Change Happens

By Rev. Heidi L. Barham |  February 19, 2023

Click here to listen to the service 
  
Read Matthew 17:1 – 9
 
If we were to consult the Liturgical calendar, we would see that today is Transfiguration Sunday… It is the final Sunday after Epiphany and the last Sunday before we move into the Lenten season.
 
It could just be me but the transition from Advent and the Christmas season to Lent and Resurrection Sunday seems to come more quickly year after year… maybe it is just one of those quirks of aging… that time starts to feel like it is moving at break-neck speed. 
 
But as we prepare to shift our focus to the events leading up to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that call for our attention particularly during the season of Lent… we are given the opportunity on Transfiguration Sunday to pause and celebrate the revelation of Jesus as the Christ… the Son of the Living God.
 
Our New Testament lesson for today is found in Matthew 17 and contains the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus… [just as a quick side note] this same story can also be found in the Gospel of Mark as well as Luke (see also Mark 9:2-13 and Luke 9:28-36).    
 
In the Life Application Study Bible (LASB) that I frequently use, the story even has the same heading in all three gospels, “Jesus Is Transfigured on the Mountain.”
 
If we take a closer look at the text, we find that Jesus has taken three of His disciples… His inner circle… Peter, James and John high up on a mountaintop.  And while they were there, something rather amazing happened… right before their very eyes, Jesus was transfigured.  The scriptures say, “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.”  
 
But that is not all that happened…
 
While the disciples were probably still rubbing their eyes trying to figure out if what they were seeing was real… suddenly, they realized Jesus was no longer standing there alone… He was actually standing there talking to Moses and Elijah!
 
Now, I cannot even begin to imagine how I would have reacted to seeing Jesus suddenly glowing and gleaming like the sun… and then to see Moses and Elijah suddenly standing there, too... 
 
We need to keep in mind, that Elijah had been taken up in a whirlwind about 850 years before all of this took place.  Then add to that the fact that Moses had been dead for roughly 1,400 years by that point...  So, you can probably understand why seeing the two of them standing on top of that mountain talking to Jesus would have taken the disciples by such surprise.
 
Now, perhaps not so surprisingly, Peter was the only one of the three disciples who decided to jump into action – offering to build three shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah.
 
Although the text doesn’t tell us what James and John were doing during all of this… I can just about imagine them standing there dumbfounded… with their mouths hanging open… trying to take it all in.  All the while… Peter who was known for being rather impetuous was intent upon “doing” something. 
 
This is the same Peter who was the one who had identified Jesus correctly as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”   Then only a short time later literally rebuked Jesus for saying that He would “suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21).
 
And this is the same Peter who, earlier, had the audacity to ask Jesus to prove who He was by calling Peter to get out of the boat and walk on the water with Him… only for Peter to then take his eyes off of Jesus causing him to begin to sink and then need Jesus to rescue him (Matthew 14:28-30).
 
And yes, this was the same Peter, who would later cut off the ear of one of the slaves of the high priest who came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Matthew 26:51, Mark 14:47, Luke 22:50, John 18:10) … only to have Jesus tell Peter to put his sword away before He healed the servant’s ear.
 
Suffice it to say, Peter was always busy doing something, even when it wasn’t always the right thing for him to do.  And things were not much different in our text for today. 
 
But before Peter could actually put his plan into motion, something else amazing happened…  The scriptures say that “a bright cloud enveloped them and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!’” 
 
Now let’s do a quick recap of where we are up to this point… first, Jesus was transfigured into a glowing white figure… and then Moses and Elijah seemingly came back from the great beyond…  now it would appear that the disciples were able to handle that… at least to a certain degree 
 
But then God started talking to them from a cloud… and that is when… according to the text… they all fell face down on the ground… terrified! 
 
That is when Jesus came over to them and touched them… encouraging them to get up and not to be afraid.  And the text tells us… when they stood up things seemed to have gone back to the way they were… or had they?
 
I mean is it even conceivable to think that Peter, James and John could have simply gone back to life as usual and not been changed by everything they had just witnessed up on that mountaintop? 
 
I highly doubt it.
 
Because the reality is that CHANGE HAPPENS… it seems to be a natural by-product of this thing called life.  Something takes place in our lives or in the lives of the people we love or in the world around us and we find ourselves being changed as a result of what we have witnessed… whether we realize it or not.
 
And I would dare say that the same could be said for the disciples.  Peter, James, and John may have been part of Jesus’ inner circle… but there would have been no way for them not to be changed by what they saw occur right before their eyes on that mountaintop.
 
And so, as we are given this glimpse into the glory of Jesus that the disciples were able to witness unexpectedly during the transfiguration… perhaps it serves as a reminder to us… or perhaps confirmation… that CHANGE HAPPENS… even when we are not expecting it.
 
This reminds me of a song that was recorded by jazz artist, George Benson and was released back in 1977.  The opening lyrics of the song say:

 
Now, with all due respect to Mr. Benson and the writer of that song… there is something else… make that some ONE else that we can absolutely be sure of and that is Jesus… who as the writer of Hebrews says, “… is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). 
 
And that calls to mind something that we find back in the Old Testament in Malachi 3:6 where we read, “I the Lord do not change…”
 
But wait a minute, Pastor Heidi, isn’t the subject of today’s sermon CHANGE HAPPENS?
 
Yes, and I am so glad you asked that… because it brings me to a very important point that needs to be made before we go any further this morning.
 
While the appearance of Jesus may have changed right before the eyes of His beloved disciples… Jesus, Himself, did not change. 
 
He was and is and always will be the Son of God… the Alpha and the Omega… the First and the Last… the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22:13).
 
