First Reading:
29Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Second Reading:
28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took
with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to
pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his
face changed, and his clothes became dazzling
white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah,
talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were
speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at
Jerusalem. 32Now Peter and his companions were weighed
down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his
glory and the two men who stood with him.
33Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus,
Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah
— not knowing
what he said. 34While he was saying this, a cloud came
and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the
cloud. 35Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to
him!
36When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found
alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of
the things they had seen.
37On the next day, when they had come down from the
mountain, a great crowd met him. 38Just then a man from
the crowd shouted, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is
my only child. 39Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all
at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth;
it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40I begged
your disciples to cast it out, but they could
not.
41Jesus answered, You faithless
and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and
bear with you? Bring your son here.
42While he was
coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But
Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back
to his father. 43And all were astounded at the greatness
of God.
Thank goodness there haven't been many weeks like last week: the
beauty of the snow and danger and power that we saw in the blizzard
coupled with sore backs from digging out and then digging out
again… and how long did it take for a little bit of cabin
fever, stir craziness to set in, it's really not that often that many
of us have two, three, four days straight of being at home. I talked
to a lot of folks from the church on the phone and via email. It was
interesting the things I heard. It seems like we had different kinds
of experiences during Snowmageddon
as our President called it.
Some people I talked to felt grateful for the extra time, some said it
sure would be great to be able to get out of the house. Some people
didn't have power for a little while… others were dealing with
the fear of collapsing roofs, freezing pipes and all sorts of other
things that go wrong when tons of snow blanket everything… Some
people felt connected to their community as neighbors worked together
to dig out before the plows made it, others felt isolated because they
couldn't even get out of their house. Some people said that they
spent a lot of time looking out the window… wondering how long
it was going to go… I could relate with that one. But by the
time the second wave of the storm rolled around toward Tuesday or
Wednesday the sentiment I heard most went something along the lines
of, it was fun for a day or two but it's hard to be out of the
normal routine. So now I just can't wait for things to get back to
normal.
I started thinking about the phrase back to normal
you only ever hear that phrase after something relatively major throws
off the rhythms we set for our days and our weeks. And as I read our
scripture texts for the week, I saw that the experiences of the people
in the stories would have been something that would throw their
rhythm… and I began to wonder what the phrase back to
normal
would mean for people of faith, in our sacred texts and in
our lives.
To give a little context, the story from Exodus happened just after God spoke to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments the second time. See, God had given Moses the commandments before, but the commands were broken by the people and the tablets were broken by Moses. That happened in chapter 19 of the book of Exodus and here we are in chapter 34 where God gave the commandments to Moses again. There were times in the intervening chapters when we would see the strength of Moses and he seems larger than life and there are also times when we see his weakness when we wonder why God ever chose Moses, but through it all he still remained connected with God. And this time, when he received the commandments he had come into such close contact with the Holy One that when he went back to camp his face was shining and the people who saw him were afraid… I can imagine… they didn't know what was going on. They hadn't seen anyone with a shining face before. Moses was normal when he went up the mountain. What were they supposed to make of this new development, this new situation? It was out of the ordinary, out of their control and really, I think there was a big part of them that just wanted things to be normal again. Moses called them near and after he spoke his peace, he put a veil on his face so the people wouldn't be afraid and they wouldn't be overwhelmed. Interesting isn't it. They were afraid so he put on a veil. His face was shining because of an unusual connection with God and the people didn't want to see that because Moses' shining face showed them that they couldn't understand God and it showed them that they couldn't control God. The people didn't want to be reminded that God was that close, they didn't want to be reminded that God could speak into someone's life and change that person… they didn't want to be reminded that when God spoke to Moses, God was also speaking to them. So Moses put on a veil to protect the people and more or less things went back to normal…
To give a little context for our Gospel text, immediately prior to the
story of the transfiguration in the gospel of Luke, Jesus predicted
that he was going to suffer, that he was going to be killed and that
he was going to be raised from the dead; and he tells the disciples
that if anyone wants to follow him they must take up their cross
daily… As readers of the story, the next thing we know we're on
top of the mountain with Peter, James and John who made up the inner
circle of Jesus' disciples and we are witnessing right along with them
something spectacular taking place. The appearance of Jesus' face
changed, his clothes became dazzling white. Moses and Elijah spoke
with him about his departure which would happen in Jerusalem…
And the three disciples stood there watching all of it. They were
trying to absorb it… the text tells us that even though they
were weighed down by sleep, they saw his glory and they recognized the
two men who stood with him. What were they supposed to make of this
new development, this new situation? It was out of the ordinary, out
of their control. It was something they didn't understand…
Luke even tells us that Peter didn't know what he was saying as he
made his first feeble attempt to interpret the
situation… It's good to be here… let's settle
down… let's make three dwellings… one for each of
you.
