200202 Sermon on Exodus 3:1-14 Matthew 17:1-9 (Transfiguration) February 2, 2020

200202 Sermon on Exodus 3:1-14 Matthew 17:1-9 (Transfiguration) February 2, 2020

I’d like to begin today by speaking about the word, “mundane.” We don’t use this word a great deal, but I’m sure you’ve heard it. The way that it is used today is to describe something that is ordinary, dull, and boring. Taking out the garbage is mundane. Doing the dishes is mundane. Bunge jumping or sky diving are not mundane. Those activities are thrilling.

So the way that we use the word “mundane” is as a synonym for “boring.” But there is more to this word than just “boring.” “Mundane” comes from the Latin word “mundus” which means “world.” “Mundane” means “world-like,” as in “that’s the way things go in this world.” The opposite of “mundane” would be “other-worldly.” Here you can perhaps think of aliens or spirits or gods or out-of-body experiences. Such things are not mundane. They are very much out of the ordinary.

Ever since we were knee high to a grasshopper we have all been taught that mundane things are the only things that exist. Anything that is other-worldly is myth and fairy tale. The most powerful institutions in our society insist on this point of view as being the only acceptable one. Our whole education apparatus teaches that only what is physical and material and natural is true. The entertainment industry also takes this for granted. Other-worldly ideas might be used for plotlines, but everybody knows that that is just for fun. Spirits and superheroes and all kinds of mythical creatures do not actually exist.

The things that we are surrounded by can’t help but leave their effect on us. When our culture says that the only things that exist are the things that we can touch and test and see, then this gets into our bloodstream. This has its effect on the way that we understand the Scriptures as well. A lot of Christians for a long time have wondered what is happening to our Christian churches. They are all shrinking. And they wonder what we should do about it. It’s not just the music that is keeping people away. There is something much deeper. People don’t believe that the things that are talked about in the Scriptures are actually possible. They believe that reality is mundane. They don’t believe that God interacts with his creation the way that the Bible describes him interacting with it. According to them, believing in this stuff is like believing in aliens or mythical creatures.

Lots of dreams have been dreamed about how we might fix this problem for the Christian Church. It’s not something that can be fixed by any earthly means. There is no curriculum or program that can make anybody believe. The only way anybody is going to believe is by the grace of the almighty Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit making us believe, we inevitably will believe that mundane reality is where we have our hope, rather than in God. It is part and parcel of our idolatrous hearts that we should look to the things of creation for our wisdom, help, and blessing, rather than to our Creator. Unbelief is not unusual or impressive. It’s the darkness that all people are stuck in, unless God, in his grace, should shine his light on us.

What is this light? We have a couple of impressive lightenings in our Old Testament and Gospel readings today. In the Old Testament God spoke to Moses from the midst of a burning fire, surrounding a bush, but the bush itself was not consumed from the flames. He said, “Moses! Moses!” Moses said, “I’m here.” God said, “Humble yourself. You are standing in the midst of holiness. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your forefathers.” This was God’s invitation to Moses to believe in him. He announced himself as God to Moses so that Moses might know him, listen to him, and follow him. The bush being on fire and yet not being consumed is something impressive, but it is nothing compared to the enlightenment that took place within Moses’s heart. The darkness of unbelief, doubt, and despair was replaced with the light of God.

In our Gospel reading Peter, James, and John learned more about their teacher, Jesus, than they already knew. Jesus turns dazzlingly white—white like lightning—so that the disciples could not bear to look at him. Moses and Elijah came. Luke, in his Gospel, tells us what they were talking about. He says that they were discussing Jesus’s departure that he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. This means that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were speaking about his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This resembles God’s call to Moses, but in a higher and better way. By this conversation God is speaking to the three disciples. This is the God of their forefathers. This is the God who will redeem and save them by the sacrifice of his Son on the cross. A God who loves and therefore saves all the way down to emptying himself completely in death and damnation is a God worthy of trust.

But some rather mundane thoughts entered into Peter’s head at this point. Peter was reminded of Mt. Sinai, where God showed his glory and gave the Old Testament people the tabernacle with it cloud of his presence that went before them. “Aha,” Peter thought, “Here we have the greater culmination in the Glory of God’s Son! Here we have the Temple of all temples. Let’s institute a worship and a religion.” But before Peter could get all his words out God put a stop to his philosophizing. There was to be no more holy mountains or particular worship practices like there were in the Old Testament. There is a New Testament here in Jesus’s blood. It is shed for the forgiveness of sins. Instead of tents and vestments, there would be shameful nakedness on the cross. Instead of the sacrifice of sheep and goats, there would be the sacrifice of the God-man Jesus Christ. God did not allow Peter to go on with his mundane thoughts, but directed him to Jesus—“listen to him,” he says, rather than to your own thoughts.

