Transfiguration Sunday (Year C) - March 3, 2019

Transfiguration Sunday
Year C
March 3, 2019
Luke 9:28-36

Today marks a transition point in our year together. Today, we mark the turn from the time after Epiphany - the time where Jesus woos us into relationship and discipleship by showing us who he is and by envisioning what the Kingdom he brings looks like. And we’ve come full circle from the Baptism of our Lord Sunday, hearing again, words similar to those that God proclaimed at Jesus baptism - “This is my son, the chosen one. Listen to him!” Yet again, Jesus gives us a glimpse into who he is as he is transfigured before Peter, James and John. Yet today, we’re also turning, we’re shifting toward the season of Lent - which turns us more directly toward Jerusalem and toward the cross. What a fitting transition this Gospel text is is.

We meet these three disciples and Jesus in a literal mountain-top experience. They go to the mountain, according to this Gospel, in order to pray. As was customary, it is on the mountain that one expects to encounter the divine. As Jesus is praying, his face changes appearance and his clothes become dazzling white. Moses and Elijah appear and begin speaking with him. Luke is the only Gospel to tell us what they were talking about - they were talking about what was coming up. Jesus, in his conversation with Moses and Elijah, were talking about what is about to happen as Jesus heads toward Jerusalem. This mountaintop encounter, coming immediately after Jesus’ first prediction of his impending death, turns Jesus himself directly toward the cross. Indeed, the rest of the Gospel (and our journey through Lent) will play out, directly facing Jerusalem and the cross. With Jesus being in dialogue with Moses and Elijah, we see what will come in Jerusalem and the cross through the lens of God’s liberative and salvific work. The God that liberated Israel from the bonds of slavery will liberate this world from that which binds it - evil, death - as the Kingdom of God breaks forth in this world here and now.

Although the disciples are sleepy, they were only able to witness this and to eavesdrop on their conversation because somehow they had found a way to stay awake. I can only imagine how seeing this scene would jolt one awake. They witness this epiphany in Jesus’ transfiguration before them. They witness this sneak peek into what Jesus’ body will look like as the Kingdom of God is finally manifested, finally completely made known. They get this sneak peek in this world as it is, in this world marked by brokenness, in this world that will kill Jesus, and this sneak peek gives them (and us) an assurance that God’s glory is coming to this world and that Jesus is God enfleshed among us. In Jesus, God’s kingdom has already broken in. Today, the Divine has pushed out of its own box. The presence of God that was once seemingly only found on the mountain top is really and truly present in Jesus. The disciples have access to God, to the divine in Jesus.

Quite understandably, the disciples with Jesus don’t quite “get” what this scene means for them. Based on Peter’s reaction, what we can say is that they knew that they were in the presence of the Divine and that they wanted to remain there and dwell there. Who wouldn’t want that to end? Who among us would want to come down from the mountain, and turn toward Jerusalem and the cross after such a powerful encounter with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Not only would we see Jesus in this altered, heavenly state, on the mountain with Jesus - we’d be safe. We could stay within our own bubble - secluded from the rest of the world - never needing to risk anything.  It is a break from the world as it is.

I spent spring break my sophomore year of college at Taize - a monastery community in France. In fact, I was there seven years ago today, so I’ve been thinking a lot about that trip this week - with all highs and the lows that come with international travel - including a full-out sprint through the airport in Atlanta to make our connecting flight. I’m so incredibly thankful for that trip, for so many reasons. For instance, it was there that I grew close to my best friend, Perry - whom many of you have met either here or at my ordination. It was also a deeply and profoundly spiritual experience - and it is hard to put into words. At the end of the trip, I don’t think any of us wanted to leave. I have this fantastic picture of Perry hugging one of the ancient walls in the village of Taize; it is one of my favorite pictures of him (and I'm sharing it with permission). And I think it sums up how we felt about the trip. In many ways, our time there was a mountain top experience. We connected with God in ways that many of us haven’t before (and possibly since). We connected with God in prayer with one another and with new-found friends from around the world. We Connected with God in singing the beautiful, repetitive hymns of the community - to the point that those hymns themselves became our prayers. We were safe together in the bubble of the community. We could have stayed there for much longer than what we did. We wanted to hold on to those experiences, to pitch our own tents there, to take a break from our real lives - as “real life” as college gets, with the academic rigor of the University of Richmond.

As I do for each of my sermons, I spend quite a bit of time reading about these passages - reading other’s interpretations of the passage, filling in for myself the context of the passage, etc. Reading Luke Timothy Johnson’s commentary on Luke, he made me think differently of why Peter’s response is so off-base. He writes, “[Peter] wanted to capture and routinize - [make routine] - the presence of God’s glory.” In other words, Peter literally wanted to put God in a box, or in this case, a tent. When we try to put God in a box, when we only look for God in the places and the ways we’d expect, we miss what God in Jesus is doing all around us. Even more, by staying on the mountaintop, God’s mission in Jesus cannot be fulfilled. In Jesus, the Divine has to come down from the mountain. The Divine has to dwell and walk among humanity. The Divine has to journey toward the cross. Without the Divine being in complete solidarity with humanity - and all that humanity experiences - God’s salvific work is not completed. On the cross, we see a God so entwined with humanity and with human experience that nothing - not even death at our hands - can any longer threaten to separate us from God and God’s love.

When we try to put God in a box, we miss who Jesus come for and who Jesus chooses to love, to enfold into the Kingdom of God. We miss that God becomes enfleshed in Jesus, not just for us as individuals, or us as a particular community, but God becomes enfleshed in Jesus for the sake of the whole world - and especially for those that this world as it is wants to push aside. We miss that we’re called to do the work of building bridges and making God’s love (that we’ve been gifted) known to all around us.

As many of us already know, the United Methodist Church met this week in their general conference. As part of that conference, the UMC debated issues of human sexuality and gender identity. Unfortunately, they came to a decision that further excluded LGBTQIA+ folks from the life of the church in the UMC. Basically, it is an opposite decision to the decision that the ELCA made in 2009, which opened our church polity to LGBTQIA+ folks serving as rostered ministers. First of all, I need to say - to any of you here who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community or have loved ones that are: I’m so sorry that we keep putting your humanity up for debate.

It is all too easy to put God in a box. When we keep God in the box of what we understand and what we know, we miss that God’s reign extends to all. We miss that Jesus goes to the very people we exclude - and Jesus goes there first. We miss that God’s incarnation in Jesus is a yes to us in our humanity - and all that our humanity brings. When we come down from the mountain, out of our bubble, and turn toward the cross, we’re faced with the reality that God’s love extends beyond what I can understand, and God’s love extends to people whom I don’t fully understand and to people who are not like me. When we come down from the mountain and turn toward the cross, we’re faced with the reality that nothing we do nor anything we are can save us or put us in right relationship, but rather, it is totally and completely the work of God in Christ. Thanks be to God for that.

We all need time for faith building, for time to be safe in community for one another, for being in the presence of the divine (whether that’s here, in nature, or wherever else we may experience the divine) - Jesus too repeatedly throughout the Gospels goes off alone to pray to be in his own bubble or on his own mountain top. That is good and necessary. Yet we are called to come down from the mountain, to break out of our bubble, to turn toward Jerusalem and toward the cross. We are called to stand in solidarity with those whom Jesus loves. And we are called to witness to Jesus, the divine presence among us, and God’s reign that breaks in all around us.

Amen