Who do others say that I am? Jesus asks, innocuously. Then turns the ? on us: who do you say that I am?

We will spend all of Lent examining our daily lives to discover our own honest, yet inadequate answer(s) . We have Lenten Devotionals to help us on our way. Please join us.

The Great Question

Transfiguration, 2020

Exodus 24.12.18; Matthew 17.1.9

Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender

Glimpses of Transfiguration

Luz, Ruth, Toledo family

Isaac & me

“I’m almost 27 years into the transformation of my life that began when I gave birth to Isaac, a moment I mark as my transfiguration. There had been smaller moments: got married, graduated seminary, first call to ministry. Yet all that pales in reflection upon the moment of bonding that first afternoon of my son’s life.

Steve, Isaac’s dad, had gone home to shower; it had been a long day with a cesarean birth in the morning, necessary due to pre-eclampsia. I sit in my hospital bed with my knees bent, Isaac resting against my thighs, looking at me. He’s smaller, a little less than 6 lbs. For 45 minutes I chat with him, not disturbed, no nurses, no doctors, no visiting pastors: as I lift him to my breast and then back to rest on my legs. It’s quiet in the room, just this newborn and me. In that gift of tabernacle, sacred space, we bond. The phone rings, it is my brother-in-law Dick. I hold Isaac up on one shoulder, hold the phone with my other hand. Isaac starts to wimpier, that sweet, heartbreaking infant sound, so like a baby bird. “Is that him?” Dick asks. “Yes.” The phone goes dead. “Dick?” “I’m crying.” We came down the mountain, I mean left the hospital, the next day to begin to live into our transformed lives. Nothing has been the same since.

Listen for the word of God for you today, Matthew’s good news, chapter 17, verses 1-9.

Let’s pray: “may the words of my mouth...”

6 days later...

6 days after what?

6 days after Peter answers the question of the ages, the great question: Who do you say that I am? Jesus asks.

It was 6 days of creation. It was 6 months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy when Mary, now pregnant herself, went to visit. “In the 6th month...” Luke says in chapter 1.

Moses spent 6 days in the cloud of glory on Mt. Zion as he waits for God to speak and give him the tablets of the law. No one draws near as majestic glory envelopes the crown of the holy mountain.

Jesus asks: “Who do they say that I am?” The disciples respond, “Some say John the Baptist, but others say Elijah and still others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Then dead center, Jesus beads in on them, “But who do you say that I am?” (Pause)

How do you answer this great question? “Who is Jesus Christ for you today?” In your daily life, in your expectation of hope, in your practice of faith. Who is He?

Peter replies, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Got that right! Then Jesus talks about His upcoming suffering and death, to which Peter reacts with horror, saying, ‘no, no. You got it wrong Jesus.’ Peter gets it right and gets it wrong. Jesus knows the culmination of the answer to the great question includes His suffering. There will be this atonement, this taking away the sin of the world. But first, the mountain top...

6 days later they go up to glory. (Pause)

They encounter two dead men, each of which had their own peculiar dying as they came close to the Promised Land. Without Hollywood special effects, Jesus shines like the sun, from inside out. Majestic glory. This is the Jesus known to them - fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes - the everyday riff raff who glimpse something in this man, drawn to Him, that goes beyond His regular humanity. He lights up the room, the synagogue, the well, the mountain, and eventually, the cross. It is this declaration of who Jesus is, His essential nature. Not simply a good man, a prophet or great teacher. He is, in His wholeness, divine & human, the source and giver of life eternal.

Of course, the disciples don’t know all this on the mountain top.

Their nascent faith is the initial foundation of the one, holy, apostolic church, but first, they have to make sense of what in the world is going on! Moses represents the Law, Elijah the prophets; so who is Jesus then?

He is grace embodied, enfleshed. He is the baptismal water that first claims and then cleanses us from sin. He is the cup and the bread, brought home on our tongue for our glimpse of glory.

As Emily Dickinson penned,

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth’s superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind—

The Great Question

We stand on the precipice of Lent, our wide-angle lens open in its aperture, 6 weeks, 40 days, begins Ash Wednesday, with mini celebrations of resurrection each Sunday, until Maundy Thursday, April 9.

Lent (Latin: Quadragesima, 'Fortieth'). It is done in commemoration, in memory, of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness before He begins His public ministry. It signals Jesus’ temptation by Satan, something we can easily recognize in our own daily lives. The vanities the Psalmist writes about.

The purpose of Lent is to prepare for Easter, celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have to be reminded that when we say Easter, we include Good Friday and the horrific death on the cross, Holy, Silent Saturday and then...

