SERM: Mark 9:2-9, Transfiguration, LSB B
The Transfiguration of our Lord Same Jesus, Different Form Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! In today’s Gospel, Jesus “took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them.” Dear Christian friends, In the history of Lutheran preaching, two church holidays seem to have lent themselves especially well to sermons on the Holy Communion. • The big day for thinking about the Holy Communion is, of course, Maundy Thursday, the night when our Lord was betrayed unto death. Before submitting to the cross for us, Jesus took bread and said, “This IS My body” (Mark 14:22). Of the cup Jesus said, “This IS My blood…” (Mark 14:24). Here we have the Holy Communion, that the bread we eat and the cup we drink ARE indeed the body and blood of our Lord Jesus, not merely represented or symbolized, but miraculously present in our midst, delivering to us the benefits of His cross and death. • Historically, Ascension Day was also a good time for Lutheran preaching to take up the Holy Communion. Forty days after His resurrection (Acts 1:3), when our Lord ascended into heaven, He did not go away to some distant place, as if heaven is located somewhere out beyond the moon. In His ascension Jesus filled the entire universe (Ephesians 4:10). That means Jesus has power to be anywhere He wants to be. Jesus can even occupy such forms as bread and wine. Today is Transfiguration Day. Like Maundy Thursday and Ascension Day, today might also be a good day for us to renew and clarify our thinking concerning the Holy Communion of our Lord. What happened in today’s Gospel? “Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them,” literally, “Jesus was changed in His outward, visible form.” Jesus did not change into something or someone new. Absolutely nothing about our Lord’s nature or substance or inwardness was changed. Jesus is and was and always shall be God-Joined-to-Man, as we say in the Athanasian Creed: Begotten of the substance of the Father before all ages… born from the substance of His mother in this age, perfect God and perfect man (Athanasian Creed). What changed on the mountaintop? Only the outward form of Jesus changed. The shape and appearance of Jesus changed. “He was transfigured before then, and His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” SAME JESUS, DIFFERENT FORM. For a few moments in this Gospel, Peter and James and John were allowed to see a different appearance of their Lord—a different form of their Lord—than they normally were allowed to see, full of brightness and light. We should also not feel too surprised that our Lord’s outward form would change according to the will and desire of God. The Scriptures declare that • When He entered Mary’s womb, Christ Jesus set aside His “FORM of God” (Philippians 2:6). God the Son “made Himself nothing, taking the FORM of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). This was not a hologram or a mask or an impression. This was the eternal and limitless God confining Himself to the physical form of a human body and in His human body Jesus was nailed to a cross (Philippians 2:8). • At the very end of his book, St. Mark also explains that, when Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples “in another FORM” (Mark 16:12). Who knows what that form was? The Scriptures do not say. The Scriptures only indicate that Jesus the God-Man approaches His people in various forms. In one place, an unattractive (Isaiah 53:2) preacher, going from town to town in Galilee; in another place, transfigured and beaming with light as you heard in today’s Gospel; after His resurrection some other, undescribed form. It is always the same Jesus; it is only a different form. That is what makes Transfiguration Day such a good day to think about the Holy Communion. What is the Holy Communion? It is the body and the blood of Jesus, as the Scriptures repeatedly declare. What do we see in the Holy Communion? We see bread and we see wine: SAME JESUS, DIFFERENT FORM. Why should this matter to you, that it is always the same Jesus, only a different form? Simply this: Jesus allows Himself to be transfigured—He allows Himself to be changed in His outward, visible form—for you, for your salvation, and for your own personal needs. What I mean is this: • Jesus took the form of a servant, born of the Virgin Mary, so that we would have no reason to fear Him or run from Him. If Jesus had taken the form of a conquering warrior, or a powerful king, our sin and guilt would have compelled us to run away from Him and hide from Him. But Jesus took the form of a newborn baby. Who can feel afraid of a baby? Jesus knows what the entire world needed. • In today’s Gospel, Jesus was transfigured
SERM: Mark 9:2-9, Transfiguration, LSB B
Sermon for the Baptism of Bill Gronhoff, Poured out for him on the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord This is My Son Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ! In today’s Gospel, Peter and James and John stand as witness while God the Father proclaims from heaven, “This is My beloved Son.” Dear Christian friends, Today’s Gospel is a very good Gospel for anyone’s Baptism, but this is an especially good Gospel for today’s Baptism in particular. Today our fellow Christian Bill Gronhoff will be baptized. It may seem surprising to you that Bill will be baptized today, especially since he has been a Christian for many years, he is an adult member of this congregation, and he has communed with since the day he arrived here. Here is the thing: there is a very good chance that Bill was never baptized. Bill grew up thinking that he had been baptized as an infant, but there is only one person who ever told him that he had been baptized. That one person might have had a reason not to tell Bill the whole story. So Bill and I both have searched for Bill’s baptismal record. Bill was born in Germany, but his childhood church in Germany can find no evidence anywhere that he had been baptized. (Germans never have anything better to do than to keep records). Add to that the fact that no baptismal certificate for Bill can be found anywhere, and no other witnesses can speak to the case. While Bill certainly might have been baptized, we have no way of knowing. We have no certainty. We need to know and be certain. Bill needs to be certain that he is baptized and so do you. Bill will be baptized today. Everyone here present must keep two things very firmly in mind: 1. Bill is NOT being re-baptized today. God says NOTHING about re-baptism in His Scriptures. (Not even in Acts 19.) Those Christians who have dreamed up the idea of re-baptizing simply have put words into God’s mouth! God says very clearly and unmistakably, “There is… one Lord, one faith, one Baptism” (Ephesians 4:4-5). Bill Gronhoff’s Baptism is today. February 19, 2012 is now the official day that God the Father