Transfiguration 2022

This summer, my family went camping on the Olympic Peninsula.  We hiked to several waterfalls and visited the Hoh National Rain Forest with the Hall of Mosses.  We went to the beach and collected rocks.  On our way home, we planned to drive up to Hurricane Ridge and check out the view.  The road up to Hurricane Ridge is about 15 miles if I remember right and almost immediately  our ears started to pop.  It was a clear sunny day so we were really looking forward to the view.  There were wildflowers growing on the side of the road and even in July a few patches of snow lingered in the shadows under the trees.  We got about halfway up and the car started to show signs of overheating.  We pulled over to a lookout point and let it cool a bit.  Then we headed up some more.  And we did that again.  About the third time, we were within a few miles of the summit and we pulled over and decided to call it good enough.  We got out and walked around the turnout area.  We admired the view and I took some pictures.  In fact one of the pictures I took of my husband and son, I sent to you to help you get to know me.  We headed down the mountain that day without having reached the top.  I wonder what it would have been like to get to the top.  But whatever I experienced up there, it couldn’t compare to the feeling of pulling into the driveway and walking into the house and being home.

The disciples on the mountaintop, today, have the experience of making it all the way to the top.  What a glorious experience, they had.  They got chosen to go with Jesus.  They actually stayed awake to experience the moment with God.  They got overshadowed by the presence of God, just like Mary, Jesus’ mother did.  They heard God’s voice and lived to tell about it.  They saw Moses and Elijah!  They fell down and worshipped.  By the time it was all over, they were speechless and said nothing to anyone.

I wonder if they thought of this mountaintop experience as they climbed the Mount of Olives after the Lord’s Supper for Jesus to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Or did it feel so far removed that it didn’t come to mind.  I like to think they were reminded.  Just before today’s story, Jesus gives his first prediction that he will die.  Just before the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus celebrates the last supper with his disciples and talks a lot about what is about to happen when he is arrested.  As the disciples climbed the Mount of Olives just before Jesus’ arrest, did the disciples say to each other, “Remember the first time Jesus told us he would be handed over and he would die?  Remember the next day he took us up on that Mountain where he was transfigured?  Remember how we felt that day?”  Maybe they said to each other as Jesus prayed, “Remember how sleepy we were?  How did we manage to stay awake?”  Did Peter say to the other disciples that night in the garden, “Remember how we wanted that moment to last, how we thought we had arrived and it was the end of the story?  Remember how much I wanted to build something there so we could just stay in that moment forever?”  It is likely the Disciples did not say anything to anyone again as they descended the Mount of Olives after Jesus’ arrest, just like after the transfiguration.  Like that first descent, they were overwhelmed and they were facing many obstacles.  Of course, they didn’t know yet how bad it would get—how much guilt they would carry for not speaking up and admitting knowing Jesus.  They didn’t know how he would be tortured and they would fear for their own lives.  They didn’t know how disappointed they would be when Jesus died, perhaps they believed that they had been duped and that Jesus was just another dude who let them down.  But they also didn’t anticipate that moment when the women would come running in with the news that Jesus is alive.  And certainly Peter could never in a million years anticipate looking into the eyes of his Savior and seeing love and hearing the words, “Feed my sheep.”   

Peter and James and John went the mountaintop that day of the Transfiguration and they saw what was really true, that Jesus is Divine.  They thought that was the end of the story, that it didn’t get any better than that, that they were home.  Jesus was Transfigured and transformed, but the Disciples had not yet experienced their own transformation.  It wasn’t until they went through everything at Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion and at Easter and in the following days that they were starting to learn who they really were.  At the Transfiguration, they learn who Jesus really is.  Once they go through the hell of Holy Week and come through to Easter Day, they start to become who they really are.

We are a lot like the Disciples, in that we would like to freeze the story at the good parts and stay there.  We have sometimes believed that a church should grow indefinitely or that we can expect to hit peak after peak and that is a sign of God’s blessing.  Those peaks can be celebrated and help us face the difficulties and the valleys, but the life cycle of a church is many ups and downs in energy and attendance and influence in the community and imagination and hope.   The fluctuations are not a sign of failure, but they are opportunities to learn so that Jesus can transform us into who we really are, so we can have that moment when Jesus looks into our eyes and says, “Feed my sheep,” and as our hearts break in gratefulness and wonder, we realize that we are home and what it means to be in God’s family.

The Disciples, too, after Easter, faced many obstacles.  The majority of them were also tortured and executed for their ministry.  They could face the powers of evil and speak with authority to unclean spirits because of what they went through at the cross and the tomb.  They knew who Jesus was and they knew who they were and that empowered them to shine brightly when the world most wanted to shut them down.

For us, too, we are learning who we are as forgiven and empowered children of God.  We are learning that Jesus is powerful and wondrous and glorious through all the mountains we ascend and descend with him.  Jesus gets a little impatient and grouchy with his disciples after the Transfiguration because they don’t claim their power and they don’t use their power to help other people.  They don’t do it because they don’t yet realize they have it—that the light that shines in the face of Moses and  of Jesus is reflected in our own lives.  That light is powerful—illuminating lies that would rather be hidden and secrets that disturb comfortable lives.  That light is warm and welcoming to everyone who has been excluded and told they don’t count.  To learn who we really are is realize how powerful we are to reflect the love and light of Christ to ease the burdens of those who are oppressed.

The light of Christ illuminates the truth that war destroys lives—that it makes certain people more rich and powerful bullies and hurts innocent people and this earth.  Our country is part of the problem in all the arms we produce and sell and stockpile.  We would like to think that our country uses it for good, but the truth is that innocent people are killed every day because of the weapons that we worship.  Jesus doesn’t care who he offends when he tells people to beat their swords into plowshares, not to cast the first stone, and those who live by the sword will die by the sword.  When we know who we really are, we will act with authority to oppose the powers of death and vengeance, and we will pay the price.  We will face the consequences of the disapproval and hatred of people who disagree with us.  No matter what we face, we will still know who we are and how powerful God’s love is—the only thing powerful to change us, to change our hearts—to open our hearts to the most neglected, is the forgiveness and love of God.

We are climbing up the mountain and we are descending to the depths and through it all, Jesus is with us.  We will see God’s glory.  We will see the pain of people.  We will doubt.  We will worship.  We will learn who Jesus is.  We will learn who we are.  We will suffer tremendously.  We will die.  And we will rise again to new life.  We will speak the truth and shine the light of Jesus.  Jesus will shine through us until everyone knows the  healing and love of God, until everyone is home.