Last
Epiphany 2014
Father Adam Trambley
March 2, 2014 St.John’s Sharon
Who’s in the house? Jesus is in the house. That’s right.
I want to use the account of Jesus’ Transfiguration to help
us look at prayer. In this passage, the parallels
to prayer are not so much about praying
in a particular situation, but about a life of prayer in general where we come
to encounter Christ and become like him, being changed from one degree of glory
into another.
To start with, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to a
high mountain by themselves. In any
encounter with God, Jesus takes the initiative.
We pray because the Holy Spirit of Jesus cries out in our spirit. We love God because he first loved us. We can only respond to God, but his gracious
initiative is so immense that we could spend our entire lives responding to
that invitation and never exhaust it.
Just like for Peter, James and John, our experience of Jesus in prayer
begins as he leads us.
Where Jesus leads us is up a high mountain, away from the
rest of life so we can encounter him. We
may be led alone, or led with a small group as Peter, James and John were. We may be taken up a mountain for a period of
time, or we might be brought into the sanctuary at St. John’s, or we could be
led to a comfortable chair in a quiet corner of our house on a daily
basis. Wherever the location, Jesus
wants to meet us somewhere without the jumble of our normal stimuli so we can
experience his gifts to us.
Once they are on the mountain, the disciples see Jesus
transfigured. He shines like the sun and
his clothes are dazzling white. To say
it another way, the disciples see Jesus as he is, resplendent in the glory that
is his from the beginning and that became more fully manifest again after his
resurrection. Yet the disciples can see
his radiance even in the midst of his earthly life as he prepares to take up
his cross.
Jesus appears to us also, in the midst of our lives when we
follow him to a mountaintop where we can perceive him. Occasionally, people do experience dreams or
visions of a radiant Jesus coming to them, looking like he is described
here. But sometimes our experience of
the fullness of Jesus’ presence in our lives is different. Maybe we come to perceive how he was with us
during particularly difficult times in our past. Maybe we glimpse him touching us in the splendor
of the natural world’s beauty. Maybe we
are graced with a sense of being truly forgiven for some sin and finally
released from our guilt. Maybe we are
overwhelmed with a sense of his peace, or suddenly overcome with gratitude for
all the good things around us, or feel an inexplicable joy welling up inside of
us. These or many other experiences of
Jesus revealing himself in our lives can provide a transformative or even
life-altering encounter as we experience ourselves being present at Jesus’
transfiguration.
Moses and Elijah are talking with Jesus because often our
experiences of Jesus shining into our lives open our eyes to the whole
communion of saints surrounding us as arrayed in the radiance of children of
God, as well. The First Letter of John
says that when Christ is revealed we will be like him. As we see Jesus arrayed in glory, we cannot
help but begin to see others whose lives are lived in Jesus reflecting his
glory. Jesus is surrounded by the
saints, not because he needs to be, but because he is the head of the body, and
the healing and light he brings to us prepares us to live as radiant members of
that same Body of Christ. The more
clearly we see God, the more everyone around us will seem godlike, as well.
Then, Peter speaks up.
“Lord, it is good for us to be here.
Let me make three booths.” Peter’s
words are ridiculous in the situation, but his intention is essential. Of course it is good for them to be
there. If it wasn’t, Jesus wouldn’t have
brought them. And Jesus doesn’t need a
shady booth to protect him from the sun.
He is shining like the sun. But
the response of Peter, to immediately offer whatever gifts he has in response
to Jesus’ revealing his splendor, is correct, both for him and for us.
Our natural tendency when experiencing the overwhelming love
we receive in an encounter with Jesus is to try to return it. What we have to offer may make no more sense
than what Peter does, but that doesn’t matter.
Just as parents post indecipherable crayon drawings in prominent places
on the refrigerator, God honors our intention to love him, to serve him, and to
draw more closely into his presence.
Then, as Peter offers himself, two things happen. A bright cloud descends on them and a voice
says, “This is my Son, the Beloved…listen to him!”
This bright cloud is an important metaphor for the
development of a closer communion with God.
A cloud is by nature dark. When
we are in a cloud, we can’t see, and it can be hard to hear. Clouds, like thick fog, are
disorienting. The bright cloud surrounding
us once we have offered ourselves to God means that we will experience the
light of God’s presence and relationship with us in the midst of times and
places that are confusing for us. We may
not experience God in our day-to-day sense and feelings, but through those
times when we feel like life is askew and we are coming into events from the
wrong direction. We may not have a warm
fuzzy feeling of Jesus around us, but only know him in the dark places of pure
faith where we find ourselves in doubt, anxiety and fear, including fear of
God’s continuing presence and love in our lives. As we move from trying to get God to come
into our lives in favor of actually entering into the fuller life of God, we
will pass through times and places that surpass our ability to comprehend. These bright clouds will be beyond anything
we can deal with in our limited human capacities, and we may feel utterly
discombobulated and alone. Yet, we are still
moving closer to God, so however anxious the cloud may make us, God’s
brightness is illuminating the depths of our souls.
But God does not leave us in the cloud without
assistance. The voice from heaven tells
us to listen to Jesus, and this direction to listen points in three
directions. On one level, the voice is
telling Peter, and also us, not to worry about booths or any of the other ideas
we have that would keep us busy enough so that we don’t have to move into God’s
bright cloud. Our offer is welcomed, but
not accepted. The second reason for this
instruction is to highlight Jesus’ words when the disciples are overwhelmed
with fear from the cloud. Jesus says,
“Get up and do not be afraid.” God wants
us to know that even in the darkest and most disorienting pieces of our lives
when we feel abandoned by everyone including God, we do not need to be
afraid. Jesus is still coming to us,
and touching us, and bringing us up. We
need not fear. Jesus is with us even
when we are surrounded by clouds. Then
the third reason for the instruction is a reminder that we are supposed to
follow Jesus’ teachings. Instead of
deciding we are special because we saw Jesus transfigured, or setting up a
transfiguration gift shop, or whatever else our egos could come up with, we are
meant to continue living into the fullness of life described in the Sermon on
the Mount and the rest of Jesus’ instructions.
We are going to have a hard time developing a deeper life and encounter
with Jesus if our actions consistently turn ourselves away from his goodness
and love. Instead of building booths,
Peter was meant to go out to all the world and preach the good news, because
that’s what Jesus told him to do. We are
meant to do likewise.
Then the disciples see Jesus, alone, presumably as he
was. In the midst of intense prayer and
experiences of God, whether euphorically good like seeing Jesus transfigured or
terrifyingly disorienting like going through a bright cloud, we keep coming
back to normal life where we share Jesus love and good news with others. Our encounters with God should help us live
out that love more fully, which is the real point of all prayer experiences.
The transfiguration provides us a model for on-going,
lifelong encounters with Jesus whether they occur on mountaintops, when seeing
him in radiant glory, or when we are stuck in bright clouds. Most importantly, whatever we are
experiencing in life, we can know that Jesus is holding his hand out to us to
lead us into the fullness of his life, and that prayer is an important part of
our response that helps us take his hand.
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