Astounding Glory/Wholly Holy

Sunday, February 10
Transfiguration Sunday

Focus Theme
Astounding Glory/Wholly Holy

Weekly Prayer
Eternal God, you revealed to the disciples the everlasting glory of Jesus Christ. Grant us who have not seen and yet believe, the gift of your Holy Spirit, that we may boldly live the gospel and shine with your transforming glory, as people changed and changing through the redeeming presence of our Savior. Amen.

Focus Scripture
Luke 9:28- 36 (37-43)

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” — not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

[On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.]

All Readings For This Sunday
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

Focus Questions

1. How do we integrate our glimpses of God’s love, our tastes of God’s glory, into the everydayness of our lives?
 
2. When have you seen “the glory in the grey”?

3. Is transformation really a sudden thing, or a day-by-day, perhaps even hour-by-hour process?

4. As the United Church of Christ looks back on its own story, where were mountaintop moments when we caught a glimpse of God’s glory right here, in our midst?

5. How are we listening to the Stillspeaking God’s command to “listen to Jesus”?

Reflection by Kate Huey

We’ve come to the end of another season of Epiphany, when we’re particularly attuned to the ways and the times that God is manifest in our lives and in the life of the world. Here on the edge of Lent, as we turn with Jesus toward Jerusalem and the mount of Calvary, we pause on another mountain for one of those “peak experiences” so sought after even by post – Enlightenment, scientifically minded folks, as well as by those who call themselves “post – modern.” What is that about, that deep human longing to taste, however briefly, the transcendence of God? 

Peter, James, and John got much more than a brief taste. They had one of those intense, ecstatic experiences that might have transformed their lives then and there, except that they didn’t know what to do with it when it happened. Sleepy – headed Peter, the text says, practically babbled, “not knowing what he said” (9:33), offering to put up tents and preserve the experience. We are sure that he was, of course, only trying to be helpful. Those of us who think that every situation requires us to DO something, however well – intentioned our efforts, are called back to faithfulness (and perhaps simplicity) by the voice of God in the story: “This is my Son, my chosen, listen to him!” One might imagine God’s annoyance that Peter didn’t have sense enough to remain silent at such a moment. If Moses was told he couldn’t see God and live, perhaps Peter should have been told that he couldn’t see God and talk so much.

But let’s be honest: that whole experience up on the mountain must have been frightening for Peter, James, and John, and when we’re afraid, even in a good way, we don’t know how to react. So Peter, like any good extrovert, starts talking, and making suggestions. Let’s erect a monument, he says. At least that’s what we would do today: let’s mark the spot where this great, memorable thing happened. As R. Alan Culpepper observes, however, Peter’s attempt to enshrine his mountaintop experience wasn’t what Jesus had in mind. “Faithfulness is not achieved by freezing a moment,” Culpepper says. Instead, faithfulness follows God in trust toward the future.

In any case, as usual, Peter is very much like many of us because we often try to talk our way into understanding, try to process an experience so that we can absorb its meaning and make that meaning part of who we are. That’s to be expected, because we humans, after all, are meaning – seekers. But this story is, first, about Jesus and who Jesus is, and the disciples are invited into an incredibly intimate moment with him, when God speaks of Jesus as God’s own beloved Child. Ann Svennungsen points out the difference between Moses’ encounter with God on Mt. Sinai, with its Ten Commandments, and this one, with Peter, James, and John on hand, and with one simple command to “listen to Jesus.” Don’t talk, don’t do; just listen.

In the midst of teaching and healing, Jesus has called his followers to stop and pray, to be open to and strengthened by God’s unexpected and indescribable grace, instructed by the voice of the Stillspeaking God, and empowered to continue on Jesus’ own path, no matter where it leads. In these conversations, he’s told them what’s expected of him, and what will be expected of them as well (9:18 – 27). It seems that Peter and the others are not so keen on these recent words of Jesus about suffering and death; after all, they’re understandably hoping for deliverance from, and maybe even triumph over, their enemies, the Romans (maybe even with a little revenge thrown in). But Jesus hears another call, and he follows it faithfully, inviting his friends, and us, to come along.

