Luke 9: 28-43a
“Change Into Action”
March 3, 2019 Transfiguration Sunday
We are here at a turning point. We are pivoting from the season of light into the season of preparedness. We’re entering a time of self-reflection when we consciously pay attention to our relationship with God while Jesus gets ready to take off for Jerusalem. Before he makes the trip, though, we are presented with the story of the amazingly changed face of Jesus on a mountaintop witnessed by three disciples who are in desperate need of a strong cup of coffee, willing themselves somehow to stay awake and not miss this moment that they later are instructed not to tell anyone about and, yet, somehow we know about what seems like an out of body experience that is dreamlike.
There is still more light to shine through in that once in a lifetime experience of Peter, John and James. The light that transfigures Jesus is the light we are to be on the lookout for. This is the light that will change us, not into someone else, but by helping us to see within, finding the best of who we are and what we’re made of. Digging in for the strength to cope with the loss and illness and witness to human suffering that makes up our days comes from doing as God instructs, listening to Jesus. Listening to the call to prayer and the push into action showing our love for God by how we treat others. God’s glory may not shine in movie-like white brightness but we do get to taste it in the everyday experiences if we open ourselves up to it.
We are once again at a point in Jesus’ life story that is like ours, with turns and twists that no amount of planning could have changed. This is a mystery story. For a couple thousand years lots of folks have tried to explain what is meant by the transfiguration of Jesus that starts with a mountaintop prayer retreat with a few friends. The white lightening appearance of Jesus is not something easily explained and so we must be content to talk about the human experience of such an event in words that often don’t do it justice. Encountering God – the voice of God speaking and the instruction to listen to Jesus must have been transformative for Peter, John and James and yet they told no one, perhaps unsure whether they’d be thought crazy or whether they wanted to hold onto that encounter with the living God all for themselves. Who could blame them? And I have no clue as to how Luke came to know about this if no one talked about it. Maybe they just needed time and space to process this fairly unbelievable event and then maybe it was shared in whispers to family and friends when the conversation turned to why and how they became disciples. Maybe they quietly filled in the details such as hearing directly from God with the words, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him!” They were witnesses to a life-changing moment and ultimately they had to figure out what to do with it.
The human characters apart from Jesus who are in this story are all in the witnessing business and what they are witness to speaks to the complexity and yet simple beauty that is God in both incarnate, living, breathing, human form and God in transcendent form harkening back to our great Biblical ancestors Moses and Elijah. These two reappear just as Jesus is on the edge of his great journey because they, too, were a combination of great prophets and fallible regular Joes. Moses led the Exodus across the Red Sea and he saw God face to face but let us not forget that he tried his hardest to get out of his role as prophet. He often felt that God had deserted him and yet he continued to lead. Moses was the link to the past – the exodus event and the responsibility to teach and live into the statutes that were handed down. And then there was Elijah who was swept into heaven aboard a flaming chariot but this was also the same guy who ran and hid under a broom tree out in the wilderness when he found out that Queen Jezebel’s henchmen were after him and he begged God to let him die. If Moses represents the important parts of the past, Elijah is most associated with the end time, the future. Moses and Elijah are remembered for their greatness but coupled with that greatness were so many of the same doubts and fears that all of the rest of us deal with every day and so who better than these two in Luke’s Gospel account to offer Jesus the words of encouragement and promise that he needs. Jesus here finds himself on the verge of a journey that will upend everything that had been accepted as the norm and he will move toward a new future with an eye to an end that won’t be like any end folks were prepared for. This is a preview of what is to come. One writer described it this way: “The Transfiguration is not a proof-of-Jesus’ divinity video. It’s a resurrection appearance before the resurrection.” (Steve Garnaas Holmes, www.unfoldinglight.org, 2/28/19)
These two prophets perhaps are reassuring Jesus, that yes, he is the one that God needs most to be both transcendent in his bright whiteness as well as a living example of what God knows to be possible in we mere humans, passing on actions and words that will bring the hope that the people desperately need.
We need a heavy dose of hope right about now. This past week was a truly difficult and heartbreaking one for one of the two denominations we are a part of, the United Methodist Church, which, frankly did not act very united. The vote that was taken at the special session of General Conference in St. Louis ended with a whole swath of Methodists left to wonder how they were to be in the church they loved if relegated to second class status. This General Conference voted to strengthen the enforcement of the Book of Discipline when it comes to the ban on ordaining LGBTQ folks and performing same-sex marriages. Many are fearful that there will be an official split in the current 12 million member denomination of which we are a part. We do not know what the final outcome will be as some of the language that was approved this week is being challenged as being inconsistent with the United Methodist Church constitution. The Traditional Plan that was approved by a fairly close vote was not the plan approved by the bishops in the U.S. As a Reconciling church, which is what we identify as that includes over 1000 UMC churches nationwide, in conjunction with our Open and Affirming status through the UCC but which is not recognized by the United Methodist Church itself, has left many of us devastated. What transformation will take place as a result of this vote is still left to be seen. As some have indicated, perhaps this will be a time for the church – big church, organized religion and denominationalism – to die and then rise again in a new form. We, too, as a congregation may need to wrestle with this decision. Hopefully, on Sunday, March 31st when our District Superintendent the Rev. Jill Colley Robinson is here with us for worship and conversation afterwards she will be able to shed more light on what all this means for the United Methodist Church and will mean for us as a local congregation.
On this Transfiguration Sunday when we begin on the mountaintop with Jesus and end up in the trenches with him making a sick boy well, we get to see the range of what Jesus is all about. We know in hindsight that he is heading for Jerusalem and the cross and then the resurrection all of which we will prepare for over the course of the six plus weeks of Lent. Perhaps we might consider how we can experience change during this season of preparation. What new thing God has in store for us might just show itself if we filter out the distractions and journey through these 40 days with ears and eyes and hearts wide open.
Let us move from words spoken to this shared sacred meal with this prayer: O God of glory and mountain-top experiences, we pray that you shine in us as we seek to reach that which will transform our lives and, we believe, transform your world. Indeed to you, O God, be the glory forevermore. Amen. (day1.org/8338-greg_deloach_seeing_the_world_in_a_whole_light.print)