The practices include prayer, devotional reading, service, repentance, Some choose to fast—a meal, meat, a day, —and some take on a new or renewed spiritual discipline.

What I ask of you this Lenten Season is to examen your life in light of the great question, Jesus asks: Who do you say that I am?. How will you improve your baptism, as one of the catechisms suggests. Where will you make space for the Holy to be present in a wholly different way. Will you let the light of glory shine even amidst your suffering? Can you let God in? It is His right to demand an entrance, yet He always seems to do it by invitation, through the gracious life of Jesus. Be ready with your answers as we will examen them together here in worship:)

In the midst of the crushing reality of daily living, transfigurations show forth this truth: there is nothing we can do to protect against the joys or the sorrows of life. There is no fortress to build around your soul, no commodity that will protect against heartbreak, no substance that will take the place of the real.

Moreover, we cannot escape the presence of God. He will find us, in our homes, workplaces, driving in the car, out for a run. He’s in the business, with His hounds of heaven, of running us down, dragging us into His glorious light. He deigns to make Himself small enough to touch our shoulders, to speak these gracious words, ‘do not be afraid, here’s my hand’.

Your Lenten Discipline: take time, precious, expensive, chaotic time, to examen your life and answer the great question. Amen

ALL WRAPPED AND READY TO GO:

BEATITUDES: GOD’S BLESSINGS!

EXEGESIS: The goal of exegesis is telos—seeing God face to face

To explain or interpret, especially Scripture; always done from the ancient languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic

Two traditional interpretations of The Beatitudes

Monastic: Medieval Catholicism - hermeneutical key: 5:48. “Be perfect...”

There are two sorts of Christian believers:

1). Those with a ‘special calling’ - monks, nuns, priests

2) Everyone else

Theory of Impossible Ideal: following Luther

Hermeneutical key: because sin (total depravity) makes it impossible for anyone to fulfill these commands so the point of Jesus’ first sermon is to show forth the necessity of grace

Two Contemporary Approaches:

1). Social/scientific

2) Literary

SS: reconstruction of the Matthean community (ethnic, religious, retrieval of social memory, and relationships between different groups)

Literary: The specific text is always interpreted within the larger text - contextual;

3 questions of The Sermon Jesus gives:

1). To whom is it addressed?

2) Why this particular message

3) How can we as disciples live into this alternative community Jesus preaches and lives?

1). Jesus is preaching to His disciples and the crowds that follow Him every where he goes. He is offering what Dale Bruner calls, ‘preventive medicine’. That is, Jesus wants to do public health work, generate communities by offering words of hope, of plenty, of respect, of support. The scaffolding of the upside down kingdom, to build our lives within the realm of heaven’s drawings rather than the the frame of competition, fear and scarcity that the world offers.

The political context is the Roman Empire and the religious context is the elite Jewish Establishment. The lesson here: those who receive God’s blessings ARE NOT the ones in power. Whatever the measurements within these societies, God does not bless their status or measure their value by their own accomplishments. God deems worthy and stands beside the weak, forgotten, justice-seeking, peace making, rabble rousers, the disquieted in the land. Those who are measured as of no account—in Paul’s telling words, “you who are ‘foolish’ in the eyes of the world by believing the message of the cross...” - these are the ones who are gathered in to live in the realm of heaven.

ALL WRAPPED AND READY TO GO:

Empire structures worth on this list:

Rich, happy, satisfied, ruthless, deceptive, aggressive, safe, well-liked; imagine The Wolf of Wall Street. In Jesus’ world, a world of encouragement and consolation, the valued are poor, weak, hungry, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted and reviled. Think Rosa Parks. Whose birthday it is today.

Let’s be honest: worldly values have not changed much since the 1st century. They are contextualized within given societies, but the demands of empire remain the same. Get the most, keep it, protect it, defend it, measure yourself against your neighbor or co-worker or celebrity or sports star, on Instagram or Pinterest. Never give up, never give in. You’ll be blessed-God wants you to be rich! Of course, if you are not, its on you. You don’t have enough faith.

‘God bless the poor in spirit, because THEIRS is the kingdom of heaven’

The very first group identified in Jesus’ powerful sermon, begins with ‘theirs’ a genetive of possession - the kingdom belongs to them and exists for them. Ergo - Those who are not poor in spirit are not in the kingdom. All those who claim they are ‘self-made’ those whose wealth masks their common human needs, those who reject relationships as necessary to flourish. Even those who think they are pretty darn good, not really full blown sinners, anyway.

