Luke 9: 28-36
- This past Christmas a wicker basket was placed beside the altar at Blessed Sacrament Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut. One morning, an anonymous donor placed in the basket his gift: a gun. On Christmas Eve, Blessed Sacrament and the churches in Bridgeport began "Guns for Bells," a program designed to rid their city of the guns that have plunged neighborhoods into violence and hopelessness. Individuals can drop off their guns at police headquarters in exchange for gift certificates to grocery, toy and departments stores--or gun owners, if they prefer, can place their weapons anonymously in the basket by the altar at Blessed Sacrament. The program has also raised $26,000 to pay for the gift certificates and the cost of casting the bell. The collected guns will be melted down to make a bell, about 32 inches in diameter and weighing some 700 pounds. The bell will be placed on wheels so that it can be rung in churches, parks and others sites throughout Bridgeport to remind people of the of the violence that occurs and the good that can be done despite it. The organizers hope that many bells will be created from melted gunmetal. As one pastor says, "If at the time of a killing death we can ring [such] bells, that [will say] a lot to the community. (1)
The feast of the Transfiguration is a vision of beautiful things to come and of a cross that has yet to be carried. Many Protestant liturgies put this feast just before the season of Lent, possibly as a crown to the Epiphany Sundays and a beacon of light to help us though Lent. The Catholic Church puts it here in the second Sunday of Lent to show the connection between the vision to come and the cross now to be carried.
Last week we saw Jesus tested three times in the desert. We plug into Jesus sufferings, for we have suffered too. Lest we think Lent will be too painful, though, the feast of the Transfiguration comes to light our way and show us a Savior who is gloriously reigning at the right hand of the Father even though he has just told the apostles he must suffer and die.
So the Transfiguration is a good news--bad news situation. Jesus has just told his apostles about his upcoming passion and death. They choose to slough off the news as something they'd rather not think about. They didn't really understand, anyway, how their savior, who can raise people from the dead, should have himself to undergo death. And Peter's desire to build three tents shows he really did not understand the nature of the glory--a glory to come, not now.
Many meaningful events took place on mountain tops in the Bible. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Elijah encountered God on Mt. Horeb in the soft whisper of a breeze. Now here Jesus chooses a mountain top on which to mark the near approach of his coming passion and death.
The two figures who appeared with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, are both major figures in the Old Testament. Moses represents the Law that God had given in the Ten Commandments. Elijah represents the prophets who continually interpreted that law through God's revelations to them.
Jesus, Moses, and Elijah spoke of Jesus' upcoming journey to Jerusalem where he would die. This was the goal. Jesus' trip to Jerusalem is called an "exodus," the word used to describe the journey of the Jewish people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Jesus was going to the Promised Land, but through fire and water, just as the Israelites had to go through the waters of the Red Sea and the burning fire of a forty-year trip through the desert.
Other great figures also go to the mountain top. "I've been to the mountain (top)," he said on that day in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. And in that resounding long-ago speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged and inspired the nation with his dream of a society without barriers of color, or race, or religion, or national origin. People born long after his death know the words, have seen the video tape, and have learned the unmistakable sound of that voice. Yes, he had been to the mountain--the place of inspiration. People knew what he meant. He had been to the mountain top of his own spiritual enlightenment. Yes, he had been led there by Jesus, and had listened to his voice. And now, as he spoke to those thousands in Washington, and indeed in the whole nation, he was in the valley sharing the vision and leading people to take one more step on the road to justice. (3)
What does God ask of us in the light of the Transfiguration today? The same he asked of the three apostles who were with Jesus there on the mountain top. The voice of the Father once again boomed forth and said, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!"
Listening means hearing and obeying. No one is truly a disciple until his learning is matched by his behavior. The apostles didn't really listen to Jesus telling them he, and they, would have to suffer and die. Only after the Holy Spirit came down on them at Pentecost did they remember all Jesus' words and start to understand them as they put Jesus' words into their lives.
We know how hard it is for us to listen.
When people are alert to the guidance of God in their lives, they are equipped to live differently.
