I don't think the sermon ever got a title, but it was preached on Transfiguration Sunday, which was also the day my daughter baptized her first child as an ordained minister. The child also happened to be her daughter Charlie Grace and my granddaughter. She invited me to assist in the baptism so she could a "parent" for most of the liturgy, but she became the minister when it was time to sprinkle the water!
the sermon grew out of several conversations we had previously. It was fun to preach with my daughter. One of those watching said that Caitlin was a little "minnie me," in reference to preaching and baptizing the person has seen me do through the years. I took it as a compliment for me!
Matthew 17:1-9
Hear now Matthew chapter 17 verses 1 through 9.
Richard: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
Caitlin: Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
Richard: When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
Caitlin: As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Richard: RBC: The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
SERMON - Rev. Dr. Richard B. Culp & Rev. Caitlin Culp
Introduction:
RBC: Hey Caitlin, notice I’m using an iPad.
CLC: But I use a binder like this because I saw you do it that way for soooo many years.
RBC: well, you need to get with the times!
STEP BACK
CLC - As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve discovered there’s some benefits of having a father as a minister.
One benefit is that I can talk to my dad about upcoming sermons.
PAUSE
The sermon this morning is a replay, including some added insights, of a conversation my dad and I had earlier this year.
PAUSE
It went something like this….
RBC - hey, Caitlin what are you preaching on the Sunday you baptize Charlie?
CLC - it’s Transfiguration Sunday. Of course, I’m going to preach the lectionary story about Jesus taking Peter, James and John up the mountain and being transfigured before their very eyes.
RBC - Huh, I thought maybe you’d preach on baptism.
CLC - I’m not preaching on baptism…it’s transfiguration sunday and you know I follow the church calendar pretty strictly.
RBC: yeah, I know, but i I don’t think there’s a “baptize the minister’s baby” Sunday in the church calendar.
CLC: Well…I might be able to make baptism work. But what am I gonna do about transfiguration?
RBC: could you do both.
baptism and transfiguration in the same sermon.
CLC: I guess I could….is that allowed?!
RBC: You’re the one writing the sermon….I know that sometimes I end up trying to connect two different ideas in a sermon.
CLC: Yeahhhhhh, I’ve heard you throw multiple ideas into one sermon. HAHA.
PAUSE
So what do the Transfiguration story and baptism have in common?
RBC: I don’t know? What do you think?
CLC: You first! You’ve preached a lot more Transfiguration and baptism sermons than I have!
Move 1: well, the transfiguration story is about a special day.
RBC: I often think about Peter, James, and John trudging up the mountain
Even before Jesus was transfigured before their eyes on the mountain, they suspected something special was going to take place.
CLC: Strange, exciting things happen on mountains in lots of biblical stories. …
Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him to God. And then God miraculously provides the ram to sacrifice instead.
Rbc: Moses ascended Mt. Sinai,
saw God’s glory
and received the Ten Commandments
all on a mountain.
Caitlin: Elijah is on Mt. Horeb when a chariot of fire sweeps over him and the Lord speaks to him.
PAUSE
All these special things happen on mountains.
PAUSE
Today’s moment on the mountain is no different.
Jesus gets transfigured before the disciples’ very eyes.
Richard: Jesus’ face shining like the sun and his clothes bright as the light.
with Moses, who represents the law,
and Elijah, who represents the prophets, standing next to him.
A special moment on the mountain that day.
PAUSE - move to baptismal font and put hand on it
Caitlin: Baptisms are special days, too.
Richard: Not every day I get to baptize my own granddaughter!
Caitlin: you mean, not every day I get to baptize my own daughter! HA
Richard: Baptism is not just special for the minister and the parents, the grandparents, the family, the friends.
but also for the church.
a chance for the gathered community to lay claim to their role in nurturing and mentoring the one being baptized
and be reminded that the congregation has an obligation to nurture and mentor all the members of the faith community.
Caitlin: Baptism is a special day when we hear parents like Charles and I profess our faith in Jesus Christ,
Richard: renounce evil in the world
Caitlin: and announce that God claims us in the waters of baptism
Richard: A special day when we are reminded that in our own baptisms we are claimed by God and united with Christ in his death and his resurrection.
PAUSE
Caitlin: Jesus’ transfiguration was a special moment for Peter, James, and John.
Richard: Baptism is a special day in the life of a congregation.
Move 2: Richard: What do you think about the disciples wanting to set up tents on top of the mountain?
MOVE BACK IN
Caitlin: It seems like they wanted to stay on top.
like it was such a great moment they wanted time to stop
so they could stay up there with Moses, Elijah, and Jesus for a long time,
maybe forever.
