Return to the Lamp

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Good morning. I—my name’s Abby. I’m part of The Table, I’m a member here. And I have to say, it is a gift to be able to be with all of you, especially during the time in our world that's happening. And if all of you didn't show up, it'd be really not as powerful for me. So thank you for being here, because it is powerful. It is a gift to be able to be together, to encourage one another, to breathe for a second and be together.

So before we dive in, can I pray for us this morning? Heavenly Father, God, we look to you. With open hands and open hearts. Wherever we've come from this morning, the week that we've had, the morning we've had, we're here in this place together. And your presence is here. Holy Spirit, move in this place. Give us exactly what we need this morning to know you more, to worship you more fully, and to be able to leave this place, as lights in the dark world. In Jesus' name, amen.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Happy Transfiguration Sunday. I hope you all have said that to each other. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that, because you as children, like, marked the calendar, the church calendar, and your church was very in tune with that. Some of you are like, "Okay, that sounds familiar, but I didn't know that was also a thing." And some of you are like, "I have no idea what you're talking about." And what I love about that is that all of us are here together in this place, and we can all be in this place together in that.

The Transfiguration was a moment in time that we find in the book of Matthew, where Peter, James, and John, who are Jesus' besties, they were up on a mountain with Jesus, and they got to see him shining in all of his glory. I can't even imagine. It was this incredible moment. The scripture says that he transfigured before their eyes. They could see the light actually coming from him, and Elijah and Moses show up, who, by the way, have been dead for a very long time, and there they are, alive and shining bright. It's an event that at the time seemingly had no meaning other than for Jesus to show the glory of God to these three disciples in its fullness. God spoke from the bright cloud, and it was this incredible mountaintop experience.

But today, we're not on the mountaintop. Today, we're going to look at a passage that joins Peter, not at the mountaintop of his life in this incredible experiential moment, but at the end of his life. Second Peter, the book of Second Peter, is something like a farewell letter from Peter. When you know your time is short, you don't waste your words. He says in the passage right before the one we're looking at, he knows that his time is short. He doesn't have much time left. And so when it's your farewell letter, there is an urgency. There is an importance that we are to feel when we read this. What words would you want written if you know they were going to be some of your last? What would you want to leave your readers with? Keep that urgency and that importance in mind as we read today's text together.

Second Peter, chapter 1:16-21:

"For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice was conveyed to him by the majestic glory, saying, "This is my son, my beloved, with who I am well pleased." We ourselves, we heard this voice from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all, you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Not following myths and legends, eyewitnesses of his majesty. You see, Peter brings us into this transfiguration account. Transfiguration is a hard word. The transfiguration account, without us really even knowing it, because he points to the specific moment in time when he got to see the glory of God shining, when the clouds parted, when God spoke, "This is my son, with whom I am well pleased." This is the moment that he stands on. This is what he points to when people ask him, "How do you know that this Jesus stuff is true? That this Scripture to be true, how do you know?" This is the moment he stands on when he may even have a moment of doubt himself.

What about you? What do you stand on? You know, we come to church and we sing these words, and we seek to live them out, and we seek to love well, and in the turmoil of our world, that seems harder and harder to do. So what is it for you that keeps you going? What is it for you that continues for you to show up?

Have you ever had one of these mountaintop experiences? Maybe not to the extreme that Peter, James, and John experienced. But I've been a part of many people writing out their stories of faith and coming alongside them to help them see where God's been at work in their life so that then they can convey that to a group of people. And so often, as people look back at what were those—people tend to cling to those mountaintop experiences, right? And that's what they want to share.

We point back to those as these markers of our faith, that moment at summer camp, right? When the truth of Jesus became alive, that retreat you went on, that moment when you saw healing, that moment during that one worship song that really spoke to you, that missions trip you went on, and you saw God at work. We point back to those things over and over again. But what happens when those moments fade? When that happened when I was 12 and now I'm 37? When the feelings fall away and we can't remember as well? They seem to become a fading memory that slips through our fingers.

