{"id":11004,"date":"2021-02-07T19:49:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T19:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=11004"},"modified":"2023-02-05T20:26:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T19:26:07","slug":"mark-9-2-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/mark-9-2-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark 9: 2-9 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD, \u00a0FEBRUARY 26, 2006<\/strong>
\nA Sermon based on Mark 9: 2-9 \u00a0by\u00a0Walter Harms<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

IF I COULD ONLY<\/p>\n

Have you seen a father throw his child up in the air and then catch the child?\u00a0 Small children love this and want Dad to do it until the child becomes far too heavy. It is an endearing picture.<\/p>\n

Someone long ago said that is a picture of the life of a person who believes in Jesus.\u00a0 Life is a free fall.\u00a0 You can either go through life screaming in terror. Or, you can scream in delight and pleasure as a child does, because underneath are the everlasting arms of the heavenly Father to catch you!\u00a0 Which of those two scenes is a picture of your life?<\/p>\n

Pleasure, enjoyment-sure, we have that, at least occasionally. Life as terror-well, maybe not quite that, but we certainly wish we could understand a bit more about these „everlasting arms“ that are supposed to catch us.<\/p>\n

If only we could see them, know for certain that they are there, then, well, then perhaps we might be a touch more confident about life and its possibilities for us.<\/p>\n

I believe that too often we stand, as a child in front of the heavenly Father, and are not quite sure that he is strong enough, big enough, cares enough, or that he wants to throw us up and give us that thrilling adventure we call life and will catch us.<\/p>\n

If we could only see him, trust him.\u00a0 If he would give us what it takes to get us to have the pleasure he wants us to have in this whole arena we call life.<\/p>\n

Recently we have see a lot of the religious world stirred up by some cartoons (I personally haven’t seen them).\u00a0 Are these people called Christians ever that excited, passionate about their religion and their icons of faith?<\/p>\n

Some years ago when an art exhibit had a crucifix in a bottle surrounded by the artist’s urine, a few marched.\u00a0 Protests against the removal of the 10 Commandments from public buildings has seen some demonstrators.\u00a0 Roe vs. Wade still gets lots of people out, but passion?\u00a0 Are we not more passionate, in a good way, of course, because we just don’t quite know about this Jesus, his Father, and the Spirit?<\/p>\n

Certainly a decline in numbers of countable Christians would seem to indicate that perhaps not only passion is lost, but also, dare I say, faith in Jesus?<\/p>\n

Perhaps if we could just see him?<\/p>\n

Today is the last Sunday in the liturgical church world called Epiphany.\u00a0 We were to get a display of God, a showing of what God is and what he is about in this world.\u00a0 On this final Sunday, we see Jesus totally transformed. Certainly Mark who wrote this account of the life of Jesus from Peter’s perspective wants us to know that Peter saw Jesus in a way he had never seen him before.\u00a0 Dazzling, shining, in communication with the greatest gurus of ancient times-Moses and Elijah.<\/p>\n

Peter’s reaction? Saying something that just came out.\u00a0 He always was opening his mouth and putting his shoe in.\u00a0 This time terror, fright causes this statement.\u00a0 But Peter and the other two there with him also hear a voice. The voice from the cloud, always a sure sign in the Bible of God’s presence, saying about Jesus: „This is my Son, whom I love.\u00a0\u00a0 Listen to him!“<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that Peter, James and John up there on this high hill with Jesus thought of him as nothing less than God, sent into our world for something which they often failed to understand.<\/p>\n

Peter saw Jesus, but not too many weeks later he claimed Jesus was unknown to him.\u00a0 He had seen Jesus dazzling, transfigured, as glorious God, frightened to be in that presence, because you didn’t know what might happen, now a gutless wonder when a maid thinks his accent is the same as that of Jesus.<\/p>\n

If I could only have had that experience, I would never have denied?\u00a0\u00a0 Never say never is a handy expression of some value, I believe.<\/p>\n

Might it just possibly be that our hesitancy about permitting the Father to pick us up and give us the thrill of\u00a0 a lifetime is because we see all this, know that the Bible while being written with a bias slanted toward Christians, does not go in for wild storytelling, we have not „listen(ed) to him“?<\/p>\n

Listen to him.\u00a0 What do you hear him say?\u00a0 And since, „actions speak louder than words,“\u00a0 what do we „hear“ him do?<\/p>\n

There is no doubt about it, even from the point of those who count it, we are bombarded by voices, pleading for us to listen to them, give them an ear. „Bombarded“ means we are „shell shocked“ (those of you who have been in war know what that means).\u00a0 We have heard so many fantastic claims that no claim, claims our heart.<\/p>\n

