May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
When I first participated in a service at my former parish, St. Luke’s, I remember looking over at the rector, John Mennell, and being in awe – his face was glowing! It was as though he was being transfigured by the love of God right at that moment…and then I realized – it was his tablet computer – his iPad – that was glowing on his face. Church in the new age!
But that experience reminds me of the man who created that tablet – the iPad – Steve Jobs, who died just about two years ago. Rumor has it that when he got to the pearly gates, Peter called Moses over and said Hey Moses – this guy’s here to upgrade your tablets!
In our Exodus reading today, we hear about when Moses got those tablets, when he encountered God on the mountaintop – and the verses that follow today’s reading it is said that when he came down the mountain his face was shining from the experience. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to the mountaintop, and suddenly “his face shone like the sun, his clothes became dazzling white.” It is the transfiguration.
But what is transfiguration?
Miriam-Webster says that transfiguration is “to give a new and typically exalted or spiritual appearance – to transform outwardly and usually for the better.”
Transfiguration…Transformation
In this passage from Matthew, we hear of Jesus being transfigured, but who is really being changed in this story? Not Jesus, but his disciples.
Now, as most of you know, I am a chaplain at Montclair State University. And every Thursday, I participate, along with other chaplains, in a large gathering of students for our Interfaith Conversations, which take place in our Center for Faith & Spirituality. One week the subject was Expectancy – What do you expect of God, and what does God expect of you?
As you can imagine, these conversations, with students of many faith traditions (and all sorts of Christian varieties), is a highlight of my week. And as I listened to the students talk openly about what they believe God expects of them, I wondered about the idea of expectancy itself, because I believe that without it, it is difficult to experience God – to have these mountaintop experiences of Moses and Jesus.
Transformation happens when we seek it – when we are expectant. When we are expecting to see God everywhere – which means we are open to all that is possible – we are able to encounter mountaintop experiences. And those experiences will fill us with such joy that it will always radiate from one’s face – and that glow of God – that transformational glow – draws others into the fullness of relationship with God, as it did for Peter, James and John. “The unstated message of these scriptures today is that if you live in God’s presence, [if you are open and expectant of the God that is all around and in you], it will make a difference that others will notice.”1
So what does that mean for us here at Christ Church?
It means that we are a transformation people here. All Christians are called to be transformational people. The very words transfiguration and transformation have movement implied. And what that means for us, and for all Christians, is that we are not to be a people who are called to experience God and then stand still! When we speak of mountaintop experiences – this is what we are talking about – a moment like Moses and Jesus had, a moment like Peter, James, and John had. A moment when our lives are changed forever, and most assuredly, when it does, it isn’t something that only affects us, but those around us. And we are called – driven even – to share it.
The day before he was shot, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr had a mountaintop experience too, and in the sermon he preached that night, he said: “Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountain top. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. ”
And Dr. King came down from that mountaintop experience, and in his death, we all experienced a call to action. And in Jesus’ transfiguration, his followers did too. They experienced something there – something that was beyond anything they could have imagined.
When these experiences happen to us as they did to Peter, James, and John, there are so many reactions we might have. We have been talking in our Epiphany series these past three weeks about these transformational moments in our lives, and in the lives around us. We generally react out of our two basic emotions – love or fear. The disciples react out of fear, hiding their faces until Jesus touches them, and bids them to stand up and walk down the mountain. And the disciples act out of love, wanting to stay and linger in these peak experiences, in these times of awakening. In a moment of something intensely meaningful happening in our lives, we can just want to stay there, basking in the glow that seems all around us. Peter certainly did, wanting to build permanent dwellings for Jesus, Moses and Elijah up there on that mountain. Poor Peter. He really tries so hard to live into what God expects of him, but if he would think less and feel more, perhaps he wouldn’t stumble so much.
Peter, James and John, were not meant to hide in fear, or to stay and build houses. They were meant to walk down off that mountaintop, and come to understand not only what they saw manifested in Jesus, but what they saw reflected in Jesus’ eyes when he looked at them!
Here at Christ Church, we are building a community where when people first come through the doors of this church, I believe that they too will experience a transfiguration. A change in themselves that will be affirmed in the love of this community of faith, and reflected in the eyes of everyone of you here. And, having experienced this myself when I first came here, I totally understand that. And when you feel that sense of love in community, it can sometimes feel like you want to just move from Sunday to Sunday, staying with the feeling that you get here. And that is a good thing – that is how we will grow this church.
