Listening at the mountaintop

Sermon by the Rev. Bret Hays, Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Feb. 12, 2012

Shortly after I moved to Colorado four years ago, I was excited when two new friends offered to drive me up to the top of Mount Evans, elevation 14,265 feet. The trip was dramatic. We climbed higher and higher on a crooked mountain highway, passed the tree line, saw beautiful vistas of the surrounding country, stopped at Summit Lake, cold clear and surrounded by tundra, and then on to the peak. As we approached the upper end of the road, we became enveloped in cloud. There was no booming voice from the heavens to welcome us, just the dull sound of freezing rain pelting the car. We waited, hoping for the weather to change, but no luck. Nobody wanted to get out of the car, let alone erect dwellings there. We had had enough of our mountaintop experience and we turned around and came back down.

Peter, James, and John also had no idea what would happen when they accepted the invitation of Jesus to follow him to the mountaintop. Jesus had been teaching them mystifying, but troubling things about his identity and what following him would mean. Jesus talked about suffering and death, but also about rising. These teachings are familiar to us, maybe even comfortable, but to the disciples, the very first ones to hear them, Jesus’s words must have left them confused and deeply concerned. For them, the questions were wide open. Who, exactly, is this Son of Man? When would he die, and why? What is meant by rising again? Was the master of parables all of a sudden speaking literally?
Following Jesus was confusing enough for the disciples when all they had to wrestle with were his words. But now a select inner circle has received a bewildering gift from God. They have seen Jesus transfigured before their eyes. They have heard him conversing with great ancient prophets, Moses and Elijah. And, without yet understanding it, they have witnessed the Holy Trinity, manifested as a voice, a cloud, and their mysterious friend.

Just as it challenges the limits of our imagination, the Transfiguration would seem to be entirely beyond our reason. But scripture is not merely a cold, dispassionate, disinterested report. Scripture has a purpose and a heart; scripture crackles with life and speaks in its own language, for its own purposes. This story reveals that the author has a deep familiarity with the Hebrew Bible and expects the same from his readers. Once we catch up, we are rewarded with a deeper understanding of who God is and what this story means for us.

Let’s begin with the most obvious part: Jesus himself. His clothes became dazzling white. This is a Hebrew image of a vindicated martyr. So we see divine confirmation of Jesus’s prophetic teaching about his own death, and divine foreshadowing of Jesus’s resurrection. The mountain and the cloud are another Hebrew image, indicating the divine Presence. In Exodus, God gave the covenant to Israel at the mountain of Sinai, and when God dwells with humankind, the people are wrapped in a cloud. Then, as if these clues aren’t enough to indicate that Jesus is not just another small-time itinerant preacher, the ultimate authority, the voice of God, speaks up. “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Who would argue with that, much less disobey?

Before we get to that, let’s not overlook the other two figures in the divine vision. Moses and Elijah. There are plenty of prophets in Israel’s history; why these two? First of all, Moses and Elijah weren’t just prophets, they are superstars of Hebrew history and imagination. Scripture itself tells us that Israel will never have another prophet as great as Moses. And Elijah’s career of revealing God’s sovereignty through miraculous deeds was capped off with the ultimate reward for righteousness: being carried directly into heaven by God.

More than all that, Moses and Elijah symbolize the whole of the Law and the Prophets, respectively. And the Law and the Prophets, in turn, represent the covenant God had made with God’s people and their ongoing relationship. They represent the foundation of Israel as a holy nation and God’s ongoing sustenance of that nation. Therefore, by placing Jesus in this company and glorifying him with the Light and the Word, God is indicating that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. The fact that this fulfillment happens in a man shows us that God is putting into place a new way of being in relationship with humankind.

Now let’s take an even broader view. The three figures of the divine vision are observed by three very ordinary, very flawed men who hiked up the mountain and will hike back down again. Peter, James, and John. We don’t know why they were close to Jesus, but it evidently wasn’t because they were quick on the uptake. Upon seeing this transcendent vision, Peter’s reaction is inappropriate, though all too human. “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.” Having mastered the obvious, he goes on. “Let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Peter makes two mistakes here. One, he treats Jesus, Moses, and Elijah the same way, when God is clearly revealing that Jesus is not just above, but qualitatively different from, Moses and Elijah, and every other spiritual figure. And two, Peter wants to act upon Jesus, rather than follow him. Peter wants to take control of the situation, to literally domesticate Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.

The consequences of the Transfiguration for the followers of Jesus include more than just revelation and insight, but also direct, personal involvement in the work of God. Through Peter James and John, our ancestors and our representatives, we have been enveloped in the cloud, and no one emerges from that experience unchanged. After the Transfiguration, the very meaning of following Christ takes on a new dimension. After the experience, we become more than blank slates or empty vessels, but active disciples, doing Christ’s work in the world.
By participating in the life and work of Christ, disciples also come into conflict with the world, the very world we are trying to save. Christ had taught this and would continue to do so, culminating in his passion and death. The life of the active disciple is a costly one.

The disciples were transformed by the presence of God. Perhaps some of the holiness of the three exalted figures was imprinted on the three humble figures. But we encounter the presence of God too, every Sunday, in the Holy Eucharist and the gathering of the people of God. The same God who was gloriously revealed in the Transfiguration has chosen to transform us from within us. Every Sunday we are re-commissioned, and equipped by God with the grace and strength we need to carry out our mission to share Christ with the world, through our words and our choices.

Peter, James, and John were closer to Jesus than any other of his followers. Strengthened by God, all would overcome their flaws and do excellent work as apostles. You and I have a tremendous advantage over them. They came to know Christ in his enigmatic mystery, but we have come to know Christ in his resurrected glory. We can therefore carry out the mission to which Christ calls us with the same zeal and boldness of the very first apostles, for we too have seen his glory. When we accept the call to mission, we won’t know what we’re getting into, but we shall be strengthened to bear any cross we are called to bear. When we obey the voice from the cloud and listen to Christ, we shall become like him, revealing the depth of God’s love for the world.