These instances, where God invites and creates faith by revealing himself to people, are examples for us that we should believe as they did. But perhaps you are wondering about the unusualness of these examples. There were unusual signs that accompanied both of these lightenings. What about us when we don’t have unusual signs? This is something important for us to learn. The Bible tells us about some unusual things that have happened. It doesn’t tell us as much about the hundreds of thousands of people who believed in a way that is very similar to us. Generation after generation of God’s people were content to believe the revelation of God that was passed down to them. This was something that began already with Adam. Adam, as the head of the household, taught what God had revealed to him to his family. Seth, his son, did likewise. So it has been through the ages.

The Scriptures are records of God’s revelation that have been written down as God revealed and inspired them to their authors. The Scriptures are given to us in order to teach, in order to invite faith in the God who reveals himself in them. When and where it pleases the Holy Spirit, he creates faith in those who hear this revelation. What happens to us when we believe in God, is no less important or impressive than what happened with the stories that we’ve considered today. We believe in the same God as Moses, Peter, James, and John did. The God who helped and redeemed them is the same God who helps and redeems us. We are very much like them.

In fact, just as the people in the Bible had prophesies which had not yet come to pass, so it is also with us. The most important prophesy—the prophesy concerning the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus—has come to pass. This is what the people of God were waiting for before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But the Scriptures also tell us that Jesus will come again on the clouds with power and great glory, with all the angels with him. Then the dead together with those who are still alive will all be judged. To you who believe in him and are baptized he will give everlasting life. Those who do not believe will be condemned to hell—the place that we all deserve to go, but Jesus has redeemed us by his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.

When these things come to pass, we will behold almost infinitely greater things than the impressive sights and sounds that we hear about in the Bible. There is a very common defect among Christians where they read the Bible as though it is about other people, and nothing even close to being so exciting could ever happen to them. Our tendency to think that life is mundane gets the better of us. We think that this life with its various activities, seasons and times is the only life there is. Anything other-worldly is put out of mind if not outright rejected.

This is not true. The Scriptures are like a lamp shining in the dark place of our hearts. The Scriptures reveal to us how things truly are and what things will be like when they come to pass. Just as Moses heard God speak from the burning bush, so also you will hear God. Just as Peter, James, and John saw Jesus with the glory of his divinity being made manifest, so also you will see Jesus in his glory. In fact, all people will see God, without exception, even as all people must give answer to God for the life that has been lived on this earth.

But we do not need to wait until we die or are resurrected from the dead to hear and to know God. God has brought it about that you should be invited to believe in him already now. God has introduced himself to you as your God and made wonderful statements about who you are and how you are in Jesus. He gives us signs to believe in him. He baptizes us with his name, making us his adopted children. He speaks to us when we read his Scriptures and when we hear people teach and preach according to that Word. He gives us Jesus’s very body and true blood in the Sacrament of the altar. The body and blood that was sacrificed for our atonement and reconciliation with God is given to us to eat and to drink. Jesus himself tells us what this is all about. This is his body given for you. This cup is the New Testament, the new arrangement between God and mankind, shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Mundane thoughts can easily enter in here, just as it was with Peter. We are prone to think, “Isn’t this just a religion? Isn’t this just something that is earthly and doesn’t really have to do with God so much? After all, almost anybody has access to these things.” That is not how we should think . We should think of God’s Word and Sacraments as God speaking to us just as truly and individually as he spoke to Moses. To understand how this can be, that God has and continues to speak to you as an individual, you must understand how God is in control of all things. It is no accident that you were baptized. It is no accident that you are a member of this congregation. It is no accident that you are here today. The one behind all of these things is God. God has brought you here. There are plenty of people who have not been blessed with God’s Word and Sacrament as you have, as you surely know, but you have. God could certainly rip heaven open and speak to you from above, scaring you to death, if he so desired, but he has given us an ordinary way of making himself known to us. This ordinary way of dealing with is very much biblical, for God only works in an extraordinary way when such action is necessary.

Realize that your life is far from mundane. God has spoken to you so that you may know him as he knows you. When you die, you shall meet your Maker, not in terror, but as his redeemed and ransomed child. Then he will speak with you in what is an ordinary way for that life—face to face, beholding his glory. You are bound for an other-worldly life together with Jesus. If people don’t want to believe that, then fine, but know that they are rejecting God’s calling to them. It’s as though God were speaking to Moses and he turned away—assuming that this were some mirage. His eyes and his ears were playing tricks with him. So also in hearing God speak to you today there are 1001 ways to deflect this message so that it does not take root. But it is his voice whether it is believed or not. Therefore, believe it and make use of it. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart, but rather believe that God is your Father who has saved you from all your sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.