All of us live by a story or a narrative that forms how we see the world and ourselves. Most of the time we are unaware of the story that guides our every action and thought.

We just think that the way we see the world is the way the world is.

And usually, the story by which we live our lives is the story our wider culture tells us is the way the world is.

So, our narrative is reinforced by the world around us.

But what if the story by which we and our culture are living our lives is not the way the world has to be?

What if the story by which we and our culture are living our lives is actually harming us and the world around us?

What if we really need a different story?

Andrew Root, a professor at the Lutheran Seminary in Minneapolis, has written a series of books that have articulated for me the dominant cultural story of our day, the story that forms who we are and how we function in the world and just how harmful this story has become.

But he doesn’t stop there.

He goes on to explain an alternate story, God’s story, in a way that offers us all a new story, a better story, a true story that can form our lives and our being in this world in a way that brings healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, and hope.

According to Root and the various philosophers, theologians, and sociologists he references we are living in a time in which we deny as a culture the possibility of the transcendent, the other, something beyond ourselves, and the center of our world is the Self.

If there is nothing greater than us, then we become the greatest thing.

If there is nothing out there beyond us that created us and will save us, then we become our own creator and our own savior.

Our worth and value are then measured in how great we can make ourselves. And we judge how great we are by how others respond to us.

Life becomes a performance, a struggle to be the best at whatever our unique selves are meant to be.

And we are solely responsible for our Self.

If we become a magnificent Self, this is because we put in the work.

We put in the time.

We created our magnificent Self.

If we are less than magnificent this is because we failed.

And we feel guilt.

We beat our Self up for being less than magnificent.

Religion becomes unnecessary unless it helps us create more magnificent Selves.

It is simply another tool among many in service of the Self.

It is just one more spirituality that can serve the Self in its journey to magnificence.

Root goes on to describe the two dominant kinds of Selves we, in the early 21st century in America, are seeking to create.

The first is the self of the inner genius.

In this story we all come into this world unique, magnificent, amazing.

We need to create a world in which this inner magnificence, this inner genius, can shine.

Freedom to be whoever we are is essential.

And then within this freedom we need to work relentlessly to become the genius we were meant to be.

So, we need to find our innate gifts and passions and pursue these with unflagging energy, and we will find the happiness we long for.

When we fail to achieve the levels of genius we know that our Self is capable of, we enlist the help of life coaches, therapists, spiritual gurus, and sometimes yes even organized religion to get us back on track.

Our Inner Selves and the Inner Selves of everyone around us must flourish because after all human flourishing is all there is in this story where there is nothing beyond our Selves.

The second dominant story in our world today is the story of the heroic self.

This story scoffs at the idea that the key to happiness is a world in which everyone has the freedom to be who they are at their deepest level.

This is simply an attempt by the educated elites to keep the strong from exercising their strength.

And it is strength that brings happiness to the heroic Self.

This story also denies that there is anything beyond the Self.

In that sense it resembles the story of the inner genius, but this story finds the road to happiness in merit, strength, and overcoming obstacles.

It is still a story in which the Self must perform and prove itself to be magnificent, but the magnificence comes not through uniqueness and genius but through strength and heroic action.

So those at the top of the heap—whether it be on the playing field, the battlefield, in industry, politics, or any other playing field—are there because they earned it.

Those at the top of the heap are there because they were the strongest, the toughest, the hardest workers.

They are the heroes.

If you aren’t at the top, that is because you were weak.

And don’t go seeking the help of some life coach or spiritual guru, that is just more elite weakness.

Dig deeper.

And I think Root would agree that these two dominant stories are not bringing us the peace and happiness we thought they would.

These two dominant stories are burning us out and ruining our planet.

Indeed, these two dominant stories might just bring about the end of humanity as we use up the natural world in our relentless quest to become our magnificent Selves.

For the quest for magnificence is never ending and unachievable.

There is always another performance awaiting us.

We never get to rest.

There will always be someone else more magnificent than us.

And in the end, we will all face suffering, aging, ill-health, loss, and death.

We might achieve magnificence for a moment, but no one can achieve it forever.

In our denial of transcendence, we will try to create it in ourselves, because we need transcendence, and we will fail because we cannot create it in ourselves.

And so, Root offers a third option, a third story by which we can live our lives.

And we sitting here this morning, whether we realize it or not, whether we live by this third story or not, already know this story.

For it is the story that religion tells.

It is the story that Christianity proclaims.

It is the story of that which is beyond all selves, that which is beyond all creation.

What if there is something beyond what we can perceive with our senses?

What if the Self isn’t all there is.

What if there is something greater than human flourishing?

What if there is something beyond death?

What if the magnificence we crave for our Selves doesn’t exist within us but instead outside us in the One who created us?

What if we are creatures made to be loved by the One who created us?

