Transfiguration Sunday
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
February 27, 2022
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12 – 4:2
Luke 9:28-36
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Would you please pray with me – Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we will be created and you will renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructs the hearts of the faithful, grant that we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in the Spirit’s consolations, through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Transfiguration Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays in the church year – it’s right up there with All Saints and Pentecost. I’m not sure what it is exactly. But as I went back over the other thirteen times that I have preached on the Transfiguration, I see themes of mountain top experiences – and it is fitting isn’t it as this takes place on a mountaintop. I see references to “thin places” – those places where the veil between the divine and the ordinary becomes extraordinarily thin and we can almost feel ourselves stepping into the very throne room of God, the Creator of all that is, both seen and unseen.
You know these moments – perhaps you have felt this at the birth of a child – or the death of a loved one. Perhaps you have glory bumps that come over you at the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service as we sing “Silent Night.” Or perhaps the sound of all the voices resounding together as the Easter Procession starts with “Jesus Christ is ris’n today, ...” Or maybe a thin place for you is found in nature beside still waters, as the psalmist writes. Each of these are cherished in many ways by many people across time.
Can you imagine what it may have been like for Peter, James and John – the fisherman who just a short time earlier caught an overwhelming catch of fish that threatened to swamp their boats and upon seeing this were dumbstruck and left it all to follow this amazing man. And follow him they did, from the level place, the plain, to homes and villages and towns in Galilee, the northern part of the Holy Land, then out on the Sea of Galilee and even into lands that were traditionally unclean and to be avoided by good and faithful Jews. People were healed, demons cast out, storms were calmed, Herod was confronted, John the Baptist arrested. The tax collectors were dinner companions, the sinners flocking to this one who loved on them. The five thousand were fed and John the Baptist beheaded.
And then as the disciples were alone with Jesus, came the startling question and answer. Jesus asked, “Who do they say that I am?” And the disciples answered – some say, Elijah, other say John the Baptist, and others one of the prophets of old. And then the piercing question – And you, who do YOU say that I am? And, on behalf of the disciples, Peter said, You are the Christ of God.
And Jesus tells them for the first time what this means – The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day raised. Three times in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus brings this truth to his disciples’ attention. I wonder what they made of that. And then, he adds on to this and tells them that they too will join in with this – that they too must take up their cross and follow, that they too must lose their life to save it and if they try to save their life they will lose it. Oh the perplexing doublespeak and talk of this from the Christ of God.
And then a short time later, only a few days, Jesus gathers Peter and James and John and brings them up a mountain. Mountains are very important in Scripture – Moses met with God on Mount Sinai numerous times – face to face with the Holy One of the Universe. Elijah on Mt Horeb met with God who appeared not in the wind, not in the fire, not in the earthquake, not even in a still small voice – No. God appeared to Elijah in the sound of sheer silence. On the Mountain, Jesus gave his first Sermon in the Gospel of Matthew. Mountains. Mountain top experiences. Thin places.
And Peter and James and John were so enraptured by this experience – in the presence of Jesus whose face was altered and his clothing changed to a dazzling white. Jesus who then was visited by Moses and Elijah who appeared with him in all their glory – not a physical body – but a glorious sense of their being. And, Peter, you gotta love Peter – comes up with a plan. It is wonderful to be here Lord – tell you what, I’m going to make three dwelling and we can just hang out here because this is flat out wonderful.
And then came the voice from heaven, words heard at Jesus’ baptism – “This is my Son, my chosen one. Listen to him.” And then it was done, the glory had vanished, Moses and Elijah were no more. And they all kept silent.
A thin place, indeed. Oh, bring it Lord, I pray. I need a mountain top. I need to feel glory bumps. I need to stand in a place where there is glory all around. O God, I need a thin place. But all I am left with at this time, this week, dear God, is a thick place. A place of anger of which I can barely speak. A place of despair and fear for what may be ahead. A place with a heart torn with sorrow for the families who are being separated as mother and children leave and father stays to fight. To fight, a megalomaniacal tyrant, however “genius” one may believe him to be as he maps out “savvy” military strategy that threatens Europe and indeed the world. I am in a thick place bound by the pall of senseless violence, a pall that will cover the dead.
I am confounded by the conflict and violence and terrorism gripping so many places on our globe – more than can even be imagined – Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Libya, Nigeria, Syria, Yemen Venezuela and the list goes on and on and on. The pacifist theologian, Walter Wink, has said that the greatest religion on the planet is not Islam, Hinduism, Judaism or even Christianity – instead it is the pervasive faith in violence. A thick place indeed.
If, like me, you too are in a thick place, what then are we to do? As the poet John Roedel noted, I am not able to stop a tank, convince a sniper to come down, to cast a pall of joy and peace over all at war. No. But this I can do – I can light a candle every day, all day, as an act of prayer – that its bit of light may shine in darkness, that its fragrance may sweeten the air, that its mere presence may bring my heart away from the tasks of my day to the needs of others and in that, in some way that I do not understand but may only be perceived by God, we are joined together with the suffering.
And this we can do – like Peter, we can seek out the dwelling such as we have here, in which to find refuge and in that dwelling we can be in the presence of Jesus and one another; however thick that place may be that we are in, we can be in it together and in that togetherness the Holy Spirit may move and kindle in us the fire of her love. In this we recognize that we are not alone, however heavy the pall of dismay and this thick place around us may be.
And this we can do – we can gather at the Holy Table where God provides a thin place that does not depend upon our emotion or feeling – a thin place where we are joined together with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven offering prayer and praise as we sing Holy Holy Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. And at this Holy Table we eat of this Holy Meal that works in us in ways beyond our human understanding, ways to draw us closer to God and one another. And thereby we are being transformed from glory to glory.
And the heavy pall of the thick place lightens and gives way to the divine of the Holy One breaking through and bringing light into our darkness because Jesus is life and the light of all people and this light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. And so, we too, are drawn from the thick place of fear and despair and anger, through the waters of our baptisms and fed at the Table to the place where we can let our light so shine before others that they may see our good works and give glory to God, our loving Father in heaven.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
