by Jeffrey Spencer | Mar 3, 2025 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for March 2
Sermon for Transfiguration of our Lord Sunday – March 2, 2025
Luke 9:28-36
It is clear that Peter, James, and John experienced something spectacular up on Mount Horeb. It was truly a mountaintop experience for them. They saw Jesus transform before their very eyes. They saw him transfigured. Jesus’ face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. The divinity of Christ, which had been veiled in his flesh, was now, for a moment, shining through. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, Moses, who had been dead for a thousand years, was there! Elijah, who had been mysteriously taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire hundreds of years prior, was there too! Talk about a cameo appearance! You can hardly blame Peter for wanting to enshrine it all with a building project. It was clearly a spectacular experience for them.
What might not be so clear is what it means for us.
To help us understand the significance of this event for us, I’d like to use a baseball metaphor. After all, Major League pitchers and catchers have now reported. Spring training is under way. College baseball is in full swing. And now that baseball is being played again at last, there is a scene that will play itself out in ballparks all across the country. Once the starting pitcher has done his job, hopefully getting his team into late innings, a new pitcher called a reliever will be brought in. This pitcher might pitch for a couple of innings, and then, when the time is right, it is time for the closing pitcher. And at these transition points, there will often be a meeting on the mound – that mountain of elevated dirt in the middle of the diamond, sixty feet, six inches away from home plate. The manager will come out to this mound. Teammates will sometimes come in. There will be a little huddle at this elevated place. At some point the ball will be handed from the outgoing pitcher and handed to the closer. If the team is behind and the closer comes in and wins the game, they call him the saving pitcher.
Now the risk in using a metaphor like this is that the baseball geeks in the congregation will start picking apart the metaphor at all the points where it breaks down, while the non-baseball people will wonder what the heck I’m talking about. But the simple picture I’m trying to paint is this: The meeting on the mound is where the ball is handed from one pitcher to the next, so that the closer can win the game. Each pitcher serves their purpose, but when there’s a deficit on the scoreboard, it is the closer who needs to come up big. It is the closer who becomes the saving pitcher.
What we have on Mount Hermon with the presence of Moses and Elijah and Jesus is a holy huddle on the pitching mound, and the ball is being handed to Jesus to finish the game. The ball is being handed to Jesus to get the win. The ball is being handed to Jesus, who will be the saving pitcher.
Moses had been on this mound before. It was this very mountain, Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai, that Moses had climbed up to receive the Ten Commandments. It was on this very mountain that Moses himself caught a glimpse of God’s backside and came back down with his face glowing for days from the reflected light. Moses brought God’s law to God’s people, so that they would know how God wanted them to live as his covenant people.
Elijah had been on this mound before too. As a prophet, Elijah had spent much of his life calling God’s people back to the law, back to God’s commandments. At great personal risk, Elijah bravely preached against the idolatry rampant among the people. Elijah is the only person in the Bible other than Moses to climb to the top of Mount Horeb for a meeting with God. And it was there, on that very mountain where everyone was now gathered, that amidst a whirlwind and an earthquake and fire, Elijah encountered God in a still, small voice.
Did you know that the very last verses in the Old Testament mention both Moses and Elijah? The prophet Malachi speaks the word of the Lord, saying: “Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at [Mount] Horeb for all Israel. Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.” That’s how the Old Testament ends. It ends with Moses and Mount Horeb and Elijah and the implicit promise of a savior.
Jesus takes Peter and James and John to this very mountain. He takes them there because it is time for a pitching change. He takes them there because it is time for the saving pitcher to come and fulfill this promise.
And when Jesus stepped onto the mound, he didn’t need to shield his eyes from God’s brilliant light. Instead, Jesus shined with that very light from the depths of his being. He didn’t reflect that light, he radiated it! And as Jesus stepped onto the mound, he didn’t listen for God in a still small voice, instead he was the very Word of God! “Listen to him!” God the Father thundered from the cloud above.
It was time for the saving pitcher, who was God’s own Son, God’s chosen. And as Jesus huddled with Moses and Elijah, they discussed how he was going to win. St. Luke tells us they discussed Jesus’ departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. The Greek word for departure here is a familiar one. The word is exodus. What gets lost in translation is how St. Luke is being clever here, choosing a word that has a double meaning. One the one hand, the Greek word exodus, or technically exodon, is a euphemism for death. It is where we get the word exit. This word was commonly used as a softer way of referring to our exit from life, kind of like how we often choose more delicate phrases like “passing away.” But of course, when you hear the word exodus, especially when Moses is standing right there, you also can’t help but think about the exodus he was part of as he led God’s people out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. The ball was now being handed to Jesus to lead an exodus of his own, only he would lead God’s people out of a deeper slavery. Jesus would deliver people out of their slavery to sin. Jesus would lead people through the wilderness and into the promised land of life with God, both now and forever. And he would accomplish this exodus through his departure. He would accomplish it through his death on the cross, which was about to take place down the mountain in Jerusalem.
