Highlighter Day
Our New Testament text is from Luke 9:28-36…
Let us Pray,
Creator God, envelop us. Speak something dazzling white from these clouds so
that we might come out of our dwellings and listen to the voice of Christ. Amen.
The transfiguration is somewhat of a mystery to us. So let’s run down the
facts: Jesus changes color. Moses and Elijah, long dead and major characters
from the Hebrew Scriptures, stop by for a chat. God, Creator of the Universe
speaks from a terrifying fog monster. What is going on here? Even people who
are supposed to know this stuff, scholars and preachers, can’t really come to a
consensus as to what the transfiguration is all about. It’s a mystery and we could
just let it hang there and I could preach about something else, but I have a theory
too. Here it is: [pull highlighter out] Mystery is God’s highlighter. God uses
Mystery like a highlighter to mark things as significant. The transfiguration was a
highlighter moment. Which means that this Sunday, Transfiguration Sunday, is
supposed to be a highlighter day.
But not every day, not every moment is one of God’s highlighter
moments. Tell me. [pull out prepared bible] I know you can’t read any of this
from where you are, but can any of you guess which part of this page I want you
to pay attention to? [hold it up] how about this page. [hold up other page]. A
highlighter moment is something that stands out like one marked passage on a
page. But highlighter moment remain with us not because we marked them with
a pen, but because they defy easy explanation. The mystery of highlighter
moments drives us to wrestle with who God is and what God is doing in our lives.
They push us to follow Christ further and further into the mystery of God.
I didn’t like mystery when I was in 8th Grade. Becoming teenager was
complicated enough; I craved structure and concrete things. Because of this I
tried very hard to be follow the rules and be a “good” Christian. All of my friends
and I had little cloth cases for our bibles and we carried them around every were
at school. Little known fact, I was the president of Christian Club at school. I
thought it would be funny to call it Turn or Burn, but that got voted down because
that is a terrible and theologically disastrous name. We met in Mr. Phillips’
classroom after school twice a week and listened to “God Talks” from every
youth pastor we could get our hands on in a ten mile radius. I’d unzip my bible
from its cover get out my big, fat triangle highlighter with three different colors,
(remember those!) and I highlighted everything! Every scripture from a bible
study got neon yellow. Every sermon text got electric blue. Every devotion got
that blinding pink. And since I carried that poor bible with me everywhere I went,
any down time I devoted to highlighting significant stuff. And come on, it’s the
bible. Everything was significant.
There was highlighter everywhere. The marker bled through the thin
pages. The ink smeared. Pink and blue mixed to make a weird brown color.
The words blurred and faded. It got to the point where I couldn’t even read the
thing. To this day I don’t really have many bible passages memorized, I just get
neon flashes of color when I try to remember the words. I tried so hard to mark
all the significant things that I lost the ability to follow the story of Jesus at all.
8th grade me was a lot like Peter in our text. “Master,” he says, “it is good
for us to be here. Let us make three dwellings,” let me just take note and
document this. Let me just highlight this with permanent ink. I need to capture
this moment. I’ll come back to this because it’s important, but right now I really
need focus on finding a way to hold onto this. Maybe I can just take a picture to
remember it by. Peter’s urge to commemorate the significant moment isn’t bad
really, but he forgets to experience the experience he’s experiencing. Peter gets
so caught up in highlighting things that he can’t even following the story any
more. He wants to highlight the whole book and it makes him the power of the
mystery right in front of him
God makes it pretty clear, though, that this is not how highlighter moments
work. God’s mystery envelops Peter, John and James in a cloud. In the thick
fog they can’t see anything let alone capture the moment. How can this be a
highlighter moment if God won’t even let them see what is going on or let them
do anything to mark the occasion? Their senses are confounded here because
God’s highlighter moments are not just things that we can see or events that we
can record. They are moments of mystery that draw us into the holy realm of
God. They are so intricate, so complex and yet still so simple, so tailor made for
us, that they let us know that God is paying attention and loves us. Individual
Godmade moments for each of us.
I wanted to think of a highlighter moment from my own life, even just a
little one to give you a good example of what I’m talking about, but these
moments are illusive and mysterious. Hard to articulate. I mean, I’m not even
sure we’re even supposed to be trying to seek out these highlighter moments. I
think God just makes them happen in our lives to let us know that God was, is,
and ever will be present with us. Look at Moses from our Exodus passage, He
didn’t even know that his conversation with God had made his face glow until he
returned to his community and they saw it. Part of the mystery is that these
moments are supposed to be communal moments. God is present and marks
us, and we shine in community and continue to follow the story of Christ.
Perhaps the best example of a highlighter moment I can give you is that this
mystery draws each of us into community here at LVPC again and again. For
those of you sitting in these pews for the first time, perhaps you have been drawn
here by the mystery of your own highlighter moment and you don’t even know yet
that your face is shining because you have met God.
Peter knew his highlighter moment when he saw it and he wanted to build
dwellings and live in that transfiguration moment forever, just like 8th grade me
wanted to highlight everything. The danger in highlighter moments is that we
never want to leave. We are tempted to forget the world, pitch a tent in the fog
on the mountain and set up camp. But after the part of Luke that we read today,
the text makes it clear that Jesus, James, John, and Peter ALL come down from
the mountain. The moment they are off the slopes a man begs Jesus to heal his
child with seizures. A moment ago Jesus was transfigured, dazzling white and
speaking with prophets. A moment ago God spoke, “This is my Son, my chosen,
listen to him!” but now, back on the ground, there is work to do. People need
healing in all sorts of ways. And while we are reminded of God’s presence with
us by these highlighter moments, if we are listening to God’s Son, Jesus, then we
are also reminded of the work of caring for others that God sets before us.
Highlighter moments are meant to pass. They are not built to stand the
test of time. God doesn’t MAKE monuments. God MARKS followers and sends
them on their way. God doesn’t MAKE laws. God MARKS followers and puts
justice on their lips. God doesn’t MAKE peace. God MARKS followers as they
stand against gun violence. God doesn’t MAKE meals. God MARKS followers
and sends them out to cook compassion for the hungry. God doesn’t MAKE
families. God MARKS followers with an example of love to show to children.
God doesn’t MAKE Christians. God MARKS followers and tells them to listen to
Christ’s Good News of Grace and Love. God doesn’t MAKE churches. God
MARKS followers and draws them together with mystery and compassion,
worship and prayer. God doesn’t MAKE our lives perfect. God MARKS us as
beloved children, beautifully made. Today is Transfiguration Sunday, Highlighter
day and w`e are all here because God draws us in with mystery, grace, and love.
AMEN.