Sermon, Sunday 7 Feb: Transfiguration Sunday

A sermon for Transfiguration Sunday...

Readings: Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Cor 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-43

SERMON ‘Glimpses of glory’
Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts,
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Smoke...
and cloud
and bright, dazzling light.
The glory of God revealed:
shimmering upon the mountain top -
mysterious majesty.
Awe - full...full of awe - in what is the original intent of that word.

To see God, face to face, leaves its mark upon Moses:
when he comes down from the mountain
his face glows with the fire and fabulousness
that is God,
and the people wonder, and are afraid,
and yet, are compelled to listen to him as he shares with them
the conversations that he’s had with God.

To see the glory of Jesus revealed leaves its mark upon Peter, James, and John:
dazzled by the divine identity that is their rabbi, Jesus,
seeing his true glory revealed, and told to ‘listen to him’,
when they come back down from the mountain...they’re reduced to stunned silence.
And even while on the mountain, Peter is reduced, in his shock, to babbling nonsense.
Amazed with what he’s seeing - though not quite comprehending -
he wants to hang on to this experience, this ‘wow’ moment;
to set up tents and stay there:
to hold the moment forever...which is not possible.
And once this fleeting glimpse of glory has gone,
Jesus gathers them up and takes them back down into the valley,
back down into the hustle and bustle
and noise and need
of a different reality.
When they come down from the mountain they’re met by a large crowd,
and the pleas of a father for the healing of his son -
who is presumably living with epilepsy by the description given.

Our mountain top passages are strange:
sometimes, there’s a temptation to skip over them entirely,
to find passages that feel...a little safer, a little more...normal.
How  are we to make sense of them?
...Do we need to make sense of them?
Can we just accept that there is mystery here,
and that, this side of heaven, we can’t ever fully comprehend?
So, I could just finish the sermon here,
and we could get our cup of tea a little earlier than planned!
But given I’ve been away for a few weeks, perhaps that’s cheating.

‘Transfiguration’ - the name given to what happens to Jesus on the mountain top;
the name given to our gospel passage;
the name given to the Sunday before we begin the season of Lent in our church year -
well, if you’re Protestant, at least.
‘Transfiguration’ - What is meant by the word?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as, to:
‘Transform into something more beautiful or elevated’;
while the Mirriam Webster Dictionary states that it’s
a :  a change in form or appearance :  a metamorphosis
b :  an exalting, glorifying, or spiritual change
And both make reference to the Christian feast that marks this account of
Jesus on the mountain top with his inner disciples -
Peter, James, and John.

Often, when the account of the Transfiguration is preached,
it’s preached as a corrective to folk who, to use that old saying:
‘are so heavenly-minded, that they’re of no earthly use.’
It’s preached in a way that says,
‘okay, you’ve had your five seconds of ‘wow’, now, best crack on
with bending your shoulder to the wheel of Christian duty.’
It’s preached as if there’s an either/ or:
sometimes discounting the mountain top entirely.
And it’s important that we do take on board that we can’t just pitch our tents
on the mountain top of glory and stay there...
it’s important that we do take on board that, as followers of Jesus,
yes, we do have work to do...
But...
This is not a passage that’s meant to be used as a tool for beating ourselves up,
nor as a long, unending list of ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’,
nor as a tool to measure our spiritual worth by the things we get out and ‘do’ -
It’s not an exercise in holy productivity.

I think the passage is less ‘either/or’ and more ‘both/and’.
The passage is about balance -
about taking time to delight in and be amazed at the God of glory...
about seeing things in a different way because we’ve seen what could be.
It brings focus and meaning to the way we follow in faith
as we move from mountain top to daily life.
Sure, we get a spiritual recharge,
but we gain an understanding of who we are,
and of our calling and mission as the people of God.
In seeing God, face to face,
we see the world,
we see our reality,
and we see the reality of our neighbours
for what it is...
and it motivates our response to bring in God’s kindom.

Reflection on God’s glory evokes glory-inspired reaction... or, it should do.
We need both mountain top and valley, reflection and action;
we need -
to fall on our knees, and worship,
and to get up and stand with our dispossessed neighbour -
to live in the glory of the sacred
and in the good news of the kindom.
And in it all, God is our source, our centre - the ground of our being.
And from that centre, from being grounded in God’s glory, all else flows:
Our ‘doing’ isn’t about gaining gold stars or merit points so that we get to heaven...
our ‘doing’ comes from already ‘being’ -
in God.

