Six days after Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
Yet the Transfiguration was not a magic trick – it was a revealing of Jesus in all his glory. The light that the apostles witnessed was not a light from above, but was instead the glory of God radiating outward from within Jesus.. it showed him as he truly is and it showed him as we will one day not only see him.. but see ourselves when we are restored to our Father.. As Jesus says, “Behold, I make all things new” and this is what we will be when we are made new in Christ.
The only trouble with this is.. that is then.. and this is now. Then we radiate the glory of God, but now.. now we have six loads of dirty laundry in the basement that have got to be washed, including that nasty pair of socks that someone – and you know who you are – that someone could not be bothered with turning right side out before they through them in the dirty clothes hamper – my goodness.. you know what I’m talking about…. There is the Transfigured Lord.. there we will one day be.. and there lays piles and piles of dirty laundry!... How can the two possibly be reconciled in this life?! We ask that question as though we are the first to encounter such a predicament, but as it turns out.. that’s the way of history.
Take for example those two men who were seen with Jesus on the mountaintop… Moses and Elijah. Moses was the great savior of the people from Egypt and the one who presented God’s law to the people. Moses went up on the mountain and witnessed the glory of the Lord. He saw Him in the burning bush.. He saw God in the cloud… The glory of the Lord passed before Moses as he stood protected in a crevice in the mountain. Moses comes off the mountain, he is glowing with glory of the Lord. God has given him the ten commandments written on two stone tablets by God’s own hand… and what does Moses encounter when he gets down off the mountain? The people have made a golden calf and they are all dancing the hoochy coochy around it.. He is literally radiating with the Glory of God.. and yet he’s surrounded by piles and piles of dirty laundry.
The prophet Elijah.. he was in fear for his life. The people were trying to kill him… The Lord said to him.. “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”.. Scripture then says… Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave… Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”… Elijah climbed the mountain and encountered God in the still small voice… he came down off the mountain and found himself back in the laundry room.
The same occurred with Jesus.. he was transfigured and as soon as he came down off the mountain there were people calling to him for help… the apostles who had witnessed the Transfiguration.. when they came off the mountain would not be floating through life on angel wings… No.. in just a few short weeks they would witness the Transfigured Christ being arrested, beaten, and crucified. There is the mountain, the transfiguration of the Lord, the glory of the Lord all around.. and no sooner than you think you have found the answer.. finally gotten it right.. then you crash back down again to what we so simply refer to as the “real world.”
.. However.. even in the midst of that “real world,” you will never be the same, because in the Transfiguration you have seen what will be. This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. was referring to in his famous speech. He declared, “… I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know … that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy… I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
We have a tendency to say, “When I get all this laundry done, then I will be with God … I’ll stop and pray when the “real world” just isn’t so dang real... but the Lord would have us understand that what we witness on the mountain is not something that we leave.. up there. Instead, we bring it with us… we cherish it.. we allow the light of that one transfigured moment to penetrate every aspect of our lives… Not just as a dream of things to come, but a promise for today.
Remember that quote from last week I shared with you.. no, not the scary one.. but the one from the theologian John Brodie? He wrote, “Oneness with ultimate reality [with God] is not an abstract idea; it is a spiritual experience of knowing that the timeless God is at the door inviting your to full union. It is an attentiveness to the present, a readiness, at every moment, to receive reality, to enjoy deeply even the simplest things. In the words of the poet Paul Murray: ‘This moment, the grace of this one raptureless moment [the grace of this one joyfully ecstatic moment].’”… well it applies to many areas of our life… Last week we were dealing with worry, we understood it to mean.. you can’t change yesterday and you can’t change tomorrow – you are here…. Well the same idea applies to living in this immediate presence of God…. You are going to have to do laundry – everything from having to turn those nasty socks right side out to dealing with all the other things.. good and bad.. that life has to throw at you.
… but again.. as last week.. there is that confidence in knowing that God is here. Remember: He has written your name on the palms of his hands. Blessed Bonaventure instructs us wonderfully… he says, “In the midst of our employments – in the midst of our daily lives – we ought to have God present to our minds, in imitation of the holy Angels who when they are sent to attend on us.. [quiet] themselves of the function of this exterior ministry as never to be drawn from their interior attention to God.”.. They don’t allow those things outside of themselves draw them from the glory of God that is within. --- Here is a challenge for you: The next time you have some menial boring task to attend to, perform it well, but do so with the glory of the Transfigured Lord in your heart.. and see what a difference it makes.
The Transfiguration is a glimpse.. it is a sacred snapshot of what is to come and it reminds us that whether we are on the mountain with God or in the laundry room with piles of dirty laundry.. God is with us… and as we say to our God at Evening Prayer in that most ancient of all hymns the Phos hilaron: “O Gracious Light”.. we declare.. “You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of life, and to be glorified through all the worlds.” … at all times… not just when we are in church for an hour on Sunday.. or when it is convenient.. or when we are in the right mood.. but at all times. At all times we can know the glory of the Transfigured Lord.
Let us pray. Holy God, mighty and immortal, you are beyond our knowing, yet we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ, whose compassion illumines the world. Transform us into the likeness of the love of Christ, who renewed our humanity so that we may share in his divinity, the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who live and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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