Years ago, a friend in a far away state, (I won’t say where, but it rhymes with Halifornia) told me that he had his associate pastor preach on Transfiguration, because he‘s done so poorly with this lesson so often, that he gets depressed thinking about preaching on it again. He went on to go through the usual - “you can’t stay on the mountaintop, you gotta get back to work” - interpretation. . .Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" — not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen listen to him!" 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
I wonder if there isn’t a totally different direction to go.
The glory is surely an integral part of the story. And there is that hymn, “How Good Lord to Be Here.” Yet our story has the command from “the voice” , "This is my Son, my Chosen listen to him!"
What is it that we are to listen to?
Is it all of Jesus’ teaching? Are we to be “red letter Christians”?
I have a suspicion that the Transfiguration is the glory that leads to the cross.
Could the experience of the glory be a gift - primarily, to Jesus, and only tangentially to the disciples - so that he might have a certain strength for the coming journey, when the glory will be entirely hidden in suffering and the cross?
That is what the disciples are to “listen” to. To the one who exercises the power of God in the weakness of the suffering and death on the cross.
Here is a rich line from a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor:
Later, when Jesus’ exodus got under way and they saw what it meant for him -- when they saw that shining face bloodied and spat upon, those dazzling clothes torn into souvenir rags -- I’ll bet they had to rethink what that glory was all about.As we come to the end of the season of Epiphany, and look ahead to Lent, we have a whole season of rethinking what God’s glory is about. . . and of seeking again, to see that God has hidden God’s greatest glory in the life, and the teaching and the suffering and dying and rising, of this one born in a stable in Bethlehem.
Wow Baby. . .
6 comments:
Underminer...you raise lots of good questions re: this strange epiphany. I believe that your friend's struggle with this text is one that most all of us have, what to do with what is revealed here. Transfiguration moments happen from time to time. But surely not as miraculous as Jesus' transfiguration moment. For me it was starring through the neo-natal care window at my sons just hours after their birth. Or standing at the gravesite of my mom just after the committal service...so surreal. Standing and not even close to fully realizing how everything from those points onward will change. But hoping that in time new life comes. Did Simon Peter, James & John really know what would lie ahead for them ? Did Jesus ? In a devotional piece on this text, Episcopal priest & writer, Tom Ehrich, writes, "As much as we resist death and its daunting heralds -- change, growth and failure -- when the moment of new life actually comes, God makes it possible for us to be at peace." Epiphany moments...moments that God is in the midst of...redeeming...the moments when change takes place, and when "the moment of new life actually comes."
I'm having trouble posting from my office with my "other name>" .Vicar, I like your images of transforming moments. I think of the 2nd lesson. in v.18 where it says we are being transforkmed into the same image ...How does this transformation happen? It seems like nothing is going on. The lesson talks alot about seeing the glory of God with unveiled faces, but many times it seems veiled, hidden from our eyes. I'm reminded of the story of the man who went into the Sistine Chapel and was overwhelmed by Michelangelo's work. But than the man noticed a fly crawling across the ceiling. He thought, " What a shame, that fly is right up there where I would love to be. He's right on top...but he just can't see it." Then he remembered the words of William Thompson, "we are like flies crawling across the ceiling of the the Sistine Chapel. we cannot see what angels and gods lie underneath the threshold of our perceptions." I think of the verse of the hymn holy, holy..."though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see!" Once in a great while the veil is removed, but most of the time God's kingdom and glory remains veiled- we crawl like flies on the Sistine Chapel." In Christ, God reveals himself in the flesh, but we like the Jewish followers refuse to believe it- "speaking of his departure" Moses and Elijah talk to him, but the cross doesn't seem right to those watching or to us, but this is God's unveiling of His Son.
These comments bring to mind a line I read somewhere. . . that we should be careful when speaking of the Deus Absconditus. The hiddenness of God is not an aspect of God's essence but of our inability to see.
In a few ways, I wonder at this:
• Why do so many want to speak about the Gospel as if it makes perfect sense? "Evidence that demands a verdict." Why is that inviting, when really, the deep mystery of the cross is a richer, more honest - true to the lives we actually live - journey?
• While the Deus Absconditus may not be an aspect of God's essence, the fact is that when God chose to reveal the fullness of God's love, God chose the cross. Arguably, the cross - in essence - veils God's glory. . .
Did I just work a big circle there?
• Finally, a question that might be especially good to ask when dealing with such a show of GLORY. Why is it, that irony is the best vehicle for communicating the Gospel?
Regarding glory. . . Is it significant that this story is "bookended" by Jesus speaking of his passion? When the Voice tells Peter, James, and John to listen to Jesus, certainly part of what the Voice is referring to are these passion predictions. The cross is not separated from these moments of glory.
What are some ways a sermon can address these issues in a way that makes sense to us all? What is the appropriate way for Lutherans to talk about glory?
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