And this is critical for us to understand because even when CHANGE HAPPENS in our lives and the world around us… we can trust the Lord to honor His word… to never leave us nor forsake us (see Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5). 
 
We can also hold onto Jesus’ promise which we find further on in Matthew’s Gospel where we read, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
 
And in the environment that we are living in at this present moment… when it seems like CHANGE HAPPENS just about every time we blink our eyes… isn’t it good to know that the Lord does not change?
 
Now, as some of you may have heard me share in the past… when I prepare a sermon for any given week, I will look back at past sermons that I have preached that use the same text. 
 
This is really not all that uncommon given the fact that the Lectionary is designed to go through the Bible on a 3-year cycle.  So, the likelihood that I have used a particular passage of Scripture before is pretty high… particularly on special days within the Liturgical calendar like today.
 
Each year on Transfiguration Sunday, the Gospel reading simply rotates between the version found in Matthew as it is this year… Luke as it was last year… and Mark as it was the year before that. 
 
The key then is for us to look at the text and see what message we can take from it this time that may be different than it has been in previous years… keeping in mind that although the Scriptures themselves may be the same… we are not the same… because CHANGE HAPPENS.
 
Interestingly enough; however, when I looked back at the sermon from 2017 there were a few things happening then that seem eerily reminiscent of things that are happening today.
 
In that sermon, I made mention of the unseasonably warm temperatures that we had experienced in the previous week… and just last week it was close to 70-degrees (that is… right before it got cold and started to snow again). 
 
And in that same sermon six years ago, I also made reference to the shifting and shuffling that was taking place within the political arena… I am actually going to just leave that one right there… otherwise we could be here all day.
 
Then when I looked at the sermon from 2020… just before the world began to go into full shutdown from the Coronavirus three years ago… I talked about our children no longer being able to feel safe walking or riding a bus and going to school… and how people no longer felt free to worship in churches, mosques or synagogues without worrying about gunmen and bombers.
 
So, perhaps there is some truth in that old saying… that the more things change, the more they stay the same…
 
Now, a quick Google search of that phrase credits it to a French writer by the name of Alphonse Karr… and also provides a little further explanation that “even the most turbulent of changes do not affect reality on a deeper level other than to cement the status quo.”
 
And when we think about the fact that CHANGE HAPPENS in each of our lives… and not always for the better… isn’t it comforting to know that on a deeper level even the most turbulent of changes cannot shake the firm foundation that is cemented in Jesus the Christ?
 
Let’s face it… CHANGE HAPPENS… but we do not have to let the changes overwhelm us.  We can persevere and make the best of our ever-changing circumstances by embracing the One who remains constant… the One who has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. 
 
And when we have a firm foundation built on our hope in Jesus… we do not have to face a dark and dreary future… we can have hope that when CHANGE HAPPENS despite what it may look like in the moment… it could actually be a change for the better. 
 
But that may take a little work on our part… to actually find the better that comes with change… particularly when it is an unexpected or problematic change.
 
You may recall a couple of weeks ago, I made a reference to the movie, Pollyanna, and something called the Glad Game that her father encouraged her to play.  The rules of the game were fairly simple and involved Pollyanna having to find something to be glad about in any situation.
 
Now, as some of you all may know the Sunday that I preached that sermon was the same Sunday that my cellphone went for a quick dip in some water… which meant I had to power my phone down until I could get to the cellphone repair store the following day.  What could I find to be glad about in that moment?
 
Well, I was glad that Jeff had the Free Conference Call app on his phone so we did not have to worry about people being able to call in to listen to the service or being able to record it for the website. 
 
And I was really glad that the Lord answered my prayer and there was no damage done to the phone.  They powered it up at the repair store the next morning, checked it out, and gave it a clean bill of health… and it has been running just fine ever since.
 
Then the following week, Ron and I had a situation with some sewage backing up in the basement drain.  I bet you are sitting there wondering how I could find something to be glad about in that one.
 
Well, I was glad that we caught the problem early enough that none of our things were damaged… and I was glad that Roto Rooter was able to come out that same morning [actually within the hour] and get the problem resolved. 
 
And even when they found another issue that needed to be addressed, we were able to get that taken care of as well before any damage occurred.
 
Now, we won’t even talk about Ron needing to put the van in the shop the week after that… other than to say, I am really glad I had just done our taxes and the refund should be more than enough to cover the cost of repairs.
 
So, what is the moral of all those stories… other than reminding us to play the Glad Game?  What does any of that have to do with the sermon?
 
Well… the fact of the matter is that in spite of the challenging circumstances that arose and the various changes that happened as a result… I could still be glad because God is still God and God is still good!
 
Now, there are some people who would look at things from a different perspective and try to convince us that the world is simply going to “hell in a handbasket” as my grandmother used to say…
 
And when we take a look at everything going on in the world around us… we might be tempted to go along with them.
 
But I am reminded of what we find in Paul’s letter to the Romans (5:3-5), where we find these words:  
That means even when CHANGE HAPPENS… because of God’s unconditional love and compassion for us… because of His all-encompassing grace and mercy… we can look beyond the chaos and confusion that might cause some to despair… and we can still have hope.
 
Hope in the One whom we need now more than ever.  Because the reality is that people need the Lord.  And we have been given the opportunity to share this simple truth with them… Change does happen but the Lord has promised to be right here with us… we just need to look up.
 
Have you ever tried the experiment where you stare up at the ceiling, without saying anything… and when you do that, what happens when other people walk into the room [they look up].
 
So let us make it our mission to look up and keep looking up so that others will be drawn to do the same.
 
And, if you are willing to join in that mission… I want to invite you to stand now and join now in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: My Faith Looks Up to Thee #576.
 

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