Transfiguration

Robert Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

February 18, 2007

Text: Luke 9 and II Corinthians 3

CROSS TALK

Eight days earlier, Jesus had told his disciples for the first time what would happen to him. The trajectory of his mission would take him to Jerusalem, where he would find rejection from the religious leaders, and where he would be killed---and on the third day, be raised. (I am not sure they really heard that last phrase, for they must have been shocked by the news of suffering and death.) And if they wanted to follow him, they would have to “take up their crosses daily.” One can suppose that the disciples were still trying to get their heads around the meaning of this prediction, and were weighing the costs and benefits of this project they had signed on for.

And now, for something completely different!

FOLLOWING JESUS UP THE MOUNTAIN

Jesus has invited them to go up on Mt. Sinai with him to pray, a retreat from the clamoring crowds. Time for some peace and quiet. But in the middle of the night they are awakened by this lightening show. Jesus, Moses and Elijah are carrying on a conversation about Jesus’ “departure.” Jesus is human, they know that. But in this scene, Jesus’ is surrounded by the glory of God. Over the centuries, in artists’ paintings of the transfiguration, Peter James and John are almost always shown holding up their hands in front of their eyes–such a dazzling scene. Jesus’ clothing is bright as the sun and his countenance is stunning. Why this juxtaposition of cross-talk and unimaginable glory?

HOLY MYSTERY

Our empirical self wants to know what we would have recorded on our cameras if we had been there. Is this a dream or a vision? How can we categorize this event so that we can comprehend it? The only light shows we see nowadays are the ones on July 4, or at a basketball game, or at half-time at the Super Bowl. In the time of the apostles, either they were more open to that to which we are blind, or such divine revelations were more common.

But these kinds of events are not comprehendable. It is like the prayer after receiving in the Holy Communion service: “We give you thanks for this holy mystery, in which you have given yourself to us.” “Who can say how bread and wine, God into man conveys,” in Charles Wesley’s words. “The incarnation itself bursts out of the bounds of our reason,” Madeleine L’Engle writes (Thirty Good Minutes, The Chicago Sunday Evening Club.) We want to keep our categories neat: there God is and there we mortals are; there is the natural and there is the supernatural---- and no mixing of the two, please. To believe in God, however, means that were gain a new humility about our knowledge. There may indeed be things that we do not need to isolate and explain, lest their truth be lost. Transfiguration is one of those, I think. What Luke is telling us is that the glory of God is present in this man, and here is a sample of it. With what is going to happen, you’ll want to remember this moment.

KAIROS AND CHRONOS EVEN NOW?

From time to time, even now, and even for the most skeptical of us, the curtains are pulled back and we, too, get a glimpse of the glory of God. Ordinary time, chronos (clock time) is put aside and we are in kairos time, time filled with holy presence. We get a sneak preview of eternal truth, of a new creation. We still have to walk by faith and not by sight; but thank God for these moments of epiphany.

“MRS. O”
Madeleine L’ Engle describes one of these kairos moments. She was cared for by a nanny when she was a child. Madeleine called her Mrs. O, for Mrs. O’Connell. Mrs. O’s love was an Anglo-Saxon type; she did not indulge in demonstrativeness. Madeleine and her family have kept in touch with Mrs. O through the years. Now Mrs. O is in a nursing home, ninety-five years old. Madeleine had been called to her deathbed three or four times, but she had always fooled them all, bouncing back. She was a blessing, even in her frailty. When nurses would feel discouraged they would say,” I think I’ll go up to see Mrs. O for a while.” She had the gift of laughter. Madeleine goes to visit her again. Mrs. O is very weak, having lost so much strength. Madeleine describes her visit.

