To See Beyond

Matthew 17: 1-9

February 6, 2005

To See Beyond

In the Prayer of the Day this morning we prayed, "Give us the vision to see beyond the turmoil of our world and to behold the king in all his glory..." That is what Jesus did for his disciples in the event we have come to know as the Transfiguration. It is what we pray that Jesus will continue to do for us today...to give us the vision to see beyond the turmoil of our world and to behold the king in all his glory.

The disciples' entire world was in considerable turmoil. They experienced geographical turmoil. Jesus had called them away from their homes, away from their families, away from secure jobs into an itinerant ministry that began in Capernaum, continued throughout the towns of, crossed the Sea of Galilee twice to the region of Gadera, ventured on to the ten cities of the Decapolis, and then north as far as Caesarea Philippi.

They were in a turmoil of activity as one day they were learners listening to the teachings of Jesus and witnessing his miracles, and the next day commissioned by Jesus to go and teach those same lessons and perform those same miracles.

And they were in personal turmoil never quite grasping who this was and what were the purposes of this amazing yet troubling man whom they had left hearth and home to follow. To three of these disciples whose world was in turmoil Jesus gave a vision to see beyond the turmoil to behold him in all his glory. "Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white... (and) suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him’” On that mountain Jesus opened a window into heaven and gave three disciples a glimpse into eternity.

The same is needed today. I am persuaded that in order to survive the earthly, we need to have a glimpse of the heavenly. We cannot survive the turmoil of today if we don't experience visions of the eternal tomorrow. And so we pray, "Heavenly Father, give us the vision to see beyond the turmoil of our world and to behold the king in all his glory..."

Turmoil, in its strictest sense, means confusion, chaos, disorder, and unrest. But in a more general sense when we say "turmoil of our world" it conveys all that is disturbing in our world, all that is wrong in our world, all that causes us dis-ease in our world. The result brings us full circle to turmoil in its strictest sense leaving us confused, in chaos and disorder, at psychological unrest, and even in emotional despair.

We wind up like those two figures in Greek mythology whose experiences reflect life's futility par excellence. Like Sisyphus, who is condemned by the gods to an eternal life of rolling a boulder up a mountain only to have it roll back down just before he reaches the summit, we, too, are endangered by an existence that offers no fulfillment. And like Tantalus who is submerged up to his neck in water that recedes whenever he leans down to drink, and is "tantalized" by a bunch of grapes overhead that vanishes when he reaches for it, we, too, face a life that offers no satisfaction, no fulfillment, and no contentment. If life is to have meaning, if life is to have joy, if life is to be more than just existing we need rescue from the turmoil of our world.

The farmer had experienced a difficult year. At the revival meeting Sunday night he gave this testimony: "I have a mountain top experience every day. One day I'm on top of the mountain. Then the next day the mountain is on top of me." Where is hope on those days when the mountain is on top of you?

That loveable loser comic strip character Ziggy in one of the Ziggy cartoon strips is standing at the window with his even smaller dog looking out from their second floor apartment onto the busy city streets below. Ziggy says, "Well, it's you and me against the world; and I think we're gonna get creamed." Where is hope when you are looking out on that threatening of a world?

Sam Keen, in his book What To Do When You're Bored And Blue, writes, "Psychiatrists report that most patients nowadays arrive in their consulting rooms not with raw pain, but with a severe case of emptiness. 'Doctor, I just don't feel anything. Something is missing and I don't know what it is. There must be more to life than this."'

Where is hope on those days when the mountain is on top of you? Where is hope when you are looking out on a world that threatens to cream you? What is it that can supply what is missing in life? What is it that can satisfy our longing for more in life? We prayed for it in the Prayer of the Day this morning: "Give us the vision to see beyond the turmoil of our world to behold the king id all his glory..."

We pray to be able to behold the king in all his glory because it is this glimpse into heaven that gives us strength and encouragement to live on earth. We are three-dimensional beings. We are persons in our own right; we are persons who relate to other persons; and we are persons created for a relationship with God. We are like a three-legged stool, the absence of just one of the legs making it useless. When we neglect our relationship to God, like a stool with only two legs, we fall. Paul Minear noted, "Delete the thought of (the eternal) from man's lexicon and he is soon reduced to a one-dimensional environment, living without invisible means of support." A vision that looks beyond the turmoil of this world to God is an invisible means of support. When we pray, "Give us the vision to see beyond the turmoil of our world to behold the king in all his glory...” we are praying that that third stool leg be replaced and strengthened so that our lives might bear up under the weight of life's turmoil.

I place such an emphasis on worship, and am saddened and frustrated when worship attendance drops because corporate worship, God’s people gathered for the purpose of Word and Sacarament is, for most Christians, the primary activity in which they experience the vision to see beyond the turmoil of our world to behold the king in all his glory. Without this regular, and even weekly, transcendent experience the leg of the stool that represents that person's relationship to God is weakened and that person is that much more vulnerable to the turmoil of this life that threatens with confusion, chaos, disorder, and unrest.

Plato once humorously defined man as a featherless biped (a biped is an animal that walks upright on two legs). In response Diogenes plucked a chicken and presented it as Plato's man. We are more than featherless bipeds. Humankind is the only species on earth known to have been created to have a relationship with God and to be touched by eternity. To ignore or neglect that relationship not only leaves us at the mercy of the world's merciless confusion, it is just plain stupid. It trusts one's entire weight to a two-legged stool.

In worship we are granted a vision to see beyond the turmoil of this world. In worship we are invited into the presence of the one to whom all creation owes its existence. In worship God opens a window of heaven that we might get a glimpse of eternity.

In the mid 1970s Peggy Lee sang a song in which the person singing is looking back at what she thought to be important and meaningful in her life, and then with melancholy bordering on sadness, she sang, "Is that all there is?" Worship is a reminder that this is not all that there is.

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. A part of the worship service that marks our observance of the beginning of this season is the imposition of ashes with the pastor saying, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” This sounds bleak. It sounds like, indeed, this is all there is. But the message of Lent is that God does not “leave us in the dust.” While our bodies may return to the dust, God has provided for our eternity with him. “The vision to see beyond the turmoil of our world and to behold the king in all his glory..." that marks the Sunday before Lent is a theme continued throughout Lent. With the added worship opportunities on Wednesday nights during this holy season we are given twice the number of occasions to experience that “vision beyond this world” that will help us cope with the turmoil of this world.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.