2 Peter 1:16-21

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Sermon Text

“Myth,” is a complicated word. We often use it to talk about something that is false. If I talk about the “Mythical,” event which is buying a perfectly ripe pear from the store, you know I am saying that a perfectly ripe pear is such a fleeting reality it might as well not exist. Likewise, urban “myths,” refer to the stories that are told that are obviously false, but that persist despite evidence. Things like razorblades in apples or fentanyl on dollar bills – stories shared without evidence but believed because they sound like they could be true. A “myth,” is a falsehood… Except when it isn’t.

“Myth,” is also a technical term. Myth refers to stories about interactions between gods and humanity that explain natural phenomena. In this usage, “myth,” does not mean false, it means not scientific or historical. It is a way of talking about the world that is not verifiable through usual means, but is true to the one telling it hrough faith. The first twelve chapters of Genesis are “myth,” insomuch as they are stories that describe interactions like this. They are not untrue, but they are non-scientific or historical. They reveal a truth that is not easily grasped by people outside the faith that proclaims them.

I go through this process of explaining myth because the passage we read today tells the people of God to avoid, “cleverly devised myths.” The myth in question cannot be the second usage of the word – explaining God’s work through a story – so it must be the former usage, a false story. The word in Greek is not overly helpful for us trying to understand its meaning. “Mythos,” can refer to a false story, a rumor, or gossip – it is all contextual what the term can mean. The point of it in our passage today is that God’s people are being tricked into false stories about God that they need to recuse themselves from. A thing that we are equally likely to do today, if we are honest about our own habits.

We have already talked about the need to keep our devotion simple and to be careful in the words we listen to and the words we say. Today, as we wrap up our short series on God’s truth, we come to a more general need. We must refute false myths about God as much as we refute false teachings or narratives. We as a Church are taken in by stories that sound good, but that have no basis in our doctrine, scripture, or faith. We are sold books, movies, and interviews that claim all kinds of things about God that simply are not true.

I begin with a simple example. Every year at Christmas, a story is told in pulpits and online that wows people. It tells of the special shepherds who lived in Bethlehem, and how they would swaddle lambs and place them in mangers to protect them for sacrifice. They then, when they heard the angels say there was an infant wrapped in swaddling cloth, would know he was the Lamb of God and seek him in the place they placed their own lambs – the manger.

It’s a beautiful story… But it’s all made up. We have no evidence of even one part of the story. Yet, it remains popular. Why is that? Because it sound nice. It makes the Christmas story have an element of magic to it that the regular story does not convey. The shepherds come to worship Jesus for an esoteric reason that, now that we know it, we can also share with people. This false knowledge makes us feel like insiders to a deeper truth, even though it pushes us further from understanding.

This is not the only kind of myth like this. I have heard many stories told at funerals that are completely made up, but presented as facts. Each year at Palm Sunday an imaginary parade held by Pilate is talked about from pulpits of well-meaning ministers. Stories of people who “died” and saw Heaven are shared constantly. In our era of AI Slop, stories of miracles and holy meetings of strangers are made up and shared out without pause. We are in love with myths, with false stories that can seriously mess up our view of God and scripture. Yet, we seek them out for the feeling of comfort they give – of secret knowledge and of clearer explanations.

This is also why conspiracy theories are so popular. They provide a clear explanation of the world, while simultaneously making us feel like we know something secret that other people are missing out on. Whether it’s about vaccines, pizza places, or red dye #40; to claim secret knowledge that explains the world as having just a few problems that could be easily dealt with is incredibly appealing. One of my favorite bands, They Might be Giants, has song that explains this now. The singer, being disappointed by life, by elected officials, by the general misfortunes that befall him, cries out, “Where’s the Shadow Government, when you need them.”[1] In other words, the world would be so much less chaotic if only conspiracies were true. The chaos and trouble of this world would not be so bad, if only there was someone to blame for it.

In faith and in life generally, we do not need this kind of myth making. Truth is complicated and messy, it asks an awful lot of us, but it is worth chasing after. It will give us life in a way the easy answers we invent never could. There is freedom in truth, and there is no more beautiful and freeing truth than what our faith reveals to us – not in myth – but in reality.

You see, in truth our life is full of beautiful real stories of God’s work. Scripture tells us about the wonderful things that God has done and they do not need to be embellished. Why do we tell a false story about shepherds and swaddling cloth, when the real story is so amazing! God was born as a human baby, with all the frailty and difficulties that come from such a birth. That is amazing! We meet monthly to come to God’s table and Christ is present in the meal we eat.

We meet God, face to face, at least once a month. That’s amazing! When we die, though we lack details on what exactly it is like, we are present with God and all the Saints. That’s amazing! We do not need to embellish the work of God, because it is amazing without our editorial voice.

We have talked this month about simple truth and the importance of words. I want to tell you now about the importance of story. You have your own stories of what God has done in your life. You may think that they are not important enough or that they do not have the nice narrative structure of the stories you hear online or on the radio. Well, the truth is very few stories are so nicely dressed up as the ones put out in print. Myth creeps in, exaggerations here or simplifications there. A well-polished testimony has been streamlined to make it seem a little more magical, because the rough edges are too real, and do not play to an audience as well.

Our scripture reminds us of the stories that were told in the early church. Eyewitness accounts of Jesus’s glory. Not myths, not blemishless narratives with smoothed out edges, but the full and unedited truth of what God has done. Read the Gospels and you do not get neat stories, they are not cleanly written. There are weird details added, situations that make disciples and sometimes Jesus seem different from what we would expect. Now, look at your own life, look at what God has done. It’s not a clean story, is it? It’s messy and weird and a little complicated. Yet, there is more truth and value in sharing your story, then in a hundred books written to sell a narrative about God. You are eyewitnesses to God’s glory. Share that out.-Amen

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[1] “The Shadow Government,” track 8 on They Might Be Giants , The Else, Idlewild Recordings, 2007.