Transfiguration: God's Transparent Presence

Luke 9:28-36 (NRSV)

About eight days after Jesus had foretold his death and resurrection, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"--not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

A little bit of background about today's Holy Day comes from James Kiefer.

 Today we celebrate the occasion (recorded in Matthew 17:1-8 = Mark 9:2-8 = Luke 9:28-36) on which Christ, as He was beginning to teach His disciples that He must die and rise again, revealed Himself in shining splendor to Peter, James, and John. Moses and Elijah were present, and are taken to signify that the Law and the Prophets testify that Jesus is the promised Messiah. God the Father also proclaimed him as such, saying, "This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him." For a moment the veil is drawn aside, and men still on earth are permitted a glimpse of the heavenly reality, the glory of the Eternal Triune God.

In the East, the Festival of the Transfiguration has been celebrated since the late fourth century, and is one of the twelve great festivals of the East Orthodox calendar. In the West it was observed after the ninth century by some monastic orders, and in 1457 Pope Callistus III ordered its general observance. At the time of the Reformation, it was still felt in some countries to be a "recent innovation," and so was not immediately taken over into most Reformation calendars, but is now found on most calendars that have been revised in the twentieth century. A recent tendency in the West is to commemorate the Transfiguration on the Sunday just before Lent, in accordance with the pattern found in the Synoptics, where Jesus is represented as beginning to speak of his forthcoming death just about the time of the Transfiguration, so that it forms a fitting transition between the Epiphany season, in which Christ makes himself known, and the Lenten season, in which he prepares the disciples for what lies ahead. Whether observing the Transfiguration then will affect the observation of it on 6 August remains to be seen.

In the meditation for the Transfiguration Forward Day by Day shares the following:

Like Peter, James, and John, we too have our “mountain-top moments,” and the glory of them often stays with us to sustain us when the going gets rough. For some it may be church-related, the memory of their first communion, the breathless hush of the early-morning stillness broken only by the warm, wonderful words of worship. For others it may be some spectacle of nature, perhaps a summer sunset, or the snow-capped Tetons, perfectly reflected in the mirror of Jackson Lake. For still others it may be the moment they first understood, with a flash of almost divine intuition, the meaning of love. So we garden-variety mortals are given our lesser transfigurations, those glimpses of unearthly beauty when we know with a certainty beyond all argument that we stand in the presence of something infinitely greater than ourselves.

Like the apostles, we also must descend again into the valley of dull, daily routine, the valley of decision where choices must be made and their results lived with, even the valley of the shadow of death.

Jesus came down from the mountain with the apostles, and he walks in the valley with us. (1978).

As I meditate upon the Transfiguration I have my many thoughts that I want to share.  The Transfiguration takes place according to Scripture at a time when Jesus is telling his followers about his upcoming death and resurrection.  As human beings it is difficult for us to believe things just by being told.  Most of us are doubting Thomas' in one way or another.  We need to see evidence to believe in certain things.  If we do not have exacting evidence then we need something that symbolizes some thing we can relate to.  However, the Transfiguration is an experience only a few are able to imagine.  How God becomes one like us and reveals God's Self in the revelation of Jesus and then transfigures God's appearance before three of the disciples, that is something we cannot exactly comprehend or relate to.  We do, however,  relate to a story if it has been repeated enough times.  The story of the Transfiguration has been shared with us in all three synoptic Gospels.  The narrative has been written and read in three different accounts.  When stories are told more than once and in them we can find something we can relate to, the stories become part of our history and eventually part of our own lives.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people make our way towards equality when we share our stories.  Our stories of coming out, the pain we have endured, the disappointments, the family issues, our relationships and how we are succeeding.  The more we tell our stories, the more transparent the reality of being LGBTQ  becomes part of our culture.  In the Transfiguration the presence of God in Jesus became transparent as the history of God's salvation suddenly became the here and now for Peter, James and John.  Peter, James and John had a mountain top experience with Jesus, and it was there that they found themselves experiencing the transparent presence of God.  The transparent presence of God was not only present there during that mountain top experience, but it also became very clear that God's presence is transparent where ever we happen to be, what ever we happen to be doing.  God's presence is even more transparent when our lives tell the stories of how God has been working in our lives.  

This past Wednesday's decision to overturn Prop 8 by Judge Walker is a moment in which we saw God's presence transparent in the lives of two couples who decided that an election to take away their marriage equality rights just would not do.  They put forth their love and the aspirations not only for themselves, but for all lesbian and gay couples who want to share in the joys as well as the sorrows of the institution of marriage.  The couples that put forth the law suit may not have been Christian.  They may very well have been atheists.   However, we do not have to be Christian or even devout for God to use us to do extra ordinary things.  Peter, James and John used to be fisherman, who just worked and tried to bring home a good meal for their family.  Yet God used them to do extraordinary things.  In the Transfiguration, God made God's Self and God's plan of salvation known to these three men. They did not understand it, nor did they really grasp what that experience even meant.  All they knew, is something awesome happened, a voice was heard saying listen to God's Son, and they were told not to say anything about it until after Jesus was raised from the dead.  Nevertheless, their experience of God's transparent presence made it's impact on them and now those of us who still hear their stories today.   So it is with the stories of Stonewall, Harvey Milk, and those first people who died of AIDS, and all of those brave women and men who said the status quo of discrimination in marriage just will not do.  When people step forward to share their stories and make them transparent in other people's minds and hearts, tremendous life-changing experiences will and do happen.   The Prop 8 decision this week is just such an example.

How are we making God's presence transparent in our lives?  What are our mountain top experiences with God?  Is it in prayer with the Book of Common Prayer, or practicing Buddhist like spirituality's such as taking a long walk or even walking a Labyrinth?   Do we seek God's presence in the ordinary times of our lives as well as those extraordinary moments?  How can we turn an ordinary moment and make God's presence transparent so that it seems like an extraordinary event?

God is with us through all of the experiences of our lives, from our mountain top experiences, to those low valleys when we are not so sure where it is we are going.  If we allow God's transparent presence to be part of our experience, even the most mundane, ordinary task can seem like a mountain top that we just never left.

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Transfiguration, Book of Common Prayer, Page 243).

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, Page 833).