This Text Has Always Fascinated Me, So I Did a Little Research on It

February 15, 2015 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Transfiguration of Our Lord. Mark 9:2-9. Jesus ends religion as we know it.

Question: Begin with “Why Do We Say It?” examples. What does AMEN mean? How about Passing the buck? Why did Peter want to make three dwellings, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah?

This text has always fascinated me, so I did a little research on it.

Our text for today gives us an opportunity once again to consider the importance of Bible translation and the obvious overall importance of words and their meanings. And why we cannot read the Bible literally.

I looked at eight different Bible translations to see how this word booth is translated in each. In the original Greek text the word tents is actually used but then translated into booths in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

The old beloved by many King James Version translates tents into tabernacles. The New Revised Standard Version that we use most of the time here at Advent and throughout the ELCA translates tents into dwellings.

The Common English Bible interestingly translates the Greek word tents into shrines. I would think tents and shrines are rather different in their essential meaning. The Complete Jewish Bible, the Contemporary English Bible and the Living Bible, all three translate tents into the word shelters.

Interestingly too, the New Life Bible which was published in 1989, not that long ago actually goes back to using the Greek word tents in its text. I was not familiar with this particular translation but studied a bit about it and learned that it was conceived of and created primarily for people who speak English as a second language hence many of the more difficult words and nuances are simplified.

When I was serving Pentecost Lutheran Church in the Sherman Park neighborhood I remember that each year some of our Orthodox Jewish neighbors would build a wooden structure in front of their homes that would stay there about a week. I had no idea why they did that until I asked one of the neighbors who told me that they were celebrating the Festival of Booths.

This, the longest of Orthodox Jewish Holidays is also called Festival of the Ingathering, and it is a harvest holiday similar to our Thanksgiving. It is one of the Jewish Pilgrim Festivals on which Jews make a pilgrimage to the Temple with harvest offerings for God.

The primary observance associated with Sukkot as it is called in Hebrew is the building and dwelling in a temporary shelter or booth that is called a sukka. The practice dates back to ancient times and the Old Testament Book of Leviticus that contains the religious practices and rules for observance of the Jewish faith.

It is a way of remembering the time the Hebrew people spent wandering in the wilderness, and as I said before many modern Jews still set up the temporary shelters in their yards and invite friends to join them.

One of the sites I consulted was a Roman Catholic Bible Study question and answer site from one of their radio programs and this is what was written:

“Ultimately, I think the booths (as well as the setting and the cloud and pretty much everything else in the scene) serve to connect the Transfiguration with God’s revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Both take place on the seventh day, both occur on a mountain, both Jesus and Moses take three companions with them, both of their faces shine with God’s glory, both involve the cloud of God’s presence, and both events involve God speaking through a heavenly voice. These parallels solidify Jesus as the “new Moses,” and the fulfillment of the Law that Moses received. Like Moses, Jesus stands as the mediator between God and His people. Like Moses, Jesus frees us from slavery and bondage. Like Moses, Jesus feeds us with bread from heaven. Praise be to God!”

It is pretty much universally agreed that the Transfiguration of Jesus on this mountain is the revelation by God of who Jesus really is in history. As the text records;

“This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!”

Interesting and important to note God does not say “worship him,” but “listen to him.” And I’m afraid we still have not figured out how to do that very well. What I am talking about here is what I also wrote in This Week at Advent last Wednesday quoting Jan Peter Balkenende who wrote:

“Our society is the product of several great religious and philosophical traditions. The ideas of the Greeks and Romans, Christianity, Judaism, humanism and the Enlightenment have made us who we are.”

But none of these are God, only our often feeble and sometimes arrogant attempt at defining God.

As I understand it all of human history is so interwoven and inter-connected that we cannot, and even if we could, should not try to define or separate out one single individual understanding, declare it sacred, and then not only exclude all other beliefs and faiths but actually murder those who do not believe as you do just as ISIS is doing today!

Last week’s Thought of the Day in our worship bulletin was by Christopher Hitchens, author of the controversial book God Is Not Great. Hitchens was known for his sometimes overly aggressive attacks on religion in particular Christianity.

I personally find him rather interesting and correct in many cases. Last week’s thought read:

“Religion is part of the human make-up. It’s also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.”

He is absolutely right in everything he says here. Religion is part of what makes us human, and religion is part of the evolutionary process of the human species, and herein lies the problem. Whenever we treat religion as final truth or as the final word on whom or what God is, we fall into the trap that ISIS and others including many in Christianity have fallen.

When Christians slaughtered Muslims during the crusades we sowed the seeds of ISIS and other atrocities because we had made Christianity the God that it was supposed to worship not embody as final authority and truth.

That’s why I say what I also fervently believe, that Jesus was born and taught so that the day may come when we do not need religion to control how we behave, and treat one another. As I also wrote last Wednesday I long for a world that is dominated by cooperation and peace and people will realize as the Dalai Lama says in our benediction:

“On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language make no difference.”

Unfortunately as we know in this violent and often hate-filled world we have allowed those differences to define who we are. And the Dalai Lama is not naïve to the fact that indeed we are different. He knows that our cultures, histories and customs come in many designs and colors. But essentially what makes us human is the same.

As Jesus says in what he calls the Greatest Commandment:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

If we could do just that than truly we would have heaven on earth.

AMEN.