Beyond the Feel-Good God

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Transfiguration of Our Lord, February 15, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Kind of a neat coincidence this week as I was thinking about this text that a report came out in the British magazine, The Spectator. I'll read just a paragraph or so from it.

The Spectator: "Many teenagers today find Christianity off-putting because Jesus seems too fond of ‘mansplaining’. He appears to have a ‘God complex’, while the Almighty is alienating on account of being ‘really violent and aggressive’.

These are the findings in the report Troubling Jesus, the third part of Youthscape’s ‘Translating God’ project, based on a recent survey of 14- to 17-year-olds.

Drawing on five reading groups, in which teenagers reacted to passages of scripture traditionally understood as conveying ‘good news’, Youthscape faced reactions ‘radically different’ from what it says might have been expected."

They're approaching the question as saying, we have these scriptures. Now teenagers: come and tell us what they mean. And if you don't like them, tell us so and maybe we will change them!

And St. Peter tells us that scripture and prophecy is not a matter of one's own interpretation.

Expectations from Jesus

Fundamentally, what's at the core of this is the question of what is it that we came to Jesus expecting to see. What is it that you were looking to receive from Jesus?

Did you hope to receive a buddy patting you on the back for your good behavior? Did you hope to see a God who would make you feel better about the problems that you have in your life? Or were you looking to come to the one who is the incarnate Lord and God?

What is it exactly that you came to Jesus expecting to see? You see, because Jesus tells us and the scripture tells us repeatedly in our lessons this morning that Jesus comes not to fulfill our expectations, but to fulfill God's expectations.

Not to satisfy us with what he says, but rather to tell us the truth, that there would be a Messiah, that we are sinners who need a Savior, that God's rescue mission would be completed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

He did not come to fulfill human expectations. Whatever those may be, he came to be who he is.

It's not a matter of your interpretation, nor is it a matter of mine. It is a matter of the interpretation of the scriptures themselves, which come to us and tell us of a God, not who is simply coming to make us feel better about ourselves, but to tell us the truth, the truth about sin and grace, the truth about our failings and God's love.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism Explained

Today, there is a term that gets used — and I'll unpack it, so don't worry if you've never heard this term before. I have mentioned it before in my sermons, but I think it's worth repeating today that there is an alternative to Christianity that walks around in our country today.

It walks around in this community today. It wears the outside clothing of Christianity, but it is fundamentally anti-Christian in its orientation. It is sometimes called by experts Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

That's a lot. That's a lot of 25-cent words there, but it's actually quite simple.

• Moralistic refers to a God who feels as if you should do good and not do evil, which we would say God is all about that. We should do good and we should avoid evil, but that's all that God is concerned about. Be a good person, and he makes it possible. He says you can be a good person, and you should work really hard to be a good person, and the worst part of it is this. The definition of good person is whatever you say it is. So if God is against this particular sin or that one, it is only because you are against that sin, but if you are somebody who, say, falls victim to lust or the temptation to greed, well, in your case, it's just a little tiny slight mistake.
• Therapeutic, because it speaks of a God who is primarily concerned with making us feel better, not with telling us the truth about our sinful condition, nor of providing for us the antidote, which is, in the case of Jesus Christ, only comes from outside ourselves. The antidote to our sin problem, such as it is, comes from outside ourselves from the hand of Jesus Christ, and his work on the cross, not our own goodness, or merit. But the God of moralistic therapeutic deism says that God's primary purpose is in making you feel better about yourself, and so he is a God who is always available to you when you are sad, and other than that has very little to do with your life.
• Deism perhaps needs the most careful explanation, because it's not a term that you and I use in our regular everyday lives. This term refers to a God who is like a master clockmaker, who constructs an intricate universe, like a master clockmaker making a beautiful mantle clock, and after having constructed in all its perfection, this beautiful clock, he winds it up until it begins to run, and he sets it on the mantle, and admiringly, he steps back, and he never touches it again. A God who has created the universe, yes, God is the Creator, but a God who has wound up the universe and does not intervene even when the clock winds down and begins to tell incorrect time.

The True God Contrasted

Perhaps we're looking for a hands-off God who will only intervene when we want him to intervene, only challenge us and question our decisions when we want to be questioned and challenged, and let's face it, folks, we don't want to be challenged and questioned very often.

You see the God of moralistic therapeutic deism speaks of a Creator, speaks of sin and grace, speaks of even law and gospel and Jesus Christ, but it is not the God of the Scripture.

This God whom we proclaim in this church will be none of these things. Yes, sometimes he will explain to us what it is that is true, whether we like it or not. He's not looking for dialogue to tell us whether sin is sin, he is looking for us to obey him.

Yes, sometimes he will come to us and tell us that we have gone wrong and that he is the only solution to make us go right. He will intervene to be the master clockmaker who cares about his clock and corrects its time so that it shows forth the correct time of day.

He is not merely looking to be therapeutic towards us, but he's looking to be honest.

The Transfiguration

And most of all, most importantly, this Jesus Christ becomes incarnate in flesh in this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who is fully God and fully human.

Unless we forget, he takes Peter, James and John up the mountain today in our reading from Matthew 17 to show them something they don't expect.

Just as Moses went up the mountain with his patriots and God shadowed the mountain of God in cloud and fire and then gave the ten commandments. Here, Jesus goes up the mountain with his compatriots and there with him appear Moses and Elijah.

Moses, the great law giver, the one who is according to your edition, wrote the first five books of the Bible, the man who led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land.

And Elijah, the great prophet, the greatest and highest of the prophets, the one who is caught up into heaven by a chariot of fire without dying.

These two, the greatest of the law givers, the greatest of the prophets, they appear with Jesus on the mountaintop and what happens then, lest there be any confusion, and certainly, Saint Peter is confused.

The cloud comes and wraps the top of the mountain in mist and a voice speaks with thunderous authority as "this is my son, my beloved, listen to him."

Listen to him for he is the greatest, greater than Moses, the law giver, greater than Elijah, the greatest prophet. Listen to him for he is God's son.

Come to tell us the truth. Come to tell us that we are sinners in need of a savior.

Christ's Sacrifice and Victory

And lest we be left without a resource in that salvation, he himself goes down the mountain with his disciples, telling them, don't tell anybody about what has happened here.

You have seen my glory, you have seen the glory as I truly am, but wait, because I have one more glorious deed to accomplish.

And then, shortly after that, he goes to Jerusalem and there in Jerusalem, he offers himself willingly as our great high priest, putting himself into the hands of those who hate him and would have him killed.

He is nailed to a cross just outside the city gates of Jerusalem, and there he dies for you and for me, so that your sins may be forgiven.

He sheds his innocent and precious blood so that you may have hope and life eternal. He gives his own life in your place, and then so that we can see that he has risen victorious over sin and death, and truly is the master of creation, truly the son of God victorious over all things which oppose God, he conquers death itself and rises from the dead on the third day.

Conclusion and Blessing

Our Lord Jesus Christ shows us his glory in this way, that he will not be merely our friend walking beside us, but he will be our Lord leading us, and that he will show us his glory, and that we will turn to him in fear and awe and say, you are not merely a God of moralism and therapeutic deism, but you are my Lord, my master, and my God.

May this God give you the freedom that you need to live as he truly intended. May you savor the beauty of your savior, and may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord to life everlasting. Amen.