He didn't grasp what was going on… and I can't blame
him… I can't imagine I would have. Even two thousand years
later people still don't know exactly what to make of the story of the
transfiguration. Some scholars say that it's a misplaced resurrection
narrative. Some say it's a succession narrative: passing the torch to
Jesus from the traditional figures of Moses and Elijah who represented
the law and the prophets. Others say it's an epiphany narrative
showing who God is… They all may be right to a certain
extent… but whatever it was, the transfiguration isn't
mentioned again in the gospel… as people who read the gospel or
hear it read we get let in on the picture of Glory, but the only
people in the story who know it happened were the four who were up
there on the mountaintop. The text tells us that after seeing the
revelation of God's glory, the disciples remained silent. They didn't
tell anyone about what they saw… and I wonder why not: I wonder
if they were scared what people would think… I wonder if they
thought people would expect more of them, something they couldn't
do… or I wonder if they just hoped that everything would go
back to normal. Of course, if they continued to follow Jesus as his
disciples, their lives would be anything but normal.
I started with the question of what normal means for people of faith… and as I reflected on that question in light of our scriptures and my own experience, and stories I've heard from people… I don't know that there is such a thing as normal. It seems like every time things settle down something else happens that throws off the tentative rhythms that we establish. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's wonderful… sometimes it's a combination of wonderful and hard all at the same time, but one thing for sure is that the unexpected happens. We move on but what happens affects us. It changes us; it helps shape us into who we are. And I think the key to what normal might mean for people of faith is to be in a state of listening for God's direction, throughout the times of rhythm and throughout the times of interruption in our lives.
You see when I read our scriptures for the day both the account of Moses' face shining and the account of Jesus being transfigured on the mountaintop, there are two things that stand out to me more than all the rest… first, there's more to God that we will ever be able to comprehend. On the mountain Jesus shines in glory, and as we approach Lent I'm aware that the next time he's lifted up on the mountain will be in the agony of the mount of Calvary on Good Friday. Between then and now he will bring healing and sustenance to people and he'll also challenge them… he will speak kind words and he'll speak hard words. The full spectrum of life is the medium that God works with… and the empty tomb at Easter tells us that it doesn't even stop with life… God works in death and beyond as well. In the great highs and the great lows of life God is there… in the unanswerable questions and the things of life we can't control, God is there. Whether we are limited by understanding or by imagination or simply because we are finite beings today's scriptures remind us that we will never be able to understand God fully.
But at the same time, in particular the story of the transfiguration
reminds me that we can know something. Even we can hear the message
that was given to the disciples from the cloud. And that message is
really the focal point of the whole story: This is my Son, my
Chosen; listen to him!
The same message from Jesus' baptism
resonates again on the mountaintop. We may not be able to understand
God fully but we can know the character of God because it's been
revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ… He is the author
and perfecter of our faith… listen to him. There may be other
voices that try to stand in the way and that call out for our
attention… but listen to him. Through the scriptures…
listen to him, in worship… listen to him, in prayer…
listen to him, in service… listen to him… in the little
nudges that God puts on your heart… listen to him. And as we
gather at the table to celebrate the Lord's Supper, listen to him.
This is where we celebrate what God has done for us … This is where we celebrate who God is… this is where we find a new normal for we who are people of faith. It's a normal that says Jesus went down from the mountain top to live among the people and he brought God's glory with him… It's a normal that says God loved the world so much that God sent his Son to dwell among us… It's a normal that says in the midst of the snowstorm and everything else that goes on in our lives that we can't control and that we don't understand… we really only have two responsibilities… to listen and to follow… to Love God and love neighbor.
And we come to the table to celebrate God's Glory. To be nourished and sent out into the world. This is the table of our Lord Jesus Christ and all who trust in him are welcome to share the feast of God's grace which has been prepared for us. Thanks be to God.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on Transfiguration Sunday, February 14, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
