Dr. Hugh Hamilton Trinity Presbyterian Church Pensacola, FL February 11, 2018 Transfiguration Sunday

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1 Dr. Hugh Hamilton Trinity Presbyterian Church Pensacola, FL February 11, 2018 Transfiguration Sunday THIN PLACES: SEEING MORE THAT WHAT IS THERE 2 Kings 2:1-12 Mark 9: Corinthians 4:3-10 Thin places. Do you know the expression? Our youth speak of Montreat as a thin place. I began hearing that term some years ago as people revived the term from old time Celtic spirituality practiced in Scotland. The Celts said that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. A thin place is where the veil between heaven and earth is pulled back and you glimpse of the glory of God. For a moment, or for a time, or for a season in your life, it s as if the door between the place where you are and the rest of reality is opened and you experience a greater reality, a rush of the Spirit fills you, and all the light just on the other side rushes in and fills the space where you are, fills your mind, expands your spirit. and forever changes how you look at life. Thin places enable us to step from one world to another where we are not in control and where the unpredictable becomes the means of discovery and expanded insight. Your thin place may be a cherished location to which you return and once again feel the presence of God. Maybe it s your old home place where when you go there you experience it so real that you can still hear the voices of loved ones and the sounds of playing games in the back yard, or hear the distinctive doorbell, or smell the aroma of food in the kitchen and in see and hear everyone laughing and working together, eating together. You hear a beloved hymn and scenes and emotions from years past rise up from within you. Visit your old school, go to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park, watch the Masters Golf Tournament, listen to a song or watch a video of a song years ago and the words and tune come back to you and you sing along and suddenly realize you are crying and you don t know why. Nostalgia overcomes you and transports you to that time and place and now you know the rest of the story that has unfolded and how your life has been impacted. With baseball season coming up, I recommend a book by John Sexton called Baseball as A Road to God. This book explores how baseball can interpret and inform our religious quest in life. The subtitle is the connection for today s sermon: Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game. Chapter One: The First Inning describes author and poet John Updike sitting in the outfield bleachers of the original Yankee Stadium in the 1950 s when he saw more than a building and a baseball game. From his outfield seat he studied the stadium, the towering columns, and the expanse of gorgeous green grass in front of him. Distance brings proportion, Updike writes. From here the populated stands as much as the players seem part of the show. As Updike watched the game, he saw the box scores come to life before him, telling the story of the game; he noticed Micky Mantle s thick, sunbaked neck and recalled older men around him who once watched Hans Honus Wagner play short stop with his notoriously large lobster hands. He was living history and legend even in the moment he was watching this

2 Thin Places: Seeing More That What is There, 2 game. He saw unity in time and place, the nature of the game. Old and young, past and present, change and constant, building and playing field, all viewed under a Bronx sky it was as time was suspended and he saw the sweep of time and place and experiences and fans were wholly connected in the game, in the playing of the game (Sexton, 17-18). Go to Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field, or The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, or The Holocaust Museum, or Augusta National Golf Course, or to the opera or to the beach. Come to church and hear our choir sing their faith; for you cannot separate the singing of the song from the faith of the singer. Or go to Jordan O hare Stadium or the Swamp or Bryant Denny or Doak Campbell stadium and more than just watching a game, you experience the place, the atmosphere, the history, the meaning; you see more than what s happening on the field. And how that place, those people, that legacy that season of your life has shaped your life. There is a Latin phrase used in religious jargon, Mysterium tremendum et facinans: a mystery both fearful and fascinating. The mysterium is a place or an experience or a deity or an object which you experience in its real, everyday form, but by which you are introduced to an entirely other from you and your ordinary experience. Mysterium reveals an unknowable reality which you experience but you can t reduce to logical, rational, categories. You experience that mysterium and though you can t define it, you know you are experiencing it and it is forever changing you even as you experience it. That both scares us and attracts us! I recall standing at the railing by Niagara Falls and being awestruck at the danger of that powerful thundering rush of water and at the same time wanting to touch it, feel it, experience it! It was both mesmerizing and terrifying. I see the transfiguration to be a mysterium experience. God is the unfathomable mystery before whom we stand both awestruck and trembling before his majesty, yet we find ourselves attracted to God, fascinated by God, inescapably drawn to God in a relationship, in ways we cannot fully explain. The disciples see something, experience something, beyond their explanation and it expands their understanding of who Jesus is and what he is about. The Bible is full of passages describing God that are statements of mysterium treendum: Job 17:8-9 Can you understand the secrets of God? Can you search the limits of the Almighty? His limits are higher than the heavens; you cannot reach them! They are deeper than the grave; you cannot understand them! His limits are longer than the earth and wider than the sea. (Job 11:7-9 NCV) 2Corinthians 4:3-16 Our gospel is veiled; the god of this world had blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the the light of the gospel of the glory of Chirst.God has shone into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Colossians 2:2-3 Paul confirms that in Jesus we meet the God who is far beyond all we can know, but we have a unique experience available through faith in Jesus: Christ... is the mystery of God. God has hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ. Psalm 93: The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; and is armed with strength. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity. The seas have lifted up their voice, O LORD, the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder

