February 3, 2008 Transfiguration Sunday
Sermon Title: “
Series: None
Text: Matt. 17:1-9
Dr.
Delivered on February 3, 2008
“Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here…’’” Matt. 17:4
Place. It’s just a little five-letter word, but it must be important, because the word has been rolling around in my head for weeks now. Every time I think about it, I think of something different. But I keep coming back to this: place matters. Place is important. “I’m in a good place right now.” People say that all the time, but what does it mean? Is place a moment in time? Is it a location? Is it a description of your current mental/emotional/financial or physical state?
I’m not sure
what stirred this interest in place for me. The first time I remember thinking
about it recently was when I was sitting in a chair in my house reading Moby
Dick a couple of weeks ago. As I sat there reading I somehow got interrupted
and I realized that I’d just been sailing the Pacific in a 19th
century whale boat chasing the elusive whale with Captain Ahab. Not too long
after that I went to
What is “place”
and why is it so important to us? I could go into all kinds of arguments about
how we’ve become such a rootless, mobile society today that “place” has become even
more important to us. Think about this – what role does place play in the
“virtual” world we inhabit today? The very nature of a virtual world is that
there is no “place.” And what role does place have in a society where
everything is changing at the speed of light? We are a society whose sense of
place has been totally dis-placed. This hit me one day a couple of years
ago as I walked across a parking lot on the way to a Braves baseball game at
Turner field. I looked around and realized they had marked off the parking lot
with the outline of the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, a place I grew up
with. I looked down and there, painted on the asphalt, was a sign that said “This
spot marks where home plate used to be at
And so I ask, have we lost our sense of place? Is place really important to us? Perhaps more important to this context, does place play a part at all in our faith life? Does it factor into our understanding and pursuit of God?
I believe it
does and we’re going to talk about that today. But meanwhile you’re probably
wondering where I’m coming from with all this talk about “place.” Well, I
suppose it’s because it was already on my mind, but when I read the account of
the Transfiguration for this week’s message, I was particularly drawn to
Peter’s statement to Jesus in the midst of this amazing event. We read in verse
4 that as the Transfiguration was happening, Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you
wish I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for
Elijah.” Now most interpreters
make fun of Peter for saying this – they think he simply lost his head in the
midst of a great spiritual experience and blurted out the first thing that came
to mind. Both Mark and Luke thought so. It is believed that Matthew and Luke
used parts of Mark in writing his gospel. In Mark’s account of the
Transfiguration (Mk. 9:2-13) Mark adds parenthetically after Peter’s statement,
“He did not know what to say, they
were so frightened.” And Luke
(Luke 9:28-36) is of the same opinion. He adds, “He did not know what he was saying.” But Matthew, whose account we read today, doesn’t say that. He just
says Peter blurted out, “Lord, it
is good for us to be here…” Peter
receives no rebuke from Jesus, nor does Matthew make fun of him for saying it.
To me, what Peter is saying here, speaks of this issue of “place.” Peter wants
to “tabernacle” with the Lord up on the mountain. Obviously up on the mountain
with Jesus is a “good place to be.” Peter, James and John are in what we
moderns would call a “good place” up there with Jesus, right?
I could speak to you this morning about how
when you’re up on the mountain you have to come back down and walk in the
valley – about how we can’t live on the mountain forever. I could talk about
the importance of such ecstatic experiences in every one’s Christian
pilgrimage. But I’m not. Keeping this notion of “place” in mind, I want to talk
about other “good places to be” in your spiritual walk. I believe some of them
may surprise you.
CHURCH – Place of Encouragement
The first good place I want to mention for
us to be is in the CHURCH. The church is the place of encouragement
and everyone needs encouragement from other believers if they’re going to make
it all the way to the end. In Psalm 122:1 David wrote, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go
to the house of the Lord!’” Why
was David glad? He was glad because he knew that it is in the church that we get
encouraged by other Christians. In the church we get encouraged by hearing
God’s word read and expounded upon. He was glad because in church we sing the
songs of God with gladness in our hearts.
I’ve said this before, but I view coming to
church like pulling up to a “spiritual filling station.” All week long I’m out
there in “the world” getting banged up like the rest of you. Practically
everything I do “out there” is draining to me spiritually. It taxes me. But
then on Sunday morning I come here and I get my tank filled up and I can go
another 500 miles. I’m not ashamed to say it. I get excited about coming to
church. I hope I show it. Going to church for me begins the night before when I
pick out what I’m going to wear and I polish my shoes and I write my offering
check. On those rare occasions when I’m playing with the praise band I get my
guitar out and practice the songs for the day. I have myself a little worship
time before worship. I get excited about it! How about you? You know, sadly, I
talk to some people and they seem to think that it’s a blessing to get a week
off. People actually use that kind of language with me. “I get a week off this week; I’ve been to
church six Sundays in a row. I need a break.” Or they say, “When we go
on vacation we don’t attend worship, we take a vacation from church too.” They act as though church is a burden, an
onerous obligation.
