Last
Epiphany 2020
Rev.
Adam T. Trambley
February
23, 2020, St. John’s Sharon
In this morning’s gospel, we hear the account
of Jesus’ transfiguration. Six days after Peter has made his confession of
faith and just before Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem to go to his passion and
death, Jesus takes his three closest friends up a mountain. There he is
transfigured in glory and speaks with Moses and Elijah about what is going to
happen to him.
While they are on the mountain, Peter and James and John
are overwhelmed. They have no idea what is going on. Peter babbles something
about making three booths – one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
Then a voice from heaven declares about Jesus that “This is my Son, the
Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Peter, James and John fall
on their faces in fear. Jesus comes to them and tells them not to be afraid. When
they get up, Jesus is alone. That is a lot to process.
Then Jesus tells them not to tell anyone about what they
saw until after he rises from the dead. Which is also a lot. Peter and James
are probably holed up together talking about this as soon as they can, while
John journals extensively about it. Soon after, they start the journey to
Jerusalem where they are going to see Jesus in states that are radically
different from the glory that they just experienced.
We don’t know exactly why Jesus took Peter, James, and
John up the mountain with him that day. Nor do we know if such a
transfiguration was something that happened regularly to Jesus. We know he
would regularly go off by himself and pray, and maybe this was the way he
looked when he was talking with God. Or maybe this transition in his own
ministry toward Jerusalem was so significant and troubling that he wanted his
friends with him – both his heavenly friends, Moses and Elijah, as well as his
human friends. Or maybe Peter’s profession of faith – “You are the Messiah, the
Son of the Living God” – meant it was time to show them what they were talking
about. Or maybe Jesus just wanted to give his key apostles a vision of glory
for the days ahead when all glory was going to look lost.
We hear Peter talk about that sustaining vision in our
second reading. He says this about his experience of witnessing the
transformation, “So we have the prophetic message more fully
confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a
dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
Jesus is God’s beloved Son. And we hold onto that truth as to a lamp shining in
a dark place.
We know the dark places that Peter and the
others went into. They were terrified as soldiers came for Jesus. Peter’s inner
darkness led him to deny Jesus. Once Jesus was resurrected and they went out to
spread the good news, Peter and James both experienced persecutions. Both were
eventually martyred. Both went into dark places with sometimes very little to
cling to except this lamp of the light of the glory of the Son of God shining
in their hearts.
But as Peter says, that light was shining
with, “the prophetic message more fully confirmed.” They needed to see Jesus in
glory to convince themselves, and so they could fully convince others. Like
Thomas in the upper room a week after the resurrection, they needed to see to
believe. They needed to believe deeply enough to get them through a whole lot
of trials and tribulations. Being on the mountain with Jesus let them see what they
needed to see, and what we needed them to see and to share with us.
Part of what they needed to see was the
vision of how things should be. The disciples needed the experience of Jesus
arrayed in heavenly glory with God’s voice declaring him the Beloved. Peter and
James and John needed the understanding of the mountaintop. They needed the
understanding of the mountaintop because they were going down to the valley.
They were going to be in places where they might doubt that Jesus really was
the Beloved, because a lot of people were not treating him that way. They were
going to be in places that were confusing and overwhelming and dark, and
without the lamp of what they knew shining in their hearts they would get very
lost. Once they had seen Jesus arrayed in dazzling white, radiant in divine
splendor, they knew the reality that the shadows they were walking through were
shrouding. And they knew that they could trust the instructions they had
received on that mountain to get them through until day dawned and the morning
star rose in their hearts once again.
The instruction Peter, James, and John received was to
listen to Jesus. Just listen to Jesus. Remember the Sermon on the Mount that
they had heard and that we have been talking about for a couple of weeks?
Listen to Jesus. Remember the Great Commandment to love the Lord with all your
heart and mind and soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself? Listen to
Jesus. They haven’t heard it yet, but they will hear the Great Commission, to
go and baptize all nations and teach them everything that Jesus has taught us.
Listen to Jesus. Just listen to Jesus.
And by listening to Jesus’s instructions; by experiencing
this incredible vision of the transfigured Jesus; and by holding the hope that
they would once again see Jesus similarly arrayed in glory, the disciples could
navigate successfully through the darkest night of life. They knew the morning
star was going to rise in their hearts again. Without their transfiguration
experience, we don’t know if they would have had the commitment to listening to
Jesus and the hope of seeing him in glory once again.
We know that Peter and James and John got what they needed
because we are able to read what they experienced and live into it two thousand
years later. Their example of going up the Mountain of the Transfiguration with
Jesus and relying on that experience in the dark places of life helps us, too.
The message they were given is equally relevant for us
today. We have the vision of Jesus as the beloved Son of God to hold onto, and
we have Jesus’ words to instruct us. We know even more of Jesus’ life in glory
that we can ground ourselves in than Peter, James, and John did that day. We
know that transfiguration, and we also know the resurrection. We have
experienced in our own ways the power of the Holy Spirit that came first at
Pentecost and keeps showing up for us, with the love of God poured into us. We
have the great sacrament of the Eucharist as we gather each week to remind us
of our place in the Body of Christ and strengthen us to love and serve one
another as we go out from the church. We have two thousand years of witness to
the resurrected Jesus that serves as a lantern to use to navigate the dark
places in our lives. We have the prophetic message of Jesus’ glory confirmed
for us over and over again. All we need to do is stop and receive it.
We also have Jesus’ instructions for us. We have Bibles.
We have a lot of Bibles. We have access to Bibles that people throughout
history would have given everything for, and which people in some parts of the
world today are thrown in jail or even killed for having. All we need to do is
open the book, or pull it up on our phones. The words of Jesus can guide us and
help us navigate the darker valleys of life. And if something doesn’t make
sense, there are people here, starting with myself, who are happy to talk about
the Bible, and we can also help you find numerous books and other resources, as
well.
We gather for worship, in part, as a transfiguration type
touchstone. Together, with music and scripture and sacrament we can have an
experience of God to help us throughout the week. Most of us need that connection
to keep ourselves pointed in the right direction. We need to go to the elevated
experience of church today so that later we can trudge through the places where
we might have a harder time seeing God, or where others might not be interested
in moving toward the same hope that we have.
Sometimes we may also need to go to a higher mountain for
an experience of God. A busy hour on Sunday may not be enough to keep the light
of God’s glory blazing in our hearts, given the difficulties we regularly face.
A retreat at Villa Maria in New Castle, or the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, or
the Orthodox Monastery in Ellwood City, or taking a mission trip somewhere
might be essential for us. Especially if life is particularly confusing and
making it difficult to know how to go forward or stay rooted in Jesus, we may
need to make the time to follow Jesus up a mountain somewhere and see what he
has to show us.
The disciples took time away and followed Jesus up a
mountain to be present to whatever he wanted to show them. What they received
was enough to sustain them through difficult periods of their lives. They
received the vision of Jesus’ glory and the assurance that they could follow
his instructions. We need the same things in our lives today. If we are willing
to make the time and follow him where we need to go, Jesus will come and meet
us in the way that we need.
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