May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Beloved sisters and brothers. It is a great joy and privilege to visit you here in the Lutheran Seminary of Theology and to have the opportunity to preach as part of your student worship service.
This is my second visit to Thailand. My first visit took place 32 years ago as a young student of Theology. A group of us students representing the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission came here to learn more about mission work in Thailand. At that time, the Church was not yet independent and the Seminary was, in practice, just one classroom connected to Thailand’s Lutheran Mission office.
It is wonderful to see that God has blessed this work and it has generated new congregations, for example, in the northern and north-eastern areas of the country.The Seminary has grown as well and is, in many ways, the heart of the Church’s activities. I believe that, in terms of the future and growth of the Church, a key roleis played by this Seminary, which educates employees for the Church.
We have heard the Gospel’s telling of Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountain. The content of the story is quite similar to that found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. So we might assume that it has been a very important story for the first Christians. The purpose of the story is to communicate the idea that Jesus was both 100 per cent human as well as 100 per cent the Son of God.
Jesus took his three closest disciples, Peter, John and James, with him to the mountain. The purpose of the climb up the mountain was prayer. Jesus often stepped away from the path to a place of seclusion to pray. We can, of course, pray anywhere, even while we’re driving a car. Often, however, it helps to withdraw to a quiet place in order to focus on establishing our prayer connection with God.
Jesus had already noticed that it is difficult to focus on living in the face of God, unless we step aside, from time to time, and prayon our own. For this reason, he has this to say to his disciples in the Gospel of Mark:
”And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:31)
The Gospel excerpt is filled with references to the Old Testament. The mountain as a place of prayer was familiar to Jewish tradition. Moses climbed up Mount Sinai to pray and the Prophet Elijah climbed up Mount Horeb. The Bible does not mention the name of the mountain on which Jesus climbed, but it is thought to refer to Mount Tabor or Mount Hermon. For these three men, the mountain represented the ideal site for prayer.
Once Jesus reached the topof the mountain, his appearance becametransfigured. We cannot fully understand, however, what happened on the mountain that day. The Gospel simply tells us that Jesus’s face was altered and that his clothes became dazzling white. In this moment, Jesus is accompanied by familiar figures from the Old Testament, namely Moses and Elijah. In this story, we might consider that Moses represents the law, Elijah the prophets and Jesus an entire new reality, a new covenant, a Gospel.
And a voice came from the heavens, saying:‘This is my Son!’It is interesting that nearly the same words were also heard from the heavens when Jesus was being baptized in the River Jordan.Jesus’s transfigurationon the mountain demonstrates his unique position as the Son of God. It tells us that Jesus was not a prophet, but the actual Son of God.
Praying is not always easy. Even in this story, the three disciples have fallen asleep. They were too tired to continue praying with Jesus and sleep overtook them. Once again, it is interesting that the
same thing occurred at another moment of prayer in which Jesus asked his disciples to pray with him. I am referring to the prayer agony that took place at Gethsemane prior to Jesus’s death. The disciples were too exhausted to continue praying then too.
I think that the story reminds us, as modern-day Christians, of how important it is to stay vigilantas a Christian. Spiritually, we are too quick to fall asleep and become too weary to keep vigilant watch as we wander through life. Praying is a vital part of being spiritually vigilant. Other essential parts include the reading of God’s Word, Christian unity and shared worship service.
The transfiguration of Jesus was a good and heart-warming event for the disciples. Upon awakening, the disciples were overwhelmed by the warm presence of God. As was his way, Peter spoke up and suggested that they might remain where they were. It was a good place, a place where they could set up three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah.
Peter’s suggestion was very human and understandable. Probably, most of us have thought this way at one time or another. There are times when we also have felt a very strong awareness of God’s presence. It might occur while we are praying or while singing hymns or spiritual songs together. A powerful spiritual experience may occur while in nature, as we sit on the beach looking out at the open sea, or as we gaze over the view from a mountain top.
We sense God’s magnitude and feel tempted to react as Peter did, saying: I want to stay here; I want this feeling to continue. Peter’s wish is interrupted, however, by a dark cloud that covered the area with its shadow and was accompanied by these heavenly words: ‘This is my Son, listen to him.’ God enables us to feel his blessing and holiness, but he will not take us away from the world. Peter, John and James simply had to climb back down the mountain. They were forced to continue their daily journey beside Jesus. But they did not need to return to their lives empty-handed. They were given a piece of valuable advice: ´Listen to him, Jesus.’
This is also the case in our own spiritual lives. As Christians, we are alive and living in the world, but we are not of this world. After our own wonderful ‘mountaintop experiences’, we must also get back to living our daily Christian lives; lives which are not always so glamorous. We often have regrets, we stumble and our efforts are unsuccessful.
However, we are always guided by the same advice that was given to Jesus’s disciples in the Gospel: ‘Listen to Jesus’. In other words, we are told to live in connection and proximity to Jesus.This means we should follow Jesus in our daily lives and be witnesses for him; not only in church or worship services, but also then when we are with our families or at work.
Every day of our lives may not offer us transfiguringexperiences such as occurred on the mountain, but we can be assured that Jesus is with us. This is not based on feelings but on the fact that Jesus has made this promise to us. In the end of the Gospel of Matthew, as part of his baptism and mission statement, Jesus says:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, tothe end of the age.”(Matthew 28:19-20)