Church is a good place to be for a believer.
We ought to view it as a place of encouragement, not a weekly obligation we
have to fulfill. If you’re viewing church that way – as an obligation – perhaps
you’re in the wrong church?
SOLITARY PLACE – Place of Prayer
The second good place I want to mention for
believers to be is the SOLITARY place. The solitary place is the place
of prayer. All four gospels mention Jesus going off by himself to a
solitary place to pray, usually early in the morning. For instance, in Mark
1:35 we read, “In the morning,
while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and
there he prayed.” In these lonely, remote places our faith
grows as we speak to, and hear from the Father. This is the place where we get
our power for living as Christians. The solitary place is where we get our
marching orders from the Lord. The solitary place is where we receive our
solace and comfort from Him.
As important as the church is to us, the
place where we come to be encouraged by other believers, the solitary place is
even more important because it’s there that we grow in our devotion and
understanding of God “one-on-one.” When you come here on a Sunday morning to
worship and hear me preach, I’m doing my best to speak God’s word to “us,” to
the particular assembly of persons God has brought here on any given Sunday.
But God has a word for you personally that I can never discern or give. That
word must come from God himself. Therefore, if you never get away to that
solitary place where God has your full attention, then you’ll never hear God’s
special word for you.
Many would say the solitary place is a
painful place, a place to be avoided at all costs. We have become a society
that thrives on noise and entertainment. Look around you the next time you’re
out somewhere and you’ll notice the proliferation of little white earplugs
running from a chord inside people’s clothing. People can’t stand a moment of
silence so they must fill their heads with “Itunes” 24/7. We’re almost frantic
to not let there be a moment of silence in our heads for fear of what we
might hear – or not hear?
Find your solitary place and go there regularly
and often. Even if you just sit there in the silence and darkness. If you do,
and if you’re faithful in doing it, God will speak to you. The prophet Isaiah
makes this promise: cry out to him and “…he will answer you…he will not hide himself any more…and when you
turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word
behind you saying, ‘this sis the way; walk in it.’” (Isaiah 30:19-21).
The third good
place I want to mention is
You know, even
Jesus had to learn obedience. We don’t usually think that way, or talk about
that, but that’s exactly what was happening in the
I must warn you,
I know of a dear
missionary who may be in the throes of just such an ordeal. She went off to
I have two more
good places I want to mention, places I believe every Christian must go. The
first of these is
HEAVEN –
Place of Reward
The final place that is a good place that I want to mention is HEAVEN, the place of reward. 2 Corinthians 5:1 says, “For we know if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Interestingly, the word for “tent” found in that verse is the same exact Greek word used in our verse today where Peter was going to build “three dwellings” (skeynos = habitation/dwelling/tabernacle). The principle behind the verses is the same too. The dwellings (tents) Peter wanted to build for Jesus, Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration were of the earthly, passing kind. They could no more stay on that mountain forever than you or I could. We inhabit such “tents” now in our bodies. Like most tents you and I know they are flimsy, prone to rips and tears. Our bodies are prone to disease and injury, and they wear out over time. They weren’t made to last forever. But we are promised a “building from God” in heaven. Interestingly, the word “building” in that verse is the Greek word “oikos” which means “home.”
Restated, we live in a flimsy tent now, but we are promised a true home in heaven and that, of course, is the ultimate “good place” for us to be as believers.
So here is what
I want you to get from this. Heaven, our true home, and the only place we’ll
ever feel truly at home in – is not here yet. We should long to go to heaven,
but in God’s time, not ours. In the meantime there are plenty of other “good
places” for us to sojourn in. Places where God wants to mold us and make us
into the people he created us to be. Places like church, the place of
encouragement. And solitary places, which are places of prayer where we
can get to know God better. And
How about you. Are you in a good place today? I mean that literally and figuratively.
Perhaps you came here today thinking you were in a difficult place spiritually speaking, but now after hearing what’s been said you realize you’re exactly where God wants you to be. He’s molding you and making you into a mighty man or woman of God.
Or maybe you came in here coasting today. You came in feeling over the hill spiritually-speaking and you were ready for the Lord to just take you on home. Well, perhaps his word to you this morning is, “Not yet.”
Or maybe you came here today wondering what this whole thing is about and you’re still puzzled. How can church be a good place to be? Isn’t that where people judge you, and preachers berate you? Or how can a solitary place be a good place? Or, perhaps more to your confusion and dismay, how can a place of execution be a good place? If so, God’s word to you this morning may be “It’s time to find out.”
In the meantime,
our goal as believers is to keep on moving – moving towards the City of