GLORY DAYS
Once upon a time, a woman woke up in the morning, turned to her husband and said, “Honey, I just had a dream that you bought me a new gold necklace. What do you suppose it means?” Her husband replied, “I don’t know, but Valentine’s Day is coming soon. Perhaps you’ll find out then.”
A few nights later, she again woke up from a dream. She said, “Honey, this time I dreamed that you gave me a new pearl necklace. What do you suppose it means?” Again he replied, “Perhaps you’ll find out on Valentine’s Day.”
The morning of Valentine’s Day, she again woke up telling him about another dream. “This time I dreamed that you bought me a new diamond necklace. What do you suppose it means?” To which he replied, “Honey, be patient. Perhaps you’ll find out tonight.”
That evening, her husband came home with a brightly wrapped package and handed it to her. Delighted, she ripped into the package and opened it. In it was a book entitled, The Meaning of Dreams. Now there’s a practical guy, wouldn’t you say? Happy Valentine’s Day! This morning, we’re going to be talking a little bit about dreams, but not the kind we have at night. This morning I want to begin by talking about the American Dream.
What is the American Dream? The phrase was coined by James Truslow Adams in a 1931 book entitled, Epic of America. By definition the American Dream is a national ethos in which democratic ideals are perceived as a promise of prosperity for all. Some say the concept of an American Dream should be credited with helping to build a cohesive American experience. Others say the American Dream should be blamed for creating unrealistic expectations. My theory is that while the American Dream may be different for everyone, there tends to be one common denominator in it for most.
A number of years ago, my wife and I were pretty good friends with another couple in Salem, Ohio. One of their favorite topics of conversation was their own American Dream. Basically, their dream was this. They wanted to be great philanthropists. Yet before they could become great philanthropists, they had to acquire great personal wealth themselves. If they had ten or twenty or thirty million dollars in the bank, they would be happy to give a portion of it away to help resolve many of society’s ills. It was a noble ambition in a way, yet I couldn’t help but think of how it first involved their own personal comfort and security. Perhaps we have found that common denominator for most American Dreams. It often has first to do with our own comfort and security.
Perhaps a similar thing could be said of the Messianic hopes of Israel some 2000 years ago. As it says in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, “Judaism in the first century sponsored no one understanding of the Messiah.” In other words, the Messianic hopes of Israel were likely as diverse and as numerous as the people who inhabited Israel. Everyone’s Messianic hopes were different, and they likely had something to do with placing their own comfort and security first.
Theoretically, there were certain things in Scripture that indicated who and what the Messiah would be. For one thing, the Messiah would be human. He would be a direct descendant of the great King David. He would also be a great leader. At the time of the Messiah, there would be a time of peace. The Messiah would rebuild the temple and return the Promised Land to the Jews. That’s what Scripture seemed to indicate of Israel’s coming Messiah.
Yet a number of personal desires and expectations had made their way into the Messianic hopes of Israel as well. As a descendant of King David, he would restore the prosperity that Israel had enjoyed under David’s leadership. He would be a great leader, meaning he would be the kind of military leader that could call upon a legion of angels to squash the hated Romans. The Messianic hopes of many in Israel had come to revolve around their own comfort and security. Note, of course, that those hopes would not have foreseen a crucified Messiah.
Then here was this Jesus character, making his way through the towns and villages of ancient Palestine, healing infirmities and diseases and teaching in a way that people had never heard before. People were starting to wonder if perhaps he was the Messiah Israel had long awaited. Shortly before the passage we read from the gospel according to Luke, it says that even King Herod was curious about Jesus and tried to see him himself. Then Jesus fed 5000 people with but five loaves of bread and two fish. There was quite a legend brewing about this Jesus. Could it be that he was the Messiah Israel had long awaited?
Amid all this stir, Jesus had a conversation with his disciples apart from the crowds. He said to them, “Who do the people say that I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah or one of the prophets.” Jesus then asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” It was Peter who first replied, “You are the Christ, Son of the living God.”
It was right after this – right after Peter had confessed Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God – that Jesus gave what we call his first passion prediction. He told them of his impending crucifixion and resurrection. Note, of course, that a crucified Messiah was not a part of the Messianic hope of Israel. This would have been difficult for even the disciples to swallow.
That’s when we come to what we call the transfiguration story. Jesus took Peter and James and John up a high mountain by themselves. As the gospel of Mark puts it, “Jesus was transfigured before them and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” A fuller to them would have been like a dry cleaner to us.
What does it mean to be transfigured? The Greek word for “transfigured” is metamorphothay. It means, “a transformation that is literally visible.” It is from that word, of course, that we derive the English word “metamorphosis.” A metamorphosis is also a transformation of form, like a caterpillar to a butterfly. Our passage is saying that that’s what happened to Jesus. He was transformed from a human body into a heavenly body. I’d tell you what that might have looked like if I could, but I can’t. I’m not sure anyone can.
So Jesus was transfigured before the disciples’ very eyes. Then there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, and they were talking with Jesus. Shortly thereafter the disciples heard a voice from the clouds saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” It could be none other than the voice of God himself.
