A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the Feast of the Transfiguration are here.
Most of you know that Jim and I met going on a medical mission trip to Guatemala and that our first impressions of each other weren’t exactly favorable – he thought I was bossy and I thought he was curmudgeonly. My view of him began to change as I watched the tenderness with which he approached the patients. He was so gentle and compassionate with them. He’d often be gruff with the members of the team – his expectations of the care we gave the people who came to the clinic was very high, and rightfully so – but in the evenings when the team would be debriefing our day, Jim was always ready with compassionate and encouraging words. Who Jim was didn’t change but the way I saw him changed. His smile was brighter to me, his eyes more sparkly.
Today is officially known in the church calendar as the Feast of the Transfiguration and we read the story of the time Jesus and three of his disciples went up a mountain to pray and while they were praying, we are told, the appearance of Jesus’ face changed. By definition, the word transfiguration means “a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state” and would indicate that Jesus changed into something he wasn’t before. But we also believe that God is changeless and that Jesus is fully God and fully human. So, at the risk of speaking against hundreds of years of biblical tradition, perhaps a better description of this event is “the big reveal” since using ‘revelation’ might confuse some with the Revelation of John. He may look different, face all glowing and clothes beyond bright, but Jesus isn’t changed.
Jesus is the same since before creation, included in the plural pronoun when God says ‘let us make humans in our own image.” Who Jesus is is a constant, even as he was born and grew into an adult. Even after his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into the Kingdom, he IS. He was and is and always will be. What is changed in this miraculous moment is the way Peter, James, and John are able to see him. What is revealed in the sight of the disciples is the clarity and truth of who Jesus is! He doesn’t become someone new but for the first time they can see the radiance and glory of God in the person of Jesus.
In this revelation story we are given a glimpse into the Kingdom that Jesus teaches us to pray for and to live in as if it were already here. We are created to be God’s people of God’s Kingdom. And when we see with clarity and truth who Jesus is, the radiance and glory of God shines through us as a beacon to everyone that God’s way of love is The Way we are created for.
This revelation is how we are delivered, as we prayed for earlier, from the disquietude of this world. We live in disquietude when we try to live any way other than as God’s beloved children. The revelation of who Jesus is and who and Whose we are makes us free to be who we truly are at the core of our being: beloved children created in love, for love, to love, living from the image of the loving God shining in each of us.
As we come to see ourselves and each other as we truly are – for most of us this is a lifelong journey as we follow Jesus – we are freed from the unrealistic expectations of ourselves and others, freed from having to fix the world, freed from having to fix ourselves or anyone else. We are free to see the image of God in everyone because we aren’t blinded or distracted by the world’s labels of beauty or power. But even with being direct witnesses of this miraculous moment, Peter, James, and John still had moments of doubt and confusion about who they were and what it is Jesus came to do. None of us are going to get it right all the time and so we must remember that God doesn’t judge us as harshly as we judge ourselves and each other. We must be compassionate with ourselves and each other as we walk this journey with God’s help, trusting that God loves us unconditionally.
When Moses went up the mountain to speak with God, God revealed his presence in a great cloud shrouding the mountain. The people thought that to be in God’s presence meant death. But, that was not at all God’s intention – God walked freely with Adam and Eve in the Garden. But once they chose to decide for themselves what was good and what was evil, God’s presence became difficult – the conflict between God and their will caused them too much shame. To be in God’s presence means we must let go of the masks we create in order to please or impress this world. Being in God’s presence means we are free to claim who and Whose we are – beloved children of God. Being in God’s presence means the death of our ideas of who God should be as well as the idea that we can be anyone but who God created us to be. God knows us without the masks, the veils, the world insists we wear.
Life without our self-created masks can make us nervous, anxious, and vulnerable; we’ve spent a life-time creating them to protect us from harm in this world. And we often project these fears onto God instead of giving them to God to take from us. Deepening our awareness of God in and around us and others doesn’t put us in danger, it frees us.
The more time we spend being intentionally aware of God’s presence with us in our every day, not-on-a-spiritual-mountain-top, typical, regular, even mundane and boring days, the more we are transfigured – the fashion of our countenance changes as our soul, the beautiful reflection of God in each of us, is revealed to those around us.
Following Jesus isn’t about preserving a moment in time, as Peter wanted to do, but a life long journey of continuously being formed as beloved children through our prayers, our worship, our study, and our fellowship. Following Jesus is about doing life together on earth as in heaven and even when we think we know someone looking for the light of God’s image in others. When we see Jesus for who he is and our view of ourselves and all of those around us will change.
Together we do the work of growing in relationship with God, each other, and ourselves. Together we listen as God says “you are my beloved.” Together in love we reveal the light of God to those who don’t yet know who and Whose they are. When you see God’s light shining in others, tell them. Be willing to let God’s light shine from your true self. Amen.
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