Philippians 3:7-14; Matthew
17:1-9
Transfiguration Sunday
March 2, 2014
© 2014
For years I have defined the center of my
life from Philippians 3:10-11. I want to know
Christ. I love the image of 1 John 3:2: “We will be like him, for we will see
him as he is.” We tend to think of
eternal life in terms of unlimited time, but in John 17:3 Jesus said, “This is eternal life, [to] know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
In 1856, the great British Baptist Preacher C.
H. Spurgeon preached, “I believe, all of us who love his name, [have] a most
insatiable wish to behold his person. The thing for which I would pray above
all others, would be forever to behold his face. … One short glimpse, one
transitory vision of his glory, one brief glance at his … now exalted and
beaming countenance, would repay … a world of trouble.” (January 20, 1856, at
New Park Street Chapel, Southwark)
In the sixth Beatitude of Matthew 5:8 at the
beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they will see God.” Søren Kierkegaard built his book Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing
around the thesis that if your only desire – pure in your heart – is to see
God, you will see God.
I hope contemplating the vision of Jesus’
glory on the Mount of Transfiguration will spark a contagious passion among us to
know Jesus and become like him.
Transfiguration Sunday is a bridge between
the Epiphany season of revealing Jesus and the journey to the cross in Lent. In
Matthew 17:1-9, the glory of Jesus is revealed to three disciples, after he
told them he “must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of
the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day
be raised.” (16:16, 21)
Six
days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led
them up a high mountain, by themselves 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like
the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking
with him.
4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be
here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for
Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud
overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the
Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and
were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came
and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself
alone.
9As they were
coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision
until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Centuries earlier, Exodus 34:29-35 reported
that Moses’s face glowed when he came down from Mt. Sinai with the tables of
the Law, which was renewed when he went into the Tent of Meeting to talk with
God. In Exodus 40:35, God’s glow in the Tabernacle was so intense Moses
couldn’t go in, which 1 Timothy 6:16 expresses as a precursor of Christ who
dwells in unapproachable light.
About halfway between the time of Moses and the
time of Jesus, in 1 Kings 19:11-18 God met Elijah on Mt. Horeb, which Deuteronomy
indicates is also Mt. Sinai. Elijah didn’t glow afterward, but in 2 Kings
2:11-12 God sent a chariot and horses of fire to escort him as a whirlwind took
him to heaven.
Preachers are fond of critiquing Peter for
putting his foot in his mouth on the Mount of Transfiguration. I think neither
he nor James and John were prepared for the vision they witnessed. Jesus’ glory
was radiating directly from him, not reflected as Moses or accompanying as
Elijah. Such a vision of Christ’s glory is bound to be disorienting, even as it
is irresistibly magnetic.
Even a contagious passion to know Jesus and
become like him, does not insure a vision of his glory. Such a vision is not
achieved, it is God’s seemingly whimsical gift. Our pursuit of an intimate
relationship with Jesus awakens the spiritual sensitivity by which we may be
able to recognize and savor a flash of glory, as the great Christian mystics
have.
We recognize the Apostle Paul as the Church’s
pioneer theologian, which he certainly was. But his letters give hints of a
deep contemplative life and profound mystical experience. He used third-person
to describe it in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4.
I know a
person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third
heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God
knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the
body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard
things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.
David Ewart, a United Church of Canada pastor
in Vancouver, BC wrote in his blog Holy
Textures, “When reading the Bible do not get distracted by the special effects. Do not try to
explain them - or explain them away. Do not diminish the reality of what
happened [or of] what the disciples experienced by saying, ‘Oh well, that was
then, and now we have modern science and don't believe in such things.’” I
apply that caution to reading the 4th Century Desert Fathers. I love
this conversation between young Abba Lot and mature Abba Joseph.
Abba Lot
went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can, I say my
little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace as far as
I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and
stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire
and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.” (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, tr.
Benedicta Ward SLG, Cistercian Publications, 1975, p. 103)
Teresa of
Avila was a 16th Century Spanish Carmelite nun and
collaborator with St. John of the Cross. She described her mystical experience
that inspired Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s (1647–1652) sculpture Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.
I saw in [an
angel’s] hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be
a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and
to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out
also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so
great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this
excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied
now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though
the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now
takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make
him experience it who may think that I am lying. (Autobiography of Teresa of
Avila The Life of Teresa of Jesus)
I have preached this unusual sermon as a way for
us to contemplate together the vision of Jesus’ glory on the Mount of
Transfiguration, hoping to spark a contagious passion among us to know Jesus
and become like him.
