Transfiguration of Our Lord
Matthew 17:1-9; Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Peter1:16-21
As some of you already know, I bought a truck this week. Actually our oldest son bought a truck but since he doesn't graduate until May I had to drive down to Champaign on Monday to co-sign the purchase and it is my insurance that currently covers the vehicle. So for the next few months I own a 2002 Sierra 1500 extended cab half-ton pickup with towing package. This is not my dream vehicle. You can't even drive it on the Outer Drive in Chicago or park it in most parking ramps. But if you were to see the pictures our son posted on line to family and friends immediately after we got the truck back to his place—a picture with him standing in the flat bed grinning—you would know that this was a special moment for him. He did let me drive if for a few minutes. He sat in the passenger seat pointing out all the quality items in the cab. Explaining to me the great value this truck is and how it will make his work as a civil engineer not only good but better. This was a special moment for him. As I stood there looking at Andrew looking at his truck, I was reminded of a time when the boys were much younger. When we made a list for each of them of things that they wanted to do in their lives. I remember that at the time the top three items for Andrew had been to sell Christmas trees (which he did two years later), learn to drive heavy construction equipment (which he did last year on his summer construction internship), And own a truck. Later Monday night I got an e-mail from one of our other sons wondering if there was anything that Andrew yet wants to do with his life now that he has fulfilled his three top dreams. I can assure you that Andrew's mother and I have another dream already planned for him to achieve next. It's called "a place of your own after graduation."
There are moments in life that bring us a certain sense of fulfillment. Moments when all the striving or dreaming, wishing or wanting find completeness. There are personal goals and objectives that we set for ourselves. Benchmarks that define our movement through time assuring us that we are moving in the direction that we intended. Moments that affirm us by our having reached a certain objective. Graduations from high school and college. Employment. Marriage. Participation in meaningful activities that add value to our lives and the lives of others. And there are those dreams that draw us onward. Sometimes visions of activities that we are afraid to explore yet but maybe someday. Psychologists and human experience have made it clear that we are creatures who need purpose, meaning and direction to our lives. On the simplest level our goals may be survival goals of food and shelter but there are also far more complex forces that direct our lives. That call us to explore meanings and directions we might have never considered. The human spirit seems to yearn for dreams and visions beyond this moment. Some would make rather simple practical lists and call them dreams. Others open themselves to the unexpected possibilities of God's world and find ways to weave these moments into the fabric of the familiar. That is how our lessons for today come to us. As unexpected possibilities that intersect our hopes and dreams. From the ordinary to the totally unexpected and back again all in the course of one day.
To the church this day is remembered as the festival of the transfiguration. Consider. The events immediately preceding our Gospel lesson for today focus in Matthew on Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi affirming that Jesus was the Christ. Jesus had asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Peter had responded by saying what was probably already in the hearts of the other disciples. It was a bold moment of belief, hope and dreams in a faith declaration. And Jesus had responded by beginning to explain to them that if this Messianic dream was to be fulfilled, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem to die and on the third day rise. Peter went from the heights of faith certainty to complete denial, "Never," he said, "we won't let it happen." The price of this hope and dream was too high even for Jesus. Especially for the disciples. At which point Jesus had rebuked Peter telling him to get out of the way. That his thinking was of the devil and not God's way. This was incredibly difficult for the disciples. How could the loving God that Jesus had revealed possibly be involved in such a death? How could such a death be in any way good? It was like being told that your best friend is dying of an inoperable cancer with only six months to live. Jesus himself had taught repeatedly that life was good. And that the fullness of life revealed through him was God's desire for all. Life. Not death. Six days later Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain in our Gospel text. For six days the disciples carried Jesus' words of his impending death. Secretly grieved over the inconceivable. Attempted to deny it. Rationalize it. They walked in that daze between denial and acceptance of the most unacceptable news they had ever heard. On the seventh day, the Sabbath day, the day of God's favor, taking the three disciples up the mountain with him, the glory of the Lord was revealed in the transfiguration of Jesus the Christ. His clothes and his face glowed. Heavenly light shown around and from him. Moses and Elijah appeared. God's two greatest prophets right there in front of them. And then came the cloud and the voice from heaven, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" Suddenly the idea of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, was not so difficult for Peter, James and John to grasp. In fact Peter recognizes the obvious saying. "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Suddenly it all made sense. The miracles. The parables. The prophecy. The vision and the dreams. His life and purpose. The whole story of faith from Moses through Elijah to Jesus. This was one of those "ah-ha" moments. No wonder we end the season of Epiphany, the Sundays after Christmas, every year with the Transfiguration.