Moses and Elijah are the stories, “older than old”

Scholars focus on several details in this story, one that’s unusual even for the Gospels, with their many accounts of miracles. Many scholars explain the presence of Moses and Elijah as confirmation that Jesus is in continuity with the faith, the story, of his people, that he is the fulfillment of what has come before. Or, as Richard Swanson puts it so evocatively: “Moses and Elijah…are characters from some of the oldest stories told among Jews. They are more real than Peter, James, and John….more real than Caesar…Quirinius…Pontius Pilate….” Moses and Elijah aren’t just figures from history, but “figures who are the stories that are older than old.” What a beautiful way to think of tradition, as “older than old.”

The lectionary brackets the passage immediately following the Transfiguration but it’s much more powerful to read the two stories together, and to preach them as one text. We may not have been up on that mountain with Peter, James, and John, but we can see who Jesus is in what he does with the little boy in the grips of a demon. We might say that in his healing of the child, Jesus demonstrates what the mountaintop experience meant. In fact, N.T. Wright reminds us that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell these stories in this order, as if they “go together: the mountain – top experience and the shrieking, stubborn demon.” Scholars hear meaning in the voices of the text as well, even though this passage seems to be mostly about seeing. God’s voice, after all, was heard during the glorious episode up on the mountain, but God’s power is dramatically revealed in what happens below, where people are suffering: Sharon H. Ringe observes that “the obedience of the ‘demon’ said to have caused the boy’s suffering echoes from below the endorsement of Jesus by the voice from the cloud.” And Kimberly Miller van Driel makes a poignant connection between the voice of God in the cloud and the anguish of a father in the crowd: “This voice was heard at Jesus’ baptism, and it resonates again in the desperate plea of the father in verse 38, ‘Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, he is my only child.'”

Glory and vulnerability

It’s true, then, that in our own lives, thousands of years later, our experience of God, rather than being our own private pursuit and comfort, is inextricably linked to our response to the suffering of the world, and that makes us vulnerable ourselves. Paradoxically, mysteriously, it seems that the closer we draw to God, the closer we draw to one another and to one another’s pain. Spiritual growth, then, is expressed in a deeper commitment to compassion and justice for the world God loves. True religion is about responding to God and responding to that suffering world that God loves.

And so we meaning – making, meaning – seeking people of faith can’t resist our need to ask, “What does this story mean?” First, commentators seem to agree that we are told, with Peter, James, and John, to “listen to him!” Jeffrey L. Tribble, Sr., urges us to be faithful to our experience of God by being clear, as Jesus was, about our identity and our mission, and not to be deterred or determined by outward success or failure as measured by the world around us. Instead, we should stick with Jesus, abiding in his presence, like Peter, James and John and, we might add, the women who accompanied him as well. Encouraged, and inspired, to do the same: to be present with Jesus, up on the mountain, and down below, in the need of the people, as well. The painting of the Transfiguration by Raphael (which can be found online) is mentioned by several writers, including Kimberly Miller van Driel, who draws our attention to those who are pointing to Jesus. The call of the preacher is to do the same, even in a world that we are tempted, she writes, to imagine as hopeless, for we preachers must always point to God.

Earlier in this reflection I mentioned the pursuit of mountaintop experiences by people of faith, and then made the statement that this story is (first) about Jesus and who Jesus is. However, I see things a bit differently than Stephen Farris does when he claims that this story is only about Jesus and not about us at all. If our relationship with Jesus, with God, is that – a relationship – then we have to consider our hunger for and response to experiences of God’s presence. That question leads to other sources, who offer rich reflections on the human need to “taste and feel” God with us.

Coming face to face with the real thing

Barbara Brown Taylor’s sermon on this text, “Thin Places,” is a great starting point down such a path. She spends little time analyzing what happened up on the mountaintop that day (or down below, afterward). In fact, she considers the Transfiguration too daunting to talk about, even though its presence in the Gospels has spurred countless people down through the ages who have tried to explain its meaning. (Again, that’s what we humans do with such experiences.) Instead, Taylor talks about “thin places.” She writes as a preacher who knows the Bible, a pastor who senses what goes on in the human heart, and a seeker herself who traveled to Ireland where her understanding of thin places was deepened by a pilgrimage up (and back down) a holy mountain. Like our ancestors in faith in ancient times, we “post – modern” humans search for God, but we won’t be persuaded by scientific proof or logical arguments about the truth we seek. Taylor describes the thin places so cherished in Celtic spirituality as “cracked doors” that give us a glimpse of heaven and a sense of God’s presence.

