Peter has a memory. He’s remembering. The selection I just read is the second letter of Peter, and the epistles lifted up as a second what Peter writes to the community of the church after Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection and ascension. He sent in this letter, and in it he is sharing with them a memory. A memory that the writer says he, Peter, had himself. The memory is of when he was on that mountain with Jesus and James and John, and they saw Jesus transfigured. That’s what he’s talking about in what I just read.

 

He says I was there, and I heard that voice come out from heaven and say, ‘This is my beloved son. Listen to him.’ I was there. I saw Jesus’ face shining, and his whole body light up like a great white light.

 

Why is Jesus’ face shining? The scripture says, the Matthew text, says that his face shone like the sun. The spotlight captures it just a little bit on the boy’s face. Why is Jesus’ face shining? I don’t know. It would be impertinent for me to pretend I knew what was at the heart of that mystery. But when I read and I pray over it, I deduce that Jesus’ face was shining because at that moment, Jesus realizes with Moses and Elijah on either side of him, in the conversation at that moment, he realizes what the purposes and prominence of God are about in his life. At that moment, he sees in a way with fullness and clarity how God is working through his life, in this great divine drama to bring about the redemption of the whole world.

 

That’s why Jesus’ face is shining, because at that moment, he gets it. It comes together for him in one glorious moment.

 

Why is Jesus’ face shining? I think it’s because at that moment he hears God saying to him this word: Beloved. This is my beloved. And he knows it’s true. That he’s beloved of God. And it fills him with such affirmation, such identity, such clarity about who he really is, that the light of God just breaks out from him and shines from his face, so that the disciples and, through their testimony, you also see it and hear it.

 

What a great word beloved is. You find it used a hundred and fourteen times in the Bible. You may not have used it much in the last week, but the Bible uses it a hundred and fourteen times, by my count. Who do you remember in the Bible that is called beloved? Remember, back in the Hebrews scriptures? Three people, at least. Solomon’s girlfriend is called beloved in the Song of Songs. Solomon must have been a great romantic, because in the Song of Songs, his girlfriend is called Beloved, and he writes about her with such passion that, well, it’s embarrassing. No, it is. I’m not kidding. I’m not even willing to read the passages from the pulpit up here.

 

Jesus is called beloved. The best I can tell, in the gospel of Matthew, beloved is what God prefers to call Jesus. He never calls him Jesus. In Matthew, it’s Beloved. And you. You are called beloved. You are the third person. The body of Christ, the Church. That’s what the second letter of Peter is saying here. You are God’s beloved. God loves you. You are beloved to God. This is your truth.

 

Peter has a memory. This transfiguration was the memory. Memory of this experience. He was a witness to that memory, and it was clear to him, and it nurtured him and sustained him. And Peter says now that I share it with you in my testimony, and the church shares it with you, you are witnesses of it as well. It is your memory also. And indeed, it is our memory. We are telling it and singing about it and remembering it here.

 

Peter and you share this memory. And this memory gave him confidence. It gave him confidence and encouragement. And it was helpful to him. A memory of a glorious moment that helped him to know how to live as he walked into the future. And heaven knows he needed it! Oh, they come down off this mountain, and there are some dark moments for Peter ahead. He needs this memory. He walks through the crucifixion of Jesus. Peter walks through Jesus giving him the task of being the rock on which he builds the church. Peter has to see the squabbles of the early church. Peter ends up in Rome. Peter ends up being crucified, and asks that he be crucified upside down because he doesn’t think he’s worthy to die as his Lord died. Peter needs this memory, and I wonder if it didn’t come back to him in some dark moments. To help him remember what was true.

 

He stood there on that mountain and saw Jesus shine, and heard the voice say Beloved. Beloved.

 

Through it all, he kept this moment in his heart. Through it all, he kept this moment in his faith, and it made his face shine. His outward being just reflected this light that came to him from the memory of the reality of God in Christ that he had seen on that mountain. And it was good news. It was good news that shown out of his life, even in the dark moments. And you, friends, does your face shine like this?

 

Does your faith shine, or your face shine like this?

 

It should, because you have this memory, too. That’s what Peter is telling you. This news about who God really is, and that God loves us in Christ. This ought to be the source of the light that shines out of your life and your face, also.

 

Whose face do you see shining?

