Fact or Fantasy?
Luke9: 28-36
Rev. John P. Wesley
February 14, 2010
One of the jobs that each one of us have every day is that of separating fact from fantasy. Fact is that which is real, that which has substance, that which can be experienced by one of the five senses. And fantasy, though it may be real in our mind, certainly has not substance and doesn’t exist outside the confines of our thoughts. This Valentine’s Day a lot of people struggle with their love life, questioning whether a relationship is real or whether it’s fantasy. Some people call love real if they get a big Valentine’s Day card, or if they get flowers or candy. Maybe that’s so. But love based just on feeling can be a fleeting thing. Real love is about action, it’s about doing the loving, caring thing for the other, even if it requires a great sacrifice on your part. Love that hurts and abuses, love that is jealous and untrusting, isn’t love at all.
This job we have of separating fact from fantasy is an important one. There is only so much time and so much energy that any of us have to give. When we commit ourselves to a career, or to a relationship, or to a lifestyle, or to a particular cause, it will extract from us our time, our energy, our resources, our life. It becomes imperative that we know the difference between what is real and what is only make believe.
But having said this, we have to acknowledge that most reality begins in the world of imagination. A good novel, a new invention, or even a good sermon starts as fantasy, as imagination. The mind’s ability to draw mental images of unreal situations provides entertainment and can lead to the creation of things that are very real. Young people trying to make some decision about a career are blessed with the ability to use their imaginations, to drift into fantasy as they consider what it might be like to be a teacher, or a minister, or a doctor. We can make believe to try different things on to see how they fit, or to imagine what might be possible. Something that may not be real may appear to be possible, and with work can become a reality.
Each day we must sort out what is fact and what if fantasy. We make that judgment and then we invest our lives accordingly. But we need to be careful not to rule out the power of imagination, the ability of fantasy to set the stage for some very real things.
For the past seven weeks the church has been traveling through the season of Epiphany. It is that time following Christmas in which the scriptures share a witness that Jesus was unique, that in him the nature of God was revealed. From the stable in Bethlehem, to the Jordan River where he was baptized, to the wedding feast in Cana, to the special instructions he gave, the scriptures claim that God was revealed in Jesus.
In today’s reading, Jesus, Peter, James and John, go up on a mountain for yet another epiphanal moment. As Jesus is praying, he is transfigured. The disciples saw the face of Jesus change and his clothes became dazzling white. Then Moses and Elijah were seen talking with Jesus. A cloud came down and surrounded them and the disciples were afraid, and they heard a voice that said, “This is my Son, My Chosen; listen to Him.”
This story is so fantastic, so extraordinary, so out of the realm of what we have experienced that the first question we might pose is this: is it fact or fantasy? Scholars have pointed to several problems with the facts of the story. It does not fall into the realm of experience through which most of us have traveled. There are some different facts given in other gospel accounts. How could the disciples know that it was Moses and Elijah who met Jesus since they certainly didn’t know them or what they looked like. It might be easy for us to judge this as fantasy if we judge it by the standards of factual information available to us today. Just a good story.
But if we look at this transfiguration in the light of the early church, we may recognize that it was a story that spoke of a great truth. This special moment took place on the eighth day, which was for the early church the day of resurrection. Jesus in prayer takes on the radiant change of one in whom the glory of God resides. Through Moses and Elijah visits, the church was able to affirm that the death of Christ on the cross was within God’s will.
Whatever happened there on the mountain Jesus came down ready to face his journey to the cross. And the disciples came down ready to reach out in new ways to others. What may appear fantasy to us, led Jesus and his followers deeper in their ministry and work.
I doubt that any of us will have to make a decision about the factual nature of the transfiguration. Fantasy or fact, it will not alter who we are that much. But each one of us in our own way sit with the disciples who saw Jesus that day in his glory, and we are compelled to make some kind of judgment about him. Is this story of Jesus fact or fantasy? Is our faith in the category of that which is essential, that which demands our energy, our talent, our time, our all? Or is this thing called faith about something that is in the head, something we imagine, and think about, but something that has no connection to the real world?
