Transfiguration

[Our readings were 2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:16; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; and Mark 9:2-9.]

The Transfiguration of our Lord, of which we hear today, marks a turning point in Jesus’ earthly ministry. From this point, Jesus turns himself towards Jerusalem and the almost certain end of the Cross. There may be some debate as to how precisely Jesus knew what was to come, but there is little doubt that he knew that the religious and civil authorities would put him to death very soon. This, then begins the culmination of his earthly ministry.

“Transfiguration” can happen in various ways, some of which are familiar. When we sometimes speak of how a pregnant woman can seem to have a “glow” about her, we see a form of transfiguration. After the dark of a rain storm, when we see either a rainbow or a shaft of light which transforms the sky, we see a form of transfiguration. In a transfiguration, some aspect of reality which is normally veiled from sight shines forth for a time. Transfiguration does not add something which isn’t there; we are allowed to see something which was there which we hadn’t seen before.

In the story of the Transfiguration we hear today, Jesus took Peter, John and James up on a high mountain. Jesus is transformed with a brilliant light and his garments become a dazzling white, such as no earthly bleach could make. And there appear with him the two greatest prophets of God that had been seen before, Moses and Elijah. After Peter in his usual way interrupts the spectacle by speaking, a cloud overshadows them and a voice from the cloud proclaims, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” And it is over, and they and we are back in the everyday world. What do we make of this?

One thing we learn is that, even at this late date, the disciples aren’t exactly certain just who Jesus is. Peter’s talk of creating three tabernacles or dwellings for them puts Jesus on an equal standing with Moses and Elijah. High ranking indeed, but we know it isn’t high enough. After Peter says this, they are told that Jesus is much more, the Son of God, the Beloved who is to be listened to.

Then Jesus and the disciples are back in the world, walking the road toward Jerusalem and the cross. Transfiguration may change understandings and confirm faith and even confuse us, but it doesn’t remove us from the world in which Jesus lived and in which we live today.

We ourselves have, in some ways, seen Jesus transfigured. We have met him and been fed or healed by him and so we have some experience of that “light”. We have seen his majesty at some point in our lives and we shall never be the same. We have “seen the light,” if only for a moment and we are changed. We still, like Jesus, have the way of the cross to walk in our own lives, but having with the grace of the light we walk in its presence, and our lives, too, will be transfigured if we let Jesus’ light shine through us.

Have you heard a child’s definition of a saint? “They are people the light shines through.” While the child was thinking of the saints in stained glass windows, this is a wonderful definition of a saint, one through whom God’s light shines in the world. We are called to let our own lives be transfigured so that the light will shine through.

This will happen in the middle of the real world, in the middle of our lives, and like with Jesus’ transfiguration, the light isn’t going to be seen all the time. His transfiguration was a single event. We are called to let the light shine through as often as possible and as much as possible. That means constantly seeking to be in his light, so that his light can shine through us into the real world of our way of the cross. None of us is the source of the light. Instead, we are those to whom the light has come. We are those who have to some degree and in our own way been given the light and it is in our day-to-day lives that the light must shine through so that others may receive the light as we did. Here, in Perry, in our lives. Not only on a mountain top, but somewhere along our own ways of the cross.

As we begin Lent this week, we seek to look at ourselves and our service to God and our neighbors. Let us work on letting the light shine through us rather than on the darkness that is in all of us. While we need to be honest about our sins, our failures, our doubts, and our need for God’s grace, the real story and the real meaning of Lent will come as the light returns in the Easter Vigil. The ashes of this coming Wednesday are real, but they will disappear very quickly if we go about our work in the world. And the darkness in our lives can also disappear if we set about letting His light shine through.

We know that the light calls us to us to justice, to honesty, to humility, to the service of his children wherever and whoever they are. The question for each of us is whether we are willing to let his light shine through us. We are called to walk our own personal way of the cross here in this world, in our daily lives, just as Jesus did. The light of the Transfiguration gives us the direction and the strength to follow Jesus. This is what we are called to. Not a negative, self-focused, concern with our sins and failures, but to the task of allowing God’s light, which we received in our Baptism, and which is constantly replenished in the Eucharist, to shine through in the way we live every day, here and now, in our world, in our time.

Look back at what Peter, James and John—and we—are told to do: Listen! Not preserve Jesus like a painting or a statue, but to listen and act.

We are called to seek out the transfigured Christ in the world, and as we do so, we are called to “listen” and to respond with a servant’s heart and in humility. We are called to listen when God’s children are suffering, when they are in need, when they are disenfranchised and subject to injustices.
We are called to listen not only as individuals but also as a community, as a part of the body of Christ. As a part of the body of Christ, we raise up people on our behalf to be in relationship with and to listen to Christ alongside our neighbors in other parts of the world. These people we call missionaries are our ambassadors to be in an active relationship with those who see the transfigured Christ through different lenses than do we.

As we celebrate World Mission Sunday, we especially remember the missionaries of the Episcopal Church; those pilgrims who have been called by God and our communities to leave their homes and to encounter God in other parts of the world, to be in relationship with and to listen to people from a culture and a land that is different from their own.

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you, bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and for ever. Amen.