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Cornelius D. Eaddy, Pastor

Don't Just Do Something -- Stand There

Transfiguration Sunday Sermon
Sunday, March 5, 2000
Jose Escalera, Seminary Intern

The Lessons for the Day: The Transfiguration of Our Lord
2 Kings 2:1-12
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9

Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Don't just stand there! Do something!" You and I have heard that instruction many times, and we may have also given that instruction on a few occasions. You spill a cup of coffee in a fast food restaurant, and people just sit there and look instead of doing something to help you clean up the mess. Or you drive by a road construction site only to see five men standing there watching one poor fellow digging with a shovel. Or one of our children keeps complaining about a homework due tomorrow instead of sitting down and working on it. "Don't just stand there!" we want to say. "Do something!"

In today's gospel the voice of God from heaven completely reverses that instruction. "This is my Son, the Beloved," God says. "Listen to him!" Instead of saying, "Don't just stand there; do something," God says, "Don't just do something; stand there. . . and listen!" There is a time to speak and a time to be silent and listen. Today's gospel does not mean we should never do anything. All it means is that it is important for us to know when to stand and listen, and when to act and speak.

The story begins with the words, "Six days later. . ." The significance of Mark's reference to "six days" can be seen in different ways. But I believe that very likely it is a reference to the six days of creation in which God created all things. On the seventh day God rested and looked at all that he had made and blessed it. So far in Mark's gospel Jesus has been saying and doing a great deal. Finally in the eighth chapter the disciples conclude that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and Peter confesses that belief quite directly. In a sense the messianic creation of God is established. Now in the ninth chapter comes the seventh day in which God rests and blesses what God has made. The Day of Transfiguration, therefore, is like the seventh day of creation. The Day of Transfiguration is a day of rest and reflection.

On this day, according to the story, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. There he is transfigured before them. His clothes become dazzling white, and Elijah and Moses appear, talking with him. Elijah represents the prophetic tradition, and Moses represents the tradition of the law. The greatness of the past appears in the present as a vision of what is to come. Peter then says to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three booths or dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Peter's first sentence is right on target. It is good for them to be here. But in the second sentence Peter goes too far. He wants to build three little shrines called booths or dwellings, so the memory of Jesus, Elijah, and Moses can be preserved. Peter is not content just to stand there and soak in the vision. He wants to do something.

But before he can call his first building committee meeting, Peter and the other disciples are overshadowed by a cloud. And from the cloud comes the voice of God saying, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly the vision disappears, and they turn to descend from the mountain. In the Greek text the word translated "listen" is in the present imperative, which implies continuing action. What it really means is, "Keep on listening to him," or "Continue to listen to him." It doesn't mean that having listened one time, you can then run off and do your own thing. Rather, it means to listen today and tomorrow and for the rest of your life, no matter where you are or what you are doing. The disciples' continuing words and deeds in the future are to be balanced with continued listening. For without listening, the words and deeds will soon become empty, because they will have been separated from their mission and purpose. Peter wants to build booths. God wants him to listen. What exactly does God want him to hear? God wants him to hear with his eyes as well as his ears the simple but overarching fact that all the Law and the Prophets are now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. God wants him to hear that the Law which begins as a wonderful guide to righteous living but quickly becomes a club of condemnation when we sin, that Law is now restored as a gift to us because our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ. God wants him to hear that the Prophets who begin as wonderful evaluators of righteous behavior but quickly become judges who sentence us to death because of our sin, those Prophets are restored as a gift to us because God's forgiveness toward us in Jesus Christ builds a sturdy bridge of grace across the chaos of our sin. In other words, God wants Peter to listen to the Gospel which declares that no good works on our part can overcome our sinful separation from God and put us right with him. Only in Jesus Christ is our relationship with God restored. Only when we listen to this and hear it deep within our soul we are ready to move forward in word and deed.

In his sermon, You Are Accepted, Paul Tillich describes grace as that Word which comes from God and declares to us unconditional love and acceptance. That grace strikes us, or it does not strike us, for we have no control over it. But when it strikes us, we are to do exactly what God told Peter to do in today's gospel: Stand there and listen! Here is how Tillich put it:

Sometimes. . . a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: 'You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.'

Many churches today have trashed the idea of actually listening to the Word of God. Many are so interested in entertaining people, they eliminate practically all objectivity from their worship and focus entirely on that which offers subjective amusement to the congregation. They have removed awe and silent reverence from their liturgies, in order to avoid what the media call "down time," lest people think the silence means somebody forgot something. Authentic spirituality has been expelled from many churches, with the result that a whole host of hacks and opportunistic amateurs have started writing books and holding seminars and workshops on angels and prayer and spirituality. Some of these churches are growing in number, but the same people who join them are forced to seek spiritual fulfillment somewhere other than in church. People listen for the Word of God at worship, but in far too many churches they do not hear it, because the Word is simply not there for them to hear. Announcements about activities replace proclamation, busy-ness supplants reverence, and the style of worship is seen as far more important than the content of the Gospel. Sometimes it is important that we not just stand there, but do something. But equally important in the sight of God is the need for us not always to be doing something, but instead simply to stand there and listen and keep on listening to the Word which comes to us in his beloved Son Jesus Christ. Whether that Word comes to us in a beautiful vision on the Mount of Transfiguration or in a dreadful crucifixion on a garbage dump called Golgotha, whether it comes to us in the liturgy or in the secular Kyrie of a friend facing untimely loss, whether it comes to us in proclamation from the pulpit or in the whispered peace of a farewell kiss, that Word of unconditional acceptance in Jesus Christ is to be heard by us and listened to, because that Word is our very life. And it is the life of the world.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. AMEN.