Lent is coming. But before we get too Lent, which begins this coming Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we have today. Sometimes we refer to it as Transfiguration of Our Lord Sunday. Or in the Orthodox Church, it is known as Meatfare Sunday, since it is traditionally the last day before Easter for eating meat. Orthodox Christians observe a fast from meat all week, but still eat dairy products and eggs till the start of Lent. Churches celebrate Shrove Tuesday where we stop eating leaven for Lent and celebrate with pancake suppers where we eat a lot of leaven. Mardi Gras/ Fat Tuesday is celebrated, where fat and rich foods are eaten before the ritual of Lenten sacrifices and fasting begins.
Today is significant because it brings to an end the first major portion of the church year. The Incarnation of Our Lord and Transfiguration of Our Lord stand at book-ends at the beginning and ending of the Christmas and Epiphany seasons.
These two days or festivals are important and complement each other because it is in the Incarnation that God became man and dwelt among us — the divine joins the human condition. And on today Transfiguration Sunday, earthly Jesus shares the company of two great heavenly residents, Moses and Elijah, and we are told Jesus’ face changed and his clothes became dazzling — we see earthly Jesus partaking of the divine.
It is a strange accounting in Luke. We have Peter, James, and John who are amazed at what they see. Jesus had been speaking to them of his forthcoming suffering and death but now they witness their Jesus glorified and so they decide they want to camp out with him — stay where they are. Build a tent. Make three dwellings — let us stay here together, Peter says. This seems nice and comfortable. One for us, and one for Moses and Elijah who are there.
Moses and Elijah are present, our great forefathers, how glorious! We can build them a dwelling too and they can stay with us!
Peter did not know what Moses and Elijah, these two men who had their own intimate and glorious experiences with God, were talking with Jesus about, he only saw that Jesus transformed as he was talking with them he saw Jesus’ glory though he was “weighed down with sleep”.
In the Exodus passage today, as Moses came down from Sinai, his face shown we are told because he too had been talking with God. The Gospel text tells us that Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus of Jesus’ forthcoming “exodus” or “departure,” his forthcoming death and resurrection, which Jesus had spoken of before going up the mountain (9:22) before this experience recounted today.
There is a cloud and a voice that came from the cloud. “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him.”
God speaks of Jesus as his Chosen One, and Jesus has accepted his role. The disciples of Jesus are to listen to him. What he has said about himself and what is to happen is God’s will. He had told his disciples of his suffering and death and what was to come, but that was hard to hear. What they were seeing and witnessing with Moses and Elijah, well that seems better. Easier. Let’s just stay here. Build a dwelling.
Then comes the second part of the Gospel reading today which doesn’t quite seem to fit with the first part. Many have questioned why this part is included with the transfiguration passage in the lectionary here. Many have argued just to preach on the transfiguration part. But the next part is important to our teaching. This is what is not to be missed.
Jesus went up to the mountain to pray with his disciples. He went to retreat. To worship and pray. But what Jesus teaches about discipleship and has taught his disciples about worship and discipleship up to this point is also to be heeded.
All of Jesus’ teachings about love for God and for our fellow human beings are to be observed.
Which is why this next scene is so important. Because the retreat to worship, to be immersed in the cross, and be gathered in prayer, leads inevitably to a return to the “everyday world” of human need where Jesus heals the sick and opposes the forces of evil. If worship is a retreat, in other words, it is not a retreat from the world but a retreat in order to come back to the world in love, mercy and grace.
A man comes and brings his son. His only child. Reflecting in the passage above how Jesus was God’s only child.
He begs Jesus to look at his son. He is a desperate man. This boy is in psychological and social chains; the demons have taken hold of his life. The man goes on to say how he had begged the disciples to cast it out but they could not.
Jesus has little patience with the disciples’ lack of power, their lack of understanding, their attempting to figure out who he is and what message he has to offer. Thus, Jesus’ indictment of the faith of the disciples “‘You faithless and perverse generation,” sounds true to us today as it did to the disciples of Jesus then.
Our world is struggling. The poor, the hungry, the homeless and those soon to be. Our economy is struggling, the world is watching and tense as what seems to be another senseless conflict over power and space and land where people will die.
Immigrants have no home, people flee their homelands from starvation and lack of work — people here work 2-3 jobs to make a wage to feed their family. They are all like they boy convulsing day and night in front of us.
And what do we as the church do sometimes? We act like Peter who wants to dwell and build our own worship tabernacles, away from the people and their pressing needs. Must we really deal with all of it?