This event was meant to show the disciples that Jesus was the Son of God. This event was meant to prove to the disciples that Jesus was the Messiah Israel had long awaited. It may not have coincided with the disciples’ Messianic hopes – after all, no one had envisioned or even considered a crucified Messiah – but here God tells them that such was indeed the case. Whatever Jesus told them is what was meant to be. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the point of the transfiguration story. It is meant to prove to these disciples that Jesus was, in fact, the very Son of God.
This story makes me think of one of my all-time favorite sayings. That saying is this: “If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.” It was a part of God’s plan that Jesus should suffer and die for the sake of the world. That was never a part of the disciples’ plan. That was not a part of anyone in Israel’s plan either, I suspect, but that was God’s plan. God’s plan always seems to have something to do with the salvation and the sake of the world in general. God’s plan seldom has to do with our own comfort and security, at least not the way we look at comfort and security from a worldly perspective.
Consider, for example, the Hebrew people who wandered for forty years in the wilderness at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. Do you suppose those people had two cars in their garages? Do you suppose those people had fabulous homes that impressed their neighbors? Do you suppose those people had fat investments upon which they could retire and live a life of ease?
Those things represent comfort and security from a worldly perspective, do they not? But those are not the kinds of things the Hebrew people had in their time in the wilderness. What they had was God, and God provided for their every need. They had true comfort and security because it came from up above. That’s the kind of comfort and security we need as well. For if we have that kind of comfort and security, we don’t have to worry about any recession or any other global economic downturn. We must learn to trust and believe that God will take care of us…because we are God’s own precious children. Faith such as that eliminates worry and provides true security. So maybe it’s all right to say, “If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.” Because God’s plans always make things turn out right in the end.
The transfiguration was meant to prove that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. The transfiguration was meant to prove that Jesus was the Messiah Israel had long awaited. For the disciples, it was a high moment of vision. They stood in the midst of Jesus and Moses and Elijah, and they heard the voice of God from above. As you might suspect, it was a moment the disciples wanted to preserve. That’s why Peter says, “Lord, it is well that we are here. Let us make three booths – one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He wanted to build shelters for them in which they could rest. He wanted to build booths for them so that they might stick around for a while. It was a high moment of vision and Peter wanted to preserve it for as long as he could. He wanted to savor the moment, so to speak.
But life doesn’t work that way, does it? You know, I’d give anything to go back and relive the last ten years of my life if I could – the days when my kids were young – but I can’t. We can’t get stuck in our high moments of vision because time marches on. It becomes a problem when we can’t get beyond the past. For when we cannot get beyond the past, we find ourselves unable to cope with the present, and unwilling to face the future.
Bruce Springsteen is an aging rock and roll star. A number of years ago, he wrote a wonderful song entitled, “Glory Days,” that deals with just such a thing. Listen closely to the words:
I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school.
He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool, boy.
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar. I was walking in, he was walking out.
We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks, but all he kept talking about was:
Glory days, well they’ll pass you by.
Glory days. In the wink of a young girl’s eye.
Glory days. Glory days.
Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight and I’m going to drink till I get my fill.
And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it, but I probably will.
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of,
Well time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but boring stories of glory days.
I didn’t recite all of the verses, but I think you get the picture. It becomes a problem when we can’t get beyond the past. For when we cannot get beyond the past, we find ourselves unable to cope with the present, and unwilling to face the future. It can happen to an individual, and it can happen to a church.
Many years ago, I was at a presbytery meeting in Warren, Ohio. It was a big, beautiful church with fabulous stained glass windows and an organ Kevin would give his right arm for. At the presbytery meeting, the minister spent a good fifteen minutes talking about how great that church had been – how many members it once had, how big their budget once had been, and how much influence it once had in the town. Only by that time, the church had become an empty shell. Precious few people showed up on a Sunday morning. By enshrining their past, they had failed to cope with the present, and they were not prepared for the future.
Let’s not be that church. Let’s work to discern who and what we are and who and what God wants us to become. In the 1970s, this church had more than 1600 members. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not the 1970s anymore. The population has changed, the community has changed, the socio-economic status has changed, and the needs have changed as well. We need to meet those needs head-on if we’re going to be viable in the future. How we are called to meet those needs as yet remains a mystery. Yet we need not be afraid if we remain faithful to God. As you’ve heard me say before: If God was faithful to us in the past, why would we think that he might not be faithful to us in the future as well? Again, “If God was faithful to us in the past, why would we think that he might not be faithful to us in the future as well?”
The transfiguration was meant to prove to the disciples that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. It was a high moment of vision for them. Yet it was a high moment of vision that was meant to prepare them for what lay ahead. It wouldn’t be long before they’d see the Son of God hung on a cross to die. They would need the strength of their high moment of vision to enable them to cope with the present and to face the future. That’s what high moments of vision do for us. They prepare us to face an uncertain future.
God has clearly been faithful to us in the past. God will surely be faithful to us in the future as well. Don’t get all caught up in any glory days of the past. Be bold to face the future. God has a place for the First Presbyterian Church of Meadville…in Meadville. We just need to find it. Amen.
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