Transfiguration of Our Lord

February 14, 2010

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Marcus Pera

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (Luke 9:28-36) [37-43a]

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 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. 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. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!” 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.

[On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.]

The Gospel of our Lord.

In the name of Jesus, sisters and brothers, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. Amen.

We do a lot of celebrating in our life and in our culture. We celebrate special people, special times, special events; we mark milestones. We have a cultural celebration this day, Valentine’s Day. You perhaps remember, painfully maybe, three weeks ago when the Saints beat the Vikings. You remember maybe the cameras that were on Bourbon Street, and before the game was over there was no one there. And as soon as the end was determined, the streets filled up. Then one week ago, I guess, the Saints beat the Colts; and, once again, sure, they showed some celebration in Miami. But it was in the French Quarter that they zeroed in on, and there was raucous celebration going on. And then this past Tuesday, all the players were back, and they had a Mardi gras parade and were all on the different floats. And, once again, they showed the French Quarter, and the streets were overflowing, and there was exuberant celebration.

It’s an interesting question to ask: “What were they celebrating?” Certainly, they were celebrating the Saints’ win. But more than that, I happened, as many people both saw pictures and were there as well, but I happened to have been in New Orleans shortly after Katrina. I remember walking around and driving around in the Ninth Ward, and it looked like a bomb had literally hit that place. What were they celebrating? To be sure, the Saints’ win. But it was something bigger than that. It was indicating both the restoration and the rebirth of that city.

We have a celebration this day. It is the celebration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. And perhaps we can ask a similar question: “What are we celebrating today?” Again, to be sure, we are celebrating Jesus. Jesus is the one that was transfigured before the disciples and also thus, through that, before us. But I think, also, what about celebrating Peter, James, and John, a very important role in this text? And what about also acknowledging our focus on ourselves and how that relates to the text? And so we are looking at all aspects of that in our short time this morning.

This is a celebration of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and thus certainly a focus on him. That transfiguration that happened, that dazzling change, it’s a dramatic story. It’s a story that, if we grew up in the church and had Sunday school lessons, we remember the story and we remember the picture on the leaflets. Perhaps today, with Play Station characters and Avatars and all that, maybe it’s not so dramatic. But it is still a dramatic account, and a lot of people remember it as a kind of favorite festival of the church.

You notice the colors have changed to white, the paraments this day. And there is a reason for that. When do we have white on the altar, and I wear that as well? Well, we have white on the points at which there is a festival of Jesus: It is at Christmas time and the Christmas season. The white continues through the baptism of Jesus. And then we put it back on at the transfiguration of Jesus. It’s obviously a color that is also used at Easter and throughout the Easter season. It’s a color that represents deity. And, thus, certainly the focus is here this morning on Jesus.

There’s another aspect of that focus on Jesus. Two other people appear in this story. One of them is Elijah, and the other one is Moses. When we think about it, it makes sense. Moses, the lawgiver; and Elijah, the premiere prophet of Israel. You remember Jesus saying that, “I have not come to abolish but I have come to fulfill the law and the prophecy.” And you also remember, per chance, that there was a remembrance of saying that the Messiah would not come until Elijah reappeared. And so here they are, Moses, Elijah, Jesus. Barbara Brown Taylor makes the comment of they are the "Mount Rushmore of Heaven.” And so it’s a focus, yes, on Jesus as well.

And certainly, then, there is also this concept of glory. The word “glory” is used, in one sense, fairly simply. We understand the Greek word, “doxo,” “doxology,” as a word of praise; to give glory to God, as we just in the Hymn of Praise in the liturgy; to give praise to God for who God is. It’s a little bit more difficult concept when we talk about how Jesus spoke of his hour not yet coming, was not yet glorified, was glorified on the cross. But if we talk about it and see it as the very substance, the nature, the character of God that is embodied in the person of Jesus, we begin to understand, I think, the splendor and the brilliance that is inherent in this word “glory” as well. So we have this focus on Jesus. But we certainly, I think, also have a focus on Peter and James and John in this account, and also in this story. Peter, James, and John are in the story. And a German theologian by the name of Helmut Thielicke says that perhaps Jesus wasn’t even changed in appearance as much as maybe the disciples actually saw him in a different way, in embodying that very character and nature of God.

Another part of their role there is that they are witnesses. They are witnesses of what is happening and what is taking place. And there is an understanding in Jewish thought that where two or three are gathered, a witness is established or verified. Well, here they are; and they aren’t to tell anyone initially. But hopefully, they are ones that would make sense out of all of this beyond Good Friday and Jesus’ death on the cross.

There’s also another place or focus that they have here. It’s in the voice. You might remember that in Luke’s rendition of the baptism, the voice is there, but the voice is talking to Jesus. It is saying, “You are my Son. I am well pleased with you.” Here, he is talking to Peter, James, and John. He is saying, “This is my Son.” In other words, the indication of the importance of the disciples catching who this person really is and understanding that, and thus being able to give witness to it, that becomes a pretty important part.

