Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration – one of the 12 major feast days set aside in the wider Church for us to ponder something of the sacred mystery of God that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ – in this case the revelation to three key disciples that Jesus was simultaneously human and divine. The story tells us that:
Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain. And when they arrived his appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes, so that his clothes shimmered, glistening white, whiter than any bleach could make them. Elijah, along with Moses, came into view, and together were in deep conversation with Jesus… and when they were done… a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and from deep in the cloud, a voice: "This is my Son, marked by my love: Listen to him."
And there is a whole lot happening in those 8 short lines for us to explore, yes? Let me suggest a few of the highlights:
+ Jesus pulls aside an inner circle – Peter, James and John – those who were maybe a little more focused than the others on kingdom concerns to become witnesses of what was about to happen.
+ And where did this inner circle go? Up a high mountain – probably Mt. Hermon at the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria – the northern most tip of the Promised Land and the highest point in the region.
And why are mountains important symbols and clues for us in the unfolding stories of the Bible? What other things have taken place on mountains?
+ The 10 Commandments were given to Moses on a mountain top, right? The heart of the covenant for God’s people was revealed on a desert mountain.
+ The Sermon on the Mount offers another elevated revelation for God’s people: here is the distillation of Christ’s ethical and spiritual insights about the Lord that Jesus shared with his people.
And don’t forget that Jesus himself often went to a lonely mountain top for solitude and prayer, right? So first there is the calling together of the best and the brightest; second there is a reminder that something significant is about to happen because the action is taking place on a mountain. And third there is that totally wild and mystical meeting on the mountain top between Jesus, Moses and Elijah that results in God proclaiming: this is my Beloved – marked by my love – listen to him!
Amy-Jill Levine writes in the commentary to the Jewish Annotated New Testament that Moses and Elijah, “…represent the covenant of Torah – Moses – and the prophetic denunciations of corruption and idolatry – Elijah – respectively.” They are the law and the prophets: Moses, who spoke to the Lord God face to face (and was similarly enlightened and transfigured) and Elijah, who was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind of chariots and horses of fire… represent those who stand in God’s presence and communicate the word of the Lord to God’s people in time.
And what were these cats are doing up on that mountain? Holding a theological conversation of mind-blowing proportions with Jesus: Hmmmmm given the symbolic gravitas of everything that has been gathered together here, it is probably safe to conclude that we’re supposed to give this story a TON of attention, don’t you think?
+ I mean Jesus AND Moses and Elijah: here is an invitation to grace as well as the law and the prophets – forgiveness, covenant and the call to justice – all together at the same time.
+ And just so that we don’t miss the point, when this colloquy is completed, what do the disciples hear from the Lord God on the mountain top? This is my beloved – marked with my love – listen to him.
So are you still with me? Do you grasp both the context and symbolic importance of what’s taking place in this short story? Something BIG is happening on this mountain: God has brought together all the heavy hitters – Moses and Elijah in conference with Jesus – because do you remember what Christ told us at the start of his ministry when asked about the significance of the law and the prophets? In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said: Don’t think I’ve come to abolish the law and the prophets; rather I have come to… what?
+ To fulfill them – to fill them full – just like he filled the vats of water full of wine at the first miracle at the wedding in Cana.
+ This mountain top meeting is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets – the marriage of grace, compassion and justice – in the one we will come to call Lord and Savior.
The transfiguration of Jesus, you see, points to Christ’s resurrection: it unites our sacred stories with his; it brings together tradition and covenant with the call to prophetic justice and grace; and it invites us to know that in Jesus Christ the holy has been married to the human. It is the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise that God’s will may be done on earth as it is already being done in heaven. In fact, in this mountain top encounter we have the realization of the ancient dream the poets once sang about in Psalm 85:
Love and Truth meet in the street,
Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss!
Truth sprouts green from the ground,
Right Living pours down from the skies!
Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty;
our land responds with Bounty and Blessing.
Right Living strides out before him,
and clears a path for his passage.
Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss!
Truth sprouts green from the ground,
Right Living pours down from the skies!
Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty;
our land responds with Bounty and Blessing.
