February 14, 2021: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
So here we are… on what Hallmark calls Valentine’s Day, a day to celebrate love, we gather once more in this virtual space to celebrate the greatest love of all. And we find ourselves on the mountaintop with Jesus, Peter, James, and John, because it is the last Sunday of Epiphany, the season in which Christ is revealed to his followers and to us. I think it is exactly where we need to be.
Let’s go over what happened. The Gospel says that Jesus tapped Peter, James, and John to go on a field trip up the mountain. Now, you have to wonder what these guys were thinking – rut rho…am I in trouble? Mountaintops were places for divine encounters, so maybe they wondered if this was one of those moments when God was going to use all three of their names – you know, like when you were a kid and you knew you were in deep because your mom or dad was calling you with all of your names – cuz’ you know that middle names were only invented to wreak fear in the hearts of kids everywhere when they were used by their parents.
So, Peter, James, and John, have no idea what to expect – certainly not what actually did happen. They get up there and Jesus gets lit up like a Christmas tree, shining so brightly he would make a great Clorox commercial. I wonder if this was when sunglasses were invented. Anyway, Jesus isn’t alone. He seems to be having a conference with two other big stars of biblical fame – Elijah and Moses. The three of them standing there chatting away. Now, I don’t know about you, but I sure would have loved to have been able to eavesdrop on that conversation – I mean, what the heck were they talking about.
I can see it now, Elijah, not having been on earth since he won the Oscar for Best Dramatic Exit for flying up into the heavens in a chariot, wants to know if that great bagel place on the East side of the Jordan is still there, and would Jesus mind just sending him one of those bagels, with some lox on the side. Or maybe Moses, having not had a chance to see the promised land himself, is wondering if there really was a lot of milk and honey in it. Or perhaps they were, like all except those who live in New England and Tampa Bay, just lamenting another win of a Super Bowl by Tom Brady.
Whatever it was, we never get to know, nor does Peter & the J Boys (which, if you think about it, is a great name for a boy band, right – Peter and the J-Boys?).
What we do know is that they stood there in awe watching the whole scene in amazement. You can’t blame them really. Oh sure, we aren’t surprised. We know this about Jesus already, and we also know what is to come. We are not surprised by this. But put yourselves in their sandals for a moment. They have only known the fully human Jesus – the flesh and blood Rabbi that they have been following. Sure, they have seen miracles of healing and exorcism, but Jesus would not have been the first to do some of those things in those days. In fact, Elijah and Moses themselves had been well known for all sorts of miracles by the grace of God. But this – this was not an earthly thing. This was beyond human comprehension. This was a vision of the fully divine Jesus!
No wonder they stood there a bit terrified. And then Peter decides he has to do something. Now, why is it that we seem to think we have to fill every space with an action or a word. We can’t seem to just rest in it. Peter suggested building dwellings for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Peter was awestruck, and he wanted to capture the experience, to make it his own. I think we can understand that.
Think about it. What is the most common site at any public venue these days – a concert, or speech, or family celebration. People aren’t watching it with their eyes, they are watching it through the lens of their phones or tablets. They are trying to capture the moment, but in doing so, they aren’t living in it.
Peter at least didn’t hold up his iPhone…he probably had left it back in the tent. Instead, he interrupted the moment with a suggestion on how to hang on to it. Rather than just absorbing what was happening as the blessed gift it was, he was trying to figure out a way to capture it…but it wasn’t his to keep for himself and the others on that mountain.
There are a couple of lessons for us today in this story. One is that the awe of seeing who Jesus, of experiencing his light, calls us to respond by resting in the moment – not rushing off to the next task. We need to take in our experience of Christ, let it sit in our hearts, and then listen for where he is leading us, because in our rush to respond, we might just run right over the experience itself – we might not see where he wants us to go. For Jesus had a message to give to those three boys that day, and it wasn’t that they were about to form a heavenly commune up there on that mountaintop.
And that leads to another thing we need to take from this story…The experience of Jesus isn’t something to capture for ourselves – but to share. Yes, Jesus did tell them to say nothing about it until it was time (oh that pesky Messianic Secret in the Gospel of Mark), but if he really didn’t want them to tell their story, he would have gone up that mountain on his own.
Jesus didn’t need trail guides, he needed witnesses!
The transfiguration wasn’t for Peter, James, and John, or at least not for them alone. Jesus wanted witnesses to tell the story! So, I suppose if Peter did have his cell phone, a quick selfie in the moment wouldn’t have been a bad thing, if he later shared it all over his social media account…at the right time.