 

Dennis and Betsy, when you talk about this mission report, your faces are shining. I know they are shining not just from the love of God in you (and those of us who know you know how humble you are). But it’s true. It shines out of you. But it’s also reflecting the light of God’s love shining out of our friends there in that village across the ocean. Christian friends. As you talk about them receiving these basic gifts—food to eat and netting to protect them from disease. I just see the shining light of God there.

 

Whose face do you see shining?

 

Here’s a face I see shining. Can you see whose face this is? This is Bea David’s face. She is not here this morning. She is aged now, well into her nineties. She is alive and with friends, and sometimes here with us. But not this morning. But her weathered face shines with the light of Christ.

 

Somebody told me this week about their coming to this church at a time when Bea was into her nineties. As they came, they sat next to her for the first time, visiting in this church. They went home and (it’s a large congregation), and they got a telephone call from her. A complete stranger to them, she called them in the week and told them how glad she was to sit with them in church, and to worship with them, and she hoped that they would come back and be included again. She is blind. How did she know their phone number? How did she know how to dial it? In her nineties, she is doing this. And I’m still trying to figure out how to light a little spark in my faith. This is a shining face.

 

Whose face do you see shining?

 

Here are some faces that are shining. It is a poster of faces from Mombin Crochu that you made up of faces you’ve seen there. What’s interesting to me the how many of these faces, the majority of them, are smiling. What do these people have to smile about? These are the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere. What do they have to smile about? They have nothing. But they are smiling. It is the light of Christ that is smiling from them. It is their own Christian faith that is causing them to smile with the Good News of the gospel that helps them to know that they are beloved.

 

Whose face do you see shining?

 

We are grieving the loss of Ted Fibe this week. I remember his smile. Ted was a part of our community for almost his whole life. Those of us who know his story know that Ted had his own set of burdens, some of which came to him in serving on your behalf in war. Demons had haunted him for a long time after that. But what I remember is his shining face. His smile. His coming to serve people at Bible study here. I don’t ever remember hearing anything from him but a good word. A cheerful word. It was the light of Christ shining out of him.

 

Whose face do you see shining? If you see someone’s face shining this week, I hope you’ll tell them. I hope you will go up to them and you will say to them, “Beloved,” that they might know that their witness is radiating and that others are reflecting in the light of Christ through their witness as well. I hope you’ll call them “Beloved,” and your face should shine also.

 

You faith should shine and your face should shine. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Jesus, who was transfigured and whose face shown like a giant spotlight, said to you, “Let your faith shine, your light shine, that others might see your witness through it.”

 

How did his face shine? It wasn’t because he extorted it up out of him. Why did Peter remember that shiny face? Because he remembered. That’s how you do it. He remembered. He remembered what he had learned about God on that mountain, about the truth about how God loved Christ and sent Christ to share that good news with him. He remembered.

 

This is a very important point in the story, and Peter himself remembers it. That when they had that experience not only did they move forward from that shining, but they also fell in silence. An awe-filled silence.

 

We’re going to practice that response in a minute. We ought to. Come on—it’s Super Bowl Sunday. You’re going to make a lot of noise before the day is over. But let the record show that at least for a minute here, we sat in silence trying to model the behavior of the disciples when they realized the truth about God in Christ. Then we’ll break that silence where I hope you remember and meditate and pray. We’ll break that silence with a song. The words are printed in the bulletin. That’s what will break our silence. I want you to know this is an old song. This is maybe one of the oldest hymns in the Hymnbook. It’s a special hymn because it’s a hymn where people are singing about the light of Jesus’ face. We know this hymn goes back to at least the third century. Eric Routley (who knows more about hymns, I think, than probably any other Christian in the world) says he thinks there is evidence which suggests that this song, that you’re going to sing after the silence, was sung by Christians in the catacombs. You know it was dark in there. So it’s not a small thing that when they were singing, the best memory and evidence we have is that they were singing about the light. The light that comes from the face of Christ.

 

The good news about who God is and how God cares for you is not a myth. Jesus told us the truth about God, and God loved him for it. Beloved, he called him. And you are witnesses to this truth. You have heard, and you remember it, and you pray over it. In silence sometimes. And you tell it to one another and you sing it until it starts to boil up inside of you and to glow like a lamp in a dark room. To glow like light shining in your life until it grows like the day dawning in your heart, like a morning star rising. The morning star which is Jesus Christ. It is the light of Jesus Christ that shines in you. It is the light of God’s own love causing you to shine also, reflecting that light.

 

Remember, in an awe-filled silence.

 

 

©John T. DeBevoise 2008