I Was There

Some of you may remember a television program that came on back in the days when the TV only came in black and white and there was no such thing as TiVo, LCD displays, plasma and direct dish satellite networks. Does anybody remember those days? Well, I can remember a program hosted by Walter Cronkite in which he would introduce reenactments of historic events, like the disappearance of Amelia Earhart over the Pacific, or the crash of the Hindenburg or the Salem Witchcraft trials. The goal of the program was to take you back and help you live the events as if they were happening right now. The program was called “You Are There.” And it usually ended with Uncle Walt delivering this line: “What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... and you were there.”

That’s a powerful line, isn’t it? It sounds impressive. There’s some authority to it. Now, it’s not only history that you’ve been talking about. Uncle Walt wanted you to experience that history so that you could make the ultimate claim to truth – “Not only did it happen but I was there.”
TV may now be in color now and we may have many other ways to establish truth, but that impulse is still there. We still want to be able to say, “I was there.” How many of you have ever called somebody on a cell phone during a concert just to prove that you were there? Have you ever done that? You hold your phone up so that your friend who didn’t get tickets can be sure to hear it and you say, “Dude, it’s Hannah Montana and I am here!” Maybe you even take a picture of yourself and e-mail it to them. Your friend hates you for it but it’s thrilling, isn’t it? You are there.

So here’s what I’m thinking today: How do we know that what we say about Jesus is true? How do we know that he is who he says he is? How do we know that the scripture we read today has got it right? I mean maybe Peter, James and John were seeing things when they went up that mountain with Jesus. Maybe when it says that Jesus’ face shone like the sun it just means that he got sunburned. Maybe when Moses and Elijah appeared it was Moses Crockett and Elijah Bundick who lived down the road. Maybe the cloud was a fogbank. And that voice from heaven that says, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased, listen to him”? Maybe James left his radio on. I mean there could be a lot of perfectly reasonable explanations for the Transfiguration, couldn’t there?

That is not the witness of the Bible, though. And if what the Bible says about Jesus is not true, or if he turns out to be somehow less than what we imagine him to be, then you wouldn’t be here today. You wouldn’t crawl out of a nice, warm bed on a cold February Sunday morning to come hear about Moses Crockett. You wouldn’t be baptized in the name of Jesus Johnson. You wouldn’t sing praises and give your life to a man, even if were a really great man, if he weren’t a savior. And the reason you can come here with confidence…the reason you can sing so loudly and proudly…the reason your life has been transformed is because you were there.

Really? I was there? Alex, I thought you just told me you used to watch history programs on TV. How can you say I was there? I wasn’t there. I didn’t go up that mountain. I didn’t see his face shine with the brilliance of heaven. I didn’t see the cloud descend. I didn’t hear the voice ring out. I didn’t see his eyes looking off in the distance toward Jerusalem and a cross and a tomb. I was there? No, that dog won’t hunt, Alex.

Why, then, do we sing that song on Good Friday every year? You know the one I’m talking about. “Were you there, when they crucified my Lord?” What do you think the right answer is to that question? It’s ‘YES’. Yes, I was there. I was there when they crucified my Lord. I was there when the nailed him to the tree. I was there when the sun refused to shine. I was there when they laid him in the tomb. I was there when he rose and conquered death. Were I there? Yes, I were!

Now we say this in a different way than Peter did. In the other scripture reading we had for today, Peter tells a group of early Christians who had not been with Jesus, “I’m not just repeating clever little tales when I tell you who Jesus was. When I tell you about the power of Jesus…when I tell you that Jesus will come again, I’m not just repeating tales out of school. We were eyewitnesses. We heard that voice on the mountain. I was there. So, you’d best listen to what I have to say. Pay attention. Think of this story as a lamp in a gloomy place that you light until the day returns. This story is so good it couldn’t be made up. It’s not just because I want it to be true that I’m telling it. It’s because the Holy Spirit is bearing it to you through me.” And the implication is, “Because you are hearing me say it, and I am a faithful witness…because I was there…when the Holy Spirit speaks through me to you…you were there, too.”

Why is this important? Because there a lot of people out there who would have you believe that not only were you not there, but nobody was there. There are those who believe that we live in a world where great mysteries don’t happen. Where everything can be explained by science or power or any number of perfectly rational explanations. There are those who would have you believe that the world is disenchanted…that religion and faith are just wishful thinking...that when you get to the center of everything there is nothing there, like peeling an onion down to its core – once you do, there’s nothing to see.

But are you going to accept that version of what the world is like? Is that world a livable world? Is that world a lovable world? A world where there is no guiding principle above self-interest? A world where it’s only survival of the fittest? Where love has no purpose and no goal? Who’s going to stop for a Good Samaritan or see God in the face of their neighbor if there is no Jesus on the mountaintop?

This is the thing that Christians know – it is impossible to talk about the reality of the world…it’s impossible to talk about the true nature of the universe…it’s impossible to talk about life and hope and mystery and love and all the things that make for meaningful existence without talking about a particular moment in history, a particular historical figure and the relationship we have with a living savior. For Christians, it’s all about Jesus. Jesus in the morning, Jesus in the evening, Jesus when the sun goes down. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know. When the movie opens, it’s Jesus and when it gets to the last reel, it’s Jesus. When the world begins, it’s Jesus and when it ends, it’s Jesus. When Paul Harvey talks about the rest of the story – it’s Jesus.

