Transformation Sunday

Here are my thoughts for Transfiguration Sunday.

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Last week I spoke about reading books that you have read more than once (“Where Do We Go From Here?”).

As it happens, I have been re-reading Karen Armstrong’s “History of God”.
I bought this book for reasons long forgotten when it first came out. I began reading it again a few weeks back as something to do when I took my granddaughter to her drum lessons and was waiting for her to finish. But, as I also mentioned last week, in re-reading this book I have discovered new insights about God, Christianity, and our relationship with God. I also discovered a new found appreciation for the philosophy of science course that I took as part of my doctoral work at the University of Iowa.

That course was about the nature of science and its application to science education. But what was said and what we did in the class has given me an appreciation of the discussion and the arguments made concerning faith that are an integral part of our relationship with God. It has helped me to better understand some of what the Bible says and what we know about Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

Now, let me say that one does not need to pursue an advanced degree in order to understand the Bible, one’s religion or faith. But, if one has the opportunity for additional study, one should take that opportunity.

Once we went to school because we had to go. We now need to continue our education because the world around us has become too complex and complicated. We are quickly putting ourselves into a position where we do not understand what is happening and we are just as quickly putting ourselves into a position where we will not have the ability to develop solutions to the problems that we face.

We are, I believe, fast becoming a society of the moment, with little knowledge of our past or our history. We are fast becoming a society without the ability to analyze information or create new solutions to the problems that face our society. We are in effect fast become a society enslaved to a select few who want to supply us with the answers so that they can control us and control society. It is a sad commentary that many people don’t know that their rights are being taken away and their ignorance is allowing others to control what is said and thought in this world.

Martin Niemöller once wrote,” First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.” (There are a number of versions of this saying.) He said this because the Nazis were able to create arguments that sounded nice and justified their actions. People allowed it to happen because they willingly accepted the propositions put forth by the Nazis. If we do not know what is happening in this world, history will sadly repeat itself.

Half in jest, I posted “Don’t Know Much History” last October. But I was also serious in posting it because there are a number of individuals who are and have been attempting to rewrite history to justify their view of history. You can only do so when people do not know, understand, or care that you are making the changes.

We are a society that once held education with high regard. Education was the vehicle that would transform society; education would be the vehicle that would help raise people up and bring equality to society. But it appears that all we have given education in the past few years is lip service to the notion of equality and transformation. It appears that once a person has completed their formal education, at what ever level that may be, they quit learning. They have learned what they have been told they need to know and they no longer desire to seek additional information.

And it seems that society today only want schools to ensure that students have the right facts and that they pass each grade without social promotion. The standard for excellence keeps getting lowered in order to keep the public happy and quiet. For the most part, our students are learning only how to take tests that measure the number of facts that they have memorized. In teaching students to take the tests, we can ensure that they will get high scores. If test scores are high, then we can assume that students are learning and the educational system is working as it should.

But our schools are not working as they should. If they are working at all, they are working very much in the same manner that schools of earlier generations worked. It has often been said that the only thing that would amaze educators from the 18th and 19th centuries, if they were magically transported into the classrooms of today, would be the electricity. The methods and the means that are used in so many classrooms today are no different from the methods and the means that were used in the classrooms of previous generations.

Oh yes, there are some computers in some classrooms. But they are often a generation behind the computers in society and the software is often out-dated. Many times computers are in their own separate classroom and students, especially in the elementary grades go to the computer instead of the computer being an essential part of the learning process. Students may be able to text message with their friends and they may be able to download the latest music for the musical devices but those skills are not necessarily a guarantee that they can write grammatically and coherent sentences or use the computer to gather data and analyze it for further use.

And there are those who are attempting to create on-line classrooms, where one can go to school while staying at home. It is a great idea because it allows schools to save money that they would have to spend on classroom buildings. But all they want to do is simply recreate on the computer what they have in the classroom. They want the computers to take over the dull and mundane tasks of teaching the fundamental points of any course. Much could be done with on-line courses, computers and interaction between students. But, for the most part, it isn’t what is happening now and it isn’t likely to happen in the near future.

It also appears that the lack of regard for education held by many in today’s society is being transmitted to the students in the classroom today. In a recent court case, students sued their chemistry instructor for assigning them a problem to determine the cost of a single atom of aluminum in a roll of aluminum foil. Their argument was that they assignment had no bearing on whatever they were going to do after graduation and therefore was a waste of their time. What bothers me more than the complaints of the students (I have heard similar complaints on similar assignments that I have given) was that the court agreed with the students and awarded $1,000 in compensatory damages. (See http://www.sciencecases.org/avogadro/avogadro.asp  for additional details.) Education is not about what you think you will need later on but about what you must have just in case something else comes along.

We are entering a period of time where the old solutions will not work but they are the only ones available because no one has been taught how to think “outside the box.” Yet we may not be able to meet the challenges of the coming years.

What this shows and what is clearly evident from other sources is that we are fast becoming a society that cannot critically analyze situations, cannot think creatively, or utilize information to develop new ideas. Look and listen to much of what is on television today, look and listen to a news broadcast, look and listen (if you can) to the television commercials and ask yourself if they are not aimed at the lowest level of intellect.

The lack of education is even evident in the church today. How many people remember what they were taught in their Sunday school classes or in their confirmation classes? How many people understand what each part of the worship service means? How many people understand what the meaning of the symbols on the altar? This is not a question of what type of worship service, contemporary or traditional, a church will have. It is about understanding why you have a worship service in the first place. In addition, a recent survey showed that

· The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves”—which is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic message of Scripture.

· Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical worldview as the basis for his or her decision-making or behavior.

