Date : The Transfiguration of Our Lord, February 14, 2010

Text : Luke 9:28-36

Title : Transfigured, that we might also be transfigured

"And as [Jesus] was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothes became dazzling white."

Jesus went up the high hill, for this transfiguration, to prepare Him for His journey to another hill—the hill where He would be transfigured into the Lamb of God who bears in His flesh the sins of the world.

God the Son became flesh to die for you and for me, to reunite we sinners in God the Father’s love, because we could not do it, ourselves. Even after finishing the job—even after baptizing us into God’s love—we still cannot, will not, and often refuse to love each other. Today, I have a most vivid example of how we sinners are still so stuck in our sins. It happened right here, over the last six months.

Though I will not use the man’s name, I will speak about this in public, because it happened in public, and you can even get information about the man, on the Internet, because he’s on the national sex-offender registry. I have his approval in speaking about this, today.

This situation begs to be discussed in the framework of us, as brothers and sisters in Christ, who live together in the love of Jesus Christ. If we do not grow from life’s challenging situations, will we even be interested in the easy ones?

Last summer, after spending more than a decade in a Michigan state prison, this brother in Christ was paroled. He had a relative in this area who would take him in, so he moved here upon his release.

After he came to church a couple of times, I went to see him. We had a dandy discussion. He was completely candid with me. He told me what he had done. He explained how, when he was a teenager, he was quick to get into wrong behavior. He fully admitted his crime.

He told me how he used his prison time for good. He got his General Equivalent Degree. He beamed as he showed me the picture of his graduation. He told me how he went to Bible classes and church in the prison, and showed me the Bible correspondence course he was in the middle of taking, even after he had been released.

I asked every question that I had. He answered all of them. Ultimately, he told me how he had grown up, learned from his mistakes, hated the confinement of prison and being away from his home and family, and was going to use his freedom to be a good man.

And, he was showing me that he was serious. He was in church, every Sunday. Since he had been gone so long, he no longer had a church membership, so he made his reaffirmation of faith, last fall, right here at our altar. The congregation, at that 10:30 service, applauded. He started coming to Bible class. Some weeks, he was at both Sunday’s and Wednesday’s.

Sometime around the new year, I noticed that I hadn’t seen him for a few weeks. I never get concerned over a couple of weeks, what with illness or other things which keep folks from being with us, but when it got to be over a month, I checked into it.

He was gone. Moved away. Down to the city. I got his phone number.

He told me that he moved to the city, to live with a friend, because he found no love or friendliness in Port Hope: not in the community; not whenever he was downtown or in one of our stores; and not in our church.

Not in his church—the same church, where the congregation applauded when he joined.

Besides his family and me, only one member reached out to him. Of course, this member reaches out to everyone, so that was no shock. But, otherwise, he was left alone. Perhaps, he wasn’t being shunned, but how do you think it felt to him? Plenty of people looked at him—looked at him, when he was still on parole and had to wear on his waist the bulking GPS; and looked at him, when his parole was done and he no longer had to wear it.

Some of you folks knew about him; knew about his past. Some of you talked to me. You wondered if I knew—if I were concerned about him being in our church, in our town?

People were more than willing to tell me that men like this don’t change. Sex offenders—you know: once a sex offender, always a sex offender.

Is that why everyone played hands off—don’t befriend him; maybe he’ll go away?

Was everyone afraid that he would infect them—don’t get too close, or he will give you his leprosy? Or, if you got to know him, he might feel comfortable, and then you’d better watch out for your children, your grandchildren?

Did you even give him a chance, especially those in the 10:30 service that he always attended, or in Bible class, or those who saw him around town?

Is he, in fact, unredeemable? Good riddance to bad rubbish—is that the attitude? "Whew, thank goodness Pastor told us that he left town; that’s one less thing to worry about."

If he is unredeemable, does that mean that you are unredeemable? Does that mean that you gossipers—about whom I was warned within days after I moved here—does that mean: once a gossiper, always a gossiper? Have I been wasting these sermons, these nine years, because you cats can’t change your stripes, and you’re not even interested in trying?

Once a drunk, always a drunk?—and, we sure have enough drunks around here. Have I been wasting that breath, too? Do any of you, who like to drink to excess, do less of that than you did, a few years ago? Has anyone stopped drinking to excess, so that he now only enjoys alcohol in moderation, the way the Lord would have it, and so that so much money isn’t wasted, and so that one has his wits about him if he’s needed by his family? If no one has reformed his sinful, ungodly, corrupt, evil, drunken behavior, have I been a fool for even talking about it from the pulpit?