Moses had, and has, an important role in God’s playbook. Moses’ time on the mound, on this mountain, gave us the Ten Commandments, which reveal to us God’s eternal will for how he wants us to live. God STILL wants us to live this way! Martin Luther taught that the Ten Commandments should be studied diligently by Christians as the guide for how to live a life that is pleasing to God. He called it the guide for all truly good works. Elijah and all the prophets have an important role too. We hear them calling us again and again back to God’s law. But in the end, by the scoreboard of the Ten Commandments, we always come up short. When it comes to God’s law, we’re always losing.
And so at a certain point on the mound, on the mountain, Moses and Elijah faded away and, St. Luke tells us, there was Jesus alone. There was Christ alone. God sent his Son to that mountain to be the closing pitcher. God sent his Son to fulfill everything Moses and Elijah ultimately stood for, which was for people to be in right relationship with God. God sent his Son to fulfill the implicit promise in the last verses of the Old Testament, that he would bring reconciliation instead of a curse. God sent his Son to get the win and finish the game, delivering his people with one last exodus. And he would do this through his death and resurrection.
Can you see what the Transfiguration means for us? Can you see how it is spectacularly good news for us? It was on this mountain of the transfiguration that the game changed in our favor. God gave the ball to Jesus in order to save you. Seeing how we were down in the count, unable to change the score by our own efforts, by our own strength, God sent Jesus to win salvation for us by his grace. As St. John tells us in his gospel, “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
“Listen to him,” God tells us.
“It is finished,” Jesus said from the cross. Listen to him. “Peace be with you,” Jesus said when he rose again. Listen to him. Repentance and the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, Jesus said. Listen to him. “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sin,” Jesus said. Listen to him. By his victory over sin and death, Jesus has reconciled you to God and given you a place in the Promised Land forever. Listen to him.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 25, 2025 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 23
Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany – February 23, 2025
Luke 6:27-38
“Love your enemies,” Jesus says at the beginning of our gospel reading for today. And then, just to make sure we heard it, he says it again in the middle of the reading: “Love your enemies.”
He’s got to be kidding, right? He cannot be serious. Doesn’t he understand how awful my enemies are? He wants me to love them? He must be talking to someone else. Maybe this is addressed that guy or those people – you know, the obviously bad and wrong people. They’re the ones who need to hear this, not me.
Sorry folks. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” And he is talking to you. We instinctively want to deflect these words or direct them to someone else, because if there’s one thing we love, it’s hating our enemies. People seem to enjoy it, actually. It makes people feel righteous. We see this in social media posts gleefully fanning the flames of division while projecting one’s own virtue. We see it in how eager people are to take offense, and to cast their opponents in the worst possible light. We see it in the way people are so quick to judge and so unwilling to try to understand. We see it in how people love to divide the world into good guys and bad guys. It feels so good to have an enemy to hate. We really do seem to enjoy it.
Lest you think I’m just scolding others, let me tell on myself. Some of you might have seen the first USA versus Canada hockey game, which took place a couple of weeks ago in Montreal. You might have heard that the hometown Canadian crowd booed when the US National Anthem was sung. It was hugely disrespectful, and while I could kind of understand it intellectually given recent political rhetoric on our side of the border, when I heard it, emotionally, as an American it made my blood boil.
And so when the players for Team USA immediately started throwing punches at Team Canada the second after the puck was dropped, I loved it! Every time a red, white, and blue jersey bodychecked a red jersey into the plexiglass, I loved it! Whenever there was a goal and “Free Bird” started blaring over the speakers, I loved it!
The funny thing is, I sincerely love and respect Canada. I love living close to it and visiting up there often. But for three periods of intense hockey, it felt so good to have an enemy! I loved it! I’m not necessarily proud of this, I’m just being real with you. Outrage is a heck of a drug. Whether it is sports or politics or nations or neighbors, we love to have enemies to hate. It is who we are as human beings.
And so when Jesus says, “Love your enemies,” he has to be kidding, right? And to make things worse, Jesus doesn’t just ask us to have an abstract love for them, he calls us to love our enemies with our actions: “Do good to those who hate you.” “Turn the other cheek.” “Do not judge.” He can’t be serious, can he? Please tell me this is all just more hyperbole from Jesus!
Well, yes and no. There are times when enemies should be opposed. Jesus himself turned over tables in the temple. He told the Pharisees to pound sand when they got all up in his business. He engaged in spiritual combat with the devil.
There are times when we are called to oppose enemies too. Political involvement is a valid way to influence society in the direction you’d like to see it go. For someone who serves in law enforcement, even if they are a Christian, it is their duty to restrain the enemies of society. They aren’t to turn the other cheek to violent offenders – they restrain them, using force if necessary. If someone is literally abusing you, you don’t just pray for them – you also call the police to make the abuse stop. If you as a citizen are called to serve on a jury it is your duty, even as a Christian, to judge the case and declare someone guilty if that’s what the evidence shows. In daily life, parents are to exercise judgement in the discipline of children, teaching them right from wrong with guidance from God’s Word.
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged,” is not a universal law for all times and places, and it is not to be interpreted through the postmodern ethic of “Do whatever seems right to you.” There are times for godly discernment and discipline in families, in the church, and in society.
So there are indeed caveats to these words from Jesus. God has established all kinds of earthly means to oppose enemies and restrain evil, and in a still-fallen world, they are all still necessary. We use scripture to interpret scripture, and there are plenty of other scripture passages, even other teachings from Jesus’ own mouth, which bring some nuance to Jesus’ call to love our enemies.
But still – he said it, didn’t he? “Love your enemies!” He said it twice, and we shouldn’t let these caveats make us too comfortable too quickly. I think we’re supposed to wrestle with these words. I think we’re supposed to squirm a little bit when we hear them. So what could Jesus be trying to tell us? What could he be trying to teach us?
The key to understanding these words of Jesus is to be found in what he tells us about God. It’s only a few words in the middle of the passage, but they are so important! These words are the lens by which to view everything else Jesus says in this part of his sermon! Jesus says that God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. And then he says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Here Jesus describes God as loving his enemies!
God is described as being kind to the ungrateful. God is described in other parts of the Bible as a jealous God who desires the affection and the appreciation of his people. To not be grateful to God is evidence of unfaithfulness, a serious sin for which God has every right to be angry. But here Jesus says that God is kind to the ungrateful.
God is described as being kind to the wicked too! Even after all the commandments, all the calls to holiness, even after the sacrificial system was put in place as a means of grace for the people to make atonement, God’s people still insisted on being wicked! They turned from God to idols. They abused themselves and each other. They disobeyed God again and again. And yet, Jesus says, God is kind to the wicked.
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” Jesus says.
God loves his enemies! And so when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he is only telling us to do what God is already doing. He is telling us to see those enemies in the same way God does. He is giving us a vision of God’s love, which is a love so great that it sees beyond the sin to love the sinner, a love so great that it responds to ungratefulness and even wickedness with kindness. The mercy we are called to share is rooted in the mercy of our Father in heaven.
When Jesus says, “Love your enemies,” he is only calling us to reflect the love God has shown to us. And God has shown this love to us nowhere more clearly than in Jesus himself.
At the time of this sermon, Jesus is inching ever closer to the cross, where God’s love would be lifted up for all to see. Jesus loved his enemies by letting himself be handed over. He did good to those who hated him by enduring their mocking, their abuse, their striking him on the cheek. Jesus gave up everything for the sake of the enemies of God. He was robbed even of the clothes on his back. He asked God to forgive them as he died. And because of all this, you are not judged. Because of his saving work on the cross, you are not condemned. Because of his sacrificial love, you are forgiven.
Just as our reading last week from earlier in this sermon was not a checklist to perform to accomplish our salvation by intentionally becoming poor, or hungry, or weeping, or hated, neither is this call to love our enemies a means by which we are to earn our salvation. Rather, it is a call to reflect the love God has already shown towards us, most especially through his dear Son, our crucified Lord and savior.
It might be jarring to hear, but we live much of our lives as enemies of God. This is what scripture tells us our condition is, and as hard as it is to admit it, it is even harder to deny it. We too are often ungrateful for all of God’s blessings. We take so much for granted. We take so much credit for gifts that have been given to us through no worthiness of our own. We treat God’s precious gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation, as nothing, without appreciation of or devotion to the Divine Giver. But, Jesus says, God is kind to the ungrateful!
We too fall into wickedness in countless different ways – through our stubborn rebellion against God’s will, through our rampant selfishness, through our choosing the world over the Word again and again. We fall into wickedness especially when we revel in the hatred of our enemies, relishing that feeling of righteousness it gives us. But, Jesus says, God is kind to the wicked.
God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked! Can you believe it! Well, you should believe it, because that’s the gospel! In Jesus Christ, God has been kind to us! For even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God is merciful, and the more deeply we come to believe and trust in this mercy, the more merciful we will become. In Jesus Christ we see that God loves his enemies, and the more deeply we come to believe and trust in this love, the more we will start to do the same.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