A few years ago I was called upon to perform a wedding in a private home. It was not someone in my church, but an acquaintance from the community. I arrived a little early in the home and found two different gatherings of people. There was one group where everyone was laughing and telling jokes. Their talk was about work, about people, about relationships. A lot of smoke filled the air, and it appeared some had been drinking. Then there was another room. It was much quieter. A grandmother sat there along with one or two other women. The talk was filled only with niceties. How are you? How’s the weather. How nice the children look. When I arrived, where do you suppose they put the minister? I tried to fit into the room where people were laughing and talking and dealing with the real stories of life. But guess what happened when I went into that room. Suddenly it got quiet as a church mouse. The preacher was there so the language was cleaned up, the cigarettes put out and the beer set aside. Everyone became stilted. So I finally exiled myself to the quiet room decorated with artificial flowers. And the party began again in the other room.
Where is it that we put our faith? Where do we put Christ? Is he at the center of what is happening, is he a traveling companion who meets with us the challenges, the joys, of our life? Or are we more comfortable leaving Christ there on the mountain, back at the church where we can go visit when we want, but we aren’t compelled to be changed daily by his glory? If that is the kind of Christ we worship, if this is the kind of faith we possess, I wonder if it is in the category of fact or fantasy.
His given name was Leslie Leonard but everyone just called him Pete. He was the son of devout parents. They saw to it that the seeds of faith were planted in him. They were there to nourish the seeds along. Once he got out on his own in life, however, it appeared that the seeds of faith had not taken very deep roots. Religion for Pete, was something long ago and far away. Early on life went well for Pete. He married, had a son, was involved with a number of businesses. He had some successes in his life. What was most successful about him was his personality. Pete was a charmer, and everyone liked him and wanted to be in his presence.
As the years passed by, things were not easy for Pete. His marriage failed, his son lost contact with him. And then his health failed. In his early 40's he was stricken with multiple sclerosis. In a short time he was blind and paralyzed from the neck down. Eventually he got back the use of his upper body, but his eyes and his legs never recovered. Suffering covered Pete’s life like a blanket.
Pete had every reason to be bitter over his state in life. He had every earthly reason to complain. But something happened to Pete when he was first in the hospital. God had been revealed to him in a new way, not in that long ago image of church on Sunday, but in the image of one who would walk with him each day. Pete became a new man because his faith moved from that room labeled fantasy to that room labeled fact.
People went to visit Pete often, they wanted to give him support, but Pete always gave back more than he received. He ministered more to his minister than his minister was able to care for him. The church made a special place for Pete’s wheelchair at church, and he was there every Sunday that he could get out. He insisted on serving on the church board, and though he was blind, he could see things clearer than many.
When Pete finally died the pastor told the congregation. “We saw in him glory, the glory of God shining through the depths of human suffering.”
This is the last Sunday of epiphany and I hope all of us are able to declare that God was in Christ, at his baptism, in his miracles, on the mountain of transfiguration. But more importantly I hope in our hearts we’ve found out with Pete the difference between fact and fantasy. Christ is the one who may meet us at the cross roads, in the valley or on the mountaintop, but he doesn’t stay there. Christ becomes a living presence, a living power to walk with us in the real world that we face each day.
As a congregation we are trying to think a lot about communion this year. Some might put this meal at the table in the category of fantasy, something that is not real. There is no way a little bread and wine are actually the body of Christ. But this bread and wine stir up in us an imagination of what the body of Christ might look like in the world. We are compelled not to just sit at the table and see the glory of God, but to go into the world and do real things.
So this morning I want to say faith is real to us. It is factual. It is about changing life with the love of God. And that love isn’t just words. It is action. This morning we present a check to Rod Goodman, director of the Bowling Green/Warren County Habitat for Humanity. This check began as an idea. First it was an idea shared by a number of people who were a part of this church. They decided they wanted a part of their life time wealth to go on doing good things through this church. So they left and endowment to the church. And each year we look for ways to put that gift into action in a real way in our community. This idea of a house for Habitat began last year as the local outreach ministry team, chaired by Becky Gilfellen, talked about the difference that is made when a family becomes a homeowner. We talked about how we could help extend our table by building a table for another family. So today that idea begins a transforms into a reality.
