Looking back, looking forward, resting where we are
Commentary
Today’s story of the Transfiguration, heard each year on the Last Sunday of Epiphany, invites deep reflection on the nature of our life with God. We may wish to look back to the original Epiphany story of the magi and consider how God gives us companions for our journeys. We may wish to look forward to the season of Lent and the demons that await us, as they did Jesus and the disciples, when we come down the mountain. Or we may simply wish to linger a moment and celebrate the glory of God, as it appeared to Moses, Paul, and the disciples in our readings today, and as it appears in our own lives of faith.
Exodus 34:29-35
Today in the gospel we hear the story of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountaintop, and we are reminded in our reading from Exodus that this was not the first mountaintop transfiguration among the Hebrew people. Moses too was literally transfigured, i.e., the appearance of his face changed, after his encounters with the Lord on the mountaintop. Today’s reading marks Moses’ second descent from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the covenant -- he is returning with replacements for the tablets he broke when he first came down from the mountain and discovered the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. He has been gone another forty days and forty nights as he has met with the Lord and received the new tablets (Exodus 34:28).
In bearing a radiant countenance after his encounter with the divine, Moses appears to the Israelites as if he too has become divine, and they are afraid. Moses veils his face to shield the people from his glory. This is in keeping with the shielding of the divine radiance or glory that occurs throughout Exodus, where a cloud shields the people from the full light of the Lord’s presence as he guides them in the wilderness and as the Lord appears on the mountaintop shielded by a cloud (see Exodus 24:17-18, for example). Moses’ veiling of his face is also congruent with the Lord’s directions for creating a curtain, or veil, to screen the holy of holies -- the resting place of the ark of the covenant (Exodus 26:31-34). The power of the divine glory is so great that, at that time, ordinary people cannot see it and live.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
Paul’s relationship with the church in Corinth was not a simple one. Corinth was a cosmopolitan port city, home and host to people of a diversity of cultures and religions, all of which made keeping the church in Corinth unified and at peace an ongoing challenge. Paul was but one of a number of Christian teachers who visited Corinth, and the variations in teaching and message the Corinthians received left Paul in regular need of defending his personal integrity and his teachings. Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians was composed after some painful encounters and missives between Paul and the Corinthian church. In today’s reading, Paul offers a stark contrast between the old covenant of the Mosaic law, which brings death, and the new covenant of the Spirit, which brings life and glory (2 Corinthians 3:6-8). Today’s reading makes much of the image of veiling and unveiling, drawing from the passage in Exodus that we read today. In using this image, Paul not only contrasts the old and new covenants, but defends himself against charges that his teaching is veiled or obscure to some listeners (2 Corinthians 3:3-4). Paul urges his hearers to directly encounter the glory of God revealed through the Spirit, and by seeing it, to be transformed into its likeness.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)
The story of the Transfiguration marks a turning point in Jesus’ story. From this place, we look both forward and back in time. Looking forward, we find parallels between Jesus’ venturing to a secluded high place to pray with his disciples, as he did when he retreated to the Mount of Olives to pray before he was arrested on the night before his death. The Transfiguration happens soon after Jesus begins teaching his disciples that he is to die (Luke 9:21-27), and as they were on the night before Jesus’ death, the disciples were weighed down with sleep (Luke 9:32). It may be that the Transfiguration was a vision that occurred when the disciples awoke in the night, amplifying Jesus’ teaching about his upcoming passion and giving the disciples strength for the trials to come.
Looking back, the Transfiguration draws on many teachings out of the Hebrew scriptures. Both Moses and Elijah encountered God on the mountaintop, and prophecies foretold that they would return to herald the final judgment (Deuteronomy 18:14; Malachi 4:5). Together, Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets -- all of the tradition and teaching of the Jewish people. The cloud that overshadows the mountain in verse 34 carries clear echoes of the cloud that overshadowed Mt. Sinai in Exodus, and the voice in verse 35 repeats the words from heaven at Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:22), which in turn echo the words of Isaiah (42:1) about God’s chosen servant. Jesus’ presence with Moses and Elijah would also have affirmed Jesus’ distinct identity. When Peter proclaims Jesus as the messiah in Luke 9:20, the disciples note speculation among the crowds that Jesus was Elijah or one of the other prophets returned to life. When Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah, it is clear that Jesus, while at least on par with Moses and Elijah, is not Moses or Elijah in some new form.