Right Living strides out before him,
and clears a path for his passage.
And that brings me the heart of what I want to share with you today: why Transfiguration Sunday matters to us at First Church. As you may recall, I have been working my way through the five key components of our mission statement as preparation for entering Lent. Together we have thought about what it means to be:
· Called together as God’s people in community.
· Called together as God’s people who reflect on our Christian faith and worship the Lord together as community.
And now I want to share a few insights about what it might mean for us to be called together as God’s people to do justice and share compassion with the world in community: Together – in community – for reflection and worship – justice and compassion: this is our mission. I rather like the way theologian, Douglas John Hall, has stated it when he writes:
The object of God’s love… is not first the church; rather it is the world. “For God so loved the cosmos – the world – not the church…And the central point of being the church is to engage in mission… that constitutes the most basic reason why the church must exist… (He adds) Of course, the church needs to have periods of retreat from the world, to recover its own identity through study and prayer, to renew its courage and all the rest. But precisely in these times of renewal, the church must learn once more that it does not exist for its own sake. A church that hived off itself and was content to be a comfortable “fellowship” would contradict in the most flagrant way the whole message of the New Testament. (Why Christian, p. 139)
Now tell me your reaction to this statement – what are you thinking and feeling – about Hall’s declaration that the whole point of the church is mission? What does that mean to you?
Each and all of those callings are mission: those who go to the river clean-up and those who teach Sunday School – those who sing in the band and choir and those who serve as liturgists – those who write letters to Congress and those who pray for the well-being of creation. Each and all are mission. And that’s one important truth about mission: there is NO one size that fits us all. Are you down with that? Do you hear me?
Now let me share two other truths with you about our justice and compassion mission because I think they need clarity: what does God say to the disciples at the very end of the Transfiguration story? This – Jesus – is my beloved – marked with my love – listen to him. So I think it is absolutely essential to listen to Jesus in scripture whenever we try to construct a justice or compassion ministry for our generation. You see, Jesus has a unique and creative take on doing justice and sharing compassion in the world. Again, the words of Douglas John Hall are instructive: Jesus was not a utopian or a revolutionary exhorting people to build a new world order; rather he invited and urged them to participate in the new life that God was already creating in their midst.
The first are the Lord’s words from the Cross: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. This speaks to me of Christ’s willingness to sacrifice his will for the well being of others; God’s justice, it would seem, is rarely about me – it is not about my politics or self-interest or my needs or wounds – rather it is about healing and renewing and restoring others to the fullness of God’s image. So first I sense the justice of Jesus is about sacrifice.
Second, are the words Jesus read when he announced his public ministry in Luke 4: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free. For God has called me to embody the year of the Lord’s favor. This is all about Jubilee – the radical forgiveness of debts – a profound commitment to economic justice – and the restoration of dignity and health to all people. From this I take it that being about the justice of Jesus means I have to become allies with the broken and wounded, the forgotten and disrespected for anything less is not sacrificial.
That means that most of my justice work involves a lot of time in quiet thought and reflection. The old ways of activism are over – stick a fork in them – their done. Douglas John Hall put it like this: “Not too long ago, I saw a poster in the most unlikely place—a Protestant church!—that read, “Don’t just do something, sit there.”
This, I believe, is the first requirement for any Christian person or congregation or denomination today that wants to find a way into the future. Thought—original, deep, critical, theological thinking—is the conditio sine qua non—the condition without which the Christian movement will not find its way into the uncertain future. Another word for the kind of thought of which I am speaking is the much-misunderstood word “theology.” Ours is a time when theological reflection may be the most important thing Christians can do if they are earnest about their future (and concerned about justice.)
There is much more to say about this and in the months ahead I’ll be sharing with you an idea born of what is being called “the slow living movement” as a way of entering into the justice of Jesus in a holistic way. It holds great promise for us as a way to bring together justice, grace and compassion.
So, that’s enough for right now – save one last text that can never be left out when talking about listening to Jesus for clues about justice and compassion: Matthew 25. And I will simply read it for you again without commentary because it doesn’t get any better than this.
When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'
Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
3) jimmyakin.typepad.com
4) johnaugustswanson.com
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