The Transfiguration

Summary:

This is a 'gang show' or 'goon show' version of Peter's well in 'tent'ioned idea of erecting three dwellings; one for Jesus, one for Moses; one for Elijah.

Sermon included in the script. This drama is ideal for an All Age or Family service.

Enter three grown up 'BOY SCOUTS', in 'GANG SHOW ' fashion , full of daft antics….e.g. one stops, the others march absent mindedly into him. (Ad lib)

They call out each other's names as they work to put up their tent i.e. Pete, Jimmy and Johnny. J& J jog into line up position, with Pete as their leader.

Pete: Right lads, we’ve got three tents to put up; one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah, are we ready for the first one?

They all salute…

J&J: Sir

Pete: Then let's get to it.

They erect the 'imaginary' tent as quickly as possible,( with the right kind of dress, hats pulled down, ears sticking out, it could look quite funny)

They complete the job and then line up, face Pete and salute him.

Pete: Now for the other two tents….

Voice from heaven: (microphone needed) NO, NO, NO! (They all freeze)

They're not listening, they're going to do their own thing yet again!

PRESS REWIND WILL YOU?

The scouts unfreeze and walk jerkily back into position, dismantling the tent as if a video is being played back over.

They complete the job and once more end up in the line up position, saluting.

Voice from heaven:

NOW, THIS IS MY SON, MY BELOVED LISTEN TO HIM!

Enter Jesus:

Jesus: Peter, James, John…don't worry I know you all meant well, but we're not staying here.

We've got work to do and very little time to do it in.

So pick up your tents, it's time to go back down the mountain.

Back to the real world!

Sermon summary:

What a temptation for the disciples, to build tents or tabernacles, so they could remain in an attitude of praise and worship.

It was there on the mountain top that they had just seen Jesus transfigured!

He became dazzlingly white, completely changed in appearance, along with Moses and Elijah by his side…here was a foretaste of a glory still to come!

They had seen a sight, never seen before by humankind…

Jews had waited a long time for God to come and dwell in an earthly tabernacle with his people once more, just as he had visited those who had followed Moses into the desert and who had wandered there for forty years.

Yet they were blind to the fact that God himself really had pitched his tent on earth and come among them all, in the person of Jesus himself!

The words 'six days later' are significant. What had happened six days before?

What Jesus had actually said to them six days before…was that some of them would not taste death until they had seen the kingdom of God come with power.

Here it was starting up! That's exactly what they were being allowed to witness.

The kingdom was about to be fully realized, beginning with the death and resurrection of JESUS!

It was about to grow… in and through them, and then on to others.

This kingdom would encompass the world, but their thinking was too narrow just yet!

But the kingdom Jesus was ushering in, was not as some supposed, an earthly battleground where enemies were to be crushed underfoot.

The kingdom would come when the lives of people were TRANSFORMED, as changed in appearance as Jesus' own body was just then transfigured before their very eyes.

Dramatic changes were about to take place in the lives of those who followed Jesus.

Moreover, each person would have to decide whether to take up their cross and follow him.A man who was asked to pick up a cross in those days, was a man who would not be seen again…His life was over!

Here lies the sacrifice, the challenge for each of us!

For it is no longer we who live, but Christ who is to live IN us! (so says St Paul in his letter to the Galatians)

But do we still cling to our lives? Do we want to 'do our own thing'? Don't we like to be in control? Are we quite at ease in our comfort zones?

Do we, like the disciples, prefer not to journey on, but stay put?

It's glorious on a mountain top, to be quite detached from the real world, looking far beyond into the distance, lost in wonder and awe and praise, in comfort, security, in fellowship and in agreement. It's great to be there, but it wouldn't be wise to stay there for ever for a whole host of reasons. We must come down into the plains, where people are hurting, distressed, lonely and oppressed.

Rather we are called to fall in, behind Jesus, and walk in his footsteps, at times not even able to see the way that lies before us?

We're called to walk where he would have walked in our area, in our world.

Will we follow him, in all ways, so that our lives may shine and be transfigured like his?

Will we follow his example and work towards a world 'transfigured’.