Transfiguration Sunday A February 26, 2017
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Exodus 24: 12-18 + Psalm 2 + 2 Peter 1: 16-21 + Matthew 17: 1-9
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Do we have any Harry Potter fans here this morning? I’m going to begin with an image from the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Even if you aren’t familiar with the book or the movies or the story, there’s still something here for you.
In this scene, Harry is attending the wedding of two of his closest friends, Bill and Fleur. What we know about Fleur from reading the story is that she is incredibly, stunningly beautiful….perhaps magically beautiful. Whenever she is in a room, her beauty eclipses everyone and everything around her. Those who see her are speechless in her presence, she is just that stunning.
On her wedding day, Fleur wears a tiara made by elves and infused with just a bit of magic. When she wears it, the tiara transfigures everyone around her. They seem to fairly glow. Fleur is no longer the beautiful one, but those with her are transformed and changed.
The wedding guests are stunned! They can’t understand how they’ve never noticed before that the faces of their friends and those in their community are so lovely that they glow and shimmer in their loveliness.
Today we gather for Transfiguration Sunday….it is the space that moves us from the time after Epiphany into the season of Lent. And the Gospel text for this day is always the story of Jesus going up a mountain with James and John,. While they are there Jesus face shines like the sun and his clothes become dazzling white. Then, if that’s not enough, Moses and Elijah, long dead, suddenly appear on the scene. And then….to top it off, God speaks from the cloud, echoing the words spoken at Jesus’ baptism, in case the disciples have any doubt about who they’re dealing with.
Just a couple of days ago, I was visiting with Bjorg at her home. We were enjoying a cup of tea in her living room, when the sun broke free from behind a grey Seattle cloud and began to beam directly into Bjorg’s front window. I looked behind me, just to make sure that Moses and Elijah weren’t about to show up, then told Bjorg how the sun shining on her made her even more beautiful.
This happens in some way, with some person in our lives every single day. Very often, though, we aren’t paying attention to what’s really important, or who. Instead, we are busy, like Peter, imagining how we might keep things exactly as they are. When right in front of us, someone is beaming the love of God in Jesus in our general direction.
Almost every person I visit with, either in their homes or at the coffee shops or in meetings notes that making connections has become more challenging in these days. Somehow, it seems as though the whole world has become conflicted. We aren’t sure what to do, or what to say, or when to say it. We wonder if our words will invite a stinging retort or if they have any chance of making a difference at all. And so we silo with people who we ARE sure think like us and we create echo chambers for our own thoughts and before we know it, we aren’t having any real dialogue at all.
My friends, at this rate, transformation will not happen. Especially if our response is one of fear. That was the response of the disciples up there on the mountain top. After Jesus began to glow and the dead appeared and God spoke….they fell to the ground afraid.
Ok, I admit it. I would probably do something very similar. I would likely be afraid as well. And I would most certainly not want to leave the mountaintop there with Jesus.
And that is what this day is actually about. It’s so appropriate that it’s the day between a season of light and the Lenten journey. The disciples were about to follow Jesus through some very dark and difficult days that would lead them straight to the cross. Peter would deny even knowing him. The rest of the disciples would abandon him at the hour of his death, leaving only the faithful women and a wealthy stranger to lower his body.
The disciples needed ALL OF THESE reminders of who Jesus truly was: They needed the light shining within him and around him. They needed the dead leaders of the faith to reappear and they needed the voice of the Creator to repeat Gods-self: This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased.” And then….as an added reminder: “listen to him.”
Listen to him. Listen to Jesus.
That feels easy enough. How hard can that be? Well, Jesus is going to tell us that some pretty upside down stuff….some foolish business….is going to be required of us. Jesus is going to tell us that the weak are preferred over the strong and the poor over the rich. That’s not what we hear at all, is it? We hear about America being great and Jesus says the last will be first and the first? They’ll be last. Jesus is going to tell us, repeatedly, that we are to take care of immigrants. And if we don’t get it when he says it straight out, he’ll tell us a story whose hero is the immigrant, the outcast, the Samaritan. Jesus is going to tell us that one of only 2 great commandments is to love our neighbor….every neighbor. And then, if we still don’t get it, Jesus is going to eat with tax collectors and sinners. He’s going to refuse to be tricked by the rhetoric of the powerful and instead is going to tell us love stories as a model of godly living.
This is my Son, the Beloved….listen to him.
Listen to him. Then, get up, and follow him.
You see, as Christians, we base everything we have and all that we know….we base our very lives… on things we cannot prove and on a God we cannot see. We are asked to believe that the God who created the earth and the heavens is still creating today, in each of us. We are asked to believe that in spite of what looks like evidence to the contrary, goodness is still stronger than evil and love is still stronger than hate. We are asked to believe that Alleluia will be the last word. We are asked to believe in a beautiful savior, there on a mountain peak, who shines with love for every nation and every person.
And we are asked to believe these things not only when times are easy and when it’s easy to put our trust in our faith, but we are asked to believe these things when we are stumbling in the darkness and cannot find the light.
Because at those times we turn to the stories of our faith to sustain us and remind us that we live in a world that we see differently than the one that causes us all to tremble in fear. We live in a world where glory is possible….where light may break through at any moment. We live in a world made of light. We live in a world where you never know when a face may begin to shine….it may be the face of a friend or a beloved or one long gone but still present in heart and mind. It may be our own. We believe in the light that contains the very presence of God because the stories of God remind us time after time. We know that God’s light has the power to transfigure even the darkest of times.
Beloved community, let your lights shine in the world. We need them more than ever. Shine love to hatred. Shine truth to power. Shine God’s wide, encompassing, love for all people TO all people. That is the story of the Gospel of Jesus. Love for all people. Light for all people. Be bearers of God’s glory….be bearers of God’s light….be bearers of God’s love.
Thanks be to God. And let the church say. Amen.