Dazzling

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

February 22, 2008

Text: Second Corinthians 4: 3-6, Mark 9: 2-9

SURPRISES

There are moments when God’s splendor shines through so that we are either scared out of our wits or so overcome with the beauty and the love transmitted that all we can do is stand in awe and perhaps, like Peter, mumble something about building booths to capture the moment.

It is not uncommon for us to put one rock on top of another until we have a sanctuary, a place we can come often to be reminded of a moment when we experienced God’s glory.

We trail up to the altar rail like we have done a thousand times before, kneeling as we wait with hands cupped to receive the bread and the little cup of juice. Maybe we come with a heavy heart, burdened with losses so profound that we are numb.

And suddenly, without warning, as we wait, we look up at the chalice on the altar and we see with our mind’s eye the hands of Jesus as he lifted the wine chalice and said to the disciples---- they with their mouths wide open----- those strange words: “This is my blood, poured out for you.”

And the words “for you” you hear for yourself now, all these centuries later. And Christ comes to you, cleansing, healing and comforting, forgiving. And it is all you can do to get up afterwards and walk back to your pew.

Or you come up to the font which has plain H2O in it and when the water is applied you find tears welling up in your eyes and you sense that something far transcending water is being given. And you know in ways you cannot explain that grace really is being given here and now. What is ordinary has been infused with extraordinary power.

Christianity is not magical. We do not perform certain acts or say certain words in order to persuade the glory of God to shine forth so that we can see it. No abracadabra can make a moment special. But here and there, now and then, God’s glory appears in ways that astound us.

All three of the synoptic gospels have the Transfiguration event. Up a high mountain go Jesus, Peter, James and John. And then a dazzling vision: Jesus, with Elijah and Moses, having a conversation. And Jesus’ clothes shine with a brightness that is unearthly.

This has always seemed to me to be a “peek-a-boo” story. Like with Moses on the mountain, the heavenly and the earthy dimensions touch for a moment. Most of us are not mystics, but we thank God for them. (William Blake, George Herbert, for example.) There is sometimes more than meets the eye in life.

God moves like the wind, invisibly, imperceptibly most of the time. And we have to believe in spite of the ordinariness of things. And then there are wonderful surprises, moments when God illuminates our lives with glory.

SEEING IS BELIEVING?

It is along the same lines that the apostle Paul writes that God “gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

It is the word “face” that catches my attention. I want to protest: but we do not know what Jesus’ face looked like! And neither did Paul so far as we know!

And then I think to myself: Jesus is never described in the gospels either.

 In the first century: no electricity, no cameras,  no pictures; no sculptures except of the famous or infamous. For people like us who are so image oriented, this is almost incomprehensible! We have at our fingertips pictures of almost everyone now and for every famous person we have at least one mental image.

Imagine how a reporter would describe Jesus if she were able to go back to the first century:

“This just in: Jesus of Nazareth, 33, (a carpenter by trade, in business until now with his father, Joseph, from the small city of Nazareth,) created a stir yesterday when he suddenly began preaching to people who were gathered at the market. The short, slender young man with penetrating dark brown eyes, a shock of black curly hair covering his head, spoke briefly. His message, delivered in a pronounced Galilean accent, was, and I quote, “’The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent and belief the gospel!’” About 30 people listened intently, and wanted to know more. But he told them that, if they wanted to know more, they would have to walk with him wherever he went. Most went back home, but a few followed along. And so Jesus, dressed casually in loose-fitting, tan pants and a brown coat and sandals, went on his way with a few converts. A man accustomed to walking long distances, the physically-fit Jesus’ out-paced his followers, and they had to run to catch up.  No report as to where exactly he was going or when he would be speaking next. His family did not comment on this turn of events in their son’s life”

Now as you can tell, I have made most of this up from my imagination. The gospel editors apparently did not think it was important to tell us details about what Jesus looked like and talked like and wore. And since the gospel writers were pulling from circulated stories of Jesus’ life and teachings, even the first eye-witnesses did not believe that Jesus’ appearance was the heart of the matter.

Think of it: the most important person in our faith, and we have no historically accurate information about his appearance!

But that hasn’t stopped us through the centuries, has it? Thousands of paintings exist, and many of them reside in our minds when we hear Jesus’ name. He has been pictured in every race and nationality; he is seen as strong and as mild and passive; laughing and crying.

Warner Sallman’s “Head of Christ” has been reproduced over 500 million times: Jesus with light brown long hair, with blue eyes. When people in this country think of Jesus, this is usually the one that they have in mind. It is, of course, a product of Sallman’s imagination.

Perhaps artistic representation of Jesus are helpful to our devotional life. I am not sure. They can be icons, visual images which help us to connect to the One whose face is unknown. But it is a short step from icon to idolatry.

In a world so impressed with larger than life images on screens of all sizes, maybe we should be cautious. I think the art of story-telling the stories of the Bible, when we use our imaginations, as the earliest believers did, may be healthier for our souls.

I am not sure that Jesus would ever get a hearing in today’s world. Not flashy enough to keep people’s attention, we who are so impressed with superficial beauty, with “style.”

