“If You Look Like Your Picture”

Mark 9:2-9

Sunday, March 2, 2003

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

About a month ago, I went to have my picture professionally taken. I went with your former pastor, Rev. Don Nolley, to Greer Lile’s studio. Soon our picture will hang on the wall just outside of our sanctuary. It is exciting to me, because my picture has never hung among senior pastors. In the first church that I served, the Harmony Grove United Methodist Church, two pastor’s pictures were hung. My picture was one of them. I am not sure why there were only two of us whose picture was made. I think that we were the two, in recent history, that they liked. It is an hour to have your picture hang in a church among several great pastors. So, I am excited about it.

Having my picture taken reminded me of a story that I heard some years ago about a woman who decided that she wanted to have her picture professionally taken. It had been a while since she had done that. She had more than the normal pictures in her house taken by a regular camera at major holidays, but it had been a while since she had a professional picture made. She had it in her mind that she would give away copies of the pictures as Christmas presents. So she called and made an appointment with a photographer. The date was set and when the day came, she was one of the last appointments of the day. She was well dressed. She had on a new dress and she had just been to have her hair cut and styled. Her make-up, too, was just right. She arrived early at the studio and she waited. Finally it was her turn to be photographed. The photographer’s receptionist led her to a room where she could tidy up a bit and then she led the woman to the photographer’s studio. There is something that you need to know in order for this story to make sense. It was very late in the day. I have already given you that detail. This photographer had just finished twelve appointments of children between the ages of three months and three years. He was tired and worn out. He was thankful that the lady was his last appointment of the day. The woman was nervous about having her picture made. She was, after all, going to give away these pictures as Christmas presents. She turned to the photographer and said, “This picture is really important to me.“ He nodded his head, smiled, and said, “I know. I will take good care of you.” She said, “I want you to get my good side.“ He said, “Okay, which side is your good side?”

She showed him. She was still nervous. Sometimes we talk more when we are nervous. So she said, “I am going to give this picture away to a lot of people. I just want to make sure that it is good.” He said that he would do his best. She was still nervous and so she said, “I want your camera to do me justice.” It was late in the day. The man had just finished twelve sittings of three month to three year olds. He was tired. He tried, but he just could not resist the temptation. At this point, if she left mad, it would be all right with him. So he said, “Lady, if you don’t mind me saying so, you don’t needy justice.“ She thought that it was a compliment at first. Then he said, “What you need is mercy!” I do not know if she stormed out of the studio. I do not have an idea of what she looked like, either. I thought about that story as I had my picture taken.

Most of us have had our picture taken lately. If you participated in our pictorial directory drive, then you had your picture made in November. I was rummaging through one of our closets the other day. The snow made getting out next to impossible, and so I was cleaning out a closet. While doing that, I came across some of my pictures that were given to me when my parents moved to Conway. One of these pictures was taken when I was about Annie Grace’s age. In it my hair was blonde and I have a cute expression on my face. I showed the picture to Susie. She looked at it and said, “You were cute. What happened?” We flipped through several more photographs and came to the one that was taken when I was in the second grade. It is obvious, by looking at the picture, that I did not want my picture to be taken. My hair is wavy. I have on a blue jean jacket and a stripped shirt and I have a frown on my face. Have you heard the saying, “If you look like your passport photo, then you probably need the trip?”

Here is more weighty wisdom. The things that you go through in life, the experiences that you have will shape what you look like. As a pastor, I have seen it dozens of times. I have been with someone who is having a particularly hard time. Maybe a relationship that they are in is not going so well or the job they have is not fulfilling. I will be with them and I will ask them, “Are you all right?” Usually their answer is, “Oh, I’m fine. Everything is all right.” But it is not all right. When I see them some time later, when some time has passed, I will see them again and I will say, “There is something different about you. You look different.” Maybe this time they will say, “I am different. I am not the same person that I was the last time you saw me. I’m better now, but I’m definitely not the same person.” The experiences that you go through, shape what you look like and sometimes they can change your appearance.

A little boy had a father who was a pastor. He went into his father’s study early one Sunday morning. His dad was going over his sermon. The son said, “Dad, I know not to bother you on Sunday mornings, but I went into the sanctuary. I looked at the people who are already gathering there. I want you to know that I see some things that no one else can see.” His father asked, “What did you see, son?” He said, “The people in the pews. They are supposed to look different. The people here this morning do not look different.”

