Transfiguration Sunday: Identity Theft

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

February 18, 2007

Ten million. Ten million. That is the number of Americans who were victims of identify theft in the last year. That’s a crime that just really grates on my nerves. I heard one of the latest scams is they call you up and they say, “You were assigned for jury duty. Why didn’t you show up?” And you say, “Well, there must be some mistake.” And so they say, “Well, if you just give us your social security number and your birth date, we’ll verify your schedule.” Then they have your information and the scam is on.

Identity theft. It’s despicable. Few people would know more about it than John Harrison, a Connecticut salesman who has spent over 2,000 hours trying to regain his life after having his identity stolen. “I had come up with a filing system,” says Harrison of his efforts to clear his name. Harrison was the victim nearly four years ago when a 20-year-old stole his identity and literally went for a ride. “Clothes, Home Depot, Sears, J.C. Penney, two cars from Ford, a Harley, a Kawasaki motorcycle,” says Harrison, listing off the purchases made in his name. About $265,000 in four months. The police arrested the thief and prosecuted him and he even went to prison for three years. The thief responded, “Sorry. You know if I could, I’d make it up to you.” But somehow that doesn’t seem like justice.

I must admit when I hear about identity theft, how some unfeeling thief steals your identity and accesses your account and charges up all kinds of expenses and empties your savings and your retirement, that really gets on my nerves. I just think that’s despicable. And the problem is even more widespread because recently, there’s been a security breach at a large data processing firm called Choice Point. It’s amazing to think about your identity being stolen. And as I read various stories about this, people were faced with the very real prospect of having to change their name because of the actions of a thief.

In the transfiguration, on that glorious mountain, it was all about Jesus’ identity. This is what it says, “As He was praying, the appearance of His face changed and His clothes became bright as the flash of lightening.” This story in our gospel reading is called the transfiguration. And every year in the church year, we remember this occasion, this dramatic event. It serves as a bookend on one end of Lent, the other bookend, of course, being the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. But here we are, Transfiguration Sunday, what is the point? What is the point of that dramatic experience where His appearance changed and they saw Moses and Elijah and heard the voice of God the Father? What is the point? The point is that at this time in the ministry of Jesus, His identity was in question. People would challenge what He would say. People would challenge who He thought He was and the things He was teaching. Some wondered if He might really be the Messiah. Others believed He was a prophet, one of the Old Testament prophets come back to life. Some people accused Him of doing blasphemy or teaching lies. Finally, the worst thought He was so despicable that He deserved death.

For this reason, to make His identity clear, Jesus took His closest circle of friends with Him on that holy mountain. Peter, James, and John were allowed to accompany Jesus. Listen to how Peter described that event later on in one of Peter’s letters. “But we were eye witnesses of His majesty. For 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.’ We ourselves have heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain.”

In this dramatic event, there are four keys that establish Jesus’ identity. First was His appearance. It says His appearance shone brighter than the sun, like lightening whiter than anyone could wash His clothes. Only God could be described in such glory.

The second key was the company He kept, Moses and Elijah, two prominent figures from the Old Testament. Moses, the great deliverer who delivered a whole nation of people from slavery in Egypt and who was also a Messianic figure used as a model of the one to come. And then Elijah, representing all the Old Testament prophets and also referred to in the Old Testament as a Messianic figure.

The third key to establishing the identity of Jesus was the content of the conversation. Moses and Elijah talked to Jesus about the exodus He would soon accomplish. Now remember, Moses was the one involved in the first exodus where that whole nation of Israelites were free from the powerful grip of slavery in Egypt. But Jesus would deliver and lead a greater exodus. Jesus would deliver the whole world, billions and billions of people. Jesus’ exodus would free them for eternity.

And the fourth key, establishing the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, was the words of God the Father, very simply, “This is my Son.” This event up on that sacred mountain firmly established the identity of Jesus in the minds of His three disciples, Peter, James, and John. To them, there was no doubt Jesus was the Messiah. They had seen and heard the evidence as eye witnesses. For Jesus’ followers, this was an important foundation in their faith and in the coming days, they would walk with Jesus through the trial and the crucifixion. They would witness terrible things and it would shake them, but they stood firm on the foundation of what they’d seen on the mountain. The transfiguration established the identity of Jesus as the Messiah who would come and deliver the world. The question about Jesus’ identity had been answered.

Now there are times in our lives when we wonder about our identity. Teenagers, for example, are trying all kinds of things. They’re pursuing different interests and they’re acting in new ways because they’re trying to establish their identity. When people lose a loved one, it’s a great challenge to their identity. For instance, they might ask the question, “Now that I’ve lost my spouse, who am I? Now that I’ve lost my parents, my whole world has changed. Now that I’ve lost my child, who am I?” The heaviness of the grief experience can become a defining moment. It can become something that becomes your focal point of your existence and you think of yourself only as that grieving person and the old you has been swallowed up by that moment.

Another experience that challenges our identity is retirement. As we approach retirement, we’re thinking all these wonderful thoughts, “Oh, I don’t have to do those things anymore. I’m free from that employment situation. Now I can do the things I like to do.” All kinds of thoughts like that. But what we have a hard time preparing for is when we’ve done the same thing for 30 or 40 years, that becomes a big part of who we are. And when we no longer do that, our identity seems to go with it.

