Last Sunday after the Epiphany C Transfiguration
The last Sunday before Ash Wednesday is always the commemoration of the Transfiguration of Christ, witnessed by Peter, James and John. It also harks back to the transfiguration of Moses on Mount Sinai in our reading from Exodus. At the transfiguration of Christ, Moses and Elijah appear in a vision, representing the thread of continuity of Christ with the law and the prophets. In our epistle reading this morning we also hear the account from Peter as eye witness. Peter is the rock upon Christ will build his church. The transfiguration event of Christ is thus connected with the history of the Israel’s past with the law and the prophets, and its future in the church as represented by the apostle Peter. One network of God’s work to make all things nearer to God’s kingdom.
What specifically is the work of transfiguration that is going on?
First, the word transfiguration is not one we use very often in daily life, if at all, and I think we rarely have an idea of what it means. We may use the word transformation, which is change, but transfiguration is not merely change. The Greek word that we have as transfiguration, is what we would translate as metamorphose. In English, we associate metamorphosis primarily with animal and insect transformations, like tadpoles into frogs and caterpillars into butterflies. These images are of major life transition, not just molting of old skin. It may be more like growing from childhood into adulthood, the literal change in hormones and body structures as they mature into their full functions.
But there something different than morphological change going on for Moses and Jesus in their transfigurations. There is a radiancy of the being in the presence of the divine that is bestowed upon them, both transfigurations occur within a bright cloud that adds a shroud of mystery on a mountaintop, away from the hurly burly of life. There is also a theophany, God speaking from the cloud to proclaim that Jesus is the beloved son in whom God is well pleased. If you remember, these are the same words we heard when Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan.
Whenever we combine mystery, mountaintop air, and the voice of God, something is bound to happen, I would say. The radiancy of Moses and of Jesus in their transfigurations of face and clothes may be either the reflection of being in the presence of the divine, or the divine shining through their being as chosen by God as lights in the world. Some say it shows Jesus as the new Moses, fulfilling the law, a theme that the author of Matthew would want to highlight.
That this radiancy is more that a reflection is what is meant by the word transfiguration—a metamorphosis has happened in some mysterious way, in the mountain air, accompanied by the voice of God affirming this.
But what exactly is transfiguration? Book, Eternal Echoes. Celtic reflections on our yearning to belong by John O’Donahue: “When a thing changes there is the suggestion that it is no longer itself. When a thing is transfigured is more fully itself than ever, and more: it is irradiated with beauty, whether it is a vase painted by Cezanne or a turn of phrase that comes to life in a great poem.”
To be transfigured is to find the core seed of your very created being—a being that God has affirmed as good, as part of all creation, with whom God is well pleased. This sounds like transfiguration is open to all of us, doesn’t it? And perhaps it is this truth that must be encountered before we enter Lent, that will help us encounter ourselves, to be more fully ourselves in radiant beauty.
We don’t usually associate Lent with beauty, but with austerity and encounters with sin. But transfiguration is open to all of us as another way to encounter our sinful selves. Transfiguring our sin into the grace of beauty when we become more fully our selves—it is opening ourselves to the radiance within, the poetry of our personalities and humor, intellect and imagination. The encounter with our creative being that wants to shine forth in beauty and radiance, just like the core truth of Jesus as the Son of God radiated.
Most of feel that we can’t make such a transfiguration without going to the mountaintop, to thin air, being enshrouded by a cloud of mystery. I often feel that the crowded ways of my daily life prevents me even from praying, let alone encountering the beauty of my created soul-being, coming face to face with the core of my full self. My internet work takes over, email adds up. I get caught up in being a professional person of God and forget that I am a child of God whom God is trying to speak to out of the cloud of mystery.
Or I want to blow the cloud of mystery away and really know the answers to who I am as a priest, here in this place, how to minister with you, be the best pastor and teacher I can be. And all the time, God’s grace has already happened, I am not taking the time to catch my anxious breath, take in the thin air of the mountaintop, and listen for the voice of God.
This work of transfiguration is also the work of all of on behalf of each of us. Some days I can’t do it well, and you can. I can support your work to be fully your self, and you support mine. The transfiguration was witnessed by Jesus’ friends and new disciples, and they helped spread the word that here was God’s blessing.
The other things the disciples did, however, was also human—when they encountered the mystery of God shining in Christ, they were stricken with fear. Then Peter wanted to stay in it and remain surrounded by thin air. But this is not the work of transfiguration, to stay either in the fear of being our full selves, or in savoring the favor of God. Transfiguration comes to us in mystery, then we leave the mountaintop to bring that mystery to the world. To transfigure the world as God has created it in its fullness.
On Wednesday we will bring the work of the transfiguration of the world into the season of Lent. We will pray the words that begin Ash Wednesday “Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made.” These words make apparent that God intended for the world to be perfect and that God’s work of transfiguration has already begun.
It is not enough to describe the transfiguring work of God, that they are good creatures of God, created with inner beauty and radiance. To tell others that the grace of God is for everyone. Rather we need to invite them into the cloud — invite them to experience transformation – no matter how scary. To invite them to church, to a Wednesday soup supper. To invite them to share our communion and our hospitality, to share our ministry with young adults and twelve step programs, our love for the world.
It is not enough to be bystanders, we must climb that mountain and enter the bright cloud of mystery and not let our fear overtake us. This is the work of transfiguration that we are being called to do in Lent.
I have always loved Lent for that reason, that it not only allows me but requires me to climb into the thin air that is necessary for transfiguration to take place. In our culture that feels a little indulgent, and for some it may seem like navel gazing. But it is spirit work, God work, soul making work, this work of transfiguration. It is not a luxury, but a necessity if we want to live fully into the being God created us to be.
There is a saying of rabbi Zuzy: that when he got to heaven he would not be asked why he had not been more like Moses, but why he had not been more like Zuzya. God created only one you, and if you are not true to that being, you are missing out on your part in the creation.
As you enter Lent this year, I invite you to take some time to go to your own mountaintop, into the cloud of mystery. Give yourself the grace to enter into living more fully into the unique you God has created only once. And help each of us here do the same.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
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