"Overwhelmed By God"
How God's power can empower us
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, February 10, 2002
Text: Matthew 17:1-9
I wasn't sure if I could trust my eyes. A young boy lay on the beach this past week, face down. He didn't even stir. I looked around for a lifeguard and there was none, and I wondered whether this young boy in his inanimate state had done something serious to damage himself, for he was absolutely still.
I waited, and I looked at him and I thought, "Here I am in the Florida sunshine, on a beach in a foreign land, and here is this boy lying in front of me not moving." I thought, "Oh Lord, what am I going to do?"
I reached into the pocket of my shorts and, sure enough, I had my wallet with me. I pulled out a card about CPR - I took a course some years ago, but I must admit I had forgotten everything and so, I thought, if I had a 30-second refresher, maybe I might be able to use it to bring this boy back to life.
So I looked at my ABCs: Make sure there is an airway; something about pumping his chest and breathing into his mouth. I thought, "Oh well, I've seen it done on television a thousand times; I'm sure I'll remember if I need to."
With fear and trepidation at the thought of having to revive this young boy, almost alone on the beach, I started to walk over to him. Then, all of a sudden, thank the Lord, he began to move.
He started to move very slowly, but there was an intense look on his face. Then, suddenly, his right hand went into the sand and he grabbed something. He jumped up and was so excited he ran into the sea toward his father, who had been out swimming. He said: "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Look what I've got!"
I thought: He's found a diamond ring. Maybe he's picked up a beautiful shell. Maybe he's grabbed a clam out of the water, or a crab, or something like that."
Lo and behold, this young boy had found a quarter. He was so ecstatic he might as well have won the lottery, jumping up and down, so excited. The joy on his face was palpable and the relief on mine was considerable.
Sometimes the simplest of things can overwhelm us.
Last Sunday night, I sat in my hotel room and watched the Super Bowl. I usually expect to be bored to death by the Super Bowl - I haven't seen a good one yet -until this year, when good old New England finally won.
I have actually gone to Foxboro Stadium a number of times to watch the Patriots play in ignominy, so it really was a joy to see them win. After the game some of the players were interviewed, including the one who scored the winning kick, a man called Vinati. Tears were rolling down his face at this victory.
About half-an-hour later they spoke to one of the players from the losing side, a wide receiver named Bruce. They asked him some questions and tears rolled down his face.
I thought: "No matter in victory or in loss, sometimes we just get so overwhelmed by the occasion."
But it's not always big events or even simple things. Sometimes it's even tragic events, like getting the news that someone that you love has died; or that you have a serious illness; or that you have lost your job; or that there is a massive change coming in your life that you had not predicted. Sometimes these things catch us off guard and we are overwhelmed.
In fact, there are so many things that overwhelm us in this life that we can't predict them or even give an account of them: Sometimes it's the beauty of the sunset, sometimes it's the sadness of the tragedy in another country, like September 11th. We never know when we are going to be overwhelmed.
Now that is one of the reasons, I think, for our sometimes liking to keep a certain distance from God, as human beings; because the last thing that we want is to add to the overwhelming vicissitudes of life by being overwhelmed in our faith.
In fact, we belong to a tradition that tends to be rather surreal about things: sort of very controlled and keep God and enthusiasm at a slight distance, just in case we get overly excited about our faith which, of course, would be a terrible, terrible thing to happen.
It reminds me sometimes of what the people in Israel did when Moses was about to go up to the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. A delegation came and spoke to Moses and, I love it - it sums up so many Christians today - they said to Moses: "Now, you can speak to us and we will listen, but don't allow God to speak to us or we will die."
Well, so much of our faith and our religion is like that. We like things nice and proper: Keep it at a distance; don't get too excited or overwhelmed because there's enough in this life to give us trouble.
And that is the way in which we carry out our faith; that is the way in which we deal with our religion. We keep God at a slight distance in order that we won't get overly overwhelmed.
That is why the story that was read for us this morning is such a strange one. It is the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. It's a story that seems so overwhelming, so powerful, that we really don't want anything to do with it.
In the history of the Church, when it has celebrated major festivals, they are called red-letter days. Red-letter days are Easter and Pentecost and days like that, but the Day of the Transfiguration, which we celebrate today, wasn't really considered a red-letter day until Calisto III came along and the Turks were defeated in Belgrade in 1456. After that celebration, and that victory, Calisto III decided that the Transfiguration should be a special day, and should be a red-letter day in the history of the Church.
The Episcopalians in the United States, not known for getting too overwhelmed and excessive about things, decided to make the Day of Transfiguration a red-letter day as late as 1886. The Church of England, which is always restrained and conservative, didn't decide to make it a red-letter day until 1928.
The point I'm making is that the Christian churches looked at the Transfiguration and said it is just too bizarre, too extreme for us to consider it a great day in the life of the Church. It has more in common with the special effects department of a Steven Spielberg movie than it does with good, solid religion and theology - or so many of us think.
