Hear Him!
Matthew 17:1-13[1]
Most of us have a
“dream” that inspires us, or at least at one time we had a “dream.” The most
fortunate among us have the opportunity to see that “dream” fulfilled. But life
has its own way with our dreams. Sometimes they’ re fulfilled in ways very
different from what we may have expected. Some of us live to see our “dreams”
fulfilled, and then have to learn how to live when our dreams are behind us.
Some of us never live to see our “dreams” fulfilled. One of the hardest tasks
in life is to figure out how to continue to find joy in life after our dreams
have passed us by or perhaps when our dreams fade away completely. It’s
something I’m not sure many people ever truly find, but I would say finding it
is one of the most important lessons we may ever learn.
I think part of the
problem is that we find our “dreams” early in life, perhaps in childhood.
Someone or something inspires us, or perhaps they wound us, and that leads us
to our “dream.” But the problem is that we form our dreams by “thinking as a
child,” as St. Paul puts it (1 Cor 13:11). Of course, that’s all very natural
and normal, but the “dreams” of our childhood can rarely stand up to all that
life sends our way. In a sense, those “dreams” that we frame for our lives in
childhood are too small to inspire us for a whole lifetime. At some point,
because life is what it is and not what we would have it to be, most of us come
to the end of our “dreams,” and that’s when we have to learn what it truly means
to thrive in this life.
I would say the
disciples who play a main role in our Gospel lesson for today had their own
dreams about what they hoped God was going to accomplish through Jesus. They
were raised on the stories of God’s amazing wonders in the lives of their
ancestors in centuries past. Stories about the Exodus, when God brought the
people out of Egypt, out of slavery, “with a mighty hand” (Dt 6:21) and “with
signs and wonders” (Dt 26:8) as the scriptures say. Or stories about the return
from Babylon, “with singing” and with “everlasting joy … upon their heads” (Isa
35:10; 51:1). Or, just past their living memory, stories about how God had set
them free from Empires vastly more powerful through the family of the Maccabees.
I think like most of the Jewish people, the faith of the disciples on that
mountain was directed toward the “dream” that God would renew his amazing
wonders in their time.
I think that may have
been part of what was behind Peter’s strange request in our Gospel lesson for
today. One of the great festivals in Judaism still today is called Sukkot, or
the “festival of booths.” It probably originated as a harvest festival, when the
people lived in tents in the fields in order to gather the crops. But it was
also related in Scripture to the idea that the people lived in tents when they
came out of Egypt (Lev. 23:42-43). It’s not much of a stretch to think that
when Peter and the others saw Jesus’ appearance miraculously transformed, and
when Moses and Elijah appeared with him, they believed they were witnessing a
renewal of God’s amazing wonders in their day. I think that was what was behind
Peter’s statement, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here” and his request to build
three tents. They believed their dream of what they hoped God would do for them
was being fulfilled. It’s not surprising that they wanted to set up tents and
stay on that mountain of wonders!
But in Matthew’s
Gospel, Peter’s request was answered by the voice of God himself: “a bright
cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, the
Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’” (Mt 17:5). If we
hear it rightly, I would say that this voice from the cloud responds with a
(perhaps gentle) rebuke. Peter wanted to stay on the mountain, where he
believed he was witnessing the beginning of his hopes and dreams for his people
coming true. But the voice from the cloud instructed him and the others to direct
their attention to Jesus. More than that they were to “listen to him.” And the
implication here is that they would not only listen to him, but they would also
follow his instructions. And Jesus took them down the mountain where they were
to engage with the people he called a “faithless generation” (Mt 17:17). That
was no easy task!
You see, I would say
that part of the point of this passage is that God has a dream for us all, as
Archbishop Desmond Tutu says. It’s the dream that we heard from the prophet
Isaiah a couple of weeks ago: a dream of freedom for the oppressed, food for
the hungry, and shelter for the homeless (Isa 58:6-7). As Archbishop Tutu puts
it, God’s dream is of “a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war
and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and
disharmony” are literally transfigured so that there “will be more laughter,
joy, and peace, … there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love
and caring and sharing.”[2] The name that Jesus used for that dream was the “kingdom of God.” When God’s
dream that Jesus called the “kingdom of God” comes to pass, it will mean that
the hungry are fed, the prisoners are set free, those who are bowed down are
lifted up, and the widows and orphans and refugees have someone to watch over
them.
We don’t tend to pay
too much attention to the “transfiguration of Jesus,” even though we mark that event
every year. I think we don’t pay much attention to it because we really don’t
know what to make of it. But as Desmond Tutu reminds us, transfiguration is the
very essence of God’s dream for this world. We catch a glimpse of that miracle
in our gospel lesson for today. But just as the voice of God would not let the
disciples stay on the mountain, but rather directed them to “hear” and obey
Jesus, and just as Jesus led the disciples down the mountain to engage the
people, so also in God’s dream, we’re God’s “partners,” each and every one of
us an “indispensable agent of change.”[3] That’s because God chooses to make his dream come true in and through each one
of us. Our faithfulness in hearing Jesus and in living out what he taught us
makes a difference in the outcome of the kingdom of God. Most of us think we’re
not that important, but in God’s dream, we are! Our faithfulness in hearing and
obeying Jesus contributes toward the final fulfillment of God’s dream for the
world, the “kingdom of God”(Rev 12:10-11).
It occurs to me that
such a dream might help us with where we started: we need a bigger dream than
the ones we choose for ourselves in childhood if we’re going to live fully and
joyfully in this world. We need a dream that’s big enough to fire our
imagination and rekindle our passion for loving God and loving others,
especially when it’s difficult. We need a dream that’s big enough to inspire us
when all our other dreams have passed us by. We need a dream worthy of
investing all that we are and all that we have, worthy of heeding the call to
serve rather than being served. We need a dream that’s bigger than us, a dream
that what we do in this life makes a difference in shaping a better world.
That’s the dream Jesus lived and taught those who followed him. And it’s the
dream we need to hear and obey now more than ever.
[1] © 2023
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/19/2023 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream, 19-20.
[3] Tutu, God Has a Dream, 61-62.
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