"Holy Transfiguration"
Exodus 34;29-35; Luke 9:28-43
Many of the great events in the Bible took place up on a mountain. Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount
Sinai. Elijah called down fire from
heaven on Mount Carmel. Peter made his
confession of faith on a mountain. Jesus
often preached on the mount. That's a
pattern we can see in the scriptures.
In both the Old Testament and Gospel
lessons we heard today, we see a pattern.
Generally, when Moses heard God's Word for him and the people of Israel, it was when he was off by
himself... away from too much busy-ness
and noise. At times, Moses brought the
Israelites out of the camp... away from
the distractions of their everyday work and routine-- to hear God speak to them
directly.
When we study the Bible, we see this
pattern of withdrawing-- going apart for awhile to be with God-- and then returning.
Sometimes it takes longer than we think it might. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai the
first time after a time apart with
God, he found the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. Since they'd broken the covenant, Moses
broke the stone tablets containing
the Ten Commandments.
Then Moses made a second trip
up the holy mountain. He stayed there
forty days and forty nights, fasting. He
wrote out the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments. He prayed, "Show me your glory,” and
God passed before him. The LORD proclaimed the holy NAME to him and
revealed more of the divine nature than had ever been revealed to the people before, saying,
"The
Lord... the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for the thousandth
generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty....
It was after this revelation that Moses came down among the people with his
face shining so brilliantly that the people were afraid to come near him. His appearance had been changed by his time
apart with God. There'd been a holy
transformation.
We know from reading the gospels
that after his baptism, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the
wilderness. He spent forty days alone in
the wilderness, fasting and being tested, before he began his ministry.
Jesus had been praying alone, with
only his closest disciples near him, when he began teaching them that he would
have to undergo great suffering... be rejected by the religious
authorities... be killed... and the third day be raised. Then he told them that anyone who wanted to
be his disciples would have to deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow him.
It's eight days later when Jesus takes his inner circle of disciples and goes up
on a high mountain to pray. While he
was praying they saw his face change, and his clothes become dazzling
white. Then Peter and James and John
saw Moses and Elijah, talking to Jesus.
A cloud comes-- a sign of God's
presence, as it had been in the Exodus.
From the cloud, a voice speaks:
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” echoing the
voice heard when Jesus was baptized.
At his baptism, there's a moment
when the veil of the present is stripped away to reveal who Jesus is and who he will be. Now, the disciples are told not only who
Jesus is-- but they also hear that they are to "listen to him."
This strange mountaintop experience
of worship happens on the way to the cross.
The end of the drama is over the horizon-- a tragedy that will end in
death for Jesus... and the scattering
and disillusionment of his disciples. On
the way, there’s this mountaintop experience that looks toward the
cross... and yet transfigures the cross
in a burst of revealing light and glory.
On the Sunday of Transfiguration,
just before Lent, the church makes its weary way toward the cross on Good
Friday. The story we heard talks about
withdrawing and returning-- a dynamic we see throughout the gospels. I believe this pattern of withdrawal and
return is at the HEART of Christian worship...
and at the heart of our Christian life.
In the midst of the pressures of
life... in the hectic busyness that most
of us experience as ordinary time-- it’s
hard to find the time and space to develop a spiritual life. It takes commitment and discipline to look
and listen for God.
This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday--
the beginning of Lent... the forty days
leading up to Easter. If we want to grow
in our faith... if we want to be ready
to experience the new life of the Resurrection, then we need to "take time
to be holy."
Today's scripture lessons remind us
how important it is to take time apart to be with God... and listen for what God wants to say to
us.
On the way to the cross, we need to
withdraw and listen. We need to watch for the shining light of epiphany-- as God reveals his glory to us and transforms us gradually into God's likeness.
That's the reason for a Lenten discipline. If we want to be followers of Christ-- we
need to be true disciples. We have to
give Christ time to teach us... and transform
us into his likeness.
I think some of you can testify that
worship makes a difference in your lives.
I'm convinced that worship, study and prayer make all the difference.
We withdraw up on the mountain, so
that we can return to the valley. We
return to a world that hasn't changed.
But we've changed-- however gradually.
We have seen the Lord. We've
heard a voice.
Without such precious times of
renewal... withdrawal... and vision, we wouldn't be able to endure life
in the valley. We wouldn't be able to
walk the road that leads to the cross.
If we expect immediate and total
spiritual perfection-- we're expecting too much. Our transformation is happening gradually,
like the transformation of the first disciples.
The Peter who was so enthusiastic about the mountaintop experience is
the same Peter who denies Jesus in the face of the cross. Human failure to comprehend, let alone live
up to, divine revelation is a hard fact of life.
God calls us to accept it as fact,
but to be strengthened by the assurance that God never gives up on us. The Lord never abandons us to failure.
God gives us the hope we need to
follow Jesus boldly, and gives us the Spirit of the Lord to lead us further
into the truth... further into the freedom
that Christ offers us.
The Apostle Paul said that we
"see the glory of God as though reflected in a mirror dimly"... and that we're being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another."
God
isn't finished with any of us yet. At
our worst moments-- both individually and as a church-- we act as if God is
finished with us. We act as if creation
had been finished a long, long time ago.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
The Holy Spirit still moves over the
face of the waters. God still breathes
life into piles of dust. Jesus still
shouts us from our tombs.
God still sheds new light on our
understanding... and lights our faces
with the radiance of His glorious self-giving love. God continues to shine upon us... to transform
us, almost imperceptibly, one degree at a time.
And that, my friends, is good news!
Thanks be to God!
Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian
Church
Dearborn, Michigan
March 3, 2019
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