On the mountain top - God’s glory was revealed.
Jesus’ divine identity was made known in stunning, eye-splintering light.
Transfigured.
Transformed.
And in the light of God’s self-revealing glory,
both Moses, and the disciples were made more fully aware of themselves -
of the content of their character -
to borrow a phrase from Martin Luther King, a man who had also
been up to the mountain, and seen a vision of God,
and a vision of what God’s kindom looked like.

In the light of God’s self-revealing glory -
in our own glimpses of glory on the mountain top,
what do we see revealed -
of God,
of God’s created world around us,
of ourselves?
Transfiguration?  Transformation?
Romans, chapter 12, reminds us that we're
not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed -
and to be transformers, as we share the light of God’s glory all around us -
for the light of God’s glory is for all:

Preacher, Mary Luti, notes that:
The merciful pleasure God takes in Jesus, 
the joy of God’s goodness that glows 
like a million suns, 
is Peter’s origin and destiny too. 
It is the origin and destiny of the whole creation. 
It is our destiny.
We were all made in ecstasy 
and intended for ecstasy. 
Glory, and its lovely twin, Joy, 
is the permanent subtext of our lives. 
We were called and gathered for praise, thanksgiving, and freedom – 
for visions, for dreams, and for ...worship [Mary Luti]

Filled and inspired by the fire of God’s glory,
our call as followers of Jesus, as God’s people,
is to show, in word, deed, and in awed silence,
that God is at work saving the world.
It is to ‘testify... that grace is even now sparking in the stubble, 
glory is already lighting up the mountain, 
and all people, strangers, kin and enemies, 
are even now being plucked from death, 
included in the sweep of mercy, 
and brought home to sit at the table of peace.
Our calling is ... to see beyond ordinary sight. 
To see the world’s suffering unflinchingly, 
exactly as it is, and to see God already working...
and by our fearless announcement 
bring hope to everyone who swears 
all hope is lost.’ [Mary Luti]

Paraphrasing Martin Luther King, in his ‘Mountain’ speech:
Our calling is to point to ‘streets flowing with milk and honey’
as we witness God’s glory,
and because we have witnessed God’s glory, we are moved
‘to be concerned about the slums down here,
and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day.’

Our calling means we must open ourselves to fire.
To be transfigured, transformed,
as we remember God’s glory and generosity
in the face of a world which tells us that
God’s people are diminishing, failing,
and will soon be a rare, exotic, and possibly, extinct, species.
Our calling is to stand as God’s people and not be afraid -
for we have been to the mountain top, and we have seen God’s glory -
and we are not ashamed of the gospel - the good news.
Good news that transforms the
law of finger pointing, death-giving judgement,
which crushes all, into lives lived fully;
good news where we see glimpses of glory -
where we see what could be and where we work towards
the fulfilment of all things as a community of hope..
Good news that shouts out in joyous proclamation and in quiet whispers,
that God’s love is for all,
that God’s love transfigures and transforms
both the sinner and the sinned against,
mends the broken-hearted,
lifts up the oppressed:
Good news that is life-giving and life-changing -
for it is the news that cries out that
God’s grace abounds.

We can’t stay on the mountain.
But we can’t not go up to the mountain - for there, the glory of God is revealed;
for there, we see God face to face, and hail the power of Jesus’ name;
for there, we are reminded that we are God’s own -
...  God’s own for the world,
called to share in the bringing in
of God’s marvellous light of transformation.
Thanks be to God.

Let’s pray:
Loving God, whose love we live to serve,
so that all the world may see the wonder of it,
take hold of us again as we worship here,
and give us the mind of Christ,
so that we may rediscover your presence
in the community around us,
and recognise your Spirit at work
in every act of human kindness,
in every plea for justice,
in every call to service
and in every challenge to our complacency.
Take hold of us again,
fill us with love for each other
and our neighbours,
and by our faithfulness, let your justice,
joy and peace extend to more and more,
so that the thanks and praise we offer now
may increase, to your glory and our delight,
now and for evermore. Amen.