The Transfiguration marks a literal turning point in Jesus’ ministry as well. When Jesus goes down the mountain to resume his ministry, he does so with new intent. In Luke 9:51, we are told that Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. After the Transfiguration, Jesus and the disciples leave Galilee, travel through Samaria and then to Judea, continuing their ministry along the way as they head towards Jerusalem. The optional reading for today of Jesus healing the boy with the demon may be used to help place this story in the sequence of Jesus’ ministry -- he has recently fed the 5,000 (Luke 9:10-17), and the crowds are seeking him out. It is time for Jesus to move on to the next chapter of his ministry.
Application
It’s been a short Epiphany this year. While we can have up to eight Sundays in Epiphany before we reach this story of the Transfiguration (which is always read on the last Sunday of Epiphany), this year we have had only four. Easter will come early, at the end of March. Ash Wednesday is on the horizon. This Sunday, as on the mountaintop of the Transfiguration, we can look back over the season of Epiphany, forward to Lent and Holy Week, or rest for a moment (not building any booths) in the wonder of the Transfiguration itself.
Looking back, I recall it was only a month ago that we heard the first story of Epiphany on January 6 -- the coming of the magi to the infant Jesus. This story appears only in Matthew; Luke has the shepherds attending Jesus’ birth. I am struck by the trinities we find in each story -- the extra-biblical tradition of three magi, to correspond to the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in Mathew’s account (Matthew 2:11). And then there is the trinity of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. The disciples do not witness Jesus transfigured alone in solitary majesty, but in the company of others, and there were three disciples as witnesses as well! What was Jesus’ experience of the Transfiguration? We do not know, but we can imagine that he was supported and strengthened for the journey ahead by his conversation with Moses and Elijah. Perhaps their conversation gave him the clarity he needed at that moment in his life and ministry. Likewise, the magi came as a group, not as individuals. They no doubt consulted with each other as they wondered about the star and decided to follow it. Perhaps they each set out separately and found one another along the way. Perhaps they all knew one another at the outset and planned the journey together. There is so much we do not know, but what we do know is that these two stories that begin and end our Epiphany season both give us examples of life following God in community with others. Setting out into unknown territory, Jesus does not go alone, and the magi do not go alone. God gives us companions in our journeys in faith. Figuring out what to do and how to respond faithfully to God is not our solo task, but one shared with others. Even Jesus needed to talk things through!
Looking forward, we can reflect on how life is not lived on the mountaintop, but that after any transcendent experience we are called to come back down to earth, into the valleys -- perhaps even to deal with the demons, as Jesus does quite literally in our reading today. As we prepare to enter the season of Lent, we are invited into a time of greater spiritual intensity and to wrestle with some of our own demons, which keep us separate from God and the life God wishes us for us. These demons may be personal and private, or they may be the demons of our wider world that sow violence and discord and death. Many denominations support an ecumenical carbon fast during Lent in response to climate change (an internet search on “Ecumenical Carbon Fast” will turn up plenty of resources), which may be especially timely this year in light of the recent Paris conference and Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment. The congregation my family attends will be doing a study on race and racism this Lent in light of all that has happened in our country in this past year. There is so much else in our nation and world that is not of God -- terrorist attacks, mass shootings, refugees, ongoing poverty and disease. No one of us can confront all these demons at one time, but we are called to deal with the demons we encounter on our way, as Jesus did. What demons are waiting at the foot of the mountain for the congregation you serve?
Lastly, let us consider resting on the mountaintop this Sunday and attending to the miracle of the Transfiguration. I have found that whenever I talk about religious visions as not just things that happen in the Bible or to saints of history but as experiences that can happen in our own lives, I hear stories, sometimes decades old, that people claim they have never told another soul. Mainstream American culture is suspicious of religious experience, and people who have life-changing visions or moments of illumination may remain silent or even doubt their mental well-being. But these experiences do happen and can be profoundly healing and empowering, as I believe the Transfiguration was for Jesus and the disciples. Yes, hearing voices and seeing visions may be signs of incipient or active mental illness, but they can also be signs of God at work in our lives and our world. Like so much else, we can judge them by their fruit. They can be a part of an opening of our hearts and spirits to greater life in God and community, or they may be part of a closing down, and not of God. In honoring the phenomenon of religious visions or other profound religious experiences, it is also important to honor the diversity of ways in which they may or may not manifest themselves. This is the end of the season of Epiphany, and epiphanies may be large or small. Sometimes we need to pay attention to catch them at all. Not everyone will have a Transfiguration experience. Not everyone needs to, and there is no shame in that. God offers us what we each need, just as God offers us our own unique companions for the journey.
