Our Savior Lutheran Church

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you …

There’s a little book out … not very thick, not very big, either… small enough to fit in a pocket or purse called  “When God Winks.”   It was written by, of all people, a Hollywood TV mogul … not a source you might think that something spiritual might come from.

It’s not intended to be theological treatise … but just a helpful observation.  And the observation is essentially this … that as you go through life as a Christian … God has this prepensely to do things around you that indicate that He is present … and not only present … but very active in your day-to-day life.   To use an expression, He winks at you, to give you a silent but sure sign that He’s with you and involved in your life. 

And so the author encourages us to see God in the small, seemingly chance coincidences that occur all the time as sure signs that God’s not only taking care of the Big Stuff … like our Salvation … but that He’s also intimately and lovingly active in even what we might call the minutia.

The problem the book addresses … is not a problem with God… because if we truly take to heart God’s promises to us in and through Jesus Christ … then we shouldn’t be surprised at all by His involvement in the small things.
The problem, however, is with us.  We don’t see God winking at us, flagging the fact that He’s here, because we don’t really believe that God  IS that involved in the little things in our lives.

But remember … Jesus Himself told us about watching out even over the sparrows, asking rhetorically how much more valuable we are than they … And telling us that even the very hairs of our heads are numbered … meaning not just counted up in total, but numbered, as in God having assigned a number to each one.  

The argument from the lesser to the greater is this: if God takes that kind of interest in us, how could we ever question His care for us now, and for eternity??

However, the most popular concept of God is that He’s off watching us from a safe distance … keeping a list and checking it twice … in preparation for the final judgment.   Not a God who is closer to you than I am right now. 

So, what’s a wink?  In our family we often refer to the “Jesus Loves Me” parking space.  Now, it turns out … other people I’ve talked to have shared that experience … to drive into a packed parking lot and suddenly there it is … one empty space.  Do you ever think to “thank God” for it?

Last week, the weather here in Louisville was cold and biting, there was ice in the parking lot.  My mother-in-law, as you may know, is pretty fragile.  Dad was pretty concerned about getting her into church from the parking lot …even enlisting other family for assistance. 
And guess what parking space just happened to be open last Sunday?  The handicapped spot right next to the church door.  “Thank you Lord.”

Now, some have said that this kind of thing, seeing God in charge of chance coincidences, is bordering on superstition.   Superstition sticks its nose in when I begin to think that I can manipulate God to take care of my earthly affairs.

That I can depend on Him to have that “Pole Position Parking Place”  open every time I come to church.  That I can relinquish things that are really my responsibility by saying “I put it in God’s Hands.” 
And then somehow interpret the end result as a manifestation of His perfect, Holy Will.
 
God has promised to forgive our sins … not necessarily to protect us from our own foolishness nor our sin’s consequences.

But we digress.  The author of the little book is trying to get us to tune our spiritual antennae to be sensitive to those chance encounters … that phone call that didn’t go through, when you found out later that you didn’t have the full story …

The Parking spaces … the only pair of jeans on the shelf in your size … the break for 20 minutes in the weather.  Maybe as many as a dozen of those things in a single day … Winks from God, saying “I love you and I’m here.”

Now, sometimes we are tempted to take those little coincidences one step further than they’re intended to be taken … and we try to interpret them as some sort of divine prodding or direction. 
Can God work that way?  He CAN work any way He wants.  But that’s not how He’s said He’s going to do that.

In fact, coincidences in and of themselves are the least reliable way of seeking God’s direction.  Why?  One reason is because we have a tendency to read our own agendas into them.

The truth is, I can’t stay where I am and go with God.  And going with God always means me getting out of my comfort zone… doing something new or something differently than I have ever done it before.

 … and chasing a coincidence … usually doesn’t ask us to make that kind of change in our lives.

God does speak to us, and guide us however.   And that’s our connection this morning from “When God’s Winks” … to the Gospel of Luke’s account of Jesus’ Transfiguration.

We’re going to suggest that the mountain top experience that Peter, James and John had was a Disciple-size God Wink.

The Bright-as-the-Sun clothes, the appearance of Moses and Elijah, the voice from heaven … were all about what?

Well, these disciples had seen Jesus’ miracles … His walking on water, His raising the dead, His calming storms, His feeding 5000 … they knew He had to be from God …

but they also knew Him to be a man.   And they knew that other men, most notably the two that they see appear with Jesus, had been known to do similar miracles… as men of God …

But for their eyes and ears only … this WINK was about assuring these three disciples that Jesus was MORE than a Moses or an Elijah… He IS the promised Messiah of which Moses and Elijah  … the Law and the Prophets … had spoken.

 And more than just a man …that Jesus IS God … in the Flesh.  “My Son,” says the voice from Heaven … the Chosen one promised since Mankind’s fall into sin.

“And now Peter … don’t get yourself all balled up in this “coincidence” and start wanting to building shelters … Just do one thing … Listen to Jesus!” 

And what does Jesus say …?  Well, less than ten verses later in Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells His disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears:  The son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”

Luke tells us that the disciples didn’t understand Jesus’ words.  They would later, but not then.  

And when that “then” came … Peter, James and John could take what they experienced on the Mountain to help them put it all together.  God had broken into their reality in such a way to assure them of Who Jesus is … and so that they could see that all that was happening was in accord with God’s Plan.

Their task was to believe that … and to help them to do so … they were told to listen to their Master.

So, what do we take away from all this?   First off … people like to talk about their mountain-top experiences.  Those kinds of experiences can be very spiritually energizing.   For many, those experiences are what they say keep them going when they have to descend down into the valleys of life.

That may be true.  Or that may be one perception.  Because if that were the way God would have the world work … then, ALL of Jesus’ disciples would have had that Mt. Top experience, just as they all shared the body and blood of Jesus at the Last Supper.

As we know … Mountain tops are closer to heaven … Mountain tops are the places where Moses and Elijah heard God’s voice.   All true … before Jesus came.

But now God says what?  Listen to Him.  And where is He?   On Mt. Sinai?  Or Mt. Nebo?  No, Jesus is right here in His Word … and He is Physically present in with and under the bread and wine in our supper this morning.

The Transfiguration moves us from seeking God up on the Mountains and the High places … to seeking Him and His Love in the person of His Son in this world.
 
God’s message to Peter, James and John … was: Jesus is God with US!    A God who did all this because He loves us so much that He would leave heaven … to come down and live with us in this messy world. 
And as we spoke earlier … A God so in love with us …that He makes Himself evident daily in all manners and fashions to demonstrate His presence and care.

And one wink of His is for certain.  We have it when we listen to Him as He says to us all:  “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

What happens up here at the altar every Sunday … is more than a wink … it’s a physical encounter … it’s a spiritual mountain top.  God comes to us in the very physical person of Jesus Christ to assure us of the Big Stuff … of the forgiveness of our sins … and to strengthen our faith in that … so that we recognize it as a Reality in this world.

And so then He argues from the Greater to the lesser … “If I can take care of the big stuff … why should you worry about the little stuff; the stuff that’s here today and gone tomorrow? 

Stop, look and listen this week… and see if God isn’t winking at you.

In Him,

Amen.