Transfiguration as a Pit Stop in Ultimate Reality

Transfiguration as a Pit Stop in Ultimate Reality

Very often I am very thankful for our lectionary.  It gives us stories that left on our own we would not read or focus on.  As Nancy put it once, the lectionary prevents us from creating God in our own image.  However, sometimes the lectionary can be frustrating, this morning being an example for me. This morning we read the story of the Transfiguration for the second time in a year; it is a fantastic story a priest friend of mine calls, “The Story of the Glow-in-the-dark Jesus.”  And while it is an important story, it seems to be placed randomly, out of context in our lectionary at this time.  Last week we read from the Gospel of Mark about Jesus curing the sick and casting out demons, and wanting to spread the Good News to all of Galilee.  Next week we will read about Jesus’ baptism, and being called to the desert.  So this week’s Transfiguration story really doesn’t seem to quite fit in a cohesive narrative. 

               

I think if we are to really absorb some meaning from this story we are going to have to place it in the wider context of what is going on in the Gospel according to Mark.  So, trivia for this morning: the Transfiguration takes place in Chapter 9 of Mark’s Gospel, does anyone know what major event involving Peter takes place in Chapter 8 right before this gospel reading?  In Chapter 8 of Mark we have Jesus ask Peter “Who do you say I am?” and Peter answers, “You are the Messiah.” Before this story of Transfiguration, we have Peter’s confession of Christ, which is the Great Turning Point in this Gospel. Before Peter’s confession, we Jesus wandering around Galilee, healing sick, feeding people, casting out demons and warning them not to say a word about who he is.  Then, in Chapter 8, Peter recognizes and confesses Jesus to be the Messiah.  He has come to this belief on his own.  And after confessing Jesus to be the Christ, instantly the narrative switches.  The direction is no longer wandering around, but the direction is now towards Jerusalem and the cross. 

               

However, after this wonderful moment, Jesus makes things awkward, as he usually does. Right after Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the one to save his people, Jesus starts talking about how he will suffer, and will be executed by the religious authority.  Jesus tells how if we want to follow him, we too must take up our crosses and be willing to suffer.  Once we declare Jesus as Savior, a new path is laid out before us.  And it is one that we, particularly us in American Christianity, do not want to hear.  We too like Peter implore Jesus to stop all this talk about suffering and death…we are more than happy to worship Jesus, and have Jesus save us, but we cannot comprehend or wish to hear of our Messiah suffering, or Jesus’s invitation for us to suffer alongside him.  Yet, for whatever reason it is a high priority on Jesus’ “To Do” List.  He will mention it three more times in successive chapters that he will suffer death, and be raised again from the dead.  Once Jesus is confessed as Lord, Mark drives home the reality that suffering will be a part of this path of redemption. 

It is in this context we get our Gospel today, the Transfiguration.  Peter has confessed Jesus as Lord.  Jesus shifts the entire direction of his ministry towards Jerusalem to the cross…he tells us he will suffer, die and be resurrected, and that if we want to follow him, we too will need to participate.  But, our first pit stop is the mountain top to witness the Transfiguration.  In this event we see Moses, the one who brought the Old Covenant to God’s people, Elijah the son of the prophets, and the one foretold to precede the Day of the Lord with Jesus.  They are bright and dazzling.  We see Jesus is linked with the salvation history of God’s people throughout time, in fact he is the fulfillment of it.  The Transfiguration is a life-giving event, as it is a reminder of the Ultimate Reality of who Jesus is, and where he comes from.  When we confess Jesus as Lord, Transfiguration is just as much a part of our story as the promise of suffering.  So how does this apply to our life in the Church today?

Well, I like to compare the Transfiguration to our worship in Church.  Here, we experience Jesus as Christ in Word and Sacrament.  Here we are safe, and we can bask in the glory…we can find comfort, solace, hope, faith, fellowship.  We can experience here, if we allow ourselves, a taste of that mountain top experience.  But, like Peter, we want to make shelters here, we want to stay here.  I mean if I were Peter and I was given the option of glory with Glow-in-the-dark Jesus or suffering and death, I will choose to stay.  But, here on this mountaintop we are commanded to Listen to Jesus, God’s well beloved Son, and then to follow him down to Jerusalem. 

In our church I find that we are called and invited to the mountaintop of Transfiguration…to be refreshed, renewed, to experience our Lord in Word and Sacrament.  The church is also to call her members to follow Jesus down the mountain; this is particularly where Deacons prove useful.  The Deacon’s call to the church is for the church to take up her cross and to head into the suffering of the world alongside our Lord.  A real life example of this is one of our Deacons in this Diocese Deacon Phil Gilibeter is a Philadelphia cop, and he, along with other lay persons in ministry head into the streets and abandoned buildings of Kensington armed with nothing more than a Bible and some Narcan. And with their faith and love, they go to pray and communicate with those who are in the deepest darkness of addiction, and to administer life-saving medication if it is needed.  Once I get my RN license in March, it is my hope to join them in this mission.

         

Deacons remind us that after the vital and life-giving pit stop of Transfiguration, we are called to follow Jesus to the suffering of this world.   And while the Deacon’s call to the suffering of the world is good and vital, it is not complete without the call of the priest to worship in Word and Sacrament.  The events of Transfiguration and Resurrection informs us of an ultimate reality: a reality of life, of victory, of peace, of promise…and like the disciples, if we are going to take up our cross with Jesus and bring Good News to the broken, the poor, the oppressed, and those who mourn we must see and know the Glory from which we are being sent out. So for me, Transfiguration is not simply a random fantastic story…it is a reminder that when I experience the pain of the sick and dying as a nursing student or chaplain, that there is a deeper reality of which we are all apart. Transfiguration is a pit stop in the ultimate reality that arms me with hope and faith and love to walk in those dark places where Jesus leads me.

So on this Sunday before Lent, before we begin our desert journeys to Jerusalem and the cross, let us rest and be content on the Mountain-top.  Let us be with Jesus, our Lord in peace.  And let us prepare to take up our cross and follow our Lord down the mountain to meet and heal the pain of this world with the Love of God.  AMEN.