Matthew takes the Hebrew word, anawin ‘poor’ literally, those who are crushed by the empire’s system - they who suffer in their poverty and beg for help. He translates Jesus’ Aramaic to suggest it is both temporal poverty as well as spiritual poverty that makes them cry out. It is a poverty that is lived out in the daily fabric of peoples’ lives but is structural in its economic framework.

For instance, we now know that the wealth created by the Slave Class in this country, and how the work of the slaves’ hands did not benefit them, rather their owners, which generates a 400% wealth inheritance difference between Anglo-Americans and African-Americans 200 years later. In a simplistic form, we can say, God helps those who cannot help themselves.

To be spiritually poor is to consistently recognize our personal failings, the inadequacy of our faith, the inability to neutralize our covetousness. We are sinners in need of grace every day of our lives. And it is true, by the foolishness of the cross, we are made saints in the realm of heaven. We are called to live grateful lives because our impoverishment has been met by God’s amazing generosity. I am always taken back when I stop and realize Jesus’ glance is outward, toward the farthest ones away, who cower, below the weight of their enforced poverty. ALL WRAPPED AND READY TO GO:

2). Jesus is the New Moses - Matthew wants us to understand. His Jewish audience recognizes the pattern: up on the mountain, Mt. Sinai, Moses receives the 10 commandments. Not long after their liberation from Egypt, right before they walk into the Promised Land. These instructions are not HOW TO ACQUIRE DIVINE BLESSING IN 10 EASY LESSONS! Instead, they are a means of living together, as a community, in response to God’s blessings.

So too, up on the mountain, Jesus sits down to teach, the proper decorum for a great rabbi. There, He offers the Beatitudes. As we say, these are not the entrance exams into heaven. Their verb form tells us so. They are not imperatives: go be poor, meek mourn, etc. They are indicative - this is the way things are right now, but Jesus says, let Me tell you how things are really going to be when the kingdom of God fully arrives.

I got to thinking about a contemporary list of beatitudes over the years. Maybe in language closer in to our daily lives:

God bless those who are lonely, right now

God bless this marriage falling apart, right now

God bless this childless woman, right now

God bless lgbtq people, right now

God bless Black Lives Matter right now

God bless Mexicans, Central Americans, Syrians, Iraqi Refugees, Iranians and other immigrants, right now

God bless the divorced, right now

God bless the widowed, right now

God bless the broken-hearted, right now

We beg for God’s blessing in all our broken places, but not just for me and for you. ITs a plural word--God bless any who are poor in spirit, any who are mourning, any who are broken by life. By Jesus’ authority, may they be held in God’s hands. (Pause)

This leads me to ponder the phrase, “God bless America”. Why do these words leave me uneasy? (pause)

I get afraid that we use it just for us, our country, our values, our religious understandings, our white way of life, our way as the right way, because its quote blessed by God. Unquote. Also, its because the deep theological meaning of the word bless gets re-situated in our capitalist economy to only mean material gain. What does God require of us?

Micah answers the question, “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God. The Psalmist says, “walk blameless, do what is right, don’t slander or gossip, don’t charge interest; don’t harm the innocent; Paul says, “Hey, remember? You are the foolish! (The Greek word is mora, moronic) God calls to be His church. The only boast you can make? Christ, and Him crucified.” Words generate worlds - of hope and consolation; of witness and standing beside; of comfort and laughter. Words generate worlds - of inadequacy and failure; unforgivable shame and guilt; rejection and isolation. The hauntings can last a life time.

Into the abyss, Matthew’s Jesus preaches, “You want to be moral? Then be merciful. This is the framing of your ethics: mercy, in these words of Divine Gift. Act in a ‘moral’ fashion often is viewed as grim seriousness, a cool approach, a narrow site line. But Jesus says and lives a arms wide-open posture, forgiveness on the tip of His tongue, a standing with, a reaching out, hey, here’s my hand, uh? It is a profound gesture first spoken and enacted at the moment of creation: God saw it was good, very good, the cosmos and the humans, be blessed, multiply, be good stewards of all that is in front of you. This blessing has never been cutoff, it is a through line to Jesus and now all the way to us sitting here today.

What you have been given? Mercy. Go give it away. You want a blessing? Go be a blessing: let humility be your watchword, bring peace to every situation you are in, open your heart wide open in generosity and forgiveness again, Oh, and you might be persecuted or reviled, as you live into the upside-down kindom. No matter—I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

All Wrapped Up and Ready to go!