I would like to suggest to you the exact opposite. I think the story of the Transfiguration, as Dr. Alison Wright at Acadia University has so rightly said, is one of the most pastorally powerful moments in the whole of the New Testament and, while it might be filled with language and imagery that are beyond our comprehension and our reason at times, it tells us, in fact, how to deal with the overwhelming things in life. Rather than being overwhelmed by a sense of God that is a negative thing, the Transfiguration is a powerful thing that helps us deal with the overwhelming realities of life.
First of all, it talks to us about the power of prayer. Jesus, we read, went up to the hill with James and John and Simon Peter. He went up there, according to the Gospel of Luke, in order that he might pray. In other words, Jesus knew that there would be times in his life when he would face great challenges, so he needed to surround himself with his disciples, at least a cadre of his disciples, in order that he might have a moment of prayer.
We read what happened when he went up and he had that prayer. We read in the Bible that he was transfigured; he was changed. Not only was he changed, but there was also a bright light and the glory of God shone around. It was known in Hebrew as a shekkinah, a theophony of God's bursting forth with light and with grace. In other words, as a result of prayer, of taking people and going to one side, God burst into the life of Jesus and the disciples and did something glorious and overwhelmed them.
I think one of the problems that we have as Christians today is as one of the black ministers in Bermuda told me some years ago. He said: "You know, the problem with white religion is you pray with one hand behind your back. You pray with one hand out to the Almighty, asking the Almighty for help, but the other one is behind your back with your fingers crossed, just in case you don't get exactly what you're asking for."
He said: "True prayer is two-handed prayer and it is not prayer that is closed, it is prayer that is open. How can you expect great things from God to happen in your life if you've got one hand behind your back just in case things don't work out in accordance with what you ask for?"
He said: "What is needed is an openness of faith."
When we ask others to pray with us, or when we ask others to pray for us, we should not do this in the thought that maybe God is not going to do great things, but in faith that God is going to do great things, and that faith is an openness to God, not one with a hand behind your back and your fingers crossed.
One of the reasons, I think at times, that we don't feel that we have the spiritual resources to face the challenges and the overwhelming things that come our way, is precisely because we do not really fully embrace our prayers with faith.
As Emil Brunner rightly said: "Praying is nothing more or less than faith and faith is nothing more or less than praying. It is in opening oneself to the Glory of God." I think that events in our lives overwhelm us precisely because we don't allow God to overwhelm us in the power and the faith of prayer.
But there is a second thing, and that is that the disciples needed to be overwhelmed in order that their faith could be confirmed.
I read a delightful story recently of a young boy who went with his school on a tour of a fire station. When the children got to the fire station, one of the firefighters decided to give them instructions as to what you do if you find a fire.
He said: "The first thing you do, if you are in a room, is you touch the door, and when you touch the door, make sure that it's not hot. If it is hot, for Heaven's sake, don't open it." Fine.
"The second thing, you've got to do," he said "is make sure that you drop down on to your knees on the ground. Now why do you think we do this?"
One little boy said: "Sure, I know! Because that's when we pray to God to get us out of this mess."
That, I think, is the way in which we sometimes look at prayer, as a desperation measure rather than a measure of our confidence in God and in Jesus Christ.
For the disciples, they had a profound sense, when they were on that mountain, that not only was Jesus changed before their eyes, but they were also changed. When Moses and Elijah representing the law and the prophets came with Jesus, the disciples said: "Should we build them three booths here?" In other words, "Should we build three canopies: one for Elijah, one for Moses, one for you?" For the first time in their lives, they actually understood that as disciples of Jesus Christ they were alongside the great Elijah and Moses; that Jesus of Nazareth whom they were following was not just an ordinary man doing extraordinary things, he was an extraordinary man doing Godly things.
This moment of light on a mountain, this shekkinah was a reaffirmation in their hearts that Jesus wasn't just a religious figure or teacher, that this was Jesus Christ who was, along with Elijah and Moses, the representative of God, but more than the representative of God, who was the very power and the glory of God himself. That is why the Gospel writer said, just as at Jesus' baptism, that there was a word of confirmation from God: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
You see, my friends, I can try to talk to you all I want about Jesus Christ and how I believe that he is God incarnate, how I believe that his word has authority, that his healings have power. I can try and explain these to you until the Kingdom comes, but it is only when we do what the disciples did and bow our heads in prayer, that these truths are confirmed.
That is why I say to all people: "Don't just ask me whether or not I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, ask God. Ask God." That's what the disciples did.
There's a third thing that happened and this is the most important of all. This moment on the mountain so overwhelmed them that they were ready for the service of life ahead of them.
Jesus was very straight with his disciples on many occasions and as we prepare to begin Lent this week, so, too, must we be straight with one another. Christian discipleship is a costly thing. Christian discipleship is a life of challenge.