Exodus 34:29-35
Today in the gospel we hear the story of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountaintop, and we are reminded in our reading from Exodus that this was not the first mountaintop transfiguration among the Hebrew people. Moses too was literally transfigured, i.e., the appearance of his face changed, after his encounters with the Lord on the mountaintop. Today’s reading marks Moses’ second descent from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the covenant -- he is returning with replacements for the tablets he broke when he first came down from the mountain and discovered the Israelites worshiping the golden calf. He has been gone another forty days and forty nights as he has met with the Lord and received the new tablets (Exodus 34:28).
In bearing a radiant countenance after his encounter with the divine, Moses appears to the Israelites as if he too has become divine, and they are afraid. Moses veils his face to shield the people from his glory. This is in keeping with the shielding of the divine radiance or glory that occurs throughout Exodus, where a cloud shields the people from the full light of the Lord’s presence as he guides them in the wilderness and as the Lord appears on the mountaintop shielded by a cloud (see Exodus 24:17-18, for example). Moses’ veiling of his face is also congruent with the Lord’s directions for creating a curtain, or veil, to screen the holy of holies -- the resting place of the ark of the covenant (Exodus 26:31-34). The power of the divine glory is so great that, at that time, ordinary people cannot see it and live.
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
Paul’s relationship with the church in Corinth was not a simple one. Corinth was a cosmopolitan port city, home and host to people of a diversity of cultures and religions, all of which made keeping the church in Corinth unified and at peace an ongoing challenge. Paul was but one of a number of Christian teachers who visited Corinth, and the variations in teaching and message the Corinthians received left Paul in regular need of defending his personal integrity and his teachings. Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians was composed after some painful encounters and missives between Paul and the Corinthian church. In today’s reading, Paul offers a stark contrast between the old covenant of the Mosaic law, which brings death, and the new covenant of the Spirit, which brings life and glory (2 Corinthians 3:6-8). Today’s reading makes much of the image of veiling and unveiling, drawing from the passage in Exodus that we read today. In using this image, Paul not only contrasts the old and new covenants, but defends himself against charges that his teaching is veiled or obscure to some listeners (2 Corinthians 3:3-4). Paul urges his hearers to directly encounter the glory of God revealed through the Spirit, and by seeing it, to be transformed into its likeness.
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)
The story of the Transfiguration marks a turning point in Jesus’ story. From this place, we look both forward and back in time. Looking forward, we find parallels between Jesus’ venturing to a secluded high place to pray with his disciples, as he did when he retreated to the Mount of Olives to pray before he was arrested on the night before his death. The Transfiguration happens soon after Jesus begins teaching his disciples that he is to die (Luke 9:21-27), and as they were on the night before Jesus’ death, the disciples were weighed down with sleep (Luke 9:32). It may be that the Transfiguration was a vision that occurred when the disciples awoke in the night, amplifying Jesus’ teaching about his upcoming passion and giving the disciples strength for the trials to come.
Looking back, the Transfiguration draws on many teachings out of the Hebrew scriptures. Both Moses and Elijah encountered God on the mountaintop, and prophecies foretold that they would return to herald the final judgment (Deuteronomy 18:14; Malachi 4:5). Together, Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets -- all of the tradition and teaching of the Jewish people. The cloud that overshadows the mountain in verse 34 carries clear echoes of the cloud that overshadowed Mt. Sinai in Exodus, and the voice in verse 35 repeats the words from heaven at Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:22), which in turn echo the words of Isaiah (42:1) about God’s chosen servant. Jesus’ presence with Moses and Elijah would also have affirmed Jesus’ distinct identity. When Peter proclaims Jesus as the messiah in Luke 9:20, the disciples note speculation among the crowds that Jesus was Elijah or one of the other prophets returned to life. When Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah, it is clear that Jesus, while at least on par with Moses and Elijah, is not Moses or Elijah in some new form.