3 Thin Places: Seeing More That What is There, 3 of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea- the LORD on high is mighty. Your statutes stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days (Psalm 93 NIV) Go sit on the beach and listen to the waves pounding. You will hear what God told the prophet Jeremiah: Surely you are afraid of me, says the LORD. You should shake with fear in my presence. I am the one who made the beaches to be a border for the sea, a border the water can never go past. The waves may pound the beach, but they can t win over it. They may roar, but they cannot go beyond it.' (Jeremiah 5:22 NCV) The relentless roll of waves onto the beach can hypnotize you and lull you to sleep under the hot sun, but the pull of the tide and the rip current remind you of the power that stretches to the horizon and beyond and strike a healthy fear in you for you are no equal to power of the waters. The power surging through the sea evokes in us a trembling awareness of the mystery of the Creator God. God is omnipotent and majestic wholly other from us. Thin places pull back the veil and let us glimpse God s great and glorious kingdom, Transfiguration demonstrates Jesus in the full force of his majesty and his destiny. Before the mountain top Jesus has performed miracles and healings, he s taught the multitudes teachings and cast out demons. The disciples have realized Jesus power, now God confirms the dazzling news that puts all thing in perspective: This is my beloved son! Mysterium tremendum and thin places that evoke awe and fear of God also make us eager to have relationship with him, to have this Jesus in our lives. The first disciples were so enraptured by their meeting Jesus that they were willing to drop everything and follow him! Mary was so drawn to Jesus and what he had to say that she ignored her sister Martha s pleas for help with hostess chores and chose to sit at his feet listening to him. (See Luke 10:38-42.) Both the disciples and Mary later returned to ordinary experiences of daily life, but they have been forever changed by their experience of God after Jesus came into their lives. Have you ever had a moment of truth, an experience that truly changed you, or the way you looked at things the rest of your life? Ever had anything ever hit you like a ton of bricks, made you stop and reexamine your life? Ever had a tragedy or a narrow escape knock you back a step, and you changed your plans, your outlook, your attitude, your expectations? Ever had such a delightful moment that you know you are forever changed by it? Have you had thin places in you life, seen the bigger picture, felt so close to God that you know He is real and that he is present? Mountaintop experiences, thin places, mysterium trenmdum, open a new dimension to your life, a new meaning, anew importance, a new possibility. Simon Peter wanted to stay on the mountain, to build a booth, and bask in the glory, though he did not understand or know what to say because he was terrified. Can you blame him? It s scary to be taken beyond your normal categories of understanding and expectations. Everything you ve thought, trusted, and expected crumbles you re on shaky ground. There was no way to prepare for the transfiguration. The bright light, the cloud, the voice, Moses and Elijah appear talking with Jesus - it was all ecstatic and miraculous. Moses delivered

4 Thin Places: Seeing More That What is There, 4 the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai. Elijah, the prophet, had been taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. The Jewish people believed Elijah would return in the same way he left - in a chariot of fire, Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the Prophets, the sources if authority in Jewish life. Appearing with Jesus they set the stage for the glorious revelation of God s chosen Messiah. Surrounded by a cloud, the shekinah glory of God, the disciples hear God s voice thunder from the cloud, This is my son, the Beloved, listen to him. Be still. Don t DO anything. Don t talk. Don t plan. Don t ramble. Just listen. Sometimes we are simply to experience God, hear God s Word, be touched by it, Just listen to what God I revealing to you. Be still. Don t plan, don t program, don t explain, describe, or fix anything. Just be just dwell in the thin place and let God impact you a while. Looking back at the dozens of sermons I ve preached on this scripture passage, it struck me this week that I always wrestled with what we are to DO because of the transfiguration of Jesus, because of this passage, in response to this passage; what is the moral lesson; what is our To-Do list, our marching orders? This week it came to me that were not to do, not to define it, not to nail it down. We are just to acknowledge it and what it reveals about Jesus who he is as God s son; to experience a bit of joyous wonder in realizing how much lies beyond the veil, on the other side of the thin place. That God s grace and glory and kingdom and awe and majesty are present to us in Jesus, and that in Jesus is the power we need, the purpose we need, the spirit we need, the hope we need, the everything we need to be God s people and to do God s will. Thin places and mysterium tremendum move us, inspire us, wow us, but we don t know always what to make of them, what to do with them, how to describe them or share them. Maybe that s the point of Jesus rebuke of Peter. Like Peter, we want to define the moment, explain the event, pin it down, put up a tent, tell what we re supposed to do now because of the event but sometimes we CAN T KNOW what to do next, what to say, where to go. Sometimes all we can do is go back down the mountain to where we live and allow the experience to work out in due time. Maybe the point is not to have all the answers, but to have Jesus; to have Jesus in your heart, indwelling you, working in you, preparing you for right time when you will be called upon to apply what has happened in you. As I was finishing up my notes on that thought Wednesday night, our choir was practicing in the choir room just down the hall. They were singing over and over Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus, you can have all this world, but give me Jesus!. In the morning when I rise, Give me Jesus And when I feel afraid, Give me Jesus! And when the trumpet sounds when that trumpet sounds Give me Jesus! You can have all this world give me Jesus! I don t need answers, I just need Jesus! Because if I have Jesus, I have everything! So do you! Amen! (In response to the benediction, the choir sang the beautiful, powerful refrain to Give Me Jesus)

5 Thin Places: Seeing More That What is There, 5 Sources Hugh Hamilton. Transfigured. March 3, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Pensacola, FL Revisit the Mountain, Renew the Passion. February 26, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Pensacola, FL. Marsh, Michael K. When Pictures Become Windows A Sermon on the Transfiguration. February 20, Thin Places, Veils, and Transfiguration. Sexton, John. Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game. New York: Gotham Books, 2013.