Let us pray:
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen.
Amen.
For at least the last five hundred years or so the Western World - the industrial and scientific world - has been intolerant of mystery. Ours is an age which is obsessed with the idea of knowing and explaining, deserting everything. A story is told of a little boy who lived in a religious home whose father expressed the usual phrase before dinner -- "Hurry up, and wash your hands and come to the table so we can say a prayer and eat."
As the boy went toward the bathroom, he was heard to mutter, "Germs and Jesus, germs and Jesus! That's all I hear around here, and I can't see either one of them." There are many things, my friends, that we can't see, many things that we can't touch, which are real and powerful:
All these things are unseeable and untouchable - yet real. Yet despite the evidence that there are real but invisible and untouchable forces all around us many people refuse to believe in God. And of those who do believe in God, there are many who refuse to believe that God can do anything out of the ordinary.
Sometimes it seems that we of the Church - particularly of the Western Church - are completely out of touch with why our faith has been so powerful a force in the world - sometimes it seems that we are out of touch with the invisible force that underlies our belief.
Have you noticed that many people today seem to be hungry for some experience of what I call Spiritual Realities? There is upswing of interest lately in the existence of angels, of witches, black magic, and the number of people who consult psychics and future tellers speak of a longing that people have to go beyond the merely rational and scientific.
This longing is certainly reflected in the many new religions of our day. You and I may scoff but such beliefs have a great appeal for many people. They have that appeal - because too many of us - especially those of us in the mainline churches have failed to connect others - let alone ourselves - to the very real power that is spoken of throughout the bible and the history of our faith.
We have been too head oriented and have placed too little emphasis on the heart for too many years - and the result has been confusion and constant search for truth, and inner fulfillment. There is something we ought to acknowledge and it is this. Mystical experience is very much a part of our Christian faith. Indeed it lies at the root of all that we believe in.
From stories like those we heard today where we see Moses going up on a mountain and hearing God speak and Jesus being transfigured by a bright light in the presence of three of his disciples down to indescribable peace and joy that groups of praying and praising of God’s people.
Christian pilgrims experience; unexplainable and improvable - in the scientific sense at least – spiritual realities under gird and indeed, permeate, our faith. Throughout history right until the present day many of the greatest Christians who ever lived have reported experiences that are outside the realm of rational experience.
It is said that a friend walked into Handel's room just as he was finishing the last notes of the "Hallelujah Chorus." He found the composer with tears streaming down his cheeks. The magnificent work lay completed on the desk in front of him. "I did think," Handel exclaimed to his friend, "I saw all heaven before me, and the great God Himself."
What do you make of an experience such as Handel’s? Is he speaking metaphorically? Or did he really see heaven? And what do you make of the man who reports that a friend prayed for his sick brother - a man who was expected to die within a day - and that this brother was given another five years?
What do you make of reports that Elijah raised a poor woman's son from the dead or of the hundreds of people who reported that they saw Jesus alive and well long after he was laid in the tomb?
How do you explain the absolute conviction of those folk who have died on an operating table or in a hospital room and on being brought back to life reported travelling down an ever brighter tunnel till at last they met their loved ones and were beckoned to either move onward toward God or to return to life and finish what needed finishing? If we but believed what we have long preached what we have read in this book - how much different might our world be today?
My friends - today I do not want to do with you what so many generations of preachers have done with the story of Jesus and his transfiguration - I do not want to rush us down the mountain and tell you that what happened up there is not as important as what happens in the valley below.
What I want to do - is have you understand that there really are spiritual realities that exist and which defy our conventional wisdom - our scientific reason - and to give you one essential tool for evaluating them. The first thing to be said about mystical experiences is - be careful, be very careful.
The human brain is a tricky piece of machinery. It can see things that do not exist -- or take the wrong message from what lies before it. William James, a psychologist once pointed out that, you can toss a bag of marbles on the floor and by selectively ignoring certain marbles find any pattern you wish. Our eyes and our minds can play tricks on us and lead us in directions that have no profit to them. We see that tendency displayed in some Christians' obsessions with numbers like 666.
We know feelings are subject to distortion and manipulation. It may make us seem somewhat dry and unexciting at times but we know that when we are faithful to Scripture and the teachings of the Church we cannot be misled by passing fads or sensations. Be careful. But also be tolerant.
We don't know how God may choose to work in individual lives. It is arrogance for any of us to declare that God can only work in one way or another - that God can only be found in one group or another. Most of us would be thrilled to have the kind of mountaintop experience that Peter, James and John had where they beheld Christ transfigured before them; we would love to go up on a Mountain as did Moses and hear God's voice, but we may live a lifetime and never experience any more than a lump in our throat and a calm assurance in our hearts.
If that's all we experience, that is enough. God knows what we need. If other people discover a wider range of experiences, if they shout and dance and speak in tongues, then who's to say but that God knew their needs as well.
Remember this --and this is the crux of the matter: The test of faith is not our experience of, or our knowledge of, invisible spiritual realities, but in whether we bear fruit that is pleasing to God. The fruit of the Spirit, says St. Paul, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. (Gal 5:23)
Does our special experience make us more loving, more peaceful, more trusting, content, accepting of those who differ from us? More humble? Does our knowledge of the Spiritual Realities which under gird the world make us more faithful, more prone to give God praise and thanks? Does our conviction that God has sent an angel to us, to bring us comfort, result in our being a better person?
If it does, then no matter what that experience is, we are not far from the Kingdom of God. There are, my friends, spiritual realities that under line not only our faith, but the very world around us. There are angels. There is a resurrection. Miracles still occur - the blind can still be made to see and the lame to walk.
Demons still chill the air and prayers still reach the ear of God. And God still speaks - in dreams and in visions - and through his Word. There are many here this morning, who can testify to these things.
And for those who chose to believe in such spiritual realities do not mean, one shape or another, left their brains by the curb or the side of the street. My friends - there are spiritual things - spiritual realities that are beyond our realities - wonders that still reach out and touch those who expect them and those that don't.
The transfiguration of Jesus is one of these. It happened to strengthen Jesus before his journey to Jerusalem and ultimately to the cross - and it was witnessed so that we might be encouraged in our faith journey. The spiritual reality - the spiritual power made evident that day - had a purpose. A good purpose.
In conclusion, the important thing is that we believe not simply in the power of the world that is beyond our everyday sight - but in the truth behind that power and in the God who makes it happen - and that in believing in God and in his power - we strive - without fear - to live out a worthy life - a life like that of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
February 6, 2005