· When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives. (Among other references, see http://www.theologicalstudies.citymax.com/page/page/1573625.htm)

Speaking only within the confines of the United Methodist Church, it is probable that not too many people understand or know that they do not own the church but only hold it in trust for their Annual Conference. This ignorance, along with a lack of understanding of church rules and law, has lead and will lead to many arguments among churches in a conference. The ignorance of these laws will have a devastating effect on church membership in the common years.

We have traded ease for effort. We have found it easier to let others do the thinking and tell us what to say and do. We have found it easier to accept what seems to logical comments that are nothing more that lies and innuendos.

If we get an e-mail from a friend who got it from a friend of a friend, we are just as apt to accept its contents as truth rather than checking out the facts. We don’t bother to check the facts of the e-mail but accept the warning or the threat as truth and pass it on to our friends so that they will know the “truth” as well. Our political campaigns have become nothing more than glorified mud-slinging contests with the winner the one with the least amount of mud sticking to them. We know longer expect our politicians to articulate programs because we aren’t going to study them anyway. All we want to know is who is going to cause us the least amount of trouble, raise our taxes the least (actually lower them the most), and make sure that we are safe from terrorists and whatever else frightens us. We are not interested in making this world a better place, only a place where we can hide without too much discomfort.

We have found that it is easier to strike back than it is to turn the other cheek. We have found that it is easier to go to war than it is to remove the causes of war. We have found war itself to be easier to deal with when we are not faced with the grim realities of dead and wounded soldiers coming home. We have found it easier to glamorize war through the use of smart bombs and laser-guided weapons and where civilian casualties are called “collateral damage.” We have found it easier to say that poverty is the product of a sinful life rather than work to remove the causes of poverty. We have found it easier to blame a person’s lifestyle for the ills and troubles of society instead of trying to make equality reality instead of a buzzword.

It is easier not to learn because no effort is required. Effort leads to questions and questions require that we think. If we have to think and we don’t know how, we get confused. Life is supposed to be simple not hard. We are supposed to get simple answers to the questions we have; we don’t often want to go beyond that.

The churches that are the fastest growing churches in today’s society are those that offer the simplest answers, not the best solutions to life’s questions. Whatever the ills of society may be, these churches offer answers that fix the blame on others. And people buy these answers because they do not see or understand what they are being told. It is simple and that’s all they want.

But such a religion quickly becomes a legalistic religion. And when you have a simplistic and legalistic religion, it quickly becomes easy to hate, to oppress others or incite violence against others or the earth. A simplistic approach to God demands that we leave our minds and experience at the door when we enter the church.

Such a religion does not allow questions about the Bible. To ask questions about the Bible is to ask questions about the religion and the answers to these questions are not always what the authorities want you to hear. (Adapted from Connections for February 2008.) It seems to me that those who oppose questions about their faith are the ones whose faith is the weakest, not the strongest.

Why do so many people in such churches want schools to teach “intelligent design” as an alternative to the theory of evolution? I have come to the conclusion that it is because they are afraid that if it is not, then the children will begin asking questions, questions that the church elders cannot answer. And when the elders cannot answer the questions, the children will begin questioning the value system that they are being taught and when one begins to question the value system that has stood for countless years; the destruction of society cannot be too far behind. It is far better to enforce a rigid, legalistic view than to have people who think and question.

But if you understand that you cannot study God as you study the world around you, then you are beginning to make progress in both areas. If you understand that faith is separate from reason and that both are needed in order to understand this world, then you begin to see the value of education. When we limit how and what we learn, either by personal choice or societal edict then we limit what we can do with our lives. If we limit what we can do, we can never have a mountaintop experience.

There is in every person’s life a mountaintop experience. It is that singular moment in your life when your horizon expands beyond the boundaries of your local life. Peter, James, and John went with Jesus to the top of the mountain. There they saw Jesus transfigured and they heard the voice of God. As we would in a similar situation, they were terrified. (Matthew 17: 1 – 9) Nothing in their own lifetime had prepared them for that singular moment and it would take several months and the Resurrection on Easter Sunday before they would totally understand what transpired that day. But they did not stop because they did not know what would happen that day.

When Peter spoke to the people of how they, the disciples, did not follow the myths of their times he was pointing out the power of education and learning. (2 Peter 1: 16 – 21) For so many, what transpired during those three years in Galilee was nothing more than a myth. But the moment on the mountaintop when Jesus was transfigured was a life-changing experience. It was a moment that they could not forget or simply put into their memories. It was a moment that the disciples had to tell the people; Learning who Jesus was and what it meant to them did more than transform Jesus. It transformed them as well. They could not simply stop because they had encountered Jesus on the mountaintop.

When Moses climbed Mt. Sinai he did not see God. (Exodus 24: 12 – 18) He was trapped in dark cloud of obscurity. God meet Moses on that mountaintop and the lives of the Israelites were changed forever. So too will God meet with us on a mountaintop.

It is a moment that changes our life and becomes the beginning, not the end of our life. Some may say that once you have encountered Jesus, there is nothing more. But even when you are born again, you still must grow.

On this Transfiguration Sunday, it is not Peter, James, or John whose lives will be changes. Rather it is our lives that will be changed.

We don’t have to change; we can continue to lead our simple lives. It is quite easy to lead a simple life, one limited by the boundaries set up when you close your mind. But when your life is limited, it becomes a life without hope.

When Christ enters your life, your life cannot be limited to the moment; it must grow. And as it grows, it finds hope. And in hope there are no limits. We find in Christ our hope and the ability to go beyond the limits. We find Christ because we have opened our minds and our hearts. Let us be transformed by that knowledge.

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