Transfigured

Matthew 17: 1-9

February 6, 2005

Pastor Currie Burris

Have you ever been to the mountaintop? Have you ever stood above the clouds and looked out for miles and miles, and seen farther and clearer than you ever had before? Two years ago, while traveling in Jordan, I journeyed to the top of Mount Nebo, just to the east of the Jordan River. Mount Nebo is where Moses stood and looked out at the Promised Land. From this mountain, I could see across into Israel and the West Bank. I could see Jericho and Jerusalem, and in the distance small signs of the city of Bethlehem. I could see the Dead Sea and traces of the Qumran community on the western shore. On the northern horizon, a faint trace of the Sea of Galilee, and far to the west, the mist of the Mediterranean Sea, I could see it all.

A few years before, Marsha and I traveled to Hawaii, and hiked on the top of Haleakala, the central dormant volcano on the island of Maui. After spending the night in the crater, we arose the first morning to see clouds spread out before us through a gap in the crater extending out for miles. We actually had slept above the clouds. Then off in the distance, about 50 miles away we saw the peak of a mountain slipping out above the clouds, Mauna Loa, the tallest mountain on the next island over, the big island of Hawaii.

But the night before, as we were preparing for sleep, I remember walking out and looking up at the stars. At fourteen thousand feet above sea level, we were high above the ground pollution. There were no competing lights from buildings or city streets. Just a crystal clear sky. And from there we saw the Milky Way, that great constellation that the earth and our sun is just a very small part of. Millions of stars spread out in an awe-inspiring swath across the whole night sky. During the day and in the light-polluted cities, the Milky Way and all the stars are always there. You just can’t see them. Here on the mountaintop, we could see what is always there, always true, millions, maybe billions of miles across the universe.

Jesus took the leaders of the disciples, Peter, James and John, up to the mountaintop. This gospel record doesn’t say which mountain it is, but tradition holds that it was Mount Hermon, a tall mountain from which they could see all of Palestine. While they were praying on the mountain, Jesus was transfigured, changed, and transformed. His face began to shine like the sun. Luke’s version of this event says his face shone like lightning. It was not reflected light, like the light from the moon or the planets, like the light that normally comes from objects as we see them. His face was emanating its own light.

The disciples were amazed, astounded, and afraid. They were seeing Jesus, as he really was, his true nature, his true identity, obscured by the ordinary life. The transfiguration is a revelation of the truth of who Jesus is: the one come from God, sign of the presence, power, glory of God.

Then, even more astoundingly, Moses and Elijah appeared with him, talking with him, sharing in the light and the glory of the moment. Jesus’ ministry was more than a first century phenomenon. He shared the long tradition of God’s action in history with the prophets, doing amazing things, promoting God’s covenant, and even sharing the rejection of the people before being vindicated by God. Together they radiate the awesome power of God to the world.

“It is good for us to be here,” says Peter. Then he volunteers to make dwelling for the three, there on the top of the mountain, tabernacles, special places to hold and house the glory of God. But before he can do anything, a voice comes from heaven. “This is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” This one comes from me. He is a part of me. He shares my life. He shares my essence. He shares my glory. He speaks for me. I love him. Listen to him. Love him.

The disciples were terrified. They fell down on their faces. Jesus then reached down. He said “Get up. Do not be afraid.” Then he touched them. They looked up and they were all alone. Moses and Elijah were gone. The voice from heaven was silent. But he touched them. And in that moment, they were changed as well. They would never look at Jesus the same again and they would never be the same again either. Jesus had been transfigured, unmasked, revealed to be the shining presence of God with them. And in the light of his face, in the gentleness of his touch, they were changed, they would never be the same again either.

Peter, James and John did not understand what they saw and experienced that day. Only after the suffering of the cross and the wonder of the resurrection did they remember this day and what they had seen. The shining glory of God, revealed to them on the mountain, became all they saw after he was risen. But they could mark their lives by the that day on the mountain—the day they saw the glory of God become flesh and blood before them. The day the Holy touched them. Christ transfigured. Peter, James and John transfigured.

Today we go with Jesus to the mountaintop. Today, he is transfigured before our eyes. Today the voice of God speaks out to us, “This is my beloved. Listen, learn, believe, and follow.” Today, he touches us. And today, we follow him down the mountain into the world. We are Christ’s followers, touched by his hand, our lives illumined by the light of his face. And like Jesus, we are transfigured, changed. We are redeemed and lifted up to be like Jesus, to love like him, to serve like him, to shine like him. Martin Luther, the great reformer once said, “Surely we are named after Christ, not because he is absent from us, but because he dwells in us, that is, because we believe in him and we are Christ to one another and do to our neighbors as Christ does to us.”

We have been touched by the glory of God and we shine in its presence. Perhaps you do not see it. Perhaps, like the pollution of lights all around us, in the clutter of life in the world, the choking of fear, the pressure of sin, the persistence of suffering, and the noise of everyday existence, we can’t see it. The glory given to us is obscured. But by the touch of his hand, the glory is real. And we are made new by it.

Henri Nouwen, the beloved teacher of the spirit, once counseled, “The first thing to realize is that you, as children of God, are redeemed, and carry the glory of God with you. In Genesis you can read: ‘God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then God breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus this human became a living being.’ (Genesis 2:7) We live because we share God’s breath, God’s glory. The question is not so much, ‘How to live for the glory of God?’ but ‘how to live who we really and truly are, how to make true our deepest self?’

“Repeat over again to yourself, ‘I am the glory of God.’ Make that thought the center of your prayer so that it slowly becomes not only a thought but also living reality. You are the place where God chose to dwell. You are the topos tou theou (God’s place) and the Christian life is nothing more or less than to allow that space to exist where God can dwell, to create the space where God’s glory can manifest itself in you.” (Nouwen, The Genesee Diary).

The power of the Transfiguration is not the walk up the mountain, it is not moving up to heaven. It is heaven come down to us—down to us in Jesus, transfigured before our eyes, down to us in the words from heaven -- “Beloved child, listen to him” -- down to us in the touch. Eternity, glory, heaven. The poet, George Herbert, wrote:

            Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,

            God’s breath in humankind, returning to its birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage.

            The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth . . .

            Reversed thunder, Christ-side-splitting-spear,

            The six days’ world transposing in an hour . . .

            Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

            Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

            Heaven in ordinary, humanity well dressed,

            The Milky Way, the Bird of Paradise

            Church bells beyond the stars heard.

-- George Herbert, Prayer (1)

High on a mountaintop the glorious light of God shines from God’s own flesh. Hand to hand, glory to glory. With a touch, we shine in the same light. Hallelujah.