Year A

Luke 9:28-36

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Transfiguration For Everyone

You may or may not be wondering today why we are hearing the Transfiguration story again in August when not so long ago we heard Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration last February on the Last Sunday in Epiphany. The Last Sunday in Epiphany each year is generally when we will hear the story of Jesus’ radical change of appearance that revealed his divine glory while in the presence of Peter, James, and John on a high mountain prior to the crucifixion. Yet, the feast day is actually recognized on August 6, the date of the dedication of the first church built on Mount Tabor or Mount Hermon which is traditionally considered to be the ‘high mountain of the Transfiguration just a few miles from Caesarea Philippi, and because this year August 6 falls on a Sunday, we hear the story again according to Luke and celebrate the feast day.

The celebration of the Transfiguration began in the Eastern Church in the late fourth century but it wasn’t declared a universal feast of the Western Church until 1457. The feast day was first included in the English Book of Common Prayer in 1561 and in the American Book of Common Prayer in 1892. So the celebration has been around for a little while. According to Matthew, Mark and Luke who all record this occasion during Jesus’ earthly ministry, this is when Jesus revealed the mission he came to fulfil and he revealed the glory of who he is. Luke, in his version of the event, does not use the word transfigure but he described “a change in appearance that comes from within,” and when Moses and Elijah, show up, Luke says “they appeared in glory”.

When I read this text it reminded me of a verse in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” maybe because I just sung it not long ago on July 4. “In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me.” There is something about Jesus that transfigures or changes us from within and without. When Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain and his appearance changed, they saw him in a way that they had never seen him before, in a way they had never seen anyone before. And they would never be the same and thank goodness because they would need all that changing inside and outside to follow Jesus down that mountain and out into the world where the cross awaited.  

There needs to be transfiguration in all of us because we are to carry that dazzling spiritual experience with us out into a world that is seeking change from within and without; a world of suffering and death. After Jesus first foretells his own death and resurrection, which the disciples didn’t understand of course, he departs with Peter, James and John to pray and the great mountaintop experience unfolds. It had to have been a dazzling moment for the disciples to see the Master caught up in the company of Elijah and Moses. Interestingly, when Moses and Elijah appear and are speaking with Jesus of his departure in Jerusalem, the word used in Greek for departure is exodos, or exodus. There can be no mistaking the word choice.

The great exodus of the Israelites brought about a new age and a renewed commitment to God. Moses’ encounter with God’s glory on Mount Sinai is at the center of the entire book of Exodus and the story of the people of Israel. At its peak is Moses, who receives both the law and the vision of God. This combination of law and vision of God show that this is no human law and Israel is no voluntary group of people. Moses shinning face as he comes down the mountain testifies to the fact that the commandments given to him are in fact God’s Word to God’s people. The same glory that marked Moses’ face after being in the presence of God is seen in Christ; it is God’s presence in Christ and in the midst of the disciples on the mountain that now by the Holy Spirit shapes and transfigures our lives.

To enter into God’s presence means to risk being changed. We can’t help but be changed. Peter reminds us today that he and we have been eyewitnesses of his majesty that we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit into that glory. This is very good news for so many who feel unworthy of God’s glory and love. So many children and adults have encountered verbal or physical abuse. Cultural messages about individual worth come through television programming and advertising. We receive many messages about what we need to buy in order to look better and live better than we do. These days, it seems that even grade schools struggle to educate children and parents against bullying and all forms of disrespect that take a toll on children’s sense of self-worth.

What wonderful news it is, then, to know that we are being changed from glory into glory. We can open this up for the church, for the world that we are worth more than gold in the eyes of God. “Therefore, Peter says, we do not follow cleverly devised myths…by truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.” God needs us to shine to the world; to shine with God’s Word, with God’s life and love for all people and we can shine because the Holy Spirit is at work in us, constantly taking what we are and working the life of Christ in us.

Then, business as usual is no longer possible after we have seen the vision of God’s redeeming love, of God’s good future revealed to us in Jesus Christ. It was no longer business as usual for the disciples. These men were changed, transfigured, by their experience from fishermen to evangelists. In the transfiguration, Jesus showed his true identity as God’s divine son. From then on he sets his face toward Jerusalem and the cross that waits and the disciples began to know that there mission and ministry was to go out into a dark world and light it up with the message of Christ. The message that Christ exists and is alive today is because of what many have done before us.

The message is clear that God is about the business of bringing hope and healing to a broken world through Christ and through us. People are hungry to experience the good news that God is with us and our goal cannot be to stay on those mountain tops basking in God’s light and love. Our goal is to go back down, renewed, refreshed and ready to bring this saving, healing light and love to the world; ready to invite others to make the journey up the mountain to see the glorified Christ, be changed then go back down to the world, to join the suffering and crucified One in his mission. And that light of Christ through the Holy Spirit stays with us until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts.