The Last Sunday after the Epiphany
February 3, 2008
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 99
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
On this last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, it is worth noting that Epiphany begins with Jesus’ baptism and ends with his transfiguration. I find this compelling because Epiphany is our season of light, light that manifests things of great consequence to us as Christians. The season of Epiphany is filled with “aha” moments in scripture; moments in which things about God, about Jesus and about ourselves and about our world are suddenly made clear to us. The season of Epiphany puts us into a place of discovery, but only if we are able and willing to open our ears to hear and our hearts to receive the message God wants to reveal to us. A message which helps us see light in the dark place of our life and in our world; a message which helps us know that God is continuing to redeem us, not from our life or from this world but in them.
These are important messages for us to hear, and mark and learn in our all-too-brief season of Epiphany this year. Because Wednesday begins our season of Lent. We will begin journeying with Jesus in a new way. We will walk with him through his adult life and ministry and our destination will be the cross. And the most important message we must remember from our season of Epiphany is this: The light will not go out. Despite the darkness of Lent with its penitential emphasis and Ash Wednesday’s recognition of our human frailty; despite the chaos and danger of Holy Week; despite Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross; the light will not go out. Nor can the dark and dangerous circumstances of our own world steal from us the joy and confidence which comes from living in the light of Christ.
The light will not go out because in our season of Epiphany God assures us that the birth of his Son has brought his light into the world. The wise men first see the light in a star, and when they arrive at the manger they recognize God’s light in the child who lies there. They bow down and worship him, because this light has revealed its mystery to them. At Jesus’ baptism the heavens open and radiant light washes over Jesus as God tells him that he is well-pleased with his Son. The writer of the Gospel of John tells us straight out that John the baptizer is not the light; he only witnesses to the light, the true light which has come into the world to redeem us. And today, on this fourth and last Sunday in Epiphany, we witness the most dazzling show of light and the ultimate measure of Jesus’ divinity in his humanity in the light of his transfiguration. If this season of Epiphany teaches us anything, it shows us that God’s light broke into the darkness of this world and it will not go out. It is here to stay. And it continues to lead us and guide us into new life, new knowledge, new understanding, new truth and new ways of seeing ourselves and our world.
New ways of seeing and knowing, understanding and living are what happens to Jesus’ disciples in the story of his transfiguration in our scriptures today. Peter, James and John are transformed by the light of Jesus’ transfiguration. In the dazzling radiance of the most brilliant light they can possibly bear, Peter, James and John see Jesus in the fullness of who he is; fully human and fully divine. This is more than the “aha” we experience in a moment of epiphany; it is an overwhelming moment of clarity which forces the disciples to the ground in awe and in fear of the truth revealed to them in that moment. They witness Moses and Elijah conversing with Jesus and that gives testimony to the fact that this is truly a mountaintop experience. Both Moses and Elijah encountered God on a mountaintop. Both were brought to a profound moment of clarity and truth about God and about themselves. Both went back into the world transformed by the experience. And both became agents of light and vehicles of change as others became transformed by their life and ministry.
But there is a difference between what Moses and Elijah and Jesus’ disciples experience on their respective mountaintops. There is an important distinction to be made between transfiguration and transformation. When Jesus is transfigured by the light, the light does not change Jesus; the light merely reveals more of who he already is. Unlike the natural light of the world which reveals us in our human form, the light of transfiguration is a heavenly light which is able to show Jesus’ divine aspect. Jesus is revealed in his wholeness, a complete figure, both human and divine. In the divine light of transfiguration Peter, James and John can see God’s face in Jesus’ face they can hear God’s voice in Jesus’ voice, because Jesus remains completely human. Jesus’ disciples become transformed by his experience of transfiguration. They come down from that mountaintop having seen Jesus as no one else will see him by the light of this natural world. They have witnessed the divine truth: that God is truly present with them and God’s presence will remain with them in Jesus’ human form as they go back into the world to follow him and serve him.
This experience of transfiguration is God’s ultimate act of self-revelation in our season of Epiphany. Wise men witness the light of the Christ child in the manger and, having seen a great mystery they change the course of their life’s journey and leave for home by another way. John the baptizer becomes a witness to the light which shines on Jesus at his baptism, and Jesus will take John’s message of repentance to new levels of experience and understanding. And in our gospel lesson today, the mystery of this light is revealed to three of Jesus’ disciples in the light of transfiguration. They hear the words spoken by God at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased,” with one important addition: “Listen to him.” And they do.
Today we need to consider what the light of Jesus’ transfiguration mean for us? How does the light of Epiphany become not only a way for us to see, but a power which can transform our life? A way by which we can live our lives differently in this world so that we can make a powerful difference for good in it.
