March 2, 2003
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
On Valentine’s Day, a couple of weeks ago, Joy and I were driving into the city for brunch. As we approached the majestic Golden Gate Bridge and seeing the shining white skyline of San Francisco on my left side, we both thought, “It’s still hard to believe that we are Californians.” We live in such a beautiful place but there are times when we hardly notice it. Our eyes are usually focused on crossing the bridge.
Our house is perched on a side of a hill in Sausalito. We see Belvedere from our deck with Mt. Tamalpais on our left and Angel Island on the right. When people come to our home, they always marvel at the view. They can’t keep their eyes off the beauty of the sight. But for us who see this view day after day, we rarely notice it anymore until someone comes over to tell us of its beauty. Then we realize that it’s good for us to be here.
Human beings have the capacity to see what we will and to a certain degree, create our own realities. We are masters at screening out certain events; and for other events, we embellish them to satisfy our own understanding. We end up integrating them into a coherent whole that sometimes makes sense only to us. The truth is that my internal radar misses more that it detects, and the events that I do miss are not merely accidental. But rather, I missed them on purpose. I have so structured my inner world that I automatically miss them.
Epiphanies
Today is the last Sunday in Epiphany, the church season that started with Jesus’ baptism now ends with the Transfiguration. Both of these stories are announcements from God that Jesus is God’s beloved Son. Both scenes are called epiphanies, because they are revelations. They are—each a time when God is revealed. They are glimpses of heaven. These experiences are what we might call, “mountaintop experiences” for the disciples. And when we identify with the disciples, these mountaintop experiences become our own. But for most of the time, they are mainly historical events in the past instead of glimpses of heaven!
These scenes represent times when heaven breaks through to verify not only the holiness of the life of Jesus, but the care and presence of God in our lives and in the world. True epiphanies bring us closer to God and Christ. They fill us with joy and love. But for most of the time, even when epiphanies may be breaking out all over the place, we miss them. We screen them out.
We need epiphanies in our lives. We yearn to see the glory of God, the glory of our savior. Secretly, we all want to have our very own epiphany so that we might believe in God.
The Bible helps us to see the epiphanies of God by recording the mountaintop experiences of biblical heroes. The tales of people’s mountaintop experiences remind us that God is with his people—even with us. If God can be with Moses and Elijah and Deborah and Jacob and Mary—then God can be with us too!
When Jesus met with Moses on that mountaintop, we are reminded of the whole story of Moses. We see Moses at the burning bush, on the mountainside, getting his commission from God. We visualize him going up the mountain later to get the Ten Commandments. And we recall Moses’ face—radiant from his encounter with God as he soaks in the glory of God. Moses is so dazzling upon his return that the people cannot look at him; they know that he has been in God’s presence.
Moses’ experience of the burning bush was enough to change his life completely. That, along with his other epiphanies, forever changed the lives of the people of Israel. Moses’ mountaintop experiences lasted only for a short while, but they empowered him to follow through with the work that God had for him.
There was also Elijah up on that mountaintop with Jesus and Moses. When Elijah fought against idolatry and injustice, and when he fought against Ahab and Jezebel and the prophets of Baal, he had a revelation from God. Afraid for his life, God spoke to him—not in the wind or earthquake or fire, but in the silence after the storm. In a still small voice, God gave Elijah courage to go back to Israel to finish his work as a prophet and leader of the Hebrew people.
When Peter, James and John saw how Jesus was transfigured before them and his clothes became dazzling white—so bright that no one can possibly bleach them any whiter, Moses and Elijah appeared and started talking with Jesus. The scene was so incredible that Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is so good to be here.”
They witnessed a vivid, undeniable epiphany that they didn’t want it to end. “It is so good for us to be here” Peter said.
Glimpses of Heaven
The disciples saw a glimpse into heaven on that day. They heard a Word from God—“This is my Son, the Beloved.” This event forever changed their outlooks on the world. They would keep this day in their heart. They would visualize the dazzling bright whiteness of Jesus’ clothes. They will remember the voice of God personally calling out to them. It was a holy time that provided them strength, assurance, direction, and courage.
We want an epiphany too. We all need these kinds of times in our lives when we too can get a glimpse of heaven and know that God is with us.
But as human beings, we have mastered the ability to screen out what we don’t want to see. How might we see God’s revelation when we hardly see the beauty of the Bay Area!
We are also masters of selective listening too. What parent has not marveled at how hard of hearing their teenager son or daughter appears to be when asked to perform a chore? We frequently tune out God’s voice because we don’t want to hear what we suspect God will tell us. And for some of us, we think of ourselves to be so insignificant in light of all the other important things that are happening in the world that we think that God is uninterested in us to actually have a word for us. So we screen God out.
In the Lenten Bible Series book that our groups started using this past week, it lists some questions that say more about who we are than we may want to admit—
How is it that people can sit on the same church pew week after week, listen to Scriptures, sing the hymns, go to Sunday school class, and still be just as ornery, mean, and nasty as anyone else?
How is it that we can hear the story of the passion and death of Jesus year after year but end up being just as greedy, selfish, and self-absorbed as we would have been, had we never heard the story at all?
How is it that people can read the Sermon on the Mount year in and year out and not hear Jesus’ clear call to a life of non-violence?