There is a part of Celtic spirituality that uses the phrase, “thin places.” And thin places gives reference to that thin place where this world and the next world, or our life on this earth and experiencing transcendence, is a very thin space. It’s a very sheer space. And we have those moments, once again, when we kind of almost experience it back and forth, and there is clarity about what we’re experiencing.

Barbara Brown Taylor, again, makes another reference to that by saying it’s like a cracked door, the cracked door that is opened a little bit; that we can peek in there and see what is in there. And she makes reference to saying this is no absentee landlord, but she is saying that this is palpable presence. Both of those phrases, so often we are thinking that God is absent, not showing up, an absentee landlord; but those times, when the door is cracked opened a little bit, and we’re able to experience life on this side, but see this peek at transcendence as well. Peter, James, and John have seen that on the mountain, experienced it on the mountain, and the importance of how they are to be witnesses of it after, again, Good Friday. And that also is part of what their story is and their obligation and opportunity is. But then we still ask the question, “What about us?” Or “What about Peter, James, John, and us, as well?

And then maybe we come to the last part of that voice, where the voice says, “This is my Son.” “This is my Son; listen to him.” What is meant by this listening to him? Listening to the Word as it is in scripture; listening to the Word as it is embodied in Jesus is a very important thing that we are called to do as part of our faithfulness and part of our role of obedience to God. And Luther had a very strong emphasis upon this attention to the Word. We remember in Romans 10 where it says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We remember an explanation of baptism in the Small Catechism where it says baptism is not simple water only, but it is the water comprehended in God’s command and connected with God’s word. Luther said a similar thing when he talked about the Lord’s Supper, that it was the Word that was connected again. It’s not just receiving the bread and the wine, but hearing: “Take, eat; this my body.” And “Take, drink; this is my blood.”

But we aren’t always real good at listening, are we? We seem to be a lot better at talking, kind of like Peter was at this occasion. If we play a little bit and have a little bit of fun with our own uniqueness of our anatomy, we can say that God gave us two ears, but only one mouth. Perhaps he suggested that we listen twice as much as we talk. Perhaps that listening says that we are in attentiveness to God’s presence in our midst and what that presence is saying. It’s interesting how much difficulty—and it’s not just this community—any community often has with silence in church. If there’s just a touch too much silence, people get nervous. They want to rush to fill it with some noise, some sound, something that is happening. But to listen to Him is part of the discipline of hearing and seeing who God is and who God is in our midst. It is that listening that carries on and has maybe some suggestion of what we are to listen to in the text immediately before our text and the words immediately after. And I want to simply illustrate it by the miracle that happened after.

When Peter was talking, he kind of wanted to fill that silence and didn’t really know, I think, what to do with it. And then it was like a cloud came and cut him off. One of the commentaries I was reading said something about, “Peter, shut up,” and that’s what the cloud was saying when it came and enveloped him. Peter wanted to freeze the moment, he wanted to keep it in that way; he wanted to memorialize it. But this was not where it was to end. And when they come down from the mountain, and where is it? They go right to the darkness of life, not the brightness and the splendor; the darkness of life, this person who is demon-possessed. Here, the disciples had a pretty successful time healing people, doing miracles, but they could not cast out this demon. And perhaps it’s the kind of lesson that says while they had seen some glory in Jesus before, and experienced some of that power, it was clear that the fullness of that glory and power of God resided in Jesus, and it was Jesus alone that was able to bring healing to this person.

Well, I want to tell a little account from a person by the name of Father Sparough, who was the artistic director of what are called “The Fountain Square Fools,” out of Cincinnati. In Cincinnati, in the middle the town is a square, and it is called “Fountain Square.” And this mime troupe was gathered for a special occasion; it was an Episcopal event in Cincinnati, and they performed at it. They were a very good troupe. And this artistic director, who was also a priest, decided he wanted to go to Nepal and also get there and have some time to meet, but also to work with Mother Teresa. And before he left, he also wanted to see some of the beauty of the place, hadn’t had much time to do that. And so a day or so before, they go up the mountain, a place where they could see the vista very clearly. And it was interesting, and, as I understand it, it can happen frequently in Nepal, it was clouded over. But as they were there, before they started down, a little wind came up, and it just like parted the clouds. And all of the sudden here was the beauty of the Himalayas all in front of them. And almost as quickly as that happened, a wind came along also and the clouds went back together, and they could no longer see anything. But they had a glimpse of the beauty of that place.

We, too, get a glimpse today through the witness of Peter and James and John; we get a glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And perhaps that is power enough for us to move into our Lenten journey, power enough to wait and see where the fullness of God’s glory unfolds in the cross, where there is the midst of darkness, but it is a dazzling darkness, because it fully reveals God’s glory. Perhaps also being able to leave this worship service this day, as Moses did when he came down from the mountain, to reflect a little bit of God’s glory in our faithfulness as well.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.