of God to listen to Jesus, we need to act accordingly. Maybe that's what scared Peter and James and John. For them, and sometimes for us, acting accordingly means putting your life on the line for the sake of the Gospel...and we know how Peter, James and John acted when their lives were on the line in the garden, don't we? Is that what we do? *sigh*

When it comes down to it, the end of Matthew's account of the transfiguration is my favorite part. Peter, James and John are lying on the ground trembling, frightened for one reason or another and Jesus touches them and says "Get up, do not be afraid" and then they begin their descent back down the mountain, back to the real world, back to the people that need Jesus and the disciples...and the first thing that Jesus does is heal a young boy! Here we are at the top of the mountain with Peter, James and John, Peter plotting to construct tents for Moses, Jesus and Elijah...think that maybe they should stay a while, but God has other plans for him and his colleagues.

There is work to be done at the bottom of the mountain, out in the real world.

It's the same for us, yes it's safer and more secure and less scary to stay on the mountain (whatever that may be for you). But there is work to be done at the bottom of the mountain...and there is someone accompanying us as we do this work, encouraging us and inspiring us and helping us to not be afraid, even and especially when we realize that we may not be as prepared as we would like to be, we may not have the strength of faith that we would like to have, we may not have the level of courage we would like to have. But Jesus is there, coming to us as we lay on the ground, scared and in awe, touching us on the shoulder and telling us "Get up, do not be afraid. It's time to go now, there's work to be done."

Fog is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't want to drive through it every day, but occasionally it's nice. It keeps you focused on what is immediately in front of you, cutting away the distractions can get us side tracked from the path we are being led down. Would it be contradictory to say that there is clarity in the middle of the fog?