“When I first bend over her, she does not know me. I wait while she makes the slow journey from the past to the present. I put my hand on hers and say, ‘It’s Madeleine, Mrs. O. It’s Madeleine.’ Suddenly she is fully with me, and she puts her arms around me as she would never have done in the old days and says, ‘O Madeleine, oh, my Madeleine’ and I no longer see the ancient wasted body. I have my arms around her so that I am holding her sitting up, with fragile body leaning against me like a child’s, and yet she is still holding me; we are both child, both mother……I stay for an hour, much longer than I had expected, but we are in kairos, Mrs. O and I, in God’s time, free for the rest of the hour from chronos….It was the lovely light of love which united Mrs. O and me….It was a time of Transfiguration…. [In these and similar encounters] we are given our glimpses of what it is really like, how things are really meant to be. There in that wasted body I saw at the same time the transfigured body, something visible to the spirit and not to the eyes.” (Madeleine L’Engel, The Irrational Season)

Our moments when the curtain is drawn back may be dramatic, like the scene on the mountain. But, more often, in the midst of our ordinary lives (are our lives ever really ordinary?), we will be given glimpses of God’s glory and transported for a few minutes into God’s glorious presence.

A mother has written about one of these moments. She is a busy mom, with all that this entails. But one day she is at the beach with her children, watching them play in the sand. She is suddenly struck with a powerful sense of God’s presence, in her and in the children: what a wonderful gifts they are, she says to her self; and what an awesome vocation it is to watch and guide them in these years.

In our lives as disciples, WE can take Jesus up on his invitation to follow him up on to the mountain tops----to pray with him, to be open to moments when the glory of God breaks through. This may be the greater challenge for us, skeptics that we are, one dimensional as we are. We prefer our religion completely predictable. Prayer is intentionally giving God our undivided attention, and listening and watching for God’s surprises.

GOING BACK DOWN TO THE VALLEYS

When we have such moments from time to time, we gain the courage to go back down into the valleys where trouble is always brewing, where there is great suffering and much good work to be done. Christ does not stay on the mountain, either. Jesus invites us to go back down into the valleys of life. He comes down with us, and we travel together.

Coming off the mountain, Jesus does not back-peddle from his resolve to go to Jerusalem, where he knows he will suffer and die. The transfiguration was a hint of the glory to come, on the other side of Golgotha. It will take courage to stay with him and to listen to him until the end, through to a new beginning. Only when we believe in his glorious resurrection can we bear to follow him to the cross.

When we follow Jesus, we are not transported to a realm of pure, heavenly glory all the time. We are not surrounded by a bubble of happiness. Being on the mountain tops, it will be tempting to want to live there. We may find ways to escape from the troubles that await us in the daily world.

To share in the sufferings of Christ is also to “behold” the face of Christ. To participate in the venture of discipleship--- being the voice and feet and hands of Christ--- is to be in the presence of God’s glory. Our growing into Christ-likeness is set in motion (though not yet finished) as we die to the old self and are raised to new life….transformation is that daily inward renewal of one’s being…which occurs where [our lives] are put at God’s disposal and becomes the hallmark of our lives while we are still in this world.” (Victor Paul Furnish II Corinthians) There will be rejection and suffering; and even if we are not martyred, we are always going to be giving ourselves away. “While we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake.” (II Corinthians 4:11)

What Paul discovered is that he was freed to be courageous. We can be freed like this, too. We will follow Jesus back down into the valleys of life. Our boldness springs from a conviction that our ministry is endowed with a great and enduring splendor. We have taken refuge in God’s grace, thus being ruled by God’s love, which will keep us from fleeing into any private nirvana.

THE CHALLENGE FOR US

The challenge of the transfiguration for us is two-fold:

Do we have the courage to follow Jesus up onto the mountain tops? In other words, will we pray with him? Will we listen to him? Will we be open to moments of kairos, when we participate in God’s time?

And, will we have to courage to follow Jesus down from the mountain tops? Will we follow after him in his work of showing and sharing God’s love? Will we love our neighbors as we love ourselves? Will we take up our daily crosses in sacrificial service to those who suffer? Will we resist the evil forces of this world, in whatever forms they present themselves?

The glory of God in Jesus Christ, through the Spirit, is found in both places. Beholding God’s glory, we will be changed into his likeness.