Sunday Feb 19, 2012

Mark 9: 2 - 3

Transfigured in You and Me:

It is not about what happens on the Mountain that matters.  It’s what we bring back.

Transfiguration Sunday - When I was a young pastor, I remember being at a meeting with several other older, more seasoned pastors and hearing them complain, Transfiguration Sunday, not again, how many different ways can you preach on the Transfiguration? 

Now some twenty years hence, I can understand what they were talking about. How many ways can you preach the Transfiguration?  Well I don’t really know the answer to that question.  Some years I feel like I have preached every possible way and then there are years like this one when Ah ha, I never saw that before.  How cool is that?

With that in mind, I present to you the Transfiguration preached at least the twelfth or thirteenth way.

I think most, if not all of us, are familiar with the story of when Jesus and two of his closest disciples climbed up a high mountain peak and while they were there with Jesus, before them appeared Moses and Elijah.

Jesus of course was transfigured as his appearance changed and his clothes became a dazzling white.  Radiant was he, and I would imagine also Elijah and Moses.  Peter and John are taken aback, amazed.  In fact, they are so excited about what they have just seen, they can hardly stand it. 

For them it must have been the highlight of their lives.  Three heroes of the faith - as far as they were concerned, they had reached the top.  No wonder Peter was quick to say, as Peter often was, something that could just leave Jesus speechless.  “Master it is good that we are here, let’s set up shrines and stay and worship the three of you.  In fact let us just stay here.  We don’t want to leave”, is basically what they were saying.

Well, in this case, I believe it did.  “When it says, he did not know what to say” I fully believe they were talking about Jesus.  In fact, Elijah and Moses must have thought the same thing because all of a sudden Jesus is left all alone to deal with these two.  But not before God speaks on Jesus’ behalf.  This is my son, the beloved, listen to him.   

We don’t know what all transpired on the mountain.  It doesn’t give us much detail, only that Peter and John were so moved that they just wanted to stay.  I imagine that must be what Heaven is going to be like.  We will get there and we will just want to stay. 

Whatever did happen there on that mountain peak, I know that Peter and John must have never forgotten it as long as they lived.  Jesus knew that the experience would be something they would carry with them and talk about for the rest of their lives.  Only he did not allow them to speak about it, at least not until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

I am sure they were thinking, “Sure, fine Jesus, whatever that means”.  But that didn’t keep them from carrying it in their hearts.   In a sense the two of them had been transfigured as well.   Well maybe not so much transfigured as Transformed, even if only a little bit. 

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.  How many of you have ever been some place very special, so nice in fact that you didn’t want to leave.  But you knew you had to.  But if you could have you would have moved there.  Instead, you came back home, but you brought back a piece of it with you.  Maybe it was a picture, or a souvenir, some little memento that you could pull out and show off, but most importantly remember and relive that special moment.   In a way it transformed you, became a part of you, and in some way the experience changed you. 

I think that is what happened to Peter and John; and perhaps Jesus was not expecting the reaction, much like when we don’t expect a reaction from a friend or one of our children and they surprise us and leave us speechless.   

Peter and John went up that mountain not really knowing what to expect, they perhaps assumed that Jesus was going up to pray.  But when they came down they were different.  They had seen something that was now a part of them.  Not even Jesus could take that away.

The fourth verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic “In the beauty if the Lillies Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me”.  In a sense I believe that is what this story is all about. It is not just about Jesus, Elijah and Moses being transfigured by radiant light, but Peter and John being transfigured and transformed by the glory of Christ. 

It is the same experience of his glory that is ours and begins to transfigure and transform our hearts and minds when we truly experience Christ, whether it is on a mountain top, by the seashore, or in the workplace or on a busy road, or even in the middle of a worship service.

The important thing is that we experience his presence, his love and his transforming grace, that changes us and gives us something to take away and always keep with us.  Much more than a photograph, or a souvenir, that which he offers for us to take with us is his very own Spirit.    Today I pray that Christ glory truly becomes transfigured in you and me.