In any event, there is a truth in the Transfiguration story worth remembering.

It does not matter a bit what Jesus looked like!

Maybe this is why, as he is transfigured on the mountain, the disciples hear God say, “This is my beloved Son.” And then the command (present imperative): “Listen to him!” Why doesn’t he say, “Go tell people what you have seen!?” Maybe because God did not call Jesus to be a media event or a celebrity, but to be a rabbi and a suffering servant; a man who would enter fully into our human condition in order to save us from the inside out!

Jesus is not followed because of what he looks like, or because the glory of God has shone through all the time to the naked eye. We follow him because of what he is telling us-----and I would want to add---- what he is telling us by what he is doing, how he is relating to people who are hungry and  hurting and longing for good news!

This must be what Paul is saying when he says that we “see” the glory of God in the face of Christ: not Jesus’ façade but his substance and character as witnessed in his life and death.

We cannot, as the hymn suggests, “Turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face” in a literal sense at all. And when we sing “Fairest Lord Jesus,” it is not because we know he was handsome. In both cases, we are singing something infinitely deeper: that Jesus is the best picture God ever sat for; and we see God  in Jesus’ words and deeds.

In the gospel of Mark, it is the centurion who, looking upon Jesus dying on the cross, exclaims, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” And he is saying this when Jesus looks his worst, but also the moment Jesus finishes the work God sent him to do.

Paul makes it clear: the same God who, in creating said “Let there be light,” now shines in our hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

And we can be changed when we focus our attention on Christ Jesus:

We find ourselves being “transformed into that same image, from one degree of glory to another.” We become more Christ-like in substance, the deepest of which is love. (3:18)

And then it may be that, on some days, the glory of God, as a little reflection, may shine forth to others in our appearance, in our faces. “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam,” may be close to the mark. St Augustine: Jesus Christ is a “beauty ever ancient, ever new.”

And we show forth Christ, not ourselves. We become the “aroma of Christ (!) (2:15).  We are clay jars, to be sure, to show that this “extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from ourselves.” (4:7) But we have staying power, power to see us through in our trials. In Paul’s words: Afflicted? Yes, but not crushed. Perplexed? Yes, but not driven to despair. Struck down, but not destroyed. And in our enduring faithfulness, the life of Jesus is made be made visible in our lives. (Read Second Corinthians 3:17 through 6:13 on any day when you are ready to ready to throw in the towel!)

How do we stay close to God? Not by building tents for Jesus and Elijah and Moses. And not by looking at the various pictorial representations of Jesus.  But we stay close by following Jesus back down into the valleys where, with Jesus, we are met by people with human needs. And then we apprentice ourselves to him, learning how to shine the splendid light of God in dark places.

Charles Wesley expresses this sentiment in quaint but moving language:

“Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
Triumph o’er the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near;
Day-star in my heart appear.

Dark and cheerless is the morn
Unaccompanied by thee;
Joyless is the day’s return,
Till thy mercy’s beams I see;
Til they inward light impart,
Cheer my eyes and warm my heart.

Visit then this soul of mine;
Pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
Fill me radiancy divine,
Scatter all my unbelief;
More and more thyself display,
Shining to the perfect day.”

Hymn Number 173 UMH, by Charles Wesley

St Augustine: Jesus Christ is a “beauty ever ancient, ever new.”

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus…..”

“Fill me radiancy divine, scatter all my unbelief.” (173)

“Fairest Lord Jesus….Jesus shines brighter…..”

First: Jesus Christ is not of this world; his authority comes from above, beyond. Majesty. “We were with him on the holy mountain.” (Second Peter)

Philo: Wisdom is a “breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.”

“Torah: Morgenstern, Israel’s conception of God was influenced by the Assyro-Babylonian religions, and especially the solar elements. :a divine being emitting dazzling brilliance, just like the great gods of the Assyrian pantheon, and particularly Shamash, the sun god.”

Jesus is Lord After the Transfiguration

By Kathy Coffey
Grinding up the steep incline,
our calves throbbing,
we talked of problems
and slapped at flies.
Then you touched my shoulder,
said, "turn around."
Behind us floated
surprise mountains
blue on lavender,
water-colored ranges:
a glimpse from God's eyes.
Descending, how could we chat
mundanely of the weather, like deejays?
We wondered if, returning,
James and John had squabbled:
whose turn to fetch the water,
after the waterfall of grace?
After he imagined the shining tents,
did Peter's walls seem narrow,
smell of rancid fish?
Did feet that poised on Tabor
cross the cluttered porch?
After the bleached light,
could eyes adjust to ebbing
grey and shifting shade?
Cradling the secret in their sleep
did they awaken cautiously,
wondering if the mountaintop
would gild again-bringing
that voice, that face?

Kathy Coffey teaches English at the University of Colorado, Denver, and Regis College. Her work has appeared in America, Spiritual Life, National Catholic Reporter, Marriage and Family, Catechumenate, Christian Science Monitor, Praying, and The Christian Century. Her poetry has appeared previously in THEOLOGY TODAY.