sermon march 6

Exodus 24:12-18 p61/92 childrens’ bible
12The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14To the elders Moses had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 15Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. This is the word of the Lord….thanks be to God

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. It is a weird sort of Sunday. We rarely—if ever—use the word “transfiguration” in regular conversation, and this day appears at the tail end of Epiphany and just before Lent. On this day we hear the story about Jesus up on the mountain, and the cloud of glory, and the people who show up there. A strange story, that, frankly, we don’t really know what to do with.

But that’s the way it seems when God shows up. We don’t have words, we don’t have ideas, we babble foolishly like Peter. We say things like “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I heard Gods voice, plain as day, when I was driving home the other night” or “I’ve never told anyone this, but when I was out on the water, I had something like a dream” or we say “The Lord has put this on my heart, and I don’t know why….”, or we say things like “I don’t know why, I just keeping thinking about this” but what we really mean is we are beginning to see what the Lord God is calling us to do…….

Listen, now, for the transfiguring word of the Lord……


Matthew 17:1-9 p. 798/1132
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

This story appears every year in our cycle of readings, and in the Gospel of Matthew, it is decidedly strange—or at least, otherworldly. For the Gospel according to Matthew is concerned, a lot, about behavior. How are we to behave, as the people of God? What does a life of gratitude and obedience look like? And yet, in this passage, we don’t really see any behavioral guidelines. We see Peter proposing to go camping, apparently, with Jesus and Elijah and Moses, of all people, and then we see the disciples falling down in fear, and then Jesus, walking down the mountain with the disciples, telling them not to say anything to anyone—as if they could! As if they could find words to explain what had happened there, on top of Old Smoky—“Tell no one about the vision until after—after—the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” So now they have not only the burden of not telling what happened, but also in wondering and worrying about what that could possibly mean—AFTER the Son of Man is raised from the dead.
In a little while, we will receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper—communion. We will be joined to Christ, who is the one who calls us to this table. We will be here, in our pews, eating bread and drinking grape juice that was made by people we know and love. Many of us, perhaps, envy Peter and the disciples: At least, I do. I think: Oh, if only I could have been on that mountaintop that day! Oh, if only God would speak so clearly to me! And nearly all of us have heard someone’s testimony, that they saw the face of God, or that they had a miraculous experience of the divine—while hiking, or on the water, or at camp. And those of us who don’t have that, who are not sure we have ever had that, feel left out and little lonely. John Calvin wrote, however, that in the Lord’s Supper, by the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are lifted up—to the very presence of Jesus, that we are joined to Christ--that in this feast we experience a foretaste of the banquet in the Kingdom of God. Here. In our ordinary lives, in our ordinary pews.
Remember, earlier in Matthew, Jesus has told the crowds “the kingdom of heaven has come near…” On that mountaintop, the kingdom of heaven had come near—in fire and cloud, in glory and voice.….and it nearly knocked over Peter and John and James with fright. It was Jesus who reassured them, Jesus who put his hand on them, Jesus who said to them “Be raised up and do not fear”. When all is over -- when Moses and Elijah are gone, the voice is quiet, Jesus' face and clothing have returned to normal, and the disciples are left in holy awe -- all that is left is Jesus. Whatever all these signs and symbols may have meant, the disciples are once again with their Lord, their teacher, their friend. Jesus, the one whose clothes and face shone like the sun, the one equal to Moses and Elijah, the one whom the very heavens proclaim as God's own beloved Son, will not leave them. He is the one who accompanies them down the mountain, into the valleys and storms and potholes and daily life.
In the Exodus story, Moses is commanded “to go up”. In the Transfiguration story, we are told, Jesus “led them up”, that is, Peter and James and John. But what is striking is that in each story, the word used is related to offering up a sacrifice. In the communion prayer, we say “we offer our very selves to you, to be a living and holy sacrifice….” We are offering up who we are, and all that we are—and are not. Perhaps this is what transfiguring means. Perhaps this is what listening to the voice of God means: that we see ourselves, our lives, in a new way- a way of offering to God our very own ordinary selves.
The Apostle Paul says, "All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18).
God comes to us here, in ordinary things- in water, and in prayer that is breath. In community, together. In bread, and grape juice, at a table set by human hands, but a table at which God in Christ comes, and lifts us up, and feeds us. We are being transformed. So we offer ourselves up, and are lifted up.
Amen.