February 18, 2007 –The Transfiguration of Our Lord
Luke 9:28-36
Grace and peace to you from God the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
With all the stories about veils in the Scriptures for today, I began to think about the many brides (and grooms) that we are currently preparing for marriage this year. During the pre-marital process I like to look at the symbols and traditions that the couple might wish to employ, and make sure that they understand the significance and background to some wedding rituals. My favorite is the one where everyone believes that it is “bad luck” for the bride and groom to see one another on the day of the wedding.
Long ago, in the time when marriages were arranged, it was the practice to keep the bride and groom separated until they were actually brought to the wedding. The reason for this was that many of the fathers were not so sure that their daughters would be deemed lovely, and thus they veiled them and kept them from being seen until basically, it was “too late.” Now today’s story is not about an ugly bride, (or groom!) nor even about a God who needs to be kept hidden, but about how glory is our preference, and often takes our focus away from what is really real.
Our story begins with Jesus taking his inner circle of disciples, the three that he called first - Peter, John and James – up a mountain to pray. It had been a long ministry thus far, healings and feeding 5,000 hungry mouths and souls, constantly depending on the hospitality and kindness of strangers. Then Jesus had foretold his death. The three were run down, confused, and tired, and must have felt that no one would understand…
But then Jesus took them up the mountain – to pray; to rest – a retreat, as it were. And rest they did: “the sleep of the dead.” Now in our sermon hymn this morning I got the idea that the Transfiguration might have happened at night. I had always pictured it during the day, but it makes sense that this time apart, this prayer time would happen at the end of the day’s work.
Perhaps it was the light that pierced their sleep, but when the disciples awoke they saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah, shining like the sun! Now, unique to Luke’s telling of the story, we are privy to the conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah: they are speaking of his “departure” which Jesus will accomplish in Jerusalem. In Greek, the word “departure” is “exodus” (exodus,) and for Jesus, ex-odos, meant literally, “the way out.” But for the disciples, it would have been a symbol to give meaning to Jesus’ previous prediction of his passion and death:
Exodus. The Jewish symbol of salvation. Now Jesus. The Christian symbol of salvation. At the time they didn’t know, they couldn’t know, but the time was coming when they would understand fully.
Now, part of the mystery of the Transfiguration is that it was not necessarily for the disciples, nor was it for us. It was meant primarily for Jesus. Faced with the road to Jerusalem, and his own death, Jesus was drawing strength from those who might understand: from Moses – the only other human to see God face to face – and from Elijah – the great prophet who might truly understand the concept of Messiah, for he was to be the marker, the sign of the Messianic Age and the arrival of the Kingdom of God. This was also a peek at Jesus’ final destination, a reminder of his ultimate life with God. Don’t we do the same? In the face of pain, or grief or death, do we not seek out those who understand? Do we not try to find someone who’s been there before?
I think the most poignant part of this final epiphany, this revealing of God’s glory in Jesus, is The Voice - God, reminding Jesus (and the inner circle of disciples,) that “This is my Son, the Chosen, the Beloved.” They were simply being allowed to eavesdrop; included in the enveloping cloud. And they got to hear the pain of God: “Listen to him!” (Please, please, please: listen to him…) for Jesus is the essence of my love for you. Can you not see it? Do you not hear? Please do not make us do what seems now inevitable.
For Jesus, this was a glimpse of God for strength before the test. Just as it was at his Baptism, after which he was thrust into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now, after this Transfiguration, Jesus will enter the wilderness of salvation, and just like the chosen people before him, he will have to find his way home – through Jerusalem.
So what are we to take from this? There is a mysterious side to the ways of God.
Where we focus on the glorious light, an encounter with God in this story comes wrapped in an enveloping, dark and terrifying cloud. Where we are drawn to the "mountain top" experience;
the subject on this mountaintop was death . Deep down we know that life is the combination
of peaks and valleys – of highs and lows, and I know I have said this and heard many of you state the same, “If this hadn’t happened (in my life,) I would never have been able to endure that…” Perhaps part of understanding the mystery of God’s way is to be mindful that the highs are precisely the experiences which prepare us for the inevitable difficulties which life will surely deliver to us.
Lent is our way to Jerusalem, our exodus, “our way out,” as we journey to the cross and then beyond it to the glorious day of resurrection and new life. But then we will return down the mountain to our lives in the world, emptied, as the disciples were when they walked away from their nets, but then strengthened by God and sent back to “business as usual” – back to the fishing boats and the real world.
How are we prepared for this work; to whom do we go for someone who will continually understand our sufferings and our longings, our fears and our insecurities? Where will we get the strength to come back to the world after experiencing Easter and the glory of Our Living God? By our own encounter with that God. Not on the mountaintop, perhaps, nor even in the “still, small voice…” of our prayers and our study of scripture - but in the real presence in water - in the body and blood of bread and wine.
For it is at the font and at the altar where we find our way out. Here is where we are chosen, beloved. This is where we are given strength once more, to be “God’s presence in the world.” So, come, beloved ones, to your moment with God, at the Table of Grace. Amen.