This passage I believe is included in with the Transfiguration passage to remind us that we are not called to sit in our nice worship spaces but we are called to be out in the world — rebuking unclean spirits around us and the powers of the world and to be shedding light into the lives of our community and our world.
Transfiguration speaks to a transformation that happened in front of them. We too, as we follow Christ, need to be transformed. Some days our faces should shine with this radiance.
This transformation should not lead us to want to stay up on the holy hill. The transformation should lead us out into the world to heal the hurting and the sick.
And when the hurting and the sick are healed — “all were astounded at the greatness of God.” Our acts in the world will lead others to see the greatness of God.
The passage began that they, “went up on the mountain to pray”. In Exodus Moses when up on the mountain to talk to God. Moments of reflection, immersion, companionship and prayer are essential to embracing our callings in the world to respond to the needs around us. Praying and being set apart are what give us a renewed energy, confidence and ability to go out into the world and do the things God has called us to.
Sundays used to be important. An important and essential part of your week, to bring your family to church, to either rest and regroup from the week that was, or to recenter and prepare for the week to come. To spend time with God in worship and community and grow together as community.
Many often tell me, the priest, “I am spiritual but not religious.” I have my own form of spirituality and worship. While that may be true, we are not meant to only spend time with God alone and then remain alone, separate, apart from others. The church is about community. We spend this time alone in order that we can go back in the world. We come to worship in order to go back into the world. Our worship service is designed this way.
Part of our dismissal each Sunday says “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”. Or “Let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.”
Our liturgy far from arbitrary or meaningless is meant to reflect our theology, our understanding of things and how God works in us and in the world.
We come to worship together and then we are fortified from our time together and with the Lord, to go back out into the world.
People come and stay away from church for a variety of reasons. I want to encourage us all to move into a theological understanding of worship and why we come. It is not to be seen. To enjoy some music. To see some friends. All of this is true. But we come to be transformed as a people. To grow together. To worship our Lord. To go back out into the world. A place to hear God’s voice, focus on the nature of grace as we experience it on the cross, meet each other in prayer and song and leave with a renewed purpose and meaning to our lives.
The Transfiguration of Our Lord is a day that gives us a glimpse of the coming future glory of Christ on Easter.
But it also reminds us that the way to Easter is through the cross. A few verses later, at 9:51, Luke writes that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem,” where all that has been spoken of will take place for him. Let us set our faces toward Jerusalem too. Lent begins Wednesday.
Amen.
Today is significant because it brings to an end the first major portion of the church year. The Incarnation of Our Lord and Transfiguration of Our Lord stand at book-ends at the beginning and ending of the Christmas and Epiphany seasons.
These two days or festivals are important and complement each other because it is in the Incarnation that God became man and dwelt among us — the divine joins the human condition. And on today Transfiguration Sunday, earthly Jesus shares the company of two great heavenly residents, Moses and Elijah, and we are told Jesus’ face changed and his clothes became dazzling — we see earthly Jesus partaking of the divine.
It is a strange accounting in Luke. We have Peter, James, and John who are amazed at what they see. Jesus had been speaking to them of his forthcoming suffering and death but now they witness their Jesus glorified and so they decide they want to camp out with him — stay where they are. Build a tent. Make three dwellings — let us stay here together, Peter says. This seems nice and comfortable. One for us, and one for Moses and Elijah who are there.
Moses and Elijah are present, our great forefathers, how glorious! We can build them a dwelling too and they can stay with us!
Peter did not know what Moses and Elijah, these two men who had their own intimate and glorious experiences with God, were talking with Jesus about, he only saw that Jesus transformed as he was talking with them he saw Jesus’ glory though he was “weighed down with sleep”.
In the Exodus passage today, as Moses came down from Sinai, his face shown we are told because he too had been talking with God. The Gospel text tells us that Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus of Jesus’ forthcoming “exodus” or “departure,” his forthcoming death and resurrection, which Jesus had spoken of before going up the mountain (9:22) before this experience recounted today.
There is a cloud and a voice that came from the cloud. “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him.”
God speaks of Jesus as his Chosen One, and Jesus has accepted his role. The disciples of Jesus are to listen to him. What he has said about himself and what is to happen is God’s will. He had told his disciples of his suffering and death and what was to come, but that was hard to hear. What they were seeing and witnessing with Moses and Elijah, well that seems better. Easier. Let’s just stay here. Build a dwelling.