Our ears have become immune to words and to the Word who is God who came and made his home with us.\u00a0 We live a world that is somewhat terrifying to us and yet we know not where to turn for words to live by, to be bold in living\u00a0 for a\u00a0 cause that gives passion and satisfaction.<\/p>\n

And the word we do see and hear proclaimed loudly and clearly is that a sexual relationship of any kind is where life is found.\u00a0 The abundant life of more and more and newer things.\u00a0 The fashion in housing today is to have large, state of the art kitchens, but where less and less cooking and family gathering takes place.<\/p>\n

Have we tuned onto the wrong channel?\u00a0 Have we permitted others to set our agenda and keep us happy with the placebo that comes to couch potatoes?<\/p>\n

Are we confused, angry, sometimes lonely because we do not „listen to him“ and as a result, cry out in desperation to no one because we don’t trust anyone, not even ourselves?<\/p>\n

If we only would listen, what would we hear?\u00a0 We would see God who is Jesus (there is no mistake about that!) not wanting the glory that is his. We would not see him giving in to Peter’s terrified cry about staying where it is so pleasant while being terrifying-terrifying perhaps because he could lose this and never have it again. Does not our terror come from the fact that we know we might lose the good life, the good health we have?<\/p>\n

We would see him descending this holy hill of transfiguration and heading out for the battle.\u00a0 The battle that will determine our present situation and our future.\u00a0 The battle to set men free! To free them\u00a0 from guilt and the masks we wear to hide our guilt.\u00a0 To get people to see that the only God that is, cares deeply for them and for you and is willing and does permit his Son, his beloved child to take our place of punishment we know we deserve, to die for us and to rise again to give us life.<\/p>\n

No longer are we going to get any thrill from life by trying to keep the law given by God to Moses. Jesus kept them perfectly.\u00a0 We no longer have to flagellate ourselves for stepping over God’s lines into stuff that gives us a rotten, decaying smell.\u00a0 No longer are we\u00a0 never good enough for God.<\/p>\n

Listen to him and hear that „whoever believes in him has eternal life.“\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There’s nothing there about doing or meeting certain standards or goals.\u00a0 He has quite literally wiped away all barriers, because in Christ, there neither slave nor free person, rich or poor, male or female, ethnic distinctions-all belong to him! Already!\u00a0 Now!<\/p>\n

So if only I could see him, experience him, I might then believe more, commit myself more, become more passionate for him.\u00a0 That will never happen because it has happened.<\/p>\n

The evidence is in.\u00a0 He has fought the fight, he has won the battle for you, and he gives you the adventure of living, the thrilling life of the fall into the final arms of the Father.<\/p>\n

Jesus did it.\u00a0 Remember?\u00a0 There on the cross he said, „Father ,into your hands I commit my spirit!“\u00a0 He bowed his head and rested in the arms of his Father whom he had seen retreat from him because of our sins which covered him.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine a better ending to your life?\u00a0 Can you imagine your life now believing that he cares that much for you? In the early ’70, I came across a Christian pastor who was trying to\u00a0 „find himself,“ as so many were during those turbulent days.\u00a0 What I\u00a0 believe he really wanted, was to have something to believe, to hang\u00a0 onto, that would give purpose, meaning, and passion to his life.<\/p>\n

He was kind of waiting to see where his path would lead, if it was\u00a0 leading anywhere.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He was caught in an eddy, going round and round,\u00a0 which all of us do too much of the time.<\/p>\n

I told him to act as if he believed what Jesus was telling him.\u00a0 He did\u00a0 and went back into the ministry and is still there today.\u00a0 He is\u00a0 inviting people to „listen to him“ who is God, who is the true\u00a0 spokesperson for God, as Elijah was.<\/p>\n

The Father invites you today to come and hear this Jesus say to you,\u00a0 „This is my body, this is my blood, given and shed for you, because I\u00a0 love you and want you to trust that I will take care of you, and that\u00a0 as he was for me, so the everlasting arms of my Father and your Father are\u00a0 going to catch you.\u00a0 So rejoice, enjoy the thrill of the life God\u00a0 is giving you.“\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

\n

Walter W.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harms, retired pastor
\nAustin, TX, U.S.A.
\nComments: <\/strong>
\nwaltpast@aol.com<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD, \u00a0FEBRUARY 26, 2006 A Sermon based on Mark 9: 2-9 \u00a0by\u00a0Walter Harms IF I COULD ONLY Have you seen a father throw his child up in the air and then catch the child?\u00a0 Small children love this and want Dad to do it until the child becomes far too heavy. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,727,853,108,110,219,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-11004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markus","category-archiv","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-9-chapter-9-markus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16495,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11004\/revisions\/16495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11004"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=11004"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=11004"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=11004"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=11004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}