Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

Sunday, February 14, 2010
Transfiguration of Our Lord

 

GOSPEL: Luke 9:28-36 [37-43a]

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32Now 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. 33Just 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. 34While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen listen to him!” 36When 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.

 

[37On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43And all were astounded at the greatness of God.]

 

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

It’s such a great story … so grand and so majestic that it appears in three of the four Gospels in our Christian Scriptures. 

The Transfiguration of Our Lord occurs in Mark, Matthew and Luke as one of the essential stories preceding the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus.  Both Luke (the writer we are reading today and this year) and Matthew (the writer we will be reading next year) take the story from Mark (the Gospel writer who preceded both of them) and changed it a bit according to their listening audiences and the point they were making to their audiences … but basically it is the same story.

And it begins the same way in each of the three Gospels, “After six days …” although Luke says “After eight days” (why? No one is sure) … but the after part, that is the same … it is after Jesus has been explaining to his followers the conditions of being a follower … that it demands sacrifice and commitment and responsibility, that it is not an easy thing.  Jesus also tells his followers about the way things are looking, that he will most likely be put to death by the occupying Romans for the things that he is teaching.

Certainly that was nothing innovative or new, governments had been putting to death prophets long before Jesus and continued to do so long after Jesus … even into our time.

Jesus was, I think, trying to make the point just how demanding the following could be.

It’s rather like the early 3^rd century priest who was martyred on this day in 269 CE.

His name was Valentine and from it comes our Valentine’s Day … something which never appears on the cards and boxes of candy which are given in his name to the ones we love.

The tradition of exchanging love notes on this day originates from the martyr himself. The legend maintains that due to a shortage of enlistments, Emperor Claudius II forbade single men to get married in an effort to bolster his struggling army. Seeing this act as a grave injustice, Valentine performed clandestine wedding rituals in defiance of the emperor. Valentine was discovered, imprisoned, and sentenced to death by beheading. While awaiting his fate in his cell, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with the daughter of a prison guard, who would come and visit him. On the day of his death, Valentine left a note for the young woman professing his undying devotion signed “Love from your Valentine.”[1]

There is a sense in which the stories surrounding the Transfiguration of Jesus, and indeed the Transfiguration itself, are stories in which Jesus is found saying to his followers (to us) “Love from your Lord.”

So it is after 6 (or 8) days of Jesus telling his followers all these things that he takes three of them (Peter, James, and John) to the top of a mountain.  And there an extraordinary thing takes place … like an echo from the past the appearance of Jesus is changed, like the appearance of Moses changed when Moses went to the top of the mountain and met with the Eternal, and, as if that were not enough to scare the three disciples, both Moses and Elijah appeared and had a conversation with Jesus.

When we read this story from Mark or Matthew, we have not a clue about what they were talking.  Luke fills in the blanks and tells us that why of course “… they were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.” 

But whatever the conversation was, the impact of the story upon the listener in the 1^st Century … upon the early Jewish followers of Jesus left after his death and resurrection and upon the later Jewish and non-Jewish followers who would in time form what we know as “the church” … the impact upon them would have been this:  here is Jesus aligned with Moses (the giver of Torah) and Elijah (the prophet everyone knew had to return again before the coming of the Mashiach (Messiah), the Christos (promised one).

And as if that were not enough, in all three Gospels, a cloud comes upon the mountain (like the cloud that came upon the mountain when Moses spoke with God), and from that mist came a voice announcing that Jesus was God’s beloved and that they (Peter, James and John in the story … and every listener of the story ever since, including us) should listen to Jesus.

And then – in each of the three Gospels – a remarkable thing happens: they leave the mountain, walk down its slopes, and find themselves in a village where a large crowd of people come up to them.  A father has brought his son who has epilepsy to the Disciples and asked that they help him and the Disciples were unable to do it.  So Jesus takes over (albeit with a bit of preaching to his followers and the listening crowd … something like “how long must I endure such things?!”) … Jesus takes over and heals the child of his seizures.

And then after that, if you read on in your Gospels Jesus talks about his future death once again, and then as if the disciples have learned nothing by what has taken place, they begin to argue among themselves as to who is the greatest … not in general, but who is the greatest of the Disciples.

Sigh …

What’s the point of the stories?  Here it is in a nutshell: Jesus is not some runaway prophet, he is the beloved one of God, in whom (as Paul had written) the presence of God was fully there; he is not disconnected from the tradition, but stands in line with Moses and Elijah … and in fact, just might be the Promised One himself complete with the blessing of Moses and Elijah and the Eternal One. 

And that following him – both before the mountaintop and after the mountaintop – means just that … following him, being like him, being merciful, showing kindness, proclaiming good news to the poor, welcoming the stranger, bringing healing to the sick and indeed to the whole earth, speaking peace into a warring world, building back up the broken community of humanity, and on and on and on …

And to do this in this time, in this place! 

You see, the Gospel is not just a storybook of tales from the past, the Gospel is a living story where what is told comes alive in the listener, and that would be us.

Meaning? 

Meaning that it is still and always will be difficult work to be like Jesus, and that one must always work in the real word healing the seizures of humanity … and one might say in our community right now, the seizures of government (can you believe the almost tax upon Tortillas … and thereby the people who eat them?!) … healing, repairing, building back up, bringing back together, making living stones out of the rocks of life.  It is where we learn and practice this “gospel life” during Lent, which begins this coming Wednesday.

But you do not have to wait until Lent begins … remaining transfigured upon the mountain of this gathering!  We do, however, have to follow Jesus … right out the door of the sanctuary and into our homes, our offices, our relationships, our city … where we perform God’s acts of mercy and love and so bring the face of Jesus to our neighbor.

When we do that, it is the Gospel.

+ Deo Gratia.  Amen.

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III, Pastor

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