Then comes the second part of the Gospel reading today which doesn’t quite seem to fit with the first part. Many have questioned why this part is included with the transfiguration passage in the lectionary here. Many have argued just to preach on the transfiguration part. But the next part is important to our teaching. This is what is not to be missed.
Jesus went up to the mountain to pray with his disciples. He went to retreat. To worship and pray. But what Jesus teaches about discipleship and has taught his disciples about worship and discipleship up to this point is also to be heeded.
All of Jesus’ teachings about love for God and for our fellow human beings are to be observed.
Which is why this next scene is so important. Because the retreat to worship, to be immersed in the cross, and be gathered in prayer, leads inevitably to a return to the “everyday world” of human need where Jesus heals the sick and opposes the forces of evil. If worship is a retreat, in other words, it is not a retreat from the world but a retreat in order to come back to the world in love, mercy and grace.
A man comes and brings his son. His only child. Reflecting in the passage above how Jesus was God’s only child.
He begs Jesus to look at his son. He is a desperate man. This boy is in psychological and social chains; the demons have taken hold of his life. The man goes on to say how he had begged the disciples to cast it out but they could not.
Jesus has little patience with the disciples’ lack of power, their lack of understanding, their attempting to figure out who he is and what message he has to offer. Thus, Jesus’ indictment of the faith of the disciples “‘You faithless and perverse generation,” sounds true to us today as it did to the disciples of Jesus then.
Our world is struggling. The poor, the hungry, the homeless and those soon to be. Our economy is struggling, the world is watching and tense as what seems to be another senseless conflict over power and space and land where people will die.
Immigrants have no home, people flee their homelands from starvation and lack of work — people here work 2-3 jobs to make a wage to feed their family. They are all like they boy convulsing day and night in front of us.
And what do we as the church do sometimes? We act like Peter who wants to dwell and build our own worship tabernacles, away from the people and their pressing needs. Must we really deal with all of it?
This passage I believe is included in with the Transfiguration passage to remind us that we are not called to sit in our nice worship spaces but we are called to be out in the world — rebuking unclean spirits around us and the powers of the world and to be shedding light into the lives of our community and our world.
Transfiguration speaks to a transformation that happened in front of them. We too, as we follow Christ, need to be transformed. Some days our faces should shine with this radiance.
This transformation should not lead us to want to stay up on the holy hill. The transformation should lead us out into the world to heal the hurting and the sick.
And when the hurting and the sick are healed — “all were astounded at the greatness of God.” Our acts in the world will lead others to see the greatness of God.
The passage began that they, “went up on the mountain to pray”. In Exodus Moses when up on the mountain to talk to God. Moments of reflection, immersion, companionship and prayer are essential to embracing our callings in the world to respond to the needs around us. Praying and being set apart are what give us a renewed energy, confidence and ability to go out into the world and do the things God has called us to.
Sundays used to be important. An important and essential part of your week, to bring your family to church, to either rest and regroup from the week that was, or to recenter and prepare for the week to come. To spend time with God in worship and community and grow together as community.
Many often tell me, the priest, “I am spiritual but not religious.” I have my own form of spirituality and worship. While that may be true, we are not meant to only spend time with God alone and then remain alone, separate, apart from others. The church is about community. We spend this time alone in order that we can go back in the world. We come to worship in order to go back into the world. Our worship service is designed this way.
Part of our dismissal each Sunday says “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”. Or “Let us go forth into the world rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.”
Our liturgy far from arbitrary or meaningless is meant to reflect our theology, our understanding of things and how God works in us and in the world.
We come to worship together and then we are fortified from our time together and with the Lord, to go back out into the world.
People come and stay away from church for a variety of reasons. I want to encourage us all to move into a theological understanding of worship and why we come. It is not to be seen. To enjoy some music. To see some friends. All of this is true. But we come to be transformed as a people. To grow together. To worship our Lord. To go back out into the world. A place to hear God’s voice, focus on the nature of grace as we experience it on the cross, meet each other in prayer and song and leave with a renewed purpose and meaning to our lives.
The Transfiguration of Our Lord is a day that gives us a glimpse of the coming future glory of Christ on Easter.
But it also reminds us that the way to Easter is through the cross. A few verses later, at 9:51, Luke writes that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem,” where all that has been spoken of will take place for him. Let us set our faces toward Jerusalem too. Lent begins Wednesday.
Amen.