Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Earlier this week, I was driving up Los Robles, heading toward the office. It was about 10:00 a.m. Just north of Villa St., I saw something that caught my attention. It was a woman, walking north, on the sidewalk. She was wearing a brown velour sweat suit. Now that’s not what’s unusual about what I saw. What was unusual was that on the back of that sweat suit, right across the shoulder blades, was printed a word. Not only was that word printed across the back of that sweat suit, but it was made to really stand out through the use of glitter or those fake sparkly jewels. The word on that sweat suit – in all capital letters – was “MODEL.”

Now that’s something you don’t see in this neighborhood every day, so, of course, I had to slow down a little bit and look for myself, see which glamorous, famous model was gracing our ‘hood that morning. Nope. No one I recognized. In fact, speaking the truth in love [Ephesians 4:15], that woman didn’t look like any concept of a model I could imagine. I really didn’t know what I was expecting to discover, even if that woman had been a famous model. After all, many of you will remember about a year ago when David Archuleta of American Idol fame came to church. I didn’t have a clue who he was even with all you in the back of the church going “ga-ga” over him and telling me his name over and over again. Or the time I had been ministering to a woman name Katherine at Scripps Home for some time, repeatedly meeting her daughter and granddaughter, whom I later had explained to me by my secretary were the actresses Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow. I had no clue who they were.

Thinking more about that “Model” woman later that day, I formulated two thoughts. Thought #1 – most real models or famous people of any kind do not have to, nor do many prefer to, draw attention to themselves. Thought #2 – most real models or famous people do not have to announce their own presence. People instead just know who they are.

We see those two thoughts evidenced in today’s Gospel – that hike up the Mount of Transfiguration taken by Jesus, accompanied by Peter, James, and John. When they reached the summit, there was no trill of herald trumpets. There was no loudspeaker announcement. There were no flashes of paparazzi cameras. But there Jesus was transfigured. His face shone like the sun. His clothes became as white as the light. And there alongside him, speaking with Him, were Moses and Elijah, the great representatives of the Old Testament law and prophets.

In that instant, Peter, James and John knew what was going on. They had no need for Jesus to wear a brown velour sweat suit that said “Son of God” on the back. They had no need for Moses and Elijah to wear name tags. In that instant, even before the Voice came from the cloud, Peter, James, and John knew that Jesus was the real thing!

It’s sad to admit that Peter, James, and John are in the minority in today’s world. Numerically, the great majority of people alive on planet earth right now do not believe Jesus is the real thing. Entire religions are founded upon the presupposition that Jesus is not the real thing. And probably an equal number of people don’t know for sure one way or another.

How about you? If you were to draw a continuum line on the back of your bulletin, with the left side being “Don’t Know / Poser / Fake” and the right side being “Real Thing,” where would you put yourself in terms of your belief about Jesus?

Wherever you fall on that continuum line, the goal of this service and this sermon is to bolster your belief in Jesus as the real thing. If you’re right there along with Peter, James and John, in unwavering belief that Jesus is the real thing, you’re going to be even more confident in that belief. If you’re anywhere else along that continuum, you will move closer to confessing Jesus as the real thing.

What’s the fastest and easiest way to prove a fake? You take it to an expert, don’t you? You seek out the wisdom of others, don’t you?

If you stumble across an old dusty painting in the attic of an estate sale and pay two bucks for it, but your friend sees it and tells you it’s an authentic Picasso, how would you prove that? You’d take it to Antique Road Show, wouldn’t you? You’d place a call to the Huntington Library or to the Norton Simon, wouldn’t you? And that expert would either confirm the hunches of your friend or point out to you specifically why that dusty painting isn’t a “real thing” Picasso.

Is Jesus the “real thing?” Well, that’s certainly what St. Peter wrote, isn’t it? “We didn’t follow cleverly devised stories, but we told you what we actually saw, what we actually witnessed, what we actually experienced.” Those words were within about 30 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Thirty years ago, within mere minutes of Ronald Reagan being inaugurated as President of the United States, hostages held for more than 400 days were released from Iran. Or, at least, that is what we have been told. If someone today wanted to prove or disprove that event, what would one do? One would locate one of those former hostages and ask for proof. In the presence of proof, the story would be declared true. In the absence of proof, the story would be declared false.

If Jesus was not the real thing, if Jesus’ face didn’t shine like the sun that day on the Mount of Transfiguration, if the angel hadn’t appeared to Mary and Joseph announcing the birth of Jesus, if Jesus hadn’t made the lame to walk and the deaf to hear, if Jesus’ body was never resurrected and still lay somewhere in a clammy cave outside Jerusalem, all that would have been necessary would have been for one singular person to offer proof, to offer up an affidavit from James or John, or from Mary or Joseph, or from a person supposedly miraculously healed by Jesus, changing their story, revealing the lie, showing the trickery or the conspiracy. All that would have been necessary would have been for one person within 30 years to set up a booth and charge 2 cents for people to tour the grave of Jesus and gaze upon His dead body Those people were still alive. Those people, if their experiences with the “real thing” Jesus hadn’t really been the “real thing,” could have easily been persuaded by the promise of a position of authority within the Roman government, or, as Judas had been, by 30 pieces of silver from the Jewish treasury. But not one person stepped forward with anything that definitively proved that Jesus wasn’t the “real thing.” It wasn’t until years and years later, like what we’re seeing today with the Holocaust or even with the assassination of President Kennedy, as the primary players were fewer and fewer and even completely gone, that cleverly devised tales began to be believed casting doubt on the truth about Jesus.

“This is My Son, Whom I love. Listen to Him.” My friends, there’s nothing false about that statement. It wasn’t Jesus drawing attention to Himself. It wasn’t Jesus announcing His own presence. It was Jesus being the “real thing:” the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena