A Glimpse of Forever in our Now

Sermon given by the Rev. Christine Gowdy-Jaehnig on 19 February 2023

Year A : Transfiguration Sunday

Exodus 24:12-18 * Psalm 99 * 2 Peter 1:16-21 * Matthew 17:1-9

Jesus has spent many long hours in prayer during his lifetime, but especially during the months and years of his teaching and healing ministry. He is quite confident that he has been following the path God intended him to take. But now he wants –he needs-- something more, something stronger to sustain him. As he has told his disciples, his path leads him to Jerusalem and confrontation with the powers of this world, and the cross. He determines to take a hike up a mountain. He invites his three closest disciples to accompany him.

One school of thought is that Jesus ascends Mt. Tabor, which held a special place in Israel’s history. It is east of Nazareth and rises to about 1800 feet. The problem with this theory is that a fortress occupied the top when Jesus lived in Galilee, built by Herod the Great’s family. Much more likely is that Jesus and his disciples climbed Mt. Hermon, which is 34 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, near the city of Ceaserea Phillipi. It is actually Jesus’ last mentioned location in Matthew’s gospel. Mt Hermon is part of a high ridge reaching over 9,000 feet, and snow covers the top most of the year. Anywhere along the upper slopes of this ridge Jesus would have found the solitude and clarity that draw people to mountains. It was a long and arduous walk that Jesus took his disciples on.

Upon that mountain, before their eyes, Jesus undergoes a change: his face becomes radiant, even the clothes he wears become dazzlingly white. Three times Matthew used the word ίδου, which means “Behold!” or “Look you!” He could not tell the story without interrupting himself at the sheer wonder of it. What Matthew describes challenges us to imagine something beyond our knowledge and experience. Jesus’ transformation is similar to Moses’ when he met God on Mt. Sinai or in the tabernacle. Moses soon appears beside Jesus, along with Elijah. Known as the Great Law-giver and the Great Prophet, their presence bears witness to the connection between Jesus and Israel’s past –historically and theologically. They are also humans who have stood in God’s presence and whose deaths were mysterious; appropriate companions to appear at this time. The three speak together –about Jesus’ coming “exodus” according to Luke. Like the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, Jesus’ exodus will take him through a lonely wilderness of suffering and death into the Promised Land. At some point, a cloud descends. While the dazzling light was a sign of the divine in human existence, a cloud was a sign of the presence of God’s Self. From the cloud, a Voice speaks, repeating some of the words said at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased,” and adding; “Listen to him!”

Peter, James and John are overcome; they drop to their knees and hide their faces. They had thought they were working with Jesus toward something wonderful; they had imagined that they would one day sit around Jesus as he ruled from David’s throne in Jerusalem over all of Israel and other nations, who would bring tribute to lay at his feet (or so said some of the prophets). Rich robes, fine meat and drink, servants to run errands, ambassadors to receive, swaggers to make --they wanted it! But when Jesus is was transfigured before their eyes, and the cloud descends and a Voice speaks, what they see gives them a glimpse of a whole new and greater reality: something in and beneath and beyond what they thought they wanted. They experience Forever in the now. They perceive the Eternal in the fleeting moment. They meet Heaven in the “shadowlands” (as C. S. Lewis called our world). What they witness is far, far better than what they had been looking for.

The Transfiguration is an epiphany; it reveals to the disciples that, yes, as Peter had boldly stated some days earlier, Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah or Christ. It also shows Jesus and his disciples that God approves of Jesus’ ministry, his method of loving service and self-giving, and his intention to go to Jerusalem and experience the consequences of proclaiming the good news: betrayal, abandonment, suffering, shame, and death. God pointedly says, “Listen to him,” but this new thing God is doing --allowing his Beloved to die on a cross!!?– the disciples can not understand or accept yet. The Spirit will teach them and lead them to that knowledge in time.

The Transfiguration is also an apocalyptic vision. It looks to our future, and reveals the hope of God’s plan for the cosmos: past and present meet; heaven and earth are joined; creation is renewed; humanity draws ever closer to God and receives glorious bodies. The luminous change Jesus undergoes is a preview of his resurrection –and all of our resurrections. He is the first fruit of those who trust God with their lives and deaths. Jesus has been called a second Adam, our elder brother. Jesus leads and shows us the way.

But, just as the Kingdom of God is coming –is in process-- so our transforming is in process. And so Paul can say in his second letter to the church in Corinth, that those who view God with unveiled faces, like Moses, gradually acquire God’s glory. This is a gift of the Spirit. What are “unveiled faces”? They are people who open their minds and hearts, presenting to God their true and naked selves. This is scary; after all, somewhere the Bible says: “It is a fearsome thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Open to God, our Creator and loving parent, we will be --we are being -- transformed. Transfiguration is how God works; a renewed and transfigured Creation is God’s dream.

A renewed interest in Celtic spiritually has introduced many to the idea of “thin places,” explained as a place where the boundary or veil between heaven and earth is thin. One could say that the place were Jesus was transfigured was a “thin place,” making the location of the event of great interest. Perhaps this is a correct understanding of what many experience in a place they call “holy”, but I wonder if today’s story is more about a “thin” person, a person who is holy. I hesitate to use the word pure, but it might be helpful if we understand it in the sense of real and true, whole and clear.

I was reminded of a story Bishop Alan told from this very pulpit. When he was young, before he became an Anglican, he traveled to Romania, to evangelize and support the Christians there who were being persecuted by the Communist government. One religious leader, whom Alan described as a person of strong faith and integrity, a holy man, was under house arrest. Alan and some others joined him in a prayer meeting. The hours stretched out and the day waned and dusk arrived and still they prayed. At one point Alan opened his eyes and saw that the darkness of the room was dimly lit by a soft light that came from this man. The idea of halos and auras surely had their origins in phenomenon such as Alan witnessed.

Paul used the metaphor of removing a veil to help us understand the process of our spiritual maturation, whereby our spiritual senses gradually awaken to a perception of the divine. I think our church windows offer another metaphor. Years ago, plastic was put over the church’s stained glass widows to protect them, for such windows add to the beauty of our worship. Gradually, wind and water scarred the plastic and they were no longer transparent. When we removed the old plastic, the rays of the sun were able to reach and pass through the colored glass once again. The full beauty of the windows is revealed as the light streams in and creates pools of color on the pews and carpet. Similarly, “unveiled” faces are ones that have had the scarred plastic of fear and pride and shame and greed and hate removed --all that hides our beauty and defeats the purpose for which we were created. The result is glorious; the light of God illuminating the world through His beloved children.

Let us pray:

Transfiguring God, it is good for us to be here;

Make us your beloved and visit all who have no one to call them beloved;

Give us grace to open our hearts and minds and listen to you Word.

And transfigure our lives until we shine as the Body of Christ.

Through Jesus Christ, the Beloved One. Amen.