See, Peter holds on to that moment on the mountain as I saw it, yes, I heard it, I was there, I experienced it. But he takes it a step further, saying, yes, that moment was important. But what it does is it confirms something that is even bigger, that we have something even stronger to stand on than those singular mountaintop experiences. We have a lamp for our feet. We have a light in the darkness.

You know, we in Minnesota, we know something about darkness. Every single day since December 21st, you know what I've done? I checked the time of the sunrise and the sunset. Because even though it was just a little bit, I'm like, the days are getting longer. And I look at the 15-day forecast and I say, there is hope, because in 15 days we're going to get five more minutes of sunlight. It's the little pieces of hope through those Minnesota dark winters, isn't it? When the sun doesn't seem to shine ever and it feels like spring will never come. And we in Minnesota, we know something else about darkness. The kind where you send your kids to school and you pray harder than you used to. The kind where the streets are no longer safe to those who belong there. The kind where friends and family have to hide rather than thrive.

You know, we don't have to look far to find darkness. It surrounds us. And some of that darkness, it's not just out there, it's in us. As someone who has struggled with and suffered from depression throughout my adult life, I have felt what it feels like to not be able to stand. To lay on the floor because of the darkness, it's too much. To not know how to go on living even one more day. And in the midst of the world that we currently live in, I can imagine that more and more of us are feeling that on a daily basis. How can we keep on going? What do we have to stand on? How can we keep speaking up and moving forward? Some days seem too dark, seems so big. What do you stand on when the dark feels heavier than the light?

Peter holds on to this mountain top moment, yes. But he points to something stronger, a lamp for our feet, a light in the darkness. You see, the mountain shows the glory, but the lamp shows the way. The mountain shows the glory, but the lamp shows the way. Because even those of us who have had mountain top spiritual experiences continue to experience darkness. And maybe you haven't had one of those mountain top experiences and you're like, "I just feel continual darkness." We continue to have this need to cling to the light, to see a path forward. It's not enough to just have those moments.

When Peter notes this lamp in the darkness, he's echoing the prayers of Israel that they declared before God for centuries before. Psalm 119, 105 says, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." God's word, the scripture, because ultimately the word is not just inked on a page because the word became flesh and dwells continually among us.

If the mountain top's experience was the feast, Peter points to scripture as the daily bread. A continual grounding in the day-to-day lives, the normal Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the days that we kind of forget what day it even is, the nine-to-fives, the in and outs, what we call the normal and the mundane. It's what fuels us and keeps us going in a world that is daily surrounded by darkness. You see, the more time we spend with the light, the true light, the daily bread kind of light, the more we are able to distinguish it from the darkness and find hope in the darkness.

Now, I grew up in a world where reading my Bible was the right Christian thing to do. It was a challenge given by our youth pastors. It was a checkbox list that we could cross off every day what we read, and who doesn't love a good checkbox? In college, it was my textbook. In seminary, it was my textbook. And yes, I'm grateful for the verses I memorized as a young person that I got rewarded for, that maybe now I don't agree with that way of teaching. And I'm grateful for the amount of times I've read through these pages, I know the stories, and I checkbox all of the lists, and I'm grateful for the years of studying and getting grades for reading this, as the words became written on my heart.

But when Peter speaks of the prophecy and having the Word be a lamp to our feet, that's not what he's talking about. The checkbox, the grades. He's talking about the Word of God, the Word becoming flesh, Jesus being our lifeline. Not something we know here [points to head], but something we know here [points to heart]. Being the place we run to, being the thing that we stand on, having an actual relationship with the Creator of the universe.

And you know what? Sometimes that actually means not opening this up for a little bit, because of what it's become. And maybe for some of you in this place it's been a while, because there's pain when you look at this book, and all you remember is the checkboxes, or the way it's been hit over your head, or been used inaccurately to harm you. I've done it. I've let it sit. I've said, "I know that stuff. There's got to be more."