Richard: The disciples act like this mountaintop experience was the stopping point,
but Jesus sends them back down off the mountain.
Caitlin: the disciples have an incredible moment on the mountaintop,
maybe they’re even changed by their experience…
then Jesus sends them back down the mountain to live out their discipleship in the real world.
Richard: I remember when i was in seminary,
CLC - (a Lonnnng time ago)
one of the books everyone was reading was Resident Aliens, Willimon and Hauerwas, p. 5.2)
In it they compared baptism to jumping on a moving train.
I love that image - when we are baptized, we join a long line of others how have been baptized before us,
And as the train moves, so to speak, our lives of faith continue.
They said that … wrote: When we are baptized, we (like the first disciples) jump on a moving train. As disciples, we do not so much accept a creed, or come to a clear sense of self-understanding by which we know
We become part of a journey that began long before we got here and shall continue long after we are gone.
When you baptize Charlie Grace today, it is not a stopping point for her, but an ongoing part of her life of faith.
Caitlin: I kind of think of today as a mountaintop experience for Charles and me - our baby is being baptized.
We’re surrounded by friends, family, and our church community. It’s an extra-special day, if you will.
We wanna stay on this mountaintop. PAUSE.
But God sends us down the mountain into the world, to follow Christ and serve him.
As we live out our lives of faith, we have mountaintop moments, like baptism. But most of our days are spent learning to follow Jesus Christ,
and moving into the world to serve him.
Richard: the Transfiguration was a special moment that shaped Peter, James, and John to go down the mountain and follow jesus.
Caitlin: Charlie Grace’s baptism is a special day that prepares her to go into the world as one of God’s own.
Move 3: Richard: That has me thinking about how the transfiguration story really does connect to baptism.
the voice from heaven that they hear on the mountaintop says basically the same thing they heard the voice from heaven speak when jesus was baptized in the Jordan river.
Caitlin: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased;
Richard: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased;
Caitlin: the voice of God identifies who Jesus is.
Richard: Jesus is not some new version of Moses,
Caitlin: Or some reappearance of Elijah.
Richard: Jesus is the Son of God.
PAUSE
Caitlin: Baptism is about identity.
Richard: About who we are.
Caitlin: and whose we are.
Richard: I remember a story told about the great Reformer MArtin Luther: he loved the phrase , “Baptizatus Sum,” bap-tee-TSAH-toos Soom, which in Latin means, “I am baptized.”
And in the Latin, it has the sense of this ongoing thing. It’s not “I was baptized,” it’s “I have been and continue to be baptized.”
Apparently, Luther dealt with doubts and terrors and fears his whole life. There were nights when he said he felt as though the devil was trying to snatch away his faith, where those voices would creep into his head saying that he wasn’t good enough, that he hadn’t done enough to merit God’s love, that he was worthless. During those times, during those dark nights of the soul, Luther would shout, “Baptizatus Sum!” bap-tee-TSAH-toos Soom
I am baptized! I continue to be baptized!
A reminder to himself that he was a child of God.
Caitlin: When I hold Charlie Grace in my arms and say the words, “i baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy spirit, one God, mothers of us all
I tell her
and I announce to the world her identity:
she is a child of God!
Richard: in all things and for all times!
Conclusion: PAUSE
Caitlin: I guess we did it.
Richard: A sermon about transfiguration and baptism.
CLC: the Transfiguration story and baptism are both special moments
Richard: but they are not the stopping point in our lives of faith.
Caitlin: and baptism and the transfiguration story are both about identity.
PAUSE
Papa, is this just stuff we preach,
or does it really matter?
Richard: remember when your friend drowned on the OH river while you were in college?
Caitlin: how could I forget.
Richard: YOu remember when we gathered for his funeral service at church?
Caitlin: I remember how the visitation line before the service wrapped around the whole sanctuary.
So many people were there.
Richard: there was a torrential downpour that day as we gathered for his funeral.
The Streets were so flooded that some people who came to the service were stranded at church for several hours until the water across some major streets in town receded.
No one missed the connection between the raging river waters in which he drowned and the rains that poured down as we gathered at his service.
There we were in the sanctuary where he had been baptized as a young elementary school kid on the day his family joined the church.
Caitlin: how do you know what words to say on a day like that?
to a sanctuary full of grieving people.
Richard: there are no right words to be spoken to make sense of that tragedy.
All I could do was stand at the baptismal font where he had been baptized and identified as a child of God and remind all of us that God had claimed him in the waters of baptism
as the service finished, I returned to the baptismal font and said these words,
“his baptism is complete.”
Caitlin: Amen
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