And here’s the thing…now it’s our turn.
No, not to take out our phones, but to take in the Christ present here with us, rest in the experience, and then share that with others. See, the reason we know about this mountaintop experience is precisely because instead of them staying up there, they came down off the mountain, and when it was time – they told the story.
They told the story!
You know, I love the old hymn we sang before and after the gospel reading today. We sang, “I love to tell the story of unseen things above: of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true. It satisfies my longings as nothing else could do.”
“I love to tell the story.”
Well, of course I do you might say, I’m a preacher after all. True, but you know, someone asked me about that recently, about preaching. And you know what I said? If we see preaching as something done only from the pulpits of our sacred worship spaces by clergy, then we are lost. Preaching, my friends, isn’t done only from a pulpit. Preaching is telling our story – and it isn’t done only in words but by our actions in the world. As St. Francis is thought to have said, “Preach the gospel at all times: If necessary, use words.” And that, telling our story, preaching by word and deed – isn’t reserved for clergy…it is what we are all called to do – we are all called to preach, to tell our story!
And my friends, we need to preach. We need to love to tell our story! To tell the story of our own transfiguration, through our encounter with Christ, knowing that transfiguration means metamorphosis – we are changed through Jesus Christ – and by that change, by our own transfiguration, others will also be transfigured. We take in the light of Christ, and that light shines in and through us, but not for ourselves alone, but that we might come down off our own mountaintop experiences of Christ and share that light with the world.
These are troubling times, and there is a great need for prophetic witness coming from our pulpits to be sure. The violence and hatred in our land; the growing poor, homeless, addicted, and depressed; the intolerance of difference; the pain of loss from the pandemic; all of this is wearing us down emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Yet if we leave the prophetic in pulpits, we are missing our own gospel call. As followers of Jesus, we are called to bear witness to his love and grace by our words and actions in this weary world – this is our life as the church – the body of Christ. We are called to this life in baptism, and nourished for the journey in the Eucharist, and in the fellowship as we hear the word. The church must engage as preachers in the world, we must tell the story, if we are to ever build the Beloved Community, the vision of God for us all. We must live the story by our words, and by actions in the streets of our towns.
We tell the story when we stand in the halls of government to advocate for those who are oppressed, marginalized, and forgotten.
We tell the story when we march in the streets against injustice, bigotry, and hate.
We tell the story when we visit the sick, the imprisoned, the poor, and the homeless.
This is how we preach the good news!
This is how we tell the story!
This is how we, the church, live into our lives in Christ!
We are all called to tell the story, and we have a lot to say that can truly change the world. And one of the ways we are doing that here at Christ Church is through our Epiphany Project.
As most of you know, those who pledged to the church by the end of the year – no matter how much – received an equal share of our outreach budget, which this year meant $100 for each person in the form of a blank check. In the memo line was this: “In the name of Jesus Christ via…” and then your name. You were then asked to pray, discern, and then give this money to those who are serving others in the world – where you found Jesus revealed to you.
Then today, on this last Sunday of Epiphany, we will tell our stories of the transformative work Jesus is doing in the world now, the way in which we have been changed by our encounter with him, as he has been revealed – manifested – to us in this time of Epiphany – the way in which we have been filled with his light, and then shared that light with others.
Why did we do this?
Because we love to tell the story!
How could we not?
When one encounters the living Christ – in those we love and serve – in the communion of the faithful – in the Eucharist (spiritual or physical) – we are filled with his glorious light, and we follow him down the mountaintop to tell the story in our words and in our actions to heal a broken world.
Today we end the season of Epiphany – a time in which Christ is revealed to his followers, to us, and to the world. And I have to wonder as we are heading into Lent if there wasn’t yet another reason Jesus brought Peter, James, and John up that mountain. See, I think perhaps he wanted them to be filled with his light, because darkness – the darkness of the cross and the tomb – awaited him and them. He wanted them to have this light within, that they might know it can never be extinguished. To give them strength for the journey, so that they could tell the story.
And now it is we who are descending that mountaintop and heading towards Jerusalem with Jesus as we enter into Lent.
What will we do with the Christ revealed to us?
What will we do with the light, his light, shining within us – the body of Christ?
I pray we let that light warm our hearts, and shine through us – that in our words and in our actions in the world it will be ever so clear that we love to tell the story of unseen things above: of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
February 14, 2021
The Last Sunday After The Epiphany
1st Reading – 2 Kings 2:1-12
Psalm 50:1-6
2nd Reading – 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Gospel – Mark 9:2-9
