Transfiguration of Our Lord
Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who speaks to us. Amen Speaking and listening These two actions lie at the heart of the transfiguration story. Speaking and listening are the transfiguration story. Jesus has been teaching he’s been speaking to crowds, imparting wisdom and now he needs some time with God. So he takes with him three disciples, Peter, John and James and goes up a mountain to pray. Jesus likes to go to deserted places to pray, less distraction that way but going up a mountain signals that this is a special occasion, God is often met on mountain tops, And sure enough while Jesus is praying something happens, Jesus’ face changes and his clothes become dazzling white and suddenly he is joined by Moses and Elijah they’re having a conversation about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and the cross and Peter, John and James witnessing the glory of God want to hold on to the moment Peter offers to build permanent structures so the moment never has to end and at this God overshadows them and speaks to them, telling them to listen to Jesus and terrified they keep silent. Speaking and listening That’s where it all starts with Jesus going up the mountain to pray, prayer is a combination of speaking and listening, we’re more familiar with the speaking side of prayer but prayer also happens in listening, listening for what God is saying to us. Jesus goes up the mountain to pray and is visibly transformed by encountering God. This is keeping with tradition, we heard how Moses’ face was transformed as he spoke to God. Being in the presence of God changes us. Listening to God visibly changes us. And that frightens us. Moses took to wearing a veil around the people because when they could see the glory of the Lord shining in his face, they were afraid to come near him. Yet they still listened to Moses speak, when others are transformed by being in the presence of God we are afraid yes, but we’re also intrigued, part of us wants to see more, but we can only take so much. We’re like little kids experiencing something new, at first it startles us and we run and hide our face in our parents leg, but soon enough we’re ready to take another peak, and a peak turns into a longer look and eventually, step by step we move toward a full encounter. It’s a different story when we’re the ones who are changed. Peter, dear impulsive, enthusiastic Peter witnesses Jesus’ transformation along with Moses and Elijah and determines that this is a good place, he wants to see more so he suggests building houses for the trio. He wants to make this brief moment permanent even though that is impossible, we are told that Peter didn’t know what he was saying, that this was a moment for just a moment. To be fair to Peter it’s a very human thing to suggest what he did. We humans love to embark on building projects around sites of significance. In seminary I got to go to Israel and Palestine as part of a class on the Holy Land which included visiting sites of significance to Jesus’ ministry. To be fair we were a bit skeptical that we were visiting the exact place where Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection and made them a breakfast of fish, or the exact place where Jesus was baptized but our tour guide a wonderfully faithful Palestinian Catholic named Johnny had an explanation, ‘we know this is the place because the early Christians built a church here’ and there were a lot of churches dedicated to specific events in Jesus’ life. It’s what we humans do, we try to capture significant moments in permanent buildings. But back on the mountain God has other things in mind, the moment is too significant to get caught up in a building project and so even as Peter is offering his suggestion a cloud comes and overshadows the disciples, this is the presence of God, when God appears to people in the Bible it is often in the form of a cloud, For example God led the people of Israel out of Egypt appearing as a pillar of cloud by day. And the disciples are terrified as they enter the cloud. Then God speaks “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him!” And when the cloud lifts, all that’s left is Jesus. And this time, their reaction is to keep silent, and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. They obviously eventually told someone otherwise we wouldn’t know the story but it took them awhile to be able to tell the story, my guess is that it was only after the resurrection did they feel comfortable enough to tells others of their encounter with God and what God said to them. And this too is a perfectly human response. Because as much as we long for God to work in us and in our community - we pray for that every Sunday, when the time comes, like the disciples we are terrified to enter the cloud of God. Covered in clouds we can’t see where we’re going, even on top of a mountain and we don’t like that feeling, we like to be able to look out and see where we’re going anticipate what’s coming next, it’s less scary that way, and yet, God most often speaks when we’re covered in clouds. Those times in life when we can’t see what the future holds, we can barely see our hand in front of our face. A diagnosis, a broken relationship, a job loss, any kind of loss, we don’t know what the future will bring and it terrifies us and that is when God speaks, and when the clouds lift, in that first moment of clarity what do we see? Jesus alone, before us who was there all along. “Listen to him” God says, so we do, as we move forward we listen to Jesus, we save the speaking for later. The Church, with a capital C is in a time of clouds, things that worked for decades are no longer effective and frankly, we’re afraid, this comes out in all kinds of anxieties, I’m not going to list them but I’m sure you can think of something that worries you about the Church, we’re afraid because we can’t see the path in front of us and yet, when we pause, take a deep breath, and a moment to collect ourselves, we find that we do know what to do. Listen. Listen to God who speaks in the midst of clouds, who tells us to listen to Jesus. I’ve been listening for awhile now, And you know what? I’m not afraid of the clouds surrounding the Church anymore. Why? Because I know that when the clouds lift what we’ll find is Jesus, who has been there all along and who will lead us down off the mountain who will show us the way. Realizing this has made Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians so much more meaningful, listen to them again: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.” In Christ we have freedom, freedom from fear, in Christ we see the glory of the Lord, In Christ we are being transformed, In Christ we are engaged in ministry. In Christ we do not lose heart. “This is my son, My chosen; listen to him!” Amen
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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