The bible also speaks about our identity. We are all people who could be described in a spiritual sense as having bad credit. We are overwhelmed by the debt we have because of our sin. In the bible, Jesus uses a story to explain this debt. “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered he and his wife and his children and all he had be sold to repay the debt.” This is a description of what our debt is like. Because of our sin, we owe God more than we could ever pay. According to God and His Word, this is our identity, our identity crisis.

Now imagine that someone stole your identity, your spiritual identity. This person accessed your spiritual bank account and stole all your bad credit and assumed all your debt. That is exactly what Jesus did when He died on the cross. He took all of our sins. He hung, bled, and died as we deserved to and He paid for our sins on the cross. He was rich but for our sake, He became poor. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man. Though, for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Through faith, we have been changed. Our identity has been changed. Our spiritual bank account has been changed. It is as if we have exchanged identities with Bill Gates. Now we have unlimited access to God’s mercy and grace. Anytime we’re aware of our sin, we can simply go before our heavenly Father and confess that sin and instantly receive a word of forgiveness knowing that’s why Jesus died on the cross.

I remember when those ATM machines came out and you got your little debit card and things like that. I was just amazed. You could punch your numbers in this machine or put your card in this machine and out came money! The reality, of course, was that it was your money. And there was a limit to it, so you had to be careful and make sure you didn’t overspend what was in the bank account. Every month, you’d get a statement telling you that you’d made those withdrawals so you had to watch out or you could easily spend everything in the account before the next paycheck came.

With regard to our forgiveness in Jesus, we also need to be careful. Yes, we have this unlimited account of mercy and grace that we can access at any point in any place no matter what’s the sin and no matter how often we sin. But we have to be careful. We have to be careful that we don’t sin with the intention of confessing it later and so abuse this wonderful gift of God’s grace and mercy. And after we’ve confessed our sins, we pray for God to fill us with the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and equip us so we can fight against that sin next time, that we can battle that temptation.

By faith, our identity has been changed as it says in 2 Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come.” I like to read history and biographies and things like that and recently I was reading one about D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, a wonderful Christian teacher, and I thought it was very fascinating as he describes how he came to Christ and the experience and what that was like. So I’m going to read a portion of that to you today. “There was an excellent preacher where young Mr. Moody went to church. Dr. Kirk was an excellent preacher but young Moody was at a stage where all sermons sounded alike to him. Frequently, he would fall asleep during the service, at least until the occasion when he was suddenly awakened from his complete repose by a stern-faced deacon who, as he roused the lad from his slumbers, pointed to Dr. Kirk who was preaching in as much to say, ‘Keep your eyes focused on him.’ From that point on, he began to listen to the sermons and for the first time in his life, he felt the pastor was preaching to him.” And then it goes on to talk about his Sunday School teacher, a man who was just devoted to every student in his class, praying for them, thinking of them throughout the week. “This Sunday School teacher was not one of the ordinary type. Mere literal instruction on a Sunday did not satisfy his ideal of the teacher’s duty. He knew his boys and if he knew them, it was because he studied them because he became acquainted with their occupations and aims, visiting them during the week. It was his custom, moreover, to find an opportunity to give his boys an opportunity to use his experience in seeking the better things of the spirit. The day came when he resolved to speak to Mr. Moody about Christ and about his soul. ‘I started down to Holton’s Shoe Store,’ says Mr. Kimball. ‘When I was nearly there, I began to wonder whether I ought to just go in, then during business hours. And I thought maybe my mission might embarrass the boy, that when I went away and the other clerks might ask who I was and when they learned, they might taunt him. While I was pondering over it all, I passed by the store without noticing it. Then when I found I had gone by the door, I determined to make a dash for it and have it over at once. I found Moody in the back of the store, wrapping up shoes in paper and putting them on shelves. I went up to him and put my hand on his shoulder and as I leaned over and placed my foot on a shoe box, then I made my plea and I feel that it was a very weak one. I don’t know just what words I used nor could Mr. Moody tell. I simply told him Christ’s love for him and the love Christ wanted in return. That was all there was of it and I think Mr. Moody said afterwards that there were tears in my eyes. It seemed the young boy was just ready for the light that then broke upon him, for there at once in the back of that shoe store in Boston, the future great evangelist gave himself and his life to Christ.’ Many years afterward, Mr. Moody himself told the story of that day. ‘When I was in Boston,’ he recalled, ‘I used to attend a Sunday School class. And one day, I recollect my teacher came around behind the counter of the shop I was at work in and put his hand upon my shoulder and he talked to me about Christ and my soul. I had not felt I had a soul until then. I said to myself, ‘This is a very strange thing. Here is this man who never saw me until lately and he is weeping over my sins and I never shed a tear about them.’ But I understand it now. And I know what it is to have a passion for men’s souls and to weep over their sins. I don’t remember what he said, but I can feel the power of that man’s hand on my shoulder today.’”

That’s a life changed. Somebody who’s confessed their faith in Christ. You’re on one course and God touches them and now their course is different, changed, exchanged, a new identity by faith in Jesus.

You know, with this huge problem of identity theft, there are all kinds of companies now that are providing services to protect you. One is called Life Lock. I heard it on the radio and they said they are so confident of their service, the president of the company gives out his social security number publicly all the time to prove their service works. Well, in this world, it’s pretty frightening to think of having your identity stolen and all those things you’ve worked so hard for being used and spent by someone else. But with respect to our identity in Christ, we have no reason to be afraid. As those who are dearly loved, those whom Jesus died for, those who are forgiven and promised eternal life, the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the church at Rome, “Our identity is secure. Nothing can take it from us. Know in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” By faith, you have a new identity and that identity is secure. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church