Transfiguration Sunday:

                    February 18, 2007

     Joe had reached his seventieth birthday in relatively good health, but he decided to have a complete physical anyway.  After all the tests, Joe asked his doctor if he thought he could live to be a hundred.

     The doctor asked, “Do you smoke or drink alcohol?”

     “No,” the man said.  “I’ve never done either one.”

     “Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or chase the women folk,” asked the doctor?

     “No, I’ve never done any of those things either,” the man said.

     “Well then,” said the doctor, “what do you want to live to a hundred for?”

      We are not told how old Peter, James, and John were when they died, but we are given a glimpse today of what they had to live for.  We come to the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, also called Transfiguration Sunday.  The Gospel is the very familiar story of Jesus leading the three inner-circle disciples on a day-hike up a mountain.  This is prayer-time for Jesus and the others.  While Jesus is praying his appearance is changed.  The Greek word is the one in fact from which we get our word “metamorphosis.” For just a brief time Jesus is “morphed,” in the modern lingo of teenagers.  Peter, James, and John get a fleeting glimpse of glory.  This moment is provided, not for the sake of Jesus, but for them.  They would need to hang on to this memory as they moved into the post-resurrection phase of this revolutionary movement called Christianity.  So must we.

     As we participate in and strive to carry this message forward we must face the same challenges that Peter, James, and John faced.  Peter gives voice to certain temptations that each one of us faces as we struggle to live the faithful life of a “Christ-person,” a Christian.

     We may be tempted to try to imprison God.  Peter wanted to enshrine God in Christ on a mountain top.  Sometimes religious folk tend to restrict God to religious places, like a church building, a synagogue, a mosque, or a temple.  The feeling is that God can be found conveniently and comfortably there on Sunday or whatever day is most holy.   Of course, God will have none of it!  No doubt, God is present in this place, but not just in this place.  God presence has more to do with the gathering of the people for common worship than in the structure or the appointments found all around.  God is present in the world.  God is concerned for all human beings, all human needs.  Anyplace where God’s people are being treated as less than human, for whatever reason, there the church must be.

     We may be tempted to be satisfied with the past.  Moses and Elijah represent the past on the Mount of Transfiguration.  It is not that either is unimportant.  The Law of Moses remains in effect.  Jesus is the fulfillment of that law.  The prophetic voice of Elijah continues to be heard.  Jesus is the voice of that prophetic calling.  Jesus alone is unique.  In him the new order is introduced and the new order is superior to the past because it is based squarely on sacrificial love.  We, too, have a glorious past as a church, but God is marching forward, not backward.  The Christian faith must be lived out against the backdrop of a changing world.  The moral and ethical absolutes that have guided us in the past are not obsolete and meaningless, but those guiding principles must be carried into the here and now.  While God is marching through the present into the future many Christians are lagging behind.  The biblical image for proper Christian living is that of a pilgrimage.   We are not to forget the past, nor wish to shut the door on it, but to allow it to shape and inform our present as it prepares us for future living.  Peter learned that lesson on the Mount of the Transfiguration.  Faith is a verb and not a noun.  Following the footsteps of God in Christ always means we face forward.

     Finally, we may be tempted to offer people less than the Gospel.  When the cloud had disappeared, Jesus alone stood before the inner circle of followers.  For the Christian person, Christ is unique.  Moses and Elijah are not the Christ.  All are invited into a relationship with this absolute unique one.  We cannot invite people to church and then add restrictions or qualifications to the invitation.  I heard Bishop Light last Sunday afternoon, at the service in celebration for the ministry of Chris Payden-Travers, say that “God loves us just as we are; but, God loves us too much to allow us to stay just as we are.”  Whatever needs to be changed will be the work of God’s love on the human heart.

     In facing the modern society we may yearn for some golden age.  Or, we may walk too far ahead and attempt to live in some fantastic future of our own design.  Such attempts are possible, or we may live, as did Jesus, by the principle of transfiguration.  That means that instead of attempting to move from the unsatisfactory present into a golden past or future, instead of withdrawing into a timeless world of mysticism, we live by faith that transcends and transfigures the world.  That is what Jesus the Christ calls his followers to do.  That was and still is the purpose of the Transfiguration. 

     Two butterflies, colorful and majestic monarchs, sat side by side on a tree limb.  Beside them was the ruptured cocoon from which they had just emerged.  “Come fly with me,” said the one.

     “Caterpillars can’t fly,” said the other.

     “But we’re not caterpillars anymore,” said the first, flexing his new wings, stretching them till they looked like magnificently crafted stain glass windows.  “Those caterpillar days are gone forever.”

     “Don’t be silly,” said the other.  “We were born caterpillars and we will always be caterpillars.  That’s the way it is.”

     “Well, then, why did the Maker see fit to give us these wings?” said the one.

     The other butterfly thought for a moment and then replied, “I don’t know.  Some sort of cruel joke, I suppose.  He did the same thing to the ostriches, you know.”

     “Nonsense!” said the first.  “Look at all the other butterflies.  They’re flying.  What do you say to that?”

     The second butterfly looked out over the meadow and said, “They’re not flying; they’re just being blown about by the wind.  It’s stupid of them, too.  Can’t they see it’s dangerous?  Easy prey for hungry birds and, when they land, mischievous children will pull off their pretty little wings, too.  I’ll stick to crawling and climbing, that you very much.  It may be slow, but it’s safe and sure.”

     “It may be slow and safe and sure but it’s … well, unnatural.  Butterflies fly!  That’s the way the Maker made us.  That’s our role, our function, and our destiny.  We are to dance on the wings of the air, to play tag with dandelion seeds, to soar, to dart, to float, to light on a single blade of grass to the delight of all who see, to inspire awe and wonder, to fascinate, to add a note of grace to this world’s dreary song.”

     We have access to power that helps us overcome those temptations to try and imprison God, to live in the past, and to offer something less than the Gospel of God in Christ.  We have the power to resist such temptations if we, too, look up and see Jesus alone.  Amen.