The Transfiguration marks a literal turning point in Jesus’ ministry as well. When Jesus goes down the mountain to resume his ministry, he does so with new intent. In Luke 9:51, we are told that Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. After the Transfiguration, Jesus and the disciples leave Galilee, travel through Samaria and then to Judea, continuing their ministry along the way as they head towards Jerusalem. The optional reading for today of Jesus healing the boy with the demon may be used to help place this story in the sequence of Jesus’ ministry -- he has recently fed the 5,000 (Luke 9:10-17), and the crowds are seeking him out. It is time for Jesus to move on to the next chapter of his ministry.
Application
It’s been a short Epiphany this year. While we can have up to eight Sundays in Epiphany before we reach this story of the Transfiguration (which is always read on the last Sunday of Epiphany), this year we have had only four. Easter will come early, at the end of March. Ash Wednesday is on the horizon. This Sunday, as on the mountaintop of the Transfiguration, we can look back over the season of Epiphany, forward to Lent and Holy Week, or rest for a moment (not building any booths) in the wonder of the Transfiguration itself.
Looking back, I recall it was only a month ago that we heard the first story of Epiphany on January 6 -- the coming of the magi to the infant Jesus. This story appears only in Matthew; Luke has the shepherds attending Jesus’ birth. I am struck by the trinities we find in each story -- the extra-biblical tradition of three magi, to correspond to the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in Mathew’s account (Matthew 2:11). And then there is the trinity of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. The disciples do not witness Jesus transfigured alone in solitary majesty, but in the company of others, and there were three disciples as witnesses as well! What was Jesus’ experience of the Transfiguration? We do not know, but we can imagine that he was supported and strengthened for the journey ahead by his conversation with Moses and Elijah. Perhaps their conversation gave him the clarity he needed at that moment in his life and ministry. Likewise, the magi came as a group, not as individuals. They no doubt consulted with each other as they wondered about the star and decided to follow it. Perhaps they each set out separately and found one another along the way. Perhaps they all knew one another at the outset and planned the journey together. There is so much we do not know, but what we do know is that these two stories that begin and end our Epiphany season both give us examples of life following God in community with others. Setting out into unknown territory, Jesus does not go alone, and the magi do not go alone. God gives us companions in our journeys in faith. Figuring out what to do and how to respond faithfully to God is not our solo task, but one shared with others. Even Jesus needed to talk things through!
Looking forward, we can reflect on how life is not lived on the mountaintop, but that after any transcendent experience we are called to come back down to earth, into the valleys -- perhaps even to deal with the demons, as Jesus does quite literally in our reading today. As we prepare to enter the season of Lent, we are invited into a time of greater spiritual intensity and to wrestle with some of our own demons, which keep us separate from God and the life God wishes us for us. These demons may be personal and private, or they may be the demons of our wider world that sow violence and discord and death. Many denominations support an ecumenical carbon fast during Lent in response to climate change (an internet search on “Ecumenical Carbon Fast” will turn up plenty of resources), which may be especially timely this year in light of the recent Paris conference and Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment. The congregation my family attends will be doing a study on race and racism this Lent in light of all that has happened in our country in this past year. There is so much else in our nation and world that is not of God -- terrorist attacks, mass shootings, refugees, ongoing poverty and disease. No one of us can confront all these demons at one time, but we are called to deal with the demons we encounter on our way, as Jesus did. What demons are waiting at the foot of the mountain for the congregation you serve?
Lastly, let us consider resting on the mountaintop this Sunday and attending to the miracle of the Transfiguration. I have found that whenever I talk about religious visions as not just things that happen in the Bible or to saints of history but as experiences that can happen in our own lives, I hear stories, sometimes decades old, that people claim they have never told another soul. Mainstream American culture is suspicious of religious experience, and people who have life-changing visions or moments of illumination may remain silent or even doubt their mental well-being. But these experiences do happen and can be profoundly healing and empowering, as I believe the Transfiguration was for Jesus and the disciples. Yes, hearing voices and seeing visions may be signs of incipient or active mental illness, but they can also be signs of God at work in our lives and our world. Like so much else, we can judge them by their fruit. They can be a part of an opening of our hearts and spirits to greater life in God and community, or they may be part of a closing down, and not of God. In honoring the phenomenon of religious visions or other profound religious experiences, it is also important to honor the diversity of ways in which they may or may not manifest themselves. This is the end of the season of Epiphany, and epiphanies may be large or small. Sometimes we need to pay attention to catch them at all. Not everyone will have a Transfiguration experience. Not everyone needs to, and there is no shame in that. God offers us what we each need, just as God offers us our own unique companions for the journey.