But, as I have said many times already from this pulpit, church is not a destination! Church is where we are given strength for the journey – the journey down that mountain and out into the valleys of the world around us. To seek and serve Christ.
We come here as a community of faith, and we see in the eyes of our church family that we are beloved children of God, called to a live into who we are, to love one another, God, and ourselves. And it feels wonderful and rejuvenating. But, as we say in our Post Communion prayer, having been fed the spiritual food of the sacrament, “Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart.” We are meant to be nourished here, and then go out into the world…to experience the transfiguration, and then be transformed – coming off the mountaintop into the valleys below.
As we experience this last Sunday of Epiphany – hearing of the most amazing Epiphany – the Transfiguration, it is a good moment to consider our own responses to the epiphanies in our lives. We can so often react in fear – getting stopped in our tracks, not believing fully in what we are experiencing. Or, we may want to stop and savor the light of these epiphanies. But we are not called at these times to hide our faces, or to linger about in the glow, we are called to move, to shine, to be radiant with the love of Christ, so that others can experience it too. We cannot stay behind these walls. We must come down from the mountaintop and live into who we are called to be.
And that is what we are doing here at Christ Church. We are going to the streets to meet people where they are, bringing the sacrament of Ashes on Ash Wednesday to the train and bus stations of our communities. We are doing this because we understand that Christ is found everywhere in everyone, and that we are called to step boldly forward to meet Christ in the world today – to love and to serve Christ in others – to care for all of creation.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a wonderful leader in our Anglican Communion, speaks to the meaning of the transfiguration for all of us, when he said: “All over this magnificent world God calls us to extend [the] kingdom of shalom-peace and wholeness — of justice, of goodness, of compassion, of caring, of sharing, of laughter, of joy, of reconciliation. God is transfiguring the world right this very moment through us because God believes in us and because God loves us. What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And as we share God’s love with our brothers and sisters, God’s other children, there is no tyrant who can resist us, no opposition that cannot be ended, no hunger that cannot be fed, no wound that cannot be healed, no hatred that cannot be turned into love, no dream that cannot be fulfilled.”…
Like Jesus and his followers, we cannot be immobilized by fear, nor can we stay in the glow of the transformation that is ours when we embrace God in our lives – we must draw strength from it, and move forward into who we are meant to be. We must do as Jesus did, and allow that radiance to reflect in the eyes of those around us, so that they too may come with us off the mountain and live into who they are called to be.
And, we must remember that we are never alone in this. Peter, James and John did not come down off that mountain alone, but with Jesus. God always walks alongside us, just as Jesus walked alongside them, Jesus walks alongside us now – as we become the transformational people we are called to be.
When you leave this church today, and live into who you are, and what you are called to do, know that the light that shines in you is the light of God working through you. Archbishop Tutu was right – “God is transfiguring the world right this very moment through us because God believes in us and because God loves us.”
So go and step out, filled with the glow of Christ, to seek and serve God in all people! The valleys of the world need you. And when you are worn down by the path you walk, you will come together as a family of faith to be fed at this table, to be given strength for the journey, and to be reminded – whenever you see your reflection in the eyes of those around you – to be reminded of who you are, and what you are called to do – to be agents of transfiguration for the world.
Amen.
Children’s Service:
Give them all dark sunglasses.
I bet your parents told you to never look directly at the sun, and sometimes make you put on sunglasses when you go outside, right?
So, put your sunglasses on for this story. You are going to need them.
Talk about Jesus being so bright that Peter, James, and John all had to hide their faces (because they didn’t have sunglasses back then).
Jesus really changed right in front of his friends! But it was just his appearance – see, he really was the same as he had always been, but people saw him differently.
Have you ever heard of that happening in bedtime stories? Cinderella was always a princess deep down inside, everyone else just didn’t see it.
But the most important thing is that God tells us to listen to Jesus. We listen to our mom and dad, right? That is because they can teach us how to be the best we can be, right? Well, the same is true of Jesus. Jesus is your friend, who loves you, and wants you to be the best you can be. So God says to us – listen to Jesus!
And how do we do that? We come here to church on Sundays and here all that Jesus tells us. And the most important thing Jesus says to us – that he loves you, and you, and you…
Amen.
[Please note: All sermons are as written, not necessarily as delivered on that Sunday]
The Rev. Diana Wilcox
Christ Episcopal Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
February 23, 2014
Seventh Sunday After The Epiphany – Year A
First Reading – Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 99
Second Reading – 2 Peter 1:16-21
Gospel – Matthew 17:1-9