But I would urge you, as I urge myself, to not leave it closed forever, and to return to it. See what God has for us. Run to it, cling to it, know who Jesus is. Not the people who have taught us the things that are inaccurate about what it says, but who actually Jesus is, and what he says. Because the more time we spend with him in his Word and in prayer, we learn to recognize more of who he is. Scripture, spending time with Jesus, it's not a spiritual performance metric like I thought it was growing up. It's not a daily quota. It's the place where we meet the living Christ. We learn the tone of his voice. The more we recognize what sounds like him and what doesn't, those cleverly devised schemes that Peter speaks of.

I can't tell you how many times I pick up my phone, and I still do, to go on Instagram to read the comments, to look at the news stories. Don't read the comments. Someone told me that week, and I'm like, "I know, but I just want to get worked up for a minute." Do I really? And then it's so hard to not comment back. Anyway, I read the comments, I look at the news stories, and in the back of my head, I know it's not helpful, because we may say, "You know, I'm just being informed. This is what a good, informed person would do.” But there's a difference between being informed and being consumed. I can actually feel the difference in my body. You've felt it.

So what if? What if instead I put my phone down? What if I just sat in silence? What if I close my eyes and let the sun shine on my face and feel the literal light consume my skin? What if I work to quiet the noise and to listen to the one who brings the hope and life and light of the world? What if I opened my Bible to spend time with my Savior? And even if it's been a while, see if something's changed, because the Word is alive and active.

This weekend, I hope you have at least gotten to step outside for even a minute, because, man, the sun has been shining, and the snow has been melting, and it's a beautiful thing. I worked on Friday, and I was strapping down a load to my truck, and I'm in a T-shirt, and I'm loving life, and all of a sudden, I felt the sun just beat down on my face. And I paused for that moment, because I remembered in that moment that the same glory of God that shone to Peter, James, and John up on that mountain was with me even then. It was a small transfiguration moment. The mountain met me in the mundane, and my prayer for us is that whenever the sun beats on your face, that you too are reminded of the glory of God, that He sees you, that He's with you, that He is for you, that He is light and is guiding you.

You know, there's something beautiful and intentional about Transfiguration Sunday landing on the Sunday before the Lenten season starts, because just like it gave the disciples, it gives us a picture of the glory of God, and it points us to His glory in a way that we don't always get to experience Him. And it shows it to us as we prepare to prepare our hearts for the Lenten season, leading up to the Easter season. You see, it gives us this beautiful picture of His glory, but it doesn't leave us there. It doesn't leave us just longing for that next mountaintop experience and drop us there. You see, it gives us hope in the everyday. It gives us the strength that is found in the person of Jesus, who didn't just meet us there and then, but meets us here and now.

Every day, in His word through His Spirit, as we talk with the people around us, as we drink a cup of coffee with a friend, when we wake and when we sleep. Peter says, "Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." This light that we have in God's word rises in our hearts. It shines out of us to the world around us, not a light that is from ourselves, but that is a gift from God that we get to share with the world around us.

Maybe for some of you, returning to Scripture feels complicated. Maybe it feels heavy. Maybe it carries some baggage. But what if this season of Lent not about proving anything? What if it is simply about returning to the lamp? One psalm, one gospel story, one quiet moment with the light. Happy Transfiguration Sunday. May today not just point to the glory on the mountain, but to the glory we carry with us every day. A lamp for our feet, a light in the darkness.

Let's pray: Lord, Your glory surrounds us. Even when we don't see it, even when we can't feel it. We thank You for the sunshine and the reminder of the light that You are, that You emulate, that You pour into our lives, even when we can't see it. I pray during this Lenten season that You would draw us to Your Word, to Yourself, in the times that feel too heavy, in the times that are too dark, that we have a hope found in You that is alive and active, living and breathing. In Jesus' name, amen.