Jesus knew that. He knew that when he went up with his disciples into the mountain, just as he went into the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed to his father, he knew that these were special moments, when the disciples would have to prepare for what was to happen to him - a cross - and what would happen to them - to suffer for his sake. And so Jesus does not spare them, but instead takes them up to the mountain.
When they have this experience on the mountain, they suddenly get the courage of their conviction that what they are doing is right; that the one they are following is true; that their mission is worth more than they can ever imagine. For they would look back at the moment of transfiguration, even after Jesus had died, with confidence, I am sure. They would know that, on the basis of what happened at that moment of prayer, they would be able to live their lives fully as disciples, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
My friends, every one of us needs that to happen in our own lives as well. There are moments when we are overwhelmed by grief or by sadness, when we are just not ready for what life has to throw at us, when we are so overwhelmed that we are speechless and do not know what to do, just like I was on the beach with that boy.
But what prepares us for those times are moments of prayer daily; moments when we open ourselves to the power of God in order that we can look back, so we can be prophetic in moving forward. If we don't have those resources, if we have not prepared ourselves spiritually for what life has to throw at us, then we become not only overwhelmed by the things that go on, we become overwhelmed even by God, in a negative sense. So we need to pray to prepare ourselves for the events of our lives.
It is precisely that prayer that changes us.
There is a Greek word here that describes it and it is metamorphoos, which means a change in the inner as well as the outer being. As Jesus was changed from glory into glory and surrounded by light, so the disciples were changed inwardly, and made ready for the challenges that lay before them. The power of prayer prepares you for precisely such moments.
While in Florida this last week, I was reading about one of the most famous Floridian business people, Jack Eckerd. Jack Eckerd is a name you might have seen on many drugstores in the United States. He has, or had, the second-largest-trading pharmacy business in the United States of America, with 1,700 stores.
Jack Eckerd had been working with Chuck Colson, of Watergate fame if you recall, who had become a Christian. Chuck Colson had come out of prison and begun to get some people together to work for reform of the justice system and to make sure that people are treated properly in prisons. Jack Eckerd was so moved by what Chuck Colson said that he added his support to what Colson was doing.
One day, he was being interviewed on an early morning television show, and near the end, one of the interviewers asked him: "Well, are you like Mr. Colson? Are you a Christian?"
Jack Eckerd said: "No, but I wish I was."
Chuck Colson heard that and, realizing this was an opportunity, he gave him a copy of the Bible, a copy of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and some other resources. Jack Eckerd said: "You know, I'm realizing now more and more the need for strength in my life so I can do the good I want to do, and so I am going to take your advice, Mr. Colson, and I'm going to pray." So Jack Eckerd went back to his room and he prayed.
H's never told anyone what happened in his room when he prayed, but something profound happened to him and he changed. He came out and he said to Colson: "I now know what you mean. I'm a Christian. I now have the resources. I can now do the good that I want to do."
So he went back into his stores (and this is a miraculous thing) and he looked at all the things that he was selling and all the things that he was doing and he just simply said: "Lord, I have done all of this. I have all of this. I want you now to use me and to use my store for your good. What is the first thing that I should do?"
He walked over to the magazine section on the wall and he saw copies of Playboy and Penthouse and pornographic magazines, and he had never really opened one of these before. He started to look at one and he was so overwhelmed at how women were degraded by it that he decided right there, on the spot, to have these magazines removed from every single Eckerd store across the nation.
He mentioned this to his Chief Financial Officer, who nearly freaked out and said: "Do you realize that this is $3 million that you are going to lose if you do this? Three million dollars! We can't afford this!"
Eckerd said: "We can't afford not to do it."
And so they were removed and they lost millions of dollars, even more than they had anticipated.
He was so moved by what he had done, especially when he heard that the competition was selling more and more of these magazines and making more money, that he wrote to all the drugstore owners in the country and asked them to follow his example. Well, you can imagine what some of them told him to do, can't you?
But some of them said: "You know, you've got a point and if you, in your position, have the courage to do this, we will follow."
The CEO of Seven Eleven phoned him up and said: "We will do what you're doing."
Two other leading drugstores did it and before the months were out, eleven thousand stores across the United States, drugstores and corner stores, decided to sell these magazines no longer.
Now, Jack Eckerd was one man who through a simple prayer was so changed that he was able to change many others. It was a small example.
People at all levels of government in the United States had debated what they were going to do with pornography, and how to define it, and how to take it through the courts, and how to manage it and regulate it. It took years and years. But one man, changed by the power of God's grace through prayer, ended up making this enormous impact.
Now that, my friends, is the power of being overwhelmed by God. It's a simple thing, but I believe that its effects on our business, on the way in which we deal with others, on the compassion that we have for the society in which we live, on how we deal with our own problems and the overwhelming things that come our way, I believe that the very resource that we need to help us in those moments is that of being overwhelmed by the power of God through prayer.
The story of the Transfiguration, then, is not something so mystical that it is beyond our comprehension. Rather, it is something so powerful that it transforms who we are.
May we experience that same change. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.