Know for certain the spiritual journey does
not come in one size fits all and is not a competition sport. With infinite
variety we are created in the image of God. Similarly, each of our spiritual
journeys is distinctly individual and personal. Richard Foster of the Renovaré
movement has identified six different spiritual paths – Contemplative: The
Prayer-Filled Life; Holiness: The Virtuous Life; Charismatic: the
Spirit-Empowered Life; Social Justice: The Compassionate Life; Evangelical: The
Word-Centered Life; Incarnational: The Sacramental Life. The bulletin insert
might help you find where you fit and can be found at the end of this post.
Regardless of your personal flavor of
spiritual journey, scripture and prayer are essential ingredients. We live in
an instant gratification society. Spiritual formation of all kinds is about
slowing down enough to listen for God’s voice. When I was with Henri Nouwen at
Daybreak 21 years ago, he said it was like a cow chewing its cud, extracting
maximum nutrition and absorbing it into every body cell. What we’re after is
absorbing spiritual nutrition into every corner of our hearts and lives.
At Daybreak, the L’Arche community for mentally
handicapped core members, we learned to watch for the presence of Christ in the
suffering of the core members. I worked in the Woodery with Dave. His
particular handicap left him with what can only be described as intense
self-loathing. But when he put on the alb to assist with communion, Dave
transformed into a different person. He was acutely aware he was handling the
holy. Standing at the Lord’s Table and serving bread, his face came alive and
glowed. The first time I saw this, I said to Candy, “That must be something of
what Moses looked like after he had been with God.”
Renovaré
Disciplines
http://www.renovare.us/
Covenant
In
utter dependence upon Jesus Christ as my everliving Savior, Teacher, Lord and
Friend, I will seek continual renewal through:
·
Spiritual
exercises
·
Spiritual
gifts and
·
Acts
of service.
Common Disciplines
Contemplative:
The Prayer-Filled Life
By God’s grace, I will set aside time
regularly for prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading and will seek to
practice the presence of God.
Holiness:
The Virtuous Life
By God’s grace, I will strive mightily against
sin and will do deeds of love and mercy.
Charismatic:
the Spirit-Empowered Life
By God’s grace, I will welcome the Holy
Spirit, exercising the gifts and nurturing the fruit while living in the joy
and power of the Spirit.
Social
Justice: The Compassionate Life
By God’s grace, I will endeavor to serve
others everywhere I can and will work for justice in all human relationships
and social structures.
Evangelical:
The Word-Centered Life
By God’s grace, I will share my faith with
others as God leads and will study the Scriptures regularly.
Incarnational:
The Sacramental Life
By God’s grace, I will joyfully seek to show
forth the presence of God in all that I say, in all that I do, in all that I
am.
Questions of Examen
Contemplative:
The Prayer-Filled Life
In what ways has God made his presence know
to you since our last meeting? What experiences of prayer, meditation, and
spiritual reading has God given you? What difficulties or frustrations have you
encountered? What joys and delights?
Holiness:
The Virtuous Life
What temptations have you faced since our
last meeting? How did you respond? Which spiritual disciplines has God used to
lead you further into holiness of heart and life?
Charismatic:
the Spirit-Empowered Life
Have you sensed any influence or work of the
Holy Spirit since our last meeting? What spiritual gifts has the Spirit enabled
you to exercise? What was the outcome? What fruit of the Spirit would you like
to see increase in your life? What disciplines might be useful in this effort?
Social
Justice: The Compassionate Life
What opportunities has God given you to serve
others since our last meeting? How did you respond? Have you encountered any
injustice to or oppression of others? Have you been able to work for justice
and shalom?
Evangelical:
The Word-Centered Life
Has God provided an opportunity for you to
share your faith with someone since our last meeting? How did you respond? In
what ways have you encountered Christ in your reading of the Scripture? How has
the Bible shaped the way you think and live?
Incarnational:
The Sacramental Life
In what ways have you been able to manifest
the presence of God through your daily work since our last meeting. How has God
fed and strengthened you through the ministry of Christ’s ordinances? How have you been aware of the presence of
God in the pain or suffering of another person?*
*This last question is mine and not from Richard
Foster
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