Church of the Ascension

The Feast of the Transfiguration:

 

The Discipleship of Recognition

 

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2 Kings 2:1-12

Psalm 50:1-6

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Mark 9:2-9

Introduction

For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"

who has shone in our hearts

to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 4:6)

We arrive at this last Sunday of Epiphany, having walked in the light of Christ, to the place of the Transfiguration. Along the way, we witnessed number of "little" transfigurations, all of which included the encounters with Jesus who reveals His Christ in the lives of those around Him. And all of these encounters have lifted the hearts of the people as personal "epiphanies". Truly, the Light of God has shown in our hearts!

We have seen, along the way, Jesus encountered and proclaimed Messiah (even, perhaps by those who had not yet understood what "messiah" could mean) and we have heard of the healings that have transformed those people of faith to a new kind of health:

      the health of coming to oneself (in the case of Simon's mother-in-law),

      the health of presenting oneself to the Holy One as a choice (as in the case of the  leper), and, had we carried on reading in Mark,

      in the health of acknowledging the community of faith (as in the case of the healing of the paralytic whose small community of faith received the blessing of Jesus.)

And now, lest we miss the way on which those transformations lead us, we learn today of the Transfiguration on the mount, wherein we see the Son of Man "risen up" and accompanied by the great lawgiver, Moses, and the great prophet, Elija.

Story

This story of transformation is not only a "mountain top" experience for the three disciples, Peter, John and James but presents to us, perhaps, a similar kind of "mountain top" – one so lofty and far-removed that we can only, with the hapless disciples, marvel and be terrified and, literally, know not what to say. And, yet, listen! Isn't the most remarkable sentence in the Gospel not this one for all to hear:

                             "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"

Listen!

                             "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"

But How?

How can we, after all these millennia, and in the midst of our very own noisy culture, LISTEN to the Son of God? Are we meant simply to bow and marvel and accept as a mystery that which we can't possible presume to understand? And presuming we can bring ourselves to believe this far-off and distant occurrence, are we meant to profess only 'blind' faith in the presence of so overwhelming an experience?

Well, I think that neither of these options are ours. If they were, they would be inconsistent with everything we profess as an incarnational Christian Church, for we profess a belief in both the accessibility and the reality – the flesh-and-blood reality- of our Redeemer, even in His transfiguration. For us, that "reality" is experience: personal, "fleshy", up-front and personal...

What are we to do then? How are we to be, let alone believe, in the face of this too-big event, this Transfiguration?

Application

Fortunately, we have a wonderful set of lectionary readings that give us some help in understanding what to do. Turn your attention to the story of Elijah's encounter with God on Mt. Horeb. You have heard how he went up to the mountain top and stayed in a cave until God called him out and asked him what he was doing there. And Elijah made his complaint and petitioned God's mighty protection. And God bade him stay out on the mountain, and he did; and he heard the wind and the earthquake, and the fire and knew God's voice did not dwell in these. And then he heard the Silence; and he knew, indeed, that his God spoke in that space.

Well, there's a lesson here for us. It's a lesson of attentiveness.

We're very accustomed in our world to "de-code" the messages that surround and threaten to engulf us. There are commercial messages hawking the things we are told we "need" at every turn. There are social "messages" persuading us to adopt identities that satisfy our desire to be accepted and loved (are we young enough to be 'meaningful'? Are we thin enough to be 'beautiful'? Are we smart enough to be 'valuable'? Are we wise enough to be 'good'? Are we ENOUGH to be 'enough'?) There are the political messages that try to persuade us that the world is a meager place with too little resources to go around. We live in a world where the pretense of austerity has imposed a calculus of "enough-ness" in all these ways, that pit us against each other as we strive for the most basic necessities of life – the dignity to sustain self-worth and the confidence to pursue a "future" according to our innate God-given talents and gifts.

And while we are being distracted by this false 'calculus of worth' we are at risk of missing the real point of life; the real calculus of Jesus' promise. Jesus says: I have come to give you life abundant (Jn 10:10)

This is a message that does not require "decoding" or "prioritizing" or any defensive skill like the ones we have learned in defending ourselves against "enough-ness". Jesus lesson is not an austerity lesson. It is the reality of abundant life in the Kingdom of God!

Conclusion

Upon the mountain top of the Transfiguration, we witness with Peter, and James and John a great truth: In Jesus all the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled. In Him there is abundance beyond "enough". In Him there is LIFE! (John1 :4)

Brother and sisters, as we approach the Holy time of our church calendar, Lent, I urge you to prepare to listen to what the Beloved is saying in your heart. Put away the distractions of the world. Look to the mountain top and listen!

                                    "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"

And remember the words of the witness, Peter, "You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

Amen.

TODAY'S LECTIONS

O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2 Kings 2:1-12

Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel. The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?" And he said, "Yes, I know; keep silent. "Elijah said to him, "Elisha, stay here; for the LORD has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they came to Jericho. The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?" And he answered, "Yes, I know; be silent." Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." He responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not." As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Psalm 50:1-6 Page 654, BCP

Deus deorum

1 The LORD, the God of gods, has spoken; *

he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

2 Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, *

God reveals himself in glory.

3 Our God will come and will not keep silence; *

before him there is a consuming flame,

and round about him a raging storm.

4 He calls the heavens and the earth from above *

to witness the judgment of his people.

5 "Gather before me my loyal followers, *

those who have made a covenant with me

and sealed it with sacrifice."

6 Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause; *

for God himself is judge.

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Mark 9:2-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

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Note: let's celebrate the transfiguration this Sunday — being aware of its derivation as the official Church feast of the Transfiguration. Initially, Pope Callistus III (1378–1458), pope (1455–58) designated 6 August as the feast of the Transfiguration. He thought it would be a wonderful way for the universal Church to celebrate the butchery of thousands of "infidel" Turks on the 6 August 1456 at the siege of Belgrade. Callistus is also the Pope who revised Joan of Arc's status as a saint o9f the church and allowed for the Maiden of Orleans to be honored.