On this last Sunday of the season of Epiphany, we end as we always do with the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus, like Moses before his goes up to a mountain; Moses went to the mountain alone, at least where he went to meet with God; Jesus takes his three inner circle disciples; Moses emerges from the experience with the tablets of the Law; I think here, we see Jesus giving a glimpse of his role in fulfilling the law and perhaps even reinterpreting it; I have spoken recently about how Jesus is the very embodiment of the law: certainly being joined by a Moses and Elijah would give the experience credibility, and would show the continuity of God’s law and kingdom coming alive in the person of Jesus. Here too, we have a call to discipleship… the voice that was heard at the beginning of Epiphany at the baptism of Jesus is now heard again; and the message is the same; “this is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased… and today we have the added command to “Listen to him”.
The disciples who experienced the transfiguration of Jesus, are being given a glimpse into who Jesus really is; Jesus at this point seems to know that he is about to enter into his journey to Jerusalem that will lead to his death; he warns the disciples not to be afraid… and we know that they should be and will be, very afraid in the days to come, but he gives them a gift of being able to see past the fear and terror that is coming; he gives them a vision of Easter; a reassurance that all may not be as it appears and that God’s love will ultimately win. It’s a lesson that we know that they will soon forget; it’s a lesson we know that we will also forget.
This scene on the mountaintop is a call to discipleship to them and also to us. The command to “Listen to him” speaks to us just as clearly as it spoke to them. Discipleship was a difficult command then and is so now. For us, it is our life’s work, as we pray and as we follow Jesus where he leads, even when we are afraid.
Transfiguration means that one’s appearance is changed; usually in some sort of spiritual or glorified sense; certainly, that is what happens to Jesus during this experience; I would maintain that even though his appearance has changed, at least while he was on the mountain, that his being did not change; but rather the disciples were given an insider’s view to the truth of who their friend and teacher was…
But I wonder if somehow, the change that took place that day was really a change that was affected upon the disciples who were present, and if a change happens perhaps now on us as we witness the event. A change not simply in appearance, but in our very being.
So my question to us today is one that all churches wonder about b… what would it mean to be a transfigured church, a transfigured congregation filled with transfigured people?
I think we can often get bogged down in details that distract us; we often get worried about money and about growth; I think that if we get too worried about “business type matters” we risk not paying attention to what’s important… So the question is… what is important?
I think it’s pretty simple, really… we must be a church as an individual congregation that belongs to a much larger Christian denomination that preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ… not just preaching it with words… but with the things that we do… things that we do for each other, for the congregation that exists today as well as for the congregation that we hope to be in the future. You and I are called to embody the Gospel of Jesus… We are to carry the Gospel in us, in all that we do and all that we say.
The church is a community that exists to do mission…As the church, we exist to form ourselves into the likeness of Jesus, and as such, we are called to discipleship… and discipleship means we listen to Jesus…
Listening also means we do… we do the work that he has left for us to do…
A transfigured church becomes a radically welcoming church that embraces all who walk through it’s doors… we not only welcome them; we make ourselves ready for them as though we were always waiting for them… it means making physical spaces for children and their parents, and loving the chaos that comes with them; and we have done that… we also must remember to make that space in our behavior and atmosphere. Being a transfigured church means handing a cup of coffee to a new friend whose name we don’t know yet; it means inviting people to participate in all that we do… Being a transfigured congregation means that hospitality goes beyond our walls to those who we might not actually choose to be with. It means moving beyond the fears of the empire around us and acting in love as people of the kingdom.
Being a transfigured congregation means that we believe what we say; when we say, “We believe in Jesus Christ” we proclaim that we believe in the Son of God who lived and died as one of us, and we proclaim his resurrection from the dead; when we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe in the power of relationship; we understand at a deep level that bearing one another’s burdens is not merely a suggestion, but rather, standard operating procedures, because we know that no one should ever suffer alone… A transfigured congregation worships fully and joyfully knowing that today as we gather around the altar, we get a glimpse of the heavenly banquet… A transfigured congregation doesn’t stay stuck in thinking it can’t do something, but rather takes a chance or two knowing that somehow, it can and it will because God’s love always wins…
Peter wanted to capture the experience on the mountain… It’s easy to want that because staying in the same place is easy and safe; being a transfigured church isn’t safe and I think we know it isn’t easy… but it is life giving…it is life giving to us and to those who join us. I hope and pray that as we get ready to begin our journey in the desert with Jesus, that our Transfiguration continues. I hope that we will continue to discover how we are being called to be disciples who are not afraid, but who embody the good news of Jesus in all that we do. May we become the transfigured congregation that he has called us to be; may we begin to turn with him toward Jerusalem and the shadow of the cross. May we look toward the love and light of Easter knowing that the love and hope of the resurrection is always before us as we open our hearts to listen to him.