Transfiguration
06/08/06
Readings: Luke 9: 28-36
Now, when I was preparing this sermon I wanted a story to lead in with and I
thought since it was the holiday season, a holiday story would be appropriate.
So, I was going to tell you about a particular holiday, which became more
memorable for what happened when we came home. And that we returned home, still
full of holiday bounce, and wondered what the funny smell was. And then, I’d
have told you about the clock on the video flashing 12 o’clock, and the power
cut that had happened while we were away. And how I think we all thought how
nice it would be to live in a hotel have someone else worry about those things.
But luckily, two friends of mine rescued me from having to open with a horror
story.
Last week I mentioned to two friends, entirely separately, that I was preaching
on the Transfiguration this Sunday. And both of them, not being Christians, had
exactly the same reaction: “What’s that?”
So, first I gave them the short version: Jesus takes three close friends up a
mountain to pray, two dead prophets turn up and the three of them have a
conversation about Jesus’s impending death in Jerusalem. And the three friends,
his disciples, see the whole thing but don’t know what to make of it at all. I’m
not sure my friends knew what to make of that either!
So, what can we make of it?
First, let me put today’s gospel reading into context: the disciples had
recently returned from their first solo preaching journey, Peter had recognised
that amongst all the theories about Jesus’s identity his true identity is “The
Christ of God”, God’s Anointed One. He tells them all not to repeat it, and uses
it as a lesson in what they should expect for his future and their own.
Only a week later, Jesus takes his three closest friends from amongst the
disciples and they go up a mountain to pray. They’re taking a break from the
chaotic schedule of healing and casting out demons, the heavy learning and
teaching schedule. Why do we go on retreat, or go on holiday? To get away from
our everyday lives, to spend time living at a different pace, to do something
out of the ordinary, hopefully to refresh ourselves. And Jesus was very aware
that, in the midst of a busy schedule, he and his friends needed to take time
out; to be with God, his father; to be refreshed and to re-focus on the task of
bringing God’s Kingdom into being.
And, throughout the Bible, mountains take on the roles of hiding places and of
holy places. So up a mountain they go to pray and be with Jesus, be with God.
But whatever they were expecting, I doubt it was what actually happened.
While he was praying, Luke tells us, “the appearance of his face changed, and
his clothes became dazzling white.” The prophet Daniel describes seeing a
similar image in his vision, an Ancient One with clothing “white as snow”. It’s
also used to describe angels, representatives of God and, in Revelation, the
crowds of saints in heaven. The disciples would have been familiar with the
prophecies of Daniel and others now collected in the Old Testament. For them it
confirmed what they had already confessed amongst themselves – that their friend
was the Christ – and they saw him shining with God’s glory. They saw him
transformed, transfigured, into his Godly state – it was a look forward to what
Jesus would become as King of Heaven.
And as if that wasn’t enough, they saw Moses and Elijah, in a similarly
transformed state, talking with Jesus.
“Why those two?” One of my friends asked me. Some theologians suggest that Moses
represents the Law and Elijah, the Prophets. The writings of the Law and the
Prophets are the pillars of the Jewish faith and the disciples would have been
taught from those writings from a young age.
Moses had received the commands from God, he had seen God face-to-face and his
face glowed so bright with God’s light that the people asked him to cover
himself because they couldn’t stand it. Is that how Jesus looked? Is that the
light the disciples wanted to bask in?
And Elijah, a prophet who walked so close with God, that he was whisked away to
heaven in a chariot and never had to experience a true death. This proved to the
disciples that Jesus could not be a reincarnation of the prophet, as many others
thought, since there they were together.
If Moses and Elijah were two pillars of faith, then we can see Jesus as the
third pillar that makes our faith firm – the Law and Prophets are not undermined
by Jesus, but fulfilled in him.
And these glorious beings talked together of Jesus’s imminent “departure”, not
from the mountain but from this life! My friends were both fascinated by the
fact that so early in his ministry, Jesus already knew that he would die and yet
he still did all that he did. Perhaps the two prophets encouraged him, who
knows?
But then amongst these high and holy goings-on, a very human moment – the
disciples are “weighed down with sleep”. There seems to be something about
praying that just sucks them into sleep and – guess what? – It’s catching! They
do it again at Gethsemane and I’m sure generations of Christians ever since have
been relieved to know they are not the only ones to have this problem.
But they stay awake this time and are so overjoyed to be there in the middle of
a miracle, in the company of three holy people, that they want to savour that
moment and when they see that the prophets are making to leave they don’t want
the moment to end. And, good old Peter, he couldn’t just savour the moment in
his heart and his memory, he wanted to build a wall round it, box it up and live
in it until it was beyond all usefulness. He couldn’t stand the thought of
having to leave his holy fantasy and enter back into the real world so soon (the
world where the digital clocks are flashing 12 o’clock). So Peter spoke before
he thought. “Let us make three dwellings”. He didn’t know what he was implying
by his words, but God knew and didn’t like it.
You can’t put God in box and expect him to do things the way you’d like him to,
although I’m sure we’ve all had moments when we wished he would. Stagnation is
no part of God’s plan. Our God’s nature, his love, may be the same yesterday,
today and forever, but his Spirit is constantly active, creative, and working to
bring his plan to completion. And, on that mountain, God made sure Peter, James
and John knew it.
They were “overshadowed” by a cloud and entered the cloud, of God’s awesome
presence. And heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
A reminder and confirmation of Jesus’s relationship with God, and similar words
to those heard at his baptism not long before.
And then it was over. Jesus was alone again. Jesus was himself again, the same
man as before – or perhaps not. He was most likely also changed by the
experience, energised, refreshed and focussed. And he needed to be: when they
came down from the mountain the next day they were met by a large crowd and a
boy who needed healing.
Isn’t that just like life? The problems we leave behind are still there when we
return. The high points of our journey with God come in between – perhaps it
feels far too many – lows. But God uses those high points to remind us that we
are journeying with his Son, his Chosen and Beloved and he is with us. In that
knowledge, may God give us strength to go out focussed on answering the needs he
will show us, in Jesus’s name.
Amen.