What if happiness and peace are found in surrender to the One who is truly magnificent?

What if happiness and peace are found not in the action of the magnificent Self but in the action of the magnificent God?

What if in the midst of the pain and suffering of life, a pain and suffering that we cannot save ourselves from no matter how hard we try, there is a healing and transforming light that can break in and give us the healing and peace that we so desire.

What if the purpose of this life is not to create our Selves but to prepare us for encounter with the One who created us?

And what if the only way we can encounter the One who created us is to let go of our Selves, to surrender, to acknowledge that we are not in control, we are not the creator, we are not magnificent, we are limited, we are not God?

What if the only way we can receive the One who created us is to stop all performance and confess that we have no power within ourselves, no power over suffering, no power over death?

And what if this is exactly where the One who created us meets us and brings life out of that death?

This is the story that our Scriptures tell.

This is the story that Christianity tells.

This is the story in our Gospel reading for this morning.

The story of Jesus’ transfiguration and his meeting with Moses and Elijah is strange to our 21st century ears.

In a world where transcendence does not exist, where God is not real or irrelevant, this story sounds made up or magical.

Surely it didn’t really happen.

Either those first followers of Jesus made it up or they didn’t understand some real physical phenomenon that they witnessed so they explained it in a magical way.

But we, 21st century educated, intelligent, knowledgeable and magnificent Selves know more than they did way back then.

People do not exude light.

Dead people do not appear and speak to living people.

Voices do not come from nowhere and speak.

The only thing that can cause any Self to experience these things has to come from within—psychosis, mental illness, or hallucinogenic drugs.

But if we believe the story that there is something beyond us, beyond humanity, beyond creation, then it is possible that something greater than us broke into the world of Jesus and Peter and John and James.

If we believe that true glory comes not from within but from the One who created us, then that glory can break in whenever and however it chooses.

If we confess that we are not God, that we are the created and not the Creator, that we are not in control, that we cannot save our Selves, then it will not seem so strange to us that the One who created us might choose to break into our broken world in order to save us.

We will understand that there is a hiddenness to this world that is a mystery, that is beyond our understanding that is pulsing just beneath the surface of things that has the power to transfigure even the darkest of darks.

Our lives will not become free of suffering.

Our Selves will not become magnificent.

But we will find the healing we so desire and the purpose that matters.

When the living God encounters us as happened on the mountain for Jesus, James, John and Peter so many years ago, we will find our lives transformed and we will know that the only choice we have is to join the living God as this God seeks to transform the lives of others all around us.

We are found by the glorious One who exists beyond us in our acceptance of our un-magnificence, our creatureliness, our brokenness, and we are transformed into Selves who join with the action of the glorious One who brings power out of powerlessness, strength out of weakness, love out of hate, life out of death.

If we choose to live our lives by this third story, this story in which the Beyond breaks into our broken world, we will find ourselves living in a different world from people who do not live by this story.

It is a choice to walk a different path.

That is why we need each other so much, because it is not easy to walk to the beat of a different drummer.

And we need each other because more often than not it is through each other that God will reveal God’s self to us.

Together we can practice the confession that we are not magnificent.

We can share with one another our broken selves.

We can practice receiving.

We can share with one another our stories of God breaking into our broken lives.

And we can walk together into the world hand in hand to be in solidarity with all the other broken human beings out there.

Jesus, James, John and Peter do not go up on that mountaintop individually.

They go up in community.

They pray.

They receive.

They do nothing to earn the glory revealed to them.

And God tells Peter, James and John to listen.

Not to first act.

But instead to first listen.

That is why we are here this morning.

We are here to confess in community that we are not magnificent and to receive God’s glory.

We are here to support each other in following this alternate story–this story that has the power to bring life where there was no life.

To bring purpose where all purpose was lost.

To bring love where we thought there was only hate.

We did not have the ability to create ourselves.

We do not have the ability to save ourselves.

But we do get to choose what kind of stories form our lives.

We do get to choose our beliefs.

And by the power of our beliefs, we choose what kind of world we live in.

The world will continue to tell us that all that is real is what we can see and that we are the center of that world.

I don’t know about you, but that story has worn me out.

That story has left me hungry and thirsty for something more.

That story has not given me transformation and life.

And that story has certainly not made our world a better place.

What is true and real to me is that I am not in control.

I am far from magnificent.

I did not create myself.

I cannot save myself from the very real pain, suffering, and death that life brings to all of us.

And in the midst of all of this, I have experienced life, I have experienced love, I have experienced joy, I have experienced healing.

And this goodness has never come from within me.

It has always broken in when I least expected it.

It has always come in the midst of my darkest times.

And I thank God for the light that breaks into my darkest of darks.

I choose to embrace this story in which light breaks into even the darkest of places.

What story will you choose?