Sunday Feb 14th, thoughts going in

The Transfiguration

Luke 9:28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31 appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.) 34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

37 The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. 38 A man in the crowd called out, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not."
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Well, it’s Transfiguration again….which is not exactly most preachers favorite Sunday of the church year for sermon development. There’s only so many ideas that fit, and after a while everyone’s heard it all before. Peter wants to preserve his mountain top experience, and you can’t do that, blah blah blah.

For some reason, this year more than others, I’ve really been thinking a lot about the OTHER NINE disciples—you know, the guys who NEVER get to see Jesus do any of the special stuff. When it comes to following the Lord, who has & who needs the stronger faith….those guys up there on the mountain seeing Moses & Elijah, hearing voices from heaven, seeing Jesus shining like the sun, or those guys down in the valley listening to some father’s problems about his demon possessed kid & not being able to fix the problem? Sometimes I wonder what kept them from chucking it all and going back to fishing or tax collecting. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the grace of God must’ve been sufficient in their lives to keep them from bolting.

It seems horribly relevant for us in our lot, since we’re not up on a mountain-top witnessing miraculous signs and wonders either…..but are, rather, slogging it out down here in the trenches with the demons. May we, like those other nine disciples, find God’s grace to be sufficient.

cheers,

TM