Mount Tabor

Do You Have a “Little” Jesus?

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

A customer came in the shop last week and on the way out the door he went around to several of the staff and to me and gave us all a “little” Jesus. You know the one I’m talking about, right? Yeah, that little 1″ plastic Jesus you can keep in your pocket. That one!

My wife has one on the dashboard of her car. The pharmacy where I get my medicine has about a dozen of them across the drive-thru window (and a “little” Mary, too–for the Catholics, I suppose). And now, five of my staff and I have a little Jesus.

This is not meant to be a knock on the concept of the “little” Jesus. It’s actually a very heartwarming trend designed to remind folks of the message of love, hope and faith. Folks are purchasing these in bulk to hide in places like public parks, grocery stores, and, in some cases, the U.S. Capitol, as a way to share their faith and remind people that they are loved.

It’s quaint. It’s cute. It’s encouraging. I was grateful to the customer who gave them to us. I appreciate his effort to encourage us and remind us that Jesus loves us. It even gave me the idea that I should keep a bag of them in the shop to give to customers occasionally.

My fear, however, is that the “little” Jesus becomes a distortion of our view of the real Jesus–the One who was revealed on Mount Tabor (so says tradition) in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s transfiguration (see Mark 9:2-13, Luke 9:28-36 and Matthew 17:1-8).

Peter’s View

What do I mean? I mean that I don’t want my view of Jesus to be like Peter’s view before the encounter on the mountain. What does Mark tell us:

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) Mark 9:5-6 NIV

It’s Mark’s parenthetical phrase that captures me–“He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.” Peter is not being profound. He is being scared. And when people are scared in the presence of something they cannot explain, they try to manage it.

Peter’s suggestion sounds spiritual — build shelters, preserve the moment — but underneath it is this instinct: Let’s contain this. Let’s freeze this glory. Let’s put Jesus on equal footing with Moses and Elijah.

We do the same thing. We want a “little” Jesus. Nope! The transfiguration blows that view out of the water.

When Jesus disrupts our assumptions, we try to domesticate Him. We turn Him into a manageable advisor instead of a sovereign Lord. We build theological tents that keep Him from challenging us. We say, “I’ll listen to Jesus — but also to culture. Also, to my preferences. Also, to whatever feels comfortable.”

Peter wanted three equal shrines. God the Father would have none of it.

No “Little” Jesus

Let us have none of it either. Let the “little” Jesus remind us of the Jesus revealed on the mountain. Let it remind us of the One who was from the beginning (John 1:1), and the One whom Peter remembered when he wrote the early Church:

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.”[b] 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18 NIV)

You and I do not live on mountains of visible glory. Yes, we have mountaintop moments in life. Like Peter, our lives are rollercoasters. The truth is we live more mundane Mondays and ordinary Tuesdays.

We live in doctor appointments. In business pressures. In strained relationships. In cultural confusion. But the command from the cloud still stands: “Listen to Him.”

There are so many voices competing for our allegiance. Voices telling us what matters most. Voices telling us what success is. Voices telling us what truth is. Voices telling us how to define morality. But when the noise clears (or the cloud, as it were), there is one voice that carries divine authority—Jesus only. Listen to Him.

When we are deciding whether to forgive or hold a grudge — don’t think we have a little Jesus. We have Him who forgave us completely. When we are tempted to cut ethical corners — don’t think we have a little Jesus. When suffering enters our life and we do not understand — we don’t have a little Jesus.

When fear creeps in about the future — we don’t have a little Jesus. We have a Jesus who is big enough to hold our future in His hands. When we wonder what really matters at the end of our life — we have a Jesus who is as big as God because He is God.

Eventually everything else fades. Careers fade. Health fades. Applause fades. Even religious systems fade. But, when the cloud lifts, and the mountain empties —there is Jesus! Larger than anything in this life. That’s the Jesus for me!

Keep your “little” Jesus (seriously, I mean keep him–I will), but keep him because he reminds you of the One who saves us from our sins, reconciles us to the Father, rose from the dead and will come again in the same glory that was revealed on the mountain that day.

Until next time, keep looking up…

On the Glory of God and AI…

/ pastorlynnmalone / 1 Comment

So, this is Transfiguration Sunday, which in the Christian calendar, is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It was serendipitous (providential?) that our Bible in a Year readings for the week included Mark’s account of Jesus’s transfiguration.

I thought it would make good sermon fodder (it being Transfiguration Sunday and all), though Luke’s Gospel is the Revised Common Lectionary‘s chosen text for 2025. I’m committed to preaching from one of the texts we read in a given week, so Mark’s account it is.

As part of my preparation, I always go back and leaf through my sermon files to see what I’ve preached before. I found a sermon from Luke’s Gospel that I preached in 2007 (see it here). I had three points in that message from 2007:

  • Jesus was unique in His person.
  • Jesus was unique in His mission, and
  • Jesus was unique in His message.

Why am I telling you this? Because of what I did later in my preparation. I went to ChatGPT and put this in the chat box: “Sermon on Mark 9: 2 – 10.” Do you know what ChatGPT returned? A three-point sermon. What were the three points? In order, they were:

  • A Revelation of Christ’s Identity,
  • A Confirmation of Christ’s Mission, and
  • A Call to Christ’s message.

It was, basically, my sermon from 2007 sans the illustrations. Needless to say, I was as speechless as Peter was on Mount Tabor that day. It made me think ChatGPT has been reading my mail! Then I thought, “Well, yeah, that’s exactly what Artificial Intelligence does!”

As I understand it, Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence by computers. Admittedly, I don’t really understand it, but this much I know: AI is a machine, and a machine can only spit out what is put into it (I’m sure some computer geek out there will correct me), and someone, somewhere has somehow input all the information that’s ever been published online, so that when I put in “Sermon on Mark 9: 2 – 10,” it spit out a sermon very close to the sermon I wrote in 2007, and that countless other preachers have probably written, too over the centuries. Because that’s what AI does.

I’ll admit, AI is special. It is (and will be going forward) life-changing, maybe even earth-shattering. We might even call it a glorious discovery. AI is not, however, nearly as glorious as the discovery Peter, James and John made on the mountain with Jesus that day–that day they discovered God’s glory in human form.

Of this much I’m certain: Even if AI takes over the world (some say it will), it will never overcome the glory of God. One day, even AI will bend the knee (hypothetically speaking) to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let AI take over the world, for His Kingdom is not of this world. This world and all its wisdom will one day pass away and its glory will be gone, but the glory revealed on Mount Tabor will shine for all eternity.

So, yes, I have a sermon for today, and yes, it is from Mark 9: 2 – 10, but no, it was not written by AI. If you want to hear it, you’ll have to come to Haughton Methodist Church at 10:30 a.m.

Until next time, keep looking up…