Are we exactly what the former member said to me, many years ago, who left us for another, supposedly more holy church: are we just a bunch of hypocrites, who only go to church, but who don’t live the Christian faith?

Are we exactly what everyone jokes about, who knows about Port Hope: are we one great big inbred family, who only cares about the family—who won’t reach out to strangers—who are the cliché, cold, unloving German Lutheran church—who won’t talk to the new guy, but sure will talk about the new guy?

When this man told me why he left, I said this to him: I said that it might be better for him to be in the city, where he can get a fresh start, where he can sort of get lost in the crowd and be around people who don’t know his past.

I am ashamed of myself for saying that. What a cop-out. We are too much a bunch of infants up here in Port Hope—we’re too small—we know your past—we don’t have big enough hearts—we have closed our brains to new learning. Yeah, that’s right, it’s better just to leave. Don’t make us try to accept you. Don’t make us bend over backward with the Golden Rule. Let us live in peace. The only dust that we want raised is when we drive the gravel roads.

Yeah, we’ll listen to Pastor’s tough sermons, but we will always think, "He sure told those people, today." He’s never talking to me. I’m never the sinner at the center of the sermon.

I can just go on gossiping. I can just go on saying the hurtful things that I say about people—that I even say about people, right to the pastor, and have no idea that I’m breaking the Eighth Commandment. I can go on getting drunk. I can cheat on my spouse. I can be a cold and absent father. I can spend way more money than I can afford.

I don’t need to go to a Bible class. I don’t need to learn. I don’t want to learn. Heaven forbid I might actually feel guilty about something and realize that I’m supposed to be changing my behavior.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are you thinking that I’m naive about this; that I’m some sort of a bleeding-heart liberal?

In politics, that couldn’t be further from the truth. But, in Christianity, you bet—your minister is a bleeding-heart liberal, a man after the heart of Jesus Christ, whose heart bled with the liberal lavishing of His Father’s love, so that sex offenders could be forgiven—washed clean of their sins in the blood of the Lamb.

So that those who misuse the Lord’s name could be washed cleaned;

and those who cheat on their taxes could be washed clean;

and those who will never figure out how to say nothing, if they have nothing good to say, could be washed clean;

and those who were guilty in causing a divorce could be washed clean;

and those who are never content with what they have could be washed clean;

and those who waste so much money on gambling could be washed clean;

and those who treat worship as just another possibility among the things that one can do on a Sunday morning could be washed clean.

Are you a bleeding-heart-liberal Christian? Has the love of Jesus Christ cut you wide open, so that you long to have every brother and sister in Christ know that you have for them the love of Christ in your heart?

In the sight of God, this man is not a sex-offender. He is clean, in the blood of Christ. God only sees him as holy, clothed with the garment of Christ’s righteousness through the washing and renewal of Holy Baptism, fed upon the salvation of Christ in His Holy Communion, and continually pronounced forgiven in the Holy Absolution.

God sees him as clean and holy. Can you?

When this man got out of prison, he came to the right place. The only people who belong in this church are whom? Sinners. Sinners like him. Sinners like you. And, you are just like him. God only sees you as holy, clothed with the garment of Christ’s righteousness through the washing and renewal of Holy Baptism, fed upon the salvation of Christ in His Holy Communion, and continually pronounced forgiven in the Holy Absolution.

We’re all in this, together. Not a one of us is better than the other. Not a one of us is worse than the other. Some of our sins might be more public than others, but all of our sins are damnable—God doesn’t rank your sins. He dies for your sins.

He died for your sins so that you could live for Him. You live for Him by living in love toward your neighbor, loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

We, both church and community, blew this one, so now we have to use it as a learning experience. God bless us to, indeed, use it as a learning experience.

Jesus went up the high hill, for this transfiguration, to prepare Him for His journey to another hill—the hill where He would be transfigured into the Lamb of God who bears in His flesh the sins of the world.

Lent begins on Wednesday. Come to worship. Repent in spiritual sackcloth and ashes. Be cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, who has taken away your sins, and who will continue to take away your sins until the day that you see Him, face to face, in His eternal Paradise.

Use the season of Lent to grow in your faith. Fix your eyes on Jesus as He walks to His cross, so that you can rejoice on Easter morn—rejoice in the Good News which brings you to this church, Sunday after Sunday, year after year, sinners among sinners.

You know the Good News. Rejoice with me: Christ is risen! . . . Alleluia . . . Amen.