( Sermon 2 Peter 1,16-21 ) [ German Sermon ] [ Announcements (German)646.2 KB ]
This song from Taizé was released in 1991 and has been with me for a long time. “Christ, your light transforms our shadows. Don't let darkness speak to us. Christ, your light shines on earth. And it tells us, we too can shine.”
I like this song. It has grown dear to my heart. I listen to it in the car because I like the company of Taizé songs. They give me comfort. When fear and worry creep up in me, when I can't sleep at night because something doesn't let go of me, then I like to hum this song. "Don't let the darkness speak to us."
For me, the sentence, "Christ, your light transforms our shadows", is a mystery. The event in the Gospels from which the words of the song were taken, is called the Transfiguration. It is described as follows: Jesus leads three of his disciples, Peter, James and John, up a mountain. There the three have a vision of Jesus bathed in supernatural light, and they hear a voice from heaven saying: “This is my beloved Son, with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17: 5).
This inimitable experience shaped the lives of the three disciples. They experienced the overwhelming power of the light that emanated from Jesus and saw shadows disappearing.
The words for today’s sermon are taken from the Second Book of Peter’s letter dealing with this event and its significance.
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
You might think that the disciple Peter wrote this letter himself, but that is not the case, because the letter was only written in the 2nd century AD. The author poses as Peter to give his words more power and effect. I am therefore referring to the author of the letter, not to Peter.
The author is surrounded by people who have stopped believing in Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. More than a hundred years have passed since he was living on earth. Christians of the first and second generation expected Jesus to return soon. The longer they had to wait for the Second Coming to happen, the harder it became to believe that Jesus was the Light and Savior of the world.
This development is of great concern to the author of Peter's epistle. Because faith in Jesus Christ depends on trusting that He will return.
The author recalls “his” experience with Jesus as though he was the disciple Peter. Jesus is the light of the world. He himself saw this on the mountain. He would have liked to stay in this light forever. But that was not possible for the three disciples. They had to go back down the mountain with Jesus into their everyday life. What did they have left? Knowing that Jesus' light is more powerful than any darkness in life. But also, that life will only be complete once they are in Jesus’ light.
Jesus no longer dwells among the people, but the Christian communities have the words of Scripture in his place. The author of 2nd Peter ascribes the same luminosity to the words of Scripture that Peter experienced in the vision of Jesus. The words of Scripture are a light in these dark times, they give orientation and support in uncertainty and confusion. The fact that the written word can become a light in darkness, which rises in the heart like the morning star, is shown in the life of the Dutch Jew Etty Hillesum.
She died on November 30, 1943 in the Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of 31. She had hoped that she would be given a long life to tell how she was drawn more and more to God's mystery and how her life was transformed by it. But the detainees of the Auschwitz concentration camp were not freed until January 27, 1945, 76 years ago.
Friends say she always had her Bible close at hand, but most importantly in her heart. She wrote in her diary: “There are moments when I feel like a small bird in a large protective hand. Yesterday my heart felt like a trapped bird. Now the bird is free again and flies unhindered over everything."
Etty Hillesum let her light shine in Auschwitz. Survivors describe her as a shining personality. She was very certain that you cannot be caught in anyone else’s clutches if you are in God’s hands. Her last diary entry closed with the wish: “I would like to be a plaster on many wounds.” For Etty Hillesum, God had become a light in the dark place.
“Christ, your light transforms our shadows. Don't let darkness speak to us. Christ, your light, shines on earth. And it tells us, we too can shine."
Some words shine just like Jesus shone on the Mount of Transfiguration. It is a radiance that makes all darkness, all anxiety and fear of death disappear forever. We cannot ignite this light ourselves. But we can let ourselves be enlightened, we can listen to the Word, let it reverberate in our hearts and wait until it shines in us or, as the author of the letter says, until the morning star rises in our hearts. For me, this song, "Christ, my light", is an inspiration and I am grateful that it found me.
Which Words from the Bible or which spiritual traditions have found their way to your heart? Are there words that have been with you for a long time? Or do you want your heart to be found by inspiring words?
Like Etty Hillesum, I want to trust that God will let his light shine in your and my heart - in emotional and physical challenges, in perceived and real chaos, in fear and despair; that we realise that our souls, which before were caught in a trap like a bird, can feel secure in God's protective hands and fly up again freely and unhindered.
Amen