Or to use more biblical language, we can turn to Colossians 1:15 and we read that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created…all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things and in him all things hold together.” [Col. 1:15-17] It all hangs together because of Jesus. It all makes sense.

So when Christians get together to do this crazy thing that we are doing today they are making a claim about the world that nobody else makes. We are making the outrageous claim that Jesus is the reason we hope. And we have seen Jesus in some amazing ways. We have met Jesus in the world of the here and now. We can say, though it defies everything we think we know about how the universe operates…we can say, “I was there.”

A few years ago I was riding down a road in South Texas when I saw Jesus do a miracle. I was with a group of college students on a Spring Break mission trip and we were on the way to the beach. We had been working on both sides of the border for a few days and we had taken the afternoon off to go to the beach and dip our feet in the Gulf of Mexico. It had been a dramatic week. We had been helping to build houses for low-income people in McAllen. We had been building a church in Nuevo Progresso, Mexico. We had met with a Border Patrol officer who talked to us about his frustrations in trying to police a border that often didn’t seem like a border at all. We had met with a woman who ran a refugee center for political refugees from Central America. We had been gleaning grapefruits in the orchards.

Now we were driving to the beach and sitting next to me in the van we had borrowed from the local Methodist Church was a student who was really struggling with what to do with her life. She had a big heart and a strong sense of justice. She knew that there were many things broken about the world and she felt a strong calling to make them right. As we were talking about the things we had seen on the border that week she said, very simply, “I could see myself living here.” It was a just a stray comment. Something you and I might say in the moment that never comes to fruition. But as soon as she said it we both knew it was true. She would work on the border. A call was forming even as she said the words.

That student went on to work with an organization called Borderworks on the Arizona border, taking students on mission trips to gain greater understanding of the people and issues that affect the border region. Later she got a call into ordained ministry and now she is attending seminary preparing for the Episcopal priesthood. And I look back on that moment driving through the South Texas desert and I know I was present as Jesus did a miracle in her life. How do I know? I was there.

I venture to say that many of you have been there, too. Maybe it was last summer when the youth went on a mission trip to Christiansburg and worked on the homes of needy people in the mountains. Was there a moment then when you saw Jesus? Maybe in the face of one of the people you served? You can say it. You were there.

Maybe it was the Sunday when we welcomed the Arcangels class into membership in the church and we saw Jesus in the faces of each person who came forward. You can say it. You were there.

Maybe it happened when you were helping out at Food Bank one Friday and you realized that all the work and resources that go into putting boxes together were really so that you could meet Jesus in the people who came for help. You can say it. You were there.

Maybe it happened when your child was born and you held her in your arms for the first time and you knew it was a holy moment. Maybe it happened at a church camp when you were young and gave your life to Jesus. Maybe it happened when you held the hand of a loved one as they passed from this life to the next and you could do it with confidence that they were in the Lord’s care. You can say it. You were there.

Maybe it happened when the Spirit took hold of you at a revival. Maybe it happened when you met the love of your life and you knew that nothing would ever be the same. Maybe it happened when a respected elder took notice of you and took you aside and told you that you had gifts you never thought you had. Maybe it was at an altar call. Maybe it was in a conversation. Somewhere in your life I’m betting that you had an experience of meeting Jesus, so go ahead now. Say it. You were there!

Karen Hatch and Lena Watts and I were at a conference this week as a follow-up to our experience of hosting Eddie as a ministry intern last summer. We were meeting together with congregations from across the country who were doing similar things and who were trying to be congregations that lift up the call to vocation and ministry. There were churches there from D.C. and Illinois and Iowa and Georgia and Texas.

What we learned is that the call comes when we notice what God is doing in a young person’s life, when we name that calling in ways that they and we can hear it, and when we nurture that call. This congregation has been doing that for many years. As we got ready to go to this conference we did interviews with several of you and we asked when it was that you felt a sense of belonging and that you were making a difference. Many of you talked about how people in the congregation noticed you, called you by name, and nurtured you in your faith and your life. You talked about you felt closer to God and enabled to follow Jesus because of the claim that people here made on your life.

The thing of it is that we can make outrageous claims about the power and presence of God because we have experienced God’s presence. We know who we are and we know that we are Jesus’ own people. Look around you. You not only were there. You are there. Jesus Christ is alive and present.
On this day, as every day, we can say it: What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times... and I was there. Thanks be to God.

2 Peter 1:16-21
Now we were not following clever little tales when we made known to you the power and the anticipated coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. No, we were eyewitnesses to that magnificence. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice was borne to him such as from the magnificent glory, saying, “This is my beloved son in whom I delight.” We heard this voice borne from the heavens because we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we hold secure this prophetic word that you would do well to pay attention to, as to a lamp in a gloomy place, until the day shines through and the Morning Star rises in your hearts. We know this above all, that all prophetic writings are not known through one’s own explanation, because prophecy is not borne through the will of a person but rather through the Holy Spirit bearing it for people to speak from God.