Rev. Paul Tellström                                                               Irvine United Congregational Church                          

Transfiguration C, “Amazing Grace”                                                                February 18, 2007

Hebrew Reading: Exodus 34:29-35                                                                    word count 1,512

Gospel: Luke 9:28-36

            Today is the mountaintop story—a story that appears every year just before Lent that reminds us that no matter where we are in our lives, we can still be transformed.  No matter how hard the journey, like Dr. King, we can go to the mountaintop and be changed.  Sometimes, it takes reaching the depths of life before that elevation can begin. 

The story behind “Amazing Grace” is about reaching just such a mountaintop, through the experience of John Newton, a slave trader turned preacher, hymnodist, and abolitionist.  This is the story I want to talk about today, as a new movie is being released this week that chronicles the story of the hymn that more of you listed as your favorite than any other.

            But first, in the Hebrew Testament, it is the story of Moses, who, after breaking the tablets in frustration with his people, and tired of leading in the wilderness, goes back up the mountain one more time, and he returns gleaming, changed, radiant—bearing the Ten Commandments to give law and structure to a people that had only known slavery and chaos.

            In Luke, the story of Jesus’ transfiguration is a strange one.  Jesus is teaching, healing, and moving around with his disciples, and then all of a sudden, Luke gives us this mountaintop story.  Jesus has predicted his death to his disciples; he has called on them to “take up their cross,” and has promised that some present will also see the realm of God.  Now he and the inner circle of disciples ascend “the mountain.” In Luke, Jesus always prays before an important event.

            An aura of unnatural brightness is linked with mystical appearances in the Bible—

“dazzling white” is a symbol of transcendence.  In Jewish tradition, both “Moses and Elijah” were taken into heaven without dying.  What Luke is telling us is that Jesus’ agenda is in accord with the Law (symbolized by Moses) and the prophets (symbolized in Elijah). “Two men” in dazzling white also appear at the resurrection and at the ascension.  Jesus’ “departure” (exodos in Greek) is his journey to Jerusalem and his passage from this world.  The “cloud” is a symbol of God’s presence.  The scene (which is a comparison with Moses and the Ten Commandments) recalls the presence of God’s grace; the giving of this grace from the mountain to the needy world; and the power of good over evil.

            The presence of grace, forgiveness, and the power of good over evil is the true story behind “Amazing Grace.”

John Newton was a slave trader.  He trafficked thousands of men, women and children from Africa to the auction blocks.  In 1748, a violent storm threatened to sink his ship and he fell to his knees and prayed to God for mercy.  It was that night that John Newton sensed that there is a God that hears and answers prayers, even for the worst of us.  Over time, Newton changed and became a preacher and writer of hymns. 

In 1772, he wrote a hymn called, “Faith’s Review and Expectation.”  This is the song we know as “Amazing Grace.”  It became one of the most famous songs in history.  It is a song with few notes that lifts the heads of the hopeless and softens the hearts of the hardened.  It was sung by both sides in the civil war, and was sung as a requiem by the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears.  Civil Rights protestors sang it defiantly during freedom marches, and again on that humid August day when Martin Luther King, Jr. shared his dream.  “Amazing Grace” rang out when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and when the Berlin wall came down.  On September 11, many of our churches, including mine, sang Amazing grace as comfort in that deep sense of shock and mourning we were all feeling. 

Over four thousand churches across the country have signed a pledge to sing it again today so that we might be more aware of the grace that allowed one man to turn from slave-trader into a visionary that sought an end to slavery.  And we sing it again so that we might be aware that slavery is still very much alive in the world; that awareness, and not complacency, but the action must follow as the only way that all men, women and children can be truly free to claim the rights due to all humankind.

Many people find it hard to believe that slavery still exists.  Whether it's bonded slavery with men, women and children toiling on plantations, in rice mills, brick kilns, and many other industries; or, the deplorable and rising trade in humans to serve as sex slaves, slavery is flourishing in many parts of the world.  It is still every bit as ugly as it was 200 years ago and it must end.

David Batstone, a frequent contributor to Sojourner’s, has written a new book called, “Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade.”  In it, he reveals that human trafficking generates $31 billion annually and enslaves 27 million people around the globe, half of them children under the age of eighteen.  Here, Batstone profiles the new generation of abolitionists who are leading the struggle to end this appalling epidemic. 

            We are the church famous for being among the first abolitionists, beginning with the Amistad event, which we will be talking about on March 11, Amistad Sunday.  Surely, we are still as committed to seeing an end to slavery, as we learn that there are proportionately many more slaves in the world today than there were at the height of our own slave trade.

I invite you to go and see “Amazing Grace.”  More than being the story of John Newton, it is the story of his protégé, William Wilberforce, who became a Member of Parliament when he was twenty-one, and worked throughout his life towards the abolition of slavery in England.  He was supported in this by his close friend William Pitt, who became the youngest British prime minister in history at the age of twenty-four.  When Wilberforce did not think it would be possible to achieve what he wanted to do because of his youth, Pitt told him, “Which is why we are too young to realize that certain things are impossible.  So we will do them anyway.” 

This is the spirit, the shining light that sets upon the visionary coming down from the mountaintop carrying truth to those of us who remain captive to the status quo.  And just as Wilberforce proved that one person can change the world, it cannot be done alone but in concert with the concerned voices of justice.  This is the underlying reason behind the request that churches all across the country should gather to sing this song today.  And this is why there is a petition on the patio asking you to sign on to ask Congress for action in using what influence we have as a country towards the ending of slavery.  The petitions will be delivered in March.

In the film, John Newton, played by Albert Finney, is blind, sick, and near the end of his life, when he receives a visit from his protégé Wilberforce.  He says, “I wish I could remember all of their names—my 20,000 ghosts.  They all had names—beautiful African names.  We called them with just grunts—noises.  We were apes, they were heroes.” 

Newton was writing about himself in the lyric, “Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me,” and noted the irony to his young friend in the words, “I was blind but now I see.  Did I really write that?  Now, at last, it’s true.”  Three days before he died, he heard that the slave trade was going to end, not only in England, but internationally.  That was two hundred years ago this March 2.

            It is the mountaintop experience that comes only after descending into the deepest depths.  It is the time we find ourselves on that mountaintop in close connection with the Power of Grace that fills us, and looks down with us at a needy world, reminding us of the power in doing good over evil, no matter what wretched places we have visited during our lifetimes.  I don’t know how that translates for you, if it does at all, but the story that is as old as Moses, says that after we have resigned ourselves to our deepest disappointments, our greatest failures and setbacks, we can still be lifted up to a place where we can yet shine. 

Somehow, unbelievably, we are still too young to realize that some things are impossible.  And so, by the grace of God, we do them anyway.  We overcome.  We build new lives.  We share that sense of grace that has been given to us.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, we have already come.  T’was grace that brought us safe so far, and grace will lead us home.

Before the Alleluia, let’s close in singing the last two verses of “Amazing Grace.”

Sermon Resources

The Amazing Change—A campaign to carry on William Wilberforce’s vision of mercy and justice: www.theamazingchange.com

Amazing Grace, the movie: www.amazinggracemovie.com

The American Anti-Slavery Group  www.iabolish.com

Scripture for Sunday, February 18, 2007

Transfiguration/Amazing Grace Sunday

Exodus 34:29-35

Moses came down from Mount Sinai.  As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.  When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.  But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them.  Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.  When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

 Luke 9:28-36

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.  And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.  Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.  They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.  Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.  Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings,  one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” not knowing what he said.  While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.  Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”  When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.