The purpose of Christ's coming is not to give us Christmas. But a vision of life beyond the ordinary and routine. For a few moments that is what the disciples shared. A glimpse. A foretaste of things to come. This is a divine moment. A transcendent moment. It brings to mind words like awe and wonder. Words that as we grow older and more experienced in the ways of the world tend to fade from our vocabulary. Living in a world of global communication and the Internet it takes a lot to fill us with awe or wonder. That doesn't mean we can't be surprised. The power of nature. Earthquake and tsunami can give us pause. But the awe and wonder of God? Prior to the transfiguration the most dramatic appearance of God to humanity had been to Israel in the wilderness. Moses had been driven by his vision of God's people worshipping their God in the wilderness. A vision that drew the people to the base of Mount Sinai. The disciples knew the story well. Moses had not had an easy time of it leading God's people out of Egypt through the desert. They were always complaining and muttering. One day God called Moses up to the mountaintop and when Moses arrived a cloud covered the mountain. For six days Moses had no vision. Visibility, both physical and spiritual, was zero. The worries of being the leader of a nation of escaped slaves plagued Moses like the waves of frogs and locust that had plagued Egypt. For six days Moses sat in the shadows of the clouds and wondered where God was. Wondered if it had all just been a fluke. A coincidence. All those plagues and the Red Sea. Maybe God hadn't really called him. Maybe it was all just his imagination.
Life can be like that. Routines that deaden our hopes and dreams. The slumps that cause us to doubt ourselves and consider just packing it all in, leaving the dream to someone else. Or maybe to be abandoned all together. The week gets pretty long sometimes. But for Moses there came the seventh day. The Sabbath day. The day of God's favor. And the glory of the Lord appeared to him. This was more than a burning bush. The glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire over the top of the whole mountain. A cloud veiled the fire and the light and the glory and the wonder and the awe. But Moses entered the cloud and God's glory for 40 days and 40 nights. From out of the cloud on the top of the mountain Moses would come carrying two tablets with 10 commandments. He would return to a troubled people. Who had lost their hope and faith in their God and in Moses. But the vision of God's law and teachings would ultimately save the people from their false gods. From their despair and loss of hope. Lead them out of the wilderness and into a promised land. Centuries later, Jesus and his disciples would also come down from the mountain of God's glory. Energized by a vision of hopes fulfilled and the promise of life changing power. Only to find that the world hadn't changed much. The next stories tell of the struggle to heal an epileptic child. They had to face a combative religious and political system. A community of faith struggling with more doubt then belief. The glory and wonder of God is so close and yet so far. The ancients worried that the power and majesty of God would overwhelm the people. Blinding and destroying their vision. Fear that God's glorious vision would be seen as so far beyond humanity that all would despair of ever approaching God's love and grace.
Our modern world often has the opposite problem. God's glory and wonder is replaced with a God we find comfortable and understanding. We reduce God to functions or roles that we can define. We create a God that is based on our experiences of special moments. A sweet and nice role model god. Or we create the god of my ideas. The god of my causes. The god of my church. The god of my dreams. The god of my nation. The transfiguration text reminds us that the voice the disciples heard was not claimed or created by human design. In fact the God of the transfiguration did the claiming and naming. "This is my Son." God's son. And suddenly the disciples got it. This God claims humanity. Claims us. To hear God's claiming word. God's claiming word on each of us suddenly changes the way we see the world and the things that we would claim.
My son smiles and says, "This is my truck". But then he gets honest. Well, actually it's owned by my father but I picked it out. I get to drive it. He just handles the insurance. And the payments. Until I can take them on. God claims us. We do not claim God. God blesses us. God empowers us. God protects and guides our lives. God is God. This is not an easy moment to experience. Some never do. Centuries of preaching on this text still leave most of us scratching our heads and wondering. Which is ultimately what the power of God is all about—wonder. Each Sunday we come to church hoping to encounter. Hoping to be encountered by a moment of wonder. Maybe even a moment of awe. Quite simply we are looking for a moment with God. The problem is that we don't always find God waiting for us. Some Sunday's we find our friends and neighbors. We find great music. A few quiet moments. But we don't find God. Dr. Carlyle Marney was a southern preacher who used to chide his congregation with the warning that God didn't need to come to church every single week. But we do. We need to be there week after week. Because there is no telling which Sunday God, the eternal one, is going to walk down the church aisle and sit next to you. And the day God sits next to you will be the day you are transformed. Turned inside out by the encounter with awe and wonder. Transfiguration is a word that comes to mind. So we come to church expecting the unexpected. Believing in the vision and the dream to be revealed in the glory. The wonder and the awe. New things come into our lives. Unexpected things like a new truck. That will soon become just another truck on the roads. But for a moment there was such joy and wonder and maybe even a little awe. Life is like that. Life in the spirit that takes us to the mountain. This may be your day. God is here. Claiming you. You can actually taste the miracle. Savor the wonder. Be embraced by the joy. It is good Lord to be here. It is good Lord to be here before we return to the valley once more.
Amen