“Show Us the Glory in the Grey?”

Rev. Sharon James Fazel,

2/14/2010

        [Singing, to the tune of Carly Simon’s “Anticipation”] “Transfiguration… Transfiguration…is making me late, keeping me waiting…” I don’t know why, but that song always pops into my head when I hear the word “Transfiguration.” Same number of syllables, I guess, as “Anticipation,” the song’s real title. The repeated phrase at the end of that song is “these are the good old days.” And I wonder – all silly association with pop songs from the 1970’s aside – if part of what Jesus was about in taking Peter and the Zebedee brothers, James and John, with him to the mountaintop to pray, was to help them understand that the time they had left with him was indeed “the good old days” yet to come.

         You see – Jesus was about halfway, or further, into his ministry at this point in Luke’s gospel. He was about to turn toward Jerusalem, knowing that his time there would be the end of him. So, before he took those final steps leading to Golgotha (otherwise known as Calvary), he had some important teaching moments with his disciples. He’d already told them of his impending death, and even foreshadowed the resurrection.  They didn’t quite get what he was talking about. Nonetheless, he knew his time with them was short, and therefore crucial to their education.

         So here’s Jesus at the mountaintop – in biblical tradition, a place where one communes with the Holy. Moses went to a similar place when he received the Ten Commandments – known as the Law.  And the early prophet of Israel, Elijah, was drawn into heaven by fiery chariot, in a similar showing of glory and power as the one described here with Jesus, Moses and Elijah. So Jesus meets with two pillars of Israel, symbols of the Law and the Prophets – standards of Israel’s faith. Jesus, in this way, mediates the two great stories – the story of the Hebrews, in what became known to Christians as the Old Testament; and the story of his own path, in what is known to his followers to this day as the New Testament. The two great stories are drawn together in image and in power, as well as in mutual witness of God’s awesome presence.

         Why is this important for us? Maybe because it tells us that the whole saga of biblical literature – instead of being two separate chunks of information and mythos about two distinctly different peoples and faiths, Jews and Christians – is rather one continuous story of the people of God, from beginning to the present, whatever is the present.

So what else happens in this story that seals it as sacred to both the Hebrew tradition and the unfolding tradition of Jesus as the Way? The voice from the clouds! The voice from the clouds declares him to be a divine child of the one true God…just as it did when Jesus himself was baptized by John the Baptist. And today, in [our second ] [this] worship service, baptism is a focus for us, as well.

              But what does this unusual story about invisible spiritual beings who were past religious heroes, now chatting with Jesus on a mountaintop, say to us today? Well… for one: it says that Jesus is singularly special. The divine advice from the clouds to the three disciples, was that they needed to listen to him. For we are to see Jesus as a unique messenger – one whom the God we worship has designated as an appointed voice for divine communication. Furthermore, who he is and what he is, is important not only to people born during his time in the world, but also to those who would follow in the Way he taught, even though we live long after his death. It is for us to listen, to watch, and to discern the significance of his life in the earth.

              Now, maybe that’s the way we all think about Jesus anyway -- but it’s interesting to put ourselves in the sandals of the disciples in this story, who are still trying to figure out just what to make of him.

And here’s another absolutely fascinating part for me: after all this glory, after all the magic of two mysterious yet recognizable figures, long dead, hob-nobbing with Jesus on the mountain, when Jesus comes down the mountain, a very different scene awaits him, and very different behavior issues forth from him.

Listen now to these verses, directly on the heels of the transfiguration story we just read:

       On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly 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. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While 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. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.                                                             (Luke 9:37-43)

          What’s up with Jesus in this part of the story? He’s pretty ticked off, it seems! He’s been away on the top of the mountain with three disciples; there’s been this shared vision of Moses and Elijah, and then a moment of identifying him as a child of God. And even though the three disciples at first thought they were seeing a solid version of Moses and Elijah, and wanted to go all literal of a sudden and build shrines for them, that idea was put to rest when both images vanished into the mist; leaving the disciples silent. They were thinking! They were taking it all in. They were in awe, trying to figure it all out. What an amazing image of divine presence resulting in absolute stillness.

          Then Jesus and the three come down the mountain. Suddenly there’s a crowd, and no doubt there’s clamor and ruckus that accompany large gatherings of human beings, all with their own individual needs and desires. Above the clamor one of them shouts out about his son who’s been possessed by what we’d probably today call epilepsy, or perhaps a neurological illness that invites convulsions. And the guy asking for help tells Jesus that the very disciples he’d been so close to, and whom he’d trusted with such a sacred moment as they just shared on the mountaintop – along with the rest of their cronies here at the foot of the mountain, couldn’t do a thing to help the guy! What happens next? Jesus gets testy! Now how human is that?

              Has something similar ever happened to some of you? You do what you think is right and best, and feel good about it, and suddenly somebody is in front of you telling you otherwise – and Boom! –you feel slapped in the face, and you get a little testy. Anyone who has or has had teenagers in the house certainly understands what I'm talking about...

              So here’s Jesus – divine revelation and awesome presence barely behind him, and suddenly he’s made aware that things are not all serene, that someone’s disgruntled about something, and he’s got to make it right! “How much longer must I be with you and bear with you?” he asks. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s amazingly human of him! But here’s the difference between Jesus and you-and-me -- he heals the young man anyway. Not only is he inclined to do it, despite his irritation not only with the disciples but perhaps also with the father  asking for help -- but he does it fully and completely, and without hesitation. The same power that named him is able to transcend human foibles, and deliver the divine healing that knows no judgment or irritation against anyone. That’s the difference – and that’s the challenge that Jesus presents to us as steps along the path he asks us to follow.

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