First of all, I need to say that mountaintop experiences are not exclusive to religious who live apart from the world or to people who go apart from the world on religious retreat. A mountaintop experience can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. It often begins in one, or several “aha” moments which make us sit up and take notice of something which requires us to change the way we think about it and respond to it. Once again this Sunday I find myself referring to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because his life story provides one of the best examples of people who have an “aha” moment which turns into a mountaintop experience, an experience causes them to live a life much different from the one they were living or the one they envisioned for their future.
In his last speech the night before he was assassinated Dr. King told us he had been to the mountaintop and he had seen the other side. But Dr. King’s mountaintop experience began with daunting and demeaning “aha” experience which would change his life, and the life of our nation, forever. It began when Dr. King took his first cross country vacation with his wife and four children. Dr. King was well-educated and gainfully employed; he was well-known, well respected; he was financially secure and he lived a comfortable life. But none of that mattered each time he stopped at a motel for overnight accommodations. Essentially, he was told, there was no room at the inn, even though their parking lots were nearly empty of automobiles.
Now, Dr. King had the money, and a nice car, and a respectable family, too. His “aha” moment came when he realized he could not get a room for his family because he was a Negro. The humiliating injustice of it all jolted Dr. King out of his comfortable and complacent life. He began to see his himself through the lens of so many poor and marginalized people in our nation and the injustice with which the ways our laws and rules of social justice were applied. He had preached often of injustice and the marginalization of people, but now that reality had come home to him. And then, just as Jesus called Peter, James and John, to follow him up the mountain, he called to Dr. King. Dr. King followed Jesus to that mountaintop and when he came back down to the valley of his woe he was a man transformed, a preacher whose purpose and mission in life took him outside the doors of his comfortable church into a needy and hurting world; a man who felt compelled to live his life in the light of Christ regardless of the consequences. This is an important story for Christians to know and remember. And while very few of us ever get to live the drama of a transformed life in the way that Dr. King did our lives are no less valuable to the kingdom God yearns for us to live in on this earth.
I am certain that each of us has had our own “aha” experiences which have caused us to act in a new way for some personal and common good. Some of us have even followed Jesus to the mountaintop and experienced a profound change which became obvious to everyone who knew us. Every day we can read or view stories in the news media about people who have had an experience which transformed them, either in and “aha” moment in many “aha” moments over time. People who were able to transform their world in some small way by the focus and energy which comes to a transformed life. Frequently we hear of people who suffer serious injury or near death experiences, or catastrophic illness who reach out to help others like themselves rather wallow in self-pity. We hear of people who use their professional or celebrity status to raise money and awareness of need which is remote from us. We hear of those who receive a blessing in their life which prompts them to share it with others—even give that blessing away. People who come into a large amount of money who give it away to a charity or an important public cause. We hear of people of modest means who volunteer in homeless shelters and in soup kitchens out of an awareness of the blessing of their own abundance. I think of people who leave the comfort of their home, the security of their job and the enjoyment of their friends to help rebuild the lives and communities of others who suffer the loss of life and property in natural and man-made disasters. That experience, in itself, changes many of them for good.
I am particularly struck this year by the vast numbers of people who seem to be longing for a mountaintop experience in our country’s political arena and they are investing a lot of time and money and hopes on candidates who promise them such an experience. It doesn’t surprise me that the speeches of our primary candidates appeal to change and to transforming our government. It doesn’t surprise me that Barak Obama’s message of hope and change and a new vision for America appeals to us. It doesn’t surprise me that Mike Huckabee frames his campaign in the familiar rhetoric of our baptismal covenant when he says “we must ‘respect the dignity of all people.’” It does not surprise me that Hillary Clinton assures us that the many “aha” moments she has experienced, both in the good and bad times of her political life, make her the kind of experienced candidate we would want to follow up that mountain, especially because we might be finally ready for a woman to lead us. And it doesn’t’ surprise me that John McCain brings a message which tells us what is possible to overcome as well as what we can accomplish in this world by the example of what he has overcome and what he has accomplished his own life. I am not surprised by any of these messages which hold out hope and vision for transforming our nation. Too many bad “aha” experiences have provoked the need for change. We are people hungry for a mountaintop experience which can be a transforming power for good in the world. But as Christians we know that we don’t have to wait for a national election for that to begin. And history has shown us that we can’t always rely on the candidate who is elected to make that happen. Regardless of the candidate we support, or the candidate we elect, as followers of Christ we will not pin our hopes on the promises of a politician. We remember that our “aha” moments are meant to change us, not wait for someone else to make the changes we desire. On this day when we celebrate Jesus’ transfiguration we know who can lead us up to the mountaintop. We know that we can be transformed there. And we know the best test of transformation is not in how our mountaintop experience changes us, but how our transformed life changes others. On this Sunday of Transfiguration, as we move into our season of Lent, let us remember that we live in light of Christ, and let us make ourselves ready to follow that light wherever it leads.