How do I know this? Well... I was one of the school children. In fact, when she came, I was one of the Warwick High School cadets who helped to line the royal route in Toowoomba. She passed just about two metres in front of me! Truly, I saw her with my own eyes! I am sure of it! You can take my word for it!
Of course, in those days, we took what was reported in the papers as the truth - more or less! These days, I'm not so sure. We didn't watch the debate between Keating and Hewson on TV the other night - didn't catch it on video either. So we thought we had better read it up in the paper the next day. A good time, we thought, to find out the basic facts of the two sets of policies. We were sadly let down. I can't believe the two leaders said nothing about their policies, but apparently that was of no interest to the journalists and their editorial bosses - and they assumed that it would be of no interest to the voters either! The news report seemed like a collection of cleverly-written nonsense that carefully avoided saying anything of substance! At several points the journalists even seemed to be contradicting one another!
Peter has been writing of the importance of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was more than thirty years since the death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter realises that his own life and work are nearing an end. He is concerned about a threat of false teachers and writes to strengthen the Christians in their faith and practice so that they will be in a position to resist these false teachers and their immoral ways.
Some people are gullible - they will believe anything! This is why there has been concern to protect people from door-to-door salesmen. And now there are some bad experiences with mail order firms.
As Christians we have put our trust in the Scriptural record. We are depending on what it says about God's revelation of himself in history and in the person of his Son. Is that a sensible and proper thing to do? It is fashionable in the media to call the Christian faith in question, to lampoon Christians and the Christian faith and life. We may well find in the years ahead that we face a measure of persecution that has not been known in the English-speaking world for a very long time.
So Peter is recording his personal testimony, his guarantee of authenticity. The preaching of the good news about the mighty coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was not based on "made-up stories" - "cleverly devised myths" (RSV).
In 1941 Rudolph Bultmann circulated an essay entitled New Testament and Mythology. It sparked a long debate. Bultmann had decided that it is just mythical to talk about miracles of any kind or to accept the coming of God into our history. So he rejected, for example, the virgin birth of Jesus, his deity, resurrection and ascension. He thought there was something important about the stories, but they were not literally true. We have to "demythologise" the whole record so that modern people can accept the meaning behind the stories.
Now Peter clearly disagrees with Bultmann's point of view. He was about and ought to have known. He insists that they were consciously making known the literal truth of what happened - not cleverly devised myths. I was there! he says. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Notice what John says in the beginning of his first letter - "We write to you about the Word of life, which has existed from the very beginning. We have heard it, and we have seen it with our eyes; yes, we have seen it, and our hands have touched it... What we have seen and heard we announce to you also..."
These aren't made-up stories. We are giving it to you as it really happened.
Here is how Luke begins his gospel. "Dear Theophilus: Many people have done their best to write a report of the things that have taken place among us. They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message. And so, your Excellency, because I have carefully studied all these matters from their beginning, I thought it would be good to write an orderly account for you. I do this so that you will know the full truth about everything which you have been taught." There was a real concern about the truth - getting the literal historical facts straight. I think it quite likely that Theophilus was a lawyer preparing to defend Paul before the Roman authorities. The records in Luke and Acts had to be of an integrity that would stand up to the questioning and probing of a court of law.
Luke depended very much on other people who had seen these things. But Peter and John were eye-witnesses and they graphically remembered the time when, with James, Jesus had led them up a high mountain. "As they looked on, a change came over Jesus: his face was shining like the sun, and his clothes were dazzling white. Then the three disciples saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. So Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, 'Lord, how good it is that we are here! If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' (It was such a fantastic experience that he wanted to keep it by staying there for ever and ever. Have you ever had the kind of experience that you didn't want to stop?) While [Peter] was talking, a shining cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, 'This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased - listen to him!' When the disciples heard the voice, they were so terrified that they threw themselves face downwards on the ground. Jesus came to them and touched them. 'Get up,' he said. 'Don't be afraid!' So they looked up and saw no one there but Jesus" (Mt.17.2-8).
It is true! I was there! Peter is saying. I was an eye-witness - and an ear-witness! Jesus is the Son of God - and we must carefully listen to him!
The Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, have been subjected to the strictest and harshest criticism possible. We can't have video replays of the things that were said and done all those years ago. We are very dependent on the written records and they have come through the sceptical criticism very well. They do form a solid basis for our faith. We can depend on them.
Peter's experience on the mountain has given him an even greater confidence in the prophetic message in the Old Testament. Moses and Elijah were representatives of the Old Testament. On reflection, Peter could see the coming and message of Jesus as the continuation and fulfilment of the Old Testament writings. Luke specifically records that they were talking with Jesus "about the way in which he would soon fulfil God's purpose by dying in Jerusalem" (Lk.9.31). It is this continuity of theme and message in a collection of writings over a couple of thousand years that is so incredible.
So pay attention to the Scriptures - read them, absorb them, think about them, apply them.
Remember that the prophecies did not come out of the prophet's own imagination - literally, they did not come of one's own interpretation. They did not come because the prophet wanted to give a prophecy, but "men were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God". Peter is saying that the prophets were not conveying their own noble thoughts and interpretations - they were being carried along by the wind of the Spirit. Peter's experience on the mountain convinced him of this.
Most of our life isn't mountain but plain - sometimes it is just too plain and boring for us! The voice from the cloud had said, "This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased - listen to him!"
Sometimes we have wanted to live on the mountain, removed from real people and real problems - after all, we can pray for them better up here, because here in the rarified mountain air, we worship the Lord as he really is!
But the dazzle in Jesus' face and clothes disappeared and they descended to the plain - and to a sick boy, an anxious father, a waiting crowd and a group of bewildered and unbelieving disciples.
We have to learn to read the Word, believe it and depend on it. We are called to live out most of our lives on the plain. We have to learn to trust the Lord and to do his will without a dazzling vision before us. Sometimes (but rarely) we may have an extraordinary experience of God's presence and power - but we can't live there on the mountain. The experience is to bring encouragement or comfort - but especially to point us to Jesus - to believe in him, to listen to him, to obey him.
Sometimes we long for the "mountain top," when what we need is a "plain" faith!
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