- One of the most important business leaders in a southern community was respected for his ability
and his magnetic personality. But he was known for use of the most vulgar of language. At a lunch
meeting one day, he confided to a minister who was sitting next to him: "Reverend, I don't suppose
you will believe it, but I studied for the ministry at one time. In fact, I preached a little during my
sophomore year in college. Sounds silly, doesn't it? Think of me being a preacher." "No, John, "
replied the clergyman, "it doesn't sound silly. It sounds wonderful. Tell me, John, what would you
give to be able to go back to those days and be the man you were then, think the thoughts you
thought then, dream the dreams you dreamed then, live on the high level you lived then? Have you
know anything so splendid since?"
There was a moment of silence as the business man thought. At last he looked at the minister, serious now. "You are right preacher. They were my best years. I would give anything I have for a return of those years of high aspiration." (4)
How do we listen? Mainly when we pray. At least prayer is the occasion for listening. Maybe we don't listen much then, either. But we should.
- In Directions, James Hamilton writes: "Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had wall a foot thick, no windows, and a tightly fitting door. In winter, when lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled by wagon to the icehouses, and covered with sawdust. Often this ice would last well into the summer. Once man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched carefully for it, raking through the sawdust, but did not find it. His fellow workers looked but could not find it. A small boy who heard about the loss slipped into the icehouse and a few minutes later emerged with the watch. Amazed, the men asked how he had found it. '"I closed the door, lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon, I heard it ticking." (5)
"As we ponder this event, we must remember how it began. It began in prayer. Jesus went to pray, to be with His Father, and He invited three of the apostles to join Him....Luke often uses the disciples to be stand-ins for his readers. We are his readers today, and we are the ones called to join Jesus on the mountain.
"So often we look to prayer to be a 'feel good' experience. We want prayer to lift us up. We also look to prayer to gain something for us, resorting to prayer when we are in need. But Jesus' call to prayer is about more than feeling good. It is about more than getting something we need from God. Jesus' call to prayer is a call to meet God and to know Him and perhaps even to gain something of an understanding of who He is and how He loves us.
"...Luke's Gospel is sometimes referred to as the 'Gospel of Prayer.' In his Gospel, more than the others, we are told that it is only while in prayer that Jesus or His disciples enjoy God's revelations of himself....Prayer can be uplifting and gain God's favors. But the real purpose of prayer is to come to know God. Brushing up against the Divine and gaining an understanding of the impact of Jesus' journey to death and ultimately His resurrection and glory can make us tremble--and perhaps it should. " (6)
We must keep returning to prayer to keep the goal in sight. That goal for Jesus was the mount of Calvary, another mount which would mean much to him ...and us. But we must pray, like Jesus, also to keep the vision of the end, the transfiguring glory of heaven in our sights.
John Killinger says in a sermon, "I remember a day my wife and I spent above Lautebrunnen, in the Alps, climbing toward the Jungfrau. The path was circuitous and steep, and, while it was a beautiful day and the sun was shining brightly on the snow capped mountain, the trail was often in the shadows. At such places, we would feel tired and think of turning back. But then we would round a bend in the road and suddenly, unexpectedly, there it would be again, the great Jungfrau, looming brilliantly and beautifully before us. We would breathe deeply, throw back our shoulders, and start forward again with new energy and new resolve. The effect was almost magical.
Certainly the transfiguration of Jesus can have this same effect on us.. (7)
1) The New York Times, Sunday, January 11, 1198.
2) Connections, 2/Lent/98, Cycle C, March 1998.
3) Good News(25):83,, "Model homily," 2/Lent/98, Cycle C, March 1998.
4) Brian A. Nelson, Lectionary Homiletics(9):24, "Theological themes," 2/Lent/98, Cycle C, March
1998.
5) Brian A. Nelson, Lectionary Homiletics(9):24, "Theological themes," 2/Lent/98, Cycle C, March
1998.
6) The Priest(54):23, 2/Lent/98, Cycle C, March 1998.
7) Lectionaid (6):36, "Tell it off the mountain," 2/Lent/98, Cycle C, 1998
(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)