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| We all have a little Fox Mulder in us. |
I'm trying to lead you to less of a David Lynch place than I am a George Orwell, 1984, 2 + 2 = 5, doublethink kind of place.
We all have a tendency to believe what is easiest, or what is popular, or what fits best with our expectations. Orwell asks the question, "If everyone believes it, does that make it true?" And it is so, so easy for you to sit there and read this and say with conviction "Of course it doesn't!" And yet, how many of us have been swayed by the classic McDonald's advertising, "BILLIONS AND BILLIONS SERVED," which of course implies that those billions and billions can't be wrong?
Can they?
I find that most people read the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus with the same sense of superiority. How can the disciples—Peter, especially—be so utterly dense? The Transfiguration is literally a mountaintop experience. It is literally an epiphany. A Voice From On High literally identifies Jesus as the Son of God and commands the disciples to listen to him, for crying out loud!
And yet, they are still afraid, they don't know what to say, and Peter manages to insert foot and chew... "This is great! Uh... I know! We'll pitch tents and stay here..." Even though Jesus has just told them that he "...must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."
Then again, Peter's immediate response to that idea was to rebuke Jesus. After all, Peter had only just then proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. Which was a politically charged claim, to say the least. The Messiah was supposed to ride in like King David killing his tens of thousands of enemies and take the throne back from Rome!
The Messiah? Die? Inconceivable!
Peter is scared and he doesn't know what to say. And if we're honest with ourselves, that's a perfectly reasonable response.
I don't think that what I'm about to say is a spoiler, but I'll alert you anyway: I'm about to pick up a theme from the Divergent series.
Perhaps it's appropriate to turn to the character of Beatrice "Tris" Prior, the main character in the Divergent Trilogy, to help us get our brains—and our hearts—around what we're talking about here. You see, there's a moment where someone Tris loves very much makes it crystal clear that she is about to sacrifice herself in order to save Tris.
Tris is scared and she doesn't know how to react.
And it might be fair to say that everything she does after that point is shaped by Tris's need to make meaning out of that act.
Including her need to understand when you should allow someone to sacrifice themselves for you—or, conversely, when sacrificing yourself is something more nobel than suicide. And the answer she settles on is, "...if it's the ultimate way for them to show they love you."
It takes Tris a very long time and a lot of water under the bridge to get there. And the same goes for Peter, too.
But that's what the death of Jesus is—the ultimate way for him to show us that he loves us. And his Resurrection, among other things, is God telling us just how powerful and important that love is.
Be good to each other,
RevJosh
021015
The scripture lessons for February 15th—The Last Sunday After Epiphany—are:
2 Kings 2:1-12
Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel. The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?" And he said, "Yes, I know; keep silent." Elijah said to him, "Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they came to Jericho. The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?" And he answered, "Yes, I know; be silent." Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." He responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not." As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
Psalm 50:1-6
The mighty one, God the Sovereign,
speaks and summons the earth:
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty
God shines forth.
Our God comes and does not keep silence,
before God is a devouring fire,
and a mighty tempest all around.
God calls to the heavens above
and to the earth,
that God may judge God's people:
"Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!"
The heavens declare God's righteousness,
for God indeed is judge.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mark 9:2-9
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
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