Biblical Text: Matthew 17:1-9
The text is the transfiguration. And I do think the sermon comes deeply from the text, but the subject is really from the disciples’ point of view. They have a direct spiritual experience at the top of that mountain. Now talking about such things might not we in the normal wheelhouse of an everyday suburban congregation, but it is more in the air than you think. The first part of the sermon reflects on how our longing for such an experience expresses itself all around us. The second part of the sermon reflects on the troubles of such spiritual experiences: they don’t tell us what we think they do, we think the experience is the point and seek to stay in it or repeat it, we interpret everything based on them. The third part hopefully resolves or answers those troubles. The voice from the cloud says “listen to him.” That is where it starts. And if we listen to Jesus, that voice starts telling us what to do with the vision. That is what this sermon is about.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download