Provenance

 Ezekiel 36: 25-27

Ephesians 4: 12-25

Matthew 17:1-9

Provenance

The last couple of weeks have brought us hours of pictures from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya. Can any of us ever forget the images from Cairo's Tahrir Square? Or the monstrous Muammar al-Gaddafi, also known as Colonel Gaddafi, speaking to his people from the back seat of an automobile holding a white umbrella?

But the one that may stick the longest for me is the human ring of ordinary men and women standing guard around the Cairo Museum, making a barrier of bodies all the way around the perimeter of the building. Word had spread that the night before a small but clumsy gang of looters had broken into the museum, stealing some objects, stupidly destroying others.

A youthful crowd of protestors responded by rushing to protect the building and the priceless items it housed. Why did they do this? It is doubtful there were very many worshipers of Amon Ra or any of the other ancient Egyptian gods and pharaohs that those museum relics celebrate. So why did they protect the museum with their very bodies?

These Egyptian people did not rally around the museum simply because of the religious relics. They were protecting their own history, the stories and symbols of who they were as a people, of where they had been, and what they had done. They were guarding their historic identity. Every item in that museum had its own special "provenance," its own place in the story of their world. That provenance was the treasure they banded together to protect. The value of the relics was not just in the objects themselves, but in the history they reveal.

Provenance is a word that means "to come from". It means the origin, or the source of something, or the history of the ownership or location of an object.  We tend to protect what is most precious to us.

Any "Antiques Road Show" addicts here? Myrna and I watch it periodically, and I am amazed at times at what value is given for items I consider ugly and would discard out of ignorance. What is it that gives an object its value? Why does one item I might see as ugly have a value of thousands and another much more beautiful item is said to be worth just a few dollars. If you've ever seen just one episode, you know that it is the "provenance," the verifiable stories of the persons who interacted with the items brought in, that makes an item valuable or a possession priceless. A Civil War era rifle has value as an antique, and it has a little more if it is an item actually used in that particular war. But a Civil War rifle that is known to have been in the hands of a general who was part of the battle of Gettysburg would have far more value. That's called "provenance”.  With "provenance" an item that was relatively common when first made becomes valuable.

This week's gospel text is Matthew's version of a pivotal "transfiguration" event that marks the beginning of a new phase in Jesus' mission and ministry that gave increased provenance to that mission. But that event also gave increased provenance to the faith of Peter, James, and John. It had such provenance to Peter that he was going to build shelters so that the whole experience could be preserved and protected. He didn’t want to come down off the mountain. But Jesus led them back down from the valley to begin their journey anew, back into the everyday world.  

Have you ever had a “mountain top experience” with your faith?  An experience so awesome, so moving, so life changing it was hard to fully comprehend at the time?  Or have you ever had an experience that has changed you into someone very different than you were before? An experience that gave your faith provenance, as the source of, or the real origin of your faith, or as an experience that gave greater value and adds significantly to your life of faith?

A young woman made an announcement one morning to her co-workers, "My honeymoon is over and I am so relieved. Now we can get on with our marriage." She was not saying the honeymoon was awful. Undoubtedly it was wonderful, and certainly life changing. But I suspect it was also very busy, very intense, very different from their normal lives. I have heard people say they were glad to be home from a good vacation as well, even joking that they were glad to go back to work so they could rest up. That's the way it is with our mountaintop experiences. We can't live there forever. The light is too bright, the pace maybe too frantic, and the experience simply too intense, too difference.

It is a relief to return to normal lives where we can be ourselves and let others be themselves, but that doesn't mean the honeymoon is forgotten or that change hasn’t happened. Just because we don't live on the mountain all the time doesn't mean we forget what happened on the mountain.  There is one thing all mountain top experiences have in common. They demand that we change. Those moments have something to say to us, to teach us. Those provenance moments change us irreversibly, and become the source of new life for us, giving our lives new value.

Mountain top experiences are transformative. Although we may come down from the high, we will never be quite the same. And if we share our story with others, we can keep the new life fresh and our lives will never fall back to where they were before.  We are changed.

I wonder though, in Matthew’s story, who really was changed? Did Jesus change? I don’t think so. He was before, and remained after, the Son of God. His mission did not change either. He began a new path, one leading to Jerusalem for the last time, and he began to speak more often and more clearly about what his future would bring. He revealed himself more clearly thereafter. The real change began in Peter, and John, and James. Their experience on that mountain top became part of their faith provenance, part of their new story with great value they would pass on to others as they shared the message of Christ.

Their initial relationship with Jesus gave the disciples provenance that helped spread Christianity throughout the world at their time. The experience of Peter, James and John on the mountain added to that provenance, that special value. The gospels are full of their special experiences with Jesus that added to the value of their story.  Every new experience you have with Christ adds to the value, the provenance, of your story. 

Most often those new experiences with Christ, the ones that lift you up toward the mountain top, come as you seek out opportunities to share God’s love with others through your actions, through doing the work God needs you to do in relationship with others.  That is how you add to your faith provenance.

So what is it that gives your life provenance? What is it that gets you going each day when you get out of bed? In what do you place your daily faith that directs your life and gives it value? Is it your job? Is it your family? Is it your hobbies? What is it that gives your life the most significance, and therefore the most provenance, the most lasting value? If it is not your experiences with the living Christ, then your faith is hollow and will have no provenance 100 years from now.

If you go to our nation’s capital, you can visit the National Archives and see the actual Declaration of Independence, the original document with the original signatures in the original ink. It is well protected. You can go to the National History Museum and see the actual flag flown over Baltimore harbor during the war of 1812, the flag that gave inspiration for our National Anthem.  It is well preserved and protected. We tend to protect those things most valuable to us.

But that Declaration of Independence would have no meaning if it had not been shared with others. You can get copies of it, read those copies—they are just copies but the words still have their full meaning. Students learn it in school. What gave the Declaration of Independence provenance was the fact that those words spread all across the colonies, and were read and heard and acted upon. Otherwise it would just be another piece of parchment with fading ink. It would have had no value whatsoever if it had been locked away and never spoken about or acted upon.

Likewise, your faith in Christ has no provenance unless it is shared. Your faith experiences are useless unless shared with others by the way you love, the actions you take, the words you say, to those who do not yet know Christ as their Savior and Lord. The transfiguration experience of Peter, James and John would have no value except they shared the experience with others. The provenance of that experience for Peter, James, and John is such that you and I are here, 2000 years later reading and reflecting about it. If you do not share your faith experiences with others, they are certainly useless to God. Who 10 years from now, 20, 50 years from now will look back upon your faith as having provenance?

What experiences have you had and who have you encountered that made your own faith "priceless”? What's your story? What gives your story significant value to others? What is the source of your life of faith?  If we have accepted Christ as our Savior and Lord each of us has our own "faith provenance" that we need to share and celebrate, because it has value beyond ourselves. What is your "provenance story"? 

Amen