Maybe that is what Mark is trying to tell us in our scripture lesson for this morning. Jesus and three of His disciples go up on a mountain. Marks says that it is six days later. Six days later than what is the question. Since days before our lesson, Jesus predicted his arrest, death, and resurrection. Peter said, “Lord it must not happen.” Jesus told him that his mind was on earthly things and not heavenly things. Six days later they went to the mountain. And there, if you don’t mind the expression, they had a mountain top experience. While they are at the top of the mountain, suddenly Jesus is transfigured before their very eyes. He glitters and he dazzles and there standing with him is Moses and Elijah. The disciples see all of this and they cannot believe their eyes. They are stunned by what they see. Peter starts to say something, bless his heart, and he comes up with the idea f building shrines and staying on top of the mountain. His words are these, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.“ Any of you who have had a mountain top experience know that it feels good to be on the mountain. Peter says, It is good for us to be here. I will tell you what we should do. I will build a shrine for you and for Moses and for Elijah.“ Mark even apologizes for Peter, explaining, “He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” Has that ever been your experience? You did not know what to say, and so you opened your mouth and something inappropriate came out? That is the kind of thing that happened with Peter.

A cloud overshadows them and God’s voice booms out of it. It’s almost as if God is telling the disciples to get quiet and to listen. God says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to Him.” The disciples look up and before they know what has happened, Jesus is there alone. The four of them go back down the mountain and on their way, Jesus says, “Do not tell anyone about this until after I have been raised from the dead.”

Mark puts this story in an interesting place. On one side of it is the story of Jesus restoring the sight of a man. And then a chapter later, he tells the story of another man’s whose sight was restored. In between the stories, we get the idea that really, it is the disciples who have trouble seeing. Oh, they see Jesus healing the sick. They listen to his teachings and his prediction about his own death and the cross. But they do not seem to understand. I guess that you could say that they don’t have the insight and nowhere is that more clear than on this mountain. Why is that? Of all the people who should have understood who Jesus was, the twelve should have understood who He was. Shouldn’t they have known who He was.

My question for you today is this. Are we all that different? Is Jesus not all around us being transfigured moment after moment in person after person? And yet we seem to miss it. Maybe we don’t have the courage to see Jesus as He really is. Jesus looks different. I want to ask you today to open your eyes and look around. Isn’t Jesus all around us, transfigured and transforming lives?

One of the best theologians that I know is a man whose name is Yogi Berra. Do you know Yogi? Yogi is famous for his one-liners. Listen to this one. Yogi says, “You can observe a lot by watching.” Let that sink in and it will make sense to you. “You can observe a lot by watching.” Look around you and notice the glory and the wonder of God in each of them. Each and every Sunday they are here, but we don’t notice them. We don’t see in each other the face of God.

A preacher friend of mine told me about a member of his congregation. She was shy and quiet. She was not well known in the church, but she was faithful. She was there when the doors were open. One day, a man in the church, had a heart attack during the service. And this woman was transfigured in front of them. Turned out that she was a nurse and she knew exactly what to do. She took charge, administered CPR and helped everyone to stay calm. It ends up that she saved his life. And my preacher friend said this to me, “It was glorious, but who knew? I didn’t even know.” She was transfigured in front of them.

Every year, we preach this story of Jesus. I want you to know that I am a lot like Peter. I get on top of a mountain and see the glory of God. When I do, I want to stay up there. I want to build dwellings and reside on the top of the mountain. That seems to be the message that we hear on this Sunday. It feels good to be on the mountain. Anyone who has ever had a mountain top experience will tell you that. Sometimes, though, the mountain top experience is only a glimpse. Sometimes it is only a glitter. Sometimes the experience is a shooting star or a smile from someone’s face. Sometimes it is a sunrise or a beautiful snow. Sometimes it is a feeling while you are sitting in the pew in this church. That is radical, isn’t it? When it happens, you know that Jesus is around. The glimpse and the glitter, sometimes, is all the transfiguration that you get. I would love to tell you that when it was time for me to respond to God’s call to the ministry, that I saw a burning bush. I would like to tell you that God said, “See the sign? This is it. Sign up for seminary and I will appoint you to great churches.” That is not how it happened. For me, the glimpse was a shooting star. It was a glimpse, perhaps a voice, but that is all that I needed.

What I want to say to you today is simply this. We must take that glimpse. We must take that glory. We must let it touch our lives and then we must go down the mountain with Jesus. Jesus said, “Do not tell anyone about this until after I have been raised from the dead.” Who would they have told? No one could have understood it. Maybe the disciples said, “Guess what? I just saw Jesus on the mountain shining. Moses and Elijah were up there with him” People would have looked at the disciples like they were crazy. You have to go back down the mountain because at the foot of the mountain are people who need to be healed. Jesus does that and then he leads us to his next glorious moment. We will celebrate that on Easter Sunday morning. But for now, I need for you to go down the mountain and to tell people that Jesus is alive and well. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to the mountaintop experiences that God has allowed me to have in my lifetime. These moments have come in the form of retreats at Lakeshore Assembly in Eva, Tennessee and at Camp Tanako, near Hot Springs. The defining moment was on a beach in Panama City, Florida. The shooting star has kept me working for Jesus. But I am also grateful for the glimpses of glory that God allows me to see in the faces of my friends at St. Paul. May God bless our ministries.)