How can we see what God did on the cross and go on living the same old life in the same old way?
Perhaps we don’t see any difference happening in our lives is because we are selectively seeing and selectively listening to only the things we want to know. Even when epiphanies and revelations might be happening all around us, we remain unchanged.
Much of the time, God is hidden in the world but visible to those who have eyes to see. Most of the time, God remains hidden in the world, but hidden in such a way that God wants to be found. We need new eyes to see and new ears to hear that God is constantly revealing himself to us and in the world. And the key of seeing and hearing lies in the person of Jesus.
In the transfiguration, the disciples were given a peek, a preview of who Jesus is and his meaning for their lives. Unlike Moses and Elijah who at the end of their own journeys were called up to heaven, Jesus would not go up to heaven without first going through a terrible death down here on earth. From this mountaintop experience for Jesus, Moses and Elijah were giving Jesus strength and encouragement on his journey to the cross. We know that at the end of Jesus’ journey, there will be victory. But for us to understand the meaning of that resurrection victory, we must first understand the meaning of the cross.
The epiphany that we seek is the love of God. For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son, so whosoever believes in him, will not perish, but will have everlasting life. Jesus comes as a child. He comes as a teacher, healer, counselor, a friend. In front of his close disciples, Jesus comes transfigured in the presence of Moses and Elijah to reveal to us that God loves you.
Seeing Jesus dazzling brightly, no wonder Peter wanted the time to last longer. “Rabbi, it’s so good to be here.” We want it to last longer too.
Worship
When we come to church on Sunday morning, I would park my car on Sacramento Street usually below Kearny. I would walk briskly up the hill to church. I can see that the Fellowship Hall lights are on and Joe and Gil are already cooking up waffles and eggs. I tidy up the sanctuary and begin to anticipate what will happen at worship. For us, Sunday worship is our mountaintop experience.
Our lives are usually humdrum, flat and conventional. All week, we have selectively saw things that wouldn’t disturb us. We have selectively listened to only those things that matter in order to remain focused on our own agenda. But now we are here in worship and for God’s epiphanies and revelations to happen, we need to be open to seeing dazzling white lights and the voice of God.
Our Sunday worship is rarely as dramatic as the events surrounding the stories in Gospels. But Sunday is a good time to remind us of the centrality of worship within our Christian life. In worship we are transfigured with our understanding of Christian ethics, beliefs, social action, and spiritual devotion. In worship, we are at our best.
When worship is as it is meant to be, we are given a glimpse of who Jesus is. We are given a glimpse of who we are meant to be too—namely those who have encountered the living God.
Some of us have epiphanies when we see the sun streaming through the stained glass windows and we whisper a prayer for God’s light to shine beautiful colors on our gray lives.
Some of us have epiphanies even when a sermon illustration that has been passed around and around again over the internet is heard for the first time in a different light and we pray to God to let that happen to us too.
Some of us have epiphanies when the choir sings with more heart than voices because we know that God hears what’s inside instead of what’s on the outside.
Some of us had an epiphany when Joe Chan and little Lakita stood up here on an Advent Sunday and lit a candle for Jesus’ coming because we feel for our children—all of them
whether they are from our homes and especially when they come from somebody else’s home.
We all had an epiphany two weeks ago when we celebrated James Chuck’s 50th anniversary of his ordination to Christian Ministry and he stood here at this pulpit as he had for 50 years and said, “I love you all.”
We had an epiphany of trusting our fragile lives in God’s hands when Don Fong shared his good news of a new job with the Sojourners and we found our eyes filled with tears of joy.
Epiphanies don’t just happen in worship. God’s abundance of epiphanies and revelations are happening all around us and we need to be open to seeing and hearing God’s word for us today. These experiences come in various ways and at various times, but they always draw us closer to God and give us strength for our way.
I know that the 50 women who will be attending the Women’s Retreat this coming weekend will climb up that San Damiano mountaintop and experience epiphanies of God’s glory and love. They will get glimpses of God in their worship, sharing in small groups, and supporting one another through life’s journeys. And they will not want to come back down the mountain because “It is good for us to be here.”
Yet we know the harsh reality of our calling is that we cannot stay on the mountaintop. The epiphanies of our lives are fleeting at best. And no matter how pleasurable we find the mountain, we must return to life and ministry below. And in the valleys of human life, like Moses who confronted Pharoah, like Elijah who fought against idolatry and injustice, like Peter, James, and John who cast out demons, we are called to see the epiphanies of God’s ministry happening all around us.
These glimpses into heaven come just for a moment and we want to hold on to them as long as we can. We want to build tents and altars to contain the moment. They come to feed our hungry souls that we might be led on to greater glory. They come to give us strength for the journey of following Christ, of serving our Lord and savior.
We all need these kinds of times in our lives. We need those glimpses of heaven when we know that God is with us. And when we can see for ourselves the dazzling glory of God and the love of God that we too are God’s beloved children, we would say, “It’s so good for us to be here.”
Let us pray.
Precious Lord God, open our eyes and ears to hear your word and will for our lives. Bless us with strength and courage just as you empowered Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John to carry out your mission. Let us experience the epiphanies and revelations of your glory and love in our lives. We pray in the name who has revealed you to the world, Jesus Christ. Amen.