Thinking about the way “the appearance of Jesus’ face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white” (9:29), and then about the way the crowd was “astounded at the greatness of God” (v. 43), I was drawn to consider the experience of light. Not just any light, but Jesus, the Light of the World. Perhaps what happened up on that mountain is that the disciples were given a precious opportunity to see and feel what is present always, the light and glory of God in all of creation, including in us, but that day it just burst forth in Jesus, and their eyes were practically blinded and they didn’t know what to do.

Holding the spiritual and the material together

It’s not that something spiritual happened up above, on the mountain, and then something material, something physical, happened down below in the town. After all, the people were astounded by the greatness, the glory, of a God who healed a father’s only little boy, perhaps as astounded as Peter, James and John were up on the mountain by the vision of Moses and Elijah with Jesus. If we could recover the ability to hold the spiritual and material in a unity that is much healthier than the split between the two that has dominated us for centuries, it will transform everything in our lives, not just up on the mountaintop, but every single day, down here in the lived experience of the plain, or the town, or the office, or the suburb, or the city…wherever our spiritual journey takes and keeps us.

If we can hold the spiritual and material together, won’t we care better for the environment in which we live and breathe? J. Philip Newell, the theologian of Celtic spirituality, thinks so, but he also believes that it will affect how we regard the communities of which we are a part. We’re reading about God’s glory and light in the Gospel of Luke, but Celtic spirituality looks to John’s Gospel, where light is present at the very beginning, and “we have seen his glory…full of grace and truth” (1:14b). Newell draws on that account to help us see God’s glory in everything: “From that inaccessible light of God all life comes forth, whether that be the morning light of the burning sun, the yellow brilliance of the sunflower growing from the dark ground or the glow of starfish emerging in the depths of the sea. It is the light within all life.” To see it, of course, we have to use more than our physical eyes; perhaps we have to learn to see with our heart and our soul. And yet, at the same time, God is so far beyond our knowing, Newell says, “always more than the wind and the waters, other than the bear and the child, greater than thought and image” (The Book of Creation).

God is everywhere and anywhere

Taylor expands on this theme of encountering God in and through creation in her wonderful book An Altar in the World: A Geography of faith, a handbook that helps us to encounter God in the everyday experience of human life, here, in the midst of creation, “the House of God.” In her chapter on the spiritual practice of “waking up to God,” she writes of God as “the More, the Really Real, the Luminous Web That Holds Everything in Place.” Taylor remembers a time when people encountered God out in the world rather than limiting themselves to temples and churches, because they understood that they could encounter God anywhere and everywhere. God was with them wherever they went, even though there were places, here and there, where God’s presence was keenly felt, if only for a moment. Doesn’t this remind us of Jesus, on the move from that mountai
, headed to another one, Calvary, where he would show us once again what God’s love looks like, but this time, without light, and without glory?

Where is God? All the earth – all creation, broken yet beautiful – is full of the presence of God. We don’t have to climb a mountain to find God, although we might have to turn off our cell phones, our computers, and our television sets long enough to notice…like our ancestor Jacob, who said, “God is in this place, and I wasn’t aware of it” (Genesis 28:16). God is in the beauty of nature, in all its glory; God is in those moments of unconditional, tender love we share; God is there, between the lines, when we share our stories and our fragile hopes; God is there, in our suffering and in every moment of rescue, restoration, and resurrection. But be careful…the light is so bright – you may need to shield your eyes. As we end our Epiphany experience and prepare to embark on our Lenten journey, how do we read and hear this text as a call to take what we have experienced out into the world?  

A preaching version of this commentary can be found on http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/February-10-2013.html

For further reflection

Thomas Merton, 20th century
“We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time.”

George MacLeod, founder of the modern-day Iona Community, 20th century
“Show us the glory in the grey.”

Hafiz, 14th century
“An awake heart is like a sky that pours light.”

Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age, 21st century
“…he liked his transcendence out in plain sight where he could keep an eye on it – say, in a nice stained – glass window – not woven through the fabric of life like gold threads through a brocade.”

Irenaeus, 2nd century
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists in beholding God.”

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