formally and legally adopts a new son. Who knows what may or may not have happened to Bill as a child? It is untraceable and unknowable and, as far as Christ and His Church are concerned, non-existent. Yes, Bill is a Christian—he has been for many years. Today he receives the paperwork to prove it. 2. You are witnesses of these things. In today’s Gospel, Peter and James and John stand as witness while God the Father proclaims concerning Jesus, “This is My beloved Son.” In the very same way, you now stand as witness here today, while God proclaims those same Words to Bill through Baptism: “This is My beloved Son.” Mine. Whenever God baptizes one of His Christians, it is a good day for all God’s Christians. Baptism days are good days for all of us, and not merely because God allows us to witness here the miracle HE PERFORMS in our midst. Baptism days are good days for all of us because God’s Word stirs up for us the memory of our own Baptism. What God does for the newly baptized, God has likewise also done for you. The MANY things God has done for the baptized, God has done for you: · Baptism has washed away all your sins (Acts 22:15). · Baptism has given you God’s gift of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:15, Titus 3:5-6). · Baptism has wrapped you in Jesus (Galatians 3:27). · Baptism has given you the certainty of a resurrection exactly like the resurrection Jesus Himself was given (Romans 6:3-5). Today’s Gospel now opens up for you yet another gift and benefit that God the Father gives you in Baptism. What is that gift and benefit? Your Baptism was God’s public announcement—God’s advertisement to the world—that you are now His child. In today’s Gospel, using Words that echo Jesus’ own Baptism, God the Father now proclaims to His official witnesses, “This is My beloved Son.” In the same way today, at Bill Gronhoff’s Baptism, God the Father is likewise proclaiming to you “That guy is My beloved son.” In the same way also for you, when you came to the font, God also proclaimed to everyone who would listen, “This is My beloved son.” Today’s Gospel does more than show you that Baptism is God’s public announcement to the world that you are His child. Today’s Gospel will also help you understand why such a public announcement is so necessary and beneficial for you: 1. I do not know if anyone has mentioned this to you lately, but you do not look very much like a child of God. You sin almost as much as I do. (Yes, I know I do not look very much like God’s child, either; I’m trying to get over feeling bad about that.) Bill has been sick all week—he was looking neither holy nor perfect when I last saw him. We do not look very Christian, and the evidence is not difficult to collect: No matter how much you try not
SERM: Mark 9:2-9, Transfiguration, LSB B
Sermon for the Last Sunday After the Epiphany, The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Only Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen. In today's Gospel from St. Mark chapter 9, Jesus took His dear disciples up a high mountain by themselves. Light shined brightly from Jesus, dead prophets appeared, religious feelings filled Peter's heart, and a voice spoke out of a cloud. Then it was over as soon as it began. Everything got swept aside. Suddenly, looking around, [Peter, James, and John] no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only. Dear Christian friends, As you know, our nation's economic hardships have been seeping their way into our own town. A couple of weeks ago the Gates plant announced a new round of layoffs, bringing the total workforce reduction to more than fifty so far this year-and it is only February. Stating the obvious, the talk at the barbershop claims that, if Gates were to close its doors, our town will suffer a blow from which it might not recover. Other local businesses are cutting their employees' hours. Foreclosure notices are stacking up in the pages of the Leader-Statesman. This rising flood has begun to lap at the toes of more than one person in these pews. Others are already up to their knees or even higher. There is good reason to be afraid: the economic forecast promises that eventually everyone is going to get wet. Like a flash flood, you can hear it rumble and crash as it heads this way. Add to this the more standard fears we all feel all the time about the future: Where will my children end up? What will happen if my wife or husband should take leave of me? How long can I keep my health? What harm or hardship might come to me or to those whom I love? (Beyond such general or universal fears as these, you probably can add a list of your own particular fears, which plague you most especially.) We Christians need a continual supply of medicine against fear, because we fear plenty and fear is nothing short of weak faith and flirtatious unbelief. Today's Gospel is a very good Gospel for your fears. This Gospel is an especially good medicine for those things you fear that are right over the horizon, roaring in the distance but not yet fully upon you. In today's Gospel, Jesus has not yet gone down the road to Jerusalem, to suffering and the cross. It was just over the horizon. It would soon swirl all around Him and His disciples. The forecast was very dark. Six days before today's transfiguration Gospel, [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He said this plainly (Mark 9:31-32). The warning that Jesus so plainly spoke to His disciples was somewhat like receiving a pink slip or getting diagnosed with a deadly disease. There was no mistaking the fact that terrible hardship was on its way and it was coming soon. Suffering and cross were not yet fully upon them, but the storm clouds were clearly gathering right over the horizon. So in today's Gospel Jesus lovingly gave His disciples good and powerful medicine against their fears for the future: After six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, This is My beloved Son; listen to Him. And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. Marvelous things happened here: Light flashed brightly from Jesus' face and clothes, famous prophets appeared in shimmering glory, God the Father spoke directly out of an overshadowing cloud-and all these amazing things did not do one single thing to calm the disciples' fears, for they were terrified. So afraid were these disciples through this entire display that Peter had no idea what to say, and so he babbled nonsense. The marvelous things that happened in this Gospel-the light, the voice, the cloud-these things are not meant to calm the disciples' fears. These amazing things are meant only to focus the disciples' attention-and to focus YOUR attention-on the ONE THING that calms all fears: Jesus only. As soon as this divine display had begun, it was over. Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only. Today's Gospel deliberately isolates
