Year B, Last Sunday of Epiphany
Obviously
the story caught my attention, but it did not surprise or shock me. Sure, a cruise ship to Mars, why not? We have become so technologically advanced,
that it almost seems that anything is possible….which is wild because I am old
enough to remember when I saw my first cell phone…which was a car phone at the
time. The idea that you could make a
phone call from a car blew my mind. It
is amazing that 25 years later, a cruise ship to Mars seems feasible to
me.
It is a lot harder to impress or
shock people nowadays. We are accustomed
to special effects in movies, smart phones that can control the lights in our
home, the ability to get anything we want or need by talking to a disembodied
voice called Alexa or Siri. Yet when I
was reading about this Gospel text, the Transfiguration, commentators kept
stressing how unbelievable and mysterious the event was…how impossible it is to
comprehend a man lighting up and voice coming from heaven. I thought, we are talking about cruise ships
to Mars, how is it that clothes whiter than anyone could bleach them would be mind
blowing or unimaginable?
Yet it is, when you think
about---well it’s more than just thinking about it, it’s best if you can
imagine yourself there as part of that scene.
You have just hiked up a mountain with a man you have come to admire and
perhaps even worship. You have seen him
do amazing things, heal people and drive out demons. However, you have also seen him when he was
tired and hungry. You have seen him sit
down and eat a big meal. You have seen
him when he is frustrated and scared. In
some ways, he’s just your average guy. And then suddenly you see him
glowing. It’s not just that his clothes
are white, his whole presence has become dazzling. It is like looking at the sun just a few
moments too long or coming out of a dark tunnel and finding yourself in Times
Square on New Year’s Eve. He isn’t just
bright, he is transformed so radically that it is disorienting.
If
that is not crazy enough, he is talking to two people who have appeared out of
nowhere. Not only do they appear out of
nowhere, they are two people who are supposed to be dead. It is Elijah and Moses, two giants of the
Hebrew faith. Then a cloud sweeps
in. You might think a cloud would not be
that impressible, but in the Jewish faith the presence of a cloud, especially
on a mountain, symbolized the presence of God. If that was not dramatic
enough….all of a sudden, there is a voice that comes from the sky and
proclaims, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”
Granted,
Mars might seem like another world, but it is still part of our galaxy. Yet this Transfiguration marked a moment when
heaven and earth touched, when the living and dead inhabited one space, when
Jesus could be both human and divine, and when the voice of God could break
through the silence.
There
are only two times in the Gospel of Mark when we hear the voice of God that
comes directly from heaven. It’s at
Jesus baptism when the sky splits and the Transfiguration. At Jesus’ baptism the voice said, “You are my
Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
God was talking to Jesus as he was beginning his public ministry. He was affirming him and empowering him. In
today’s reading, God is speaking to the disciples, but he is also speaking to
us. Jesus isn’t just another powerful
preacher and teacher. He is not just a
miracle worker who healed some people, he is the Son of God, and for that
reason alone, we need to listen to him.
After the light show, the guest
appearance of the two dead prophets, the cloud and the voice….poof…it was
gone. It was only Jesus who was left.
The disciples could have walked down that mountain and convinced themselves it
was a dream or a trick of the light. Or,
they could let the experience change them and become part of who they were. Since we know that three of the four Gospels
tell the story of the Transfiguration, it is apparent that this was an event
that had an incredible impact not only on the disciples who were present, but
the early church as well.
What makes the Transfiguration more
awe inspiring and more spectacular than a cruise ship to Mars is that it has
the potential to affect all of us. It is
not just life changing for a few special people who were there 2000 years ago;
it changes all who are willing to open themselves to the extraordinary and
mesmerizing glory of God. God’s light did not just stay with Jesus after
he was transfigured, nor did it simply disappear into the ether; it was
released into the world so that we all can become vessels of that light.
I
know that I have preached a few sermons about the need to be the light and
carry the light. That is important, but
before we can be the light, we have to open ourselves to the glory of the
light. We have to behold the light. It’s not a one and done type of thing. We celebrate Christmas and Easter every
year. We celebrate the Transfiguration
every year. We do that for several
reasons, but one of the reasons is so that we can have many opportunities to
remind ourselves of the power and glory of God. As Christians, we have
unlimited opportunities to be transformed.
Some of the opportunities can be
found in the sacraments of the church, like baptism and communion. Other opportunities can be found in less
formal areas, like service and outreach.
Night’s Welcome is an incredible example of transformation because we
see the building actually transformed into a place where the homeless people
sleep and eat. Yet the deeper
transformation is in the people who come here and the people who serve. Every year I find myself a little bit humbled
by the amount of people who come and serve, the amount a few people sacrifice
so that many can be served, and especially the people who come and sleep on our
floors.
The story of the Transfiguration is
dramatic and breathtaking, yet it is often the ordinary transformations that we
see that can really change us. I find
that the most profound transformations I experience are when I allow myself to
see not just the spectacular, but also the tragic and heart breaking. Because when we allow our hearts to break
just a little, we may find that the light of Christ breaks in--- in a
magnificent and glorious way.
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