What we have received in the scriptures today is nothing short of the power of God written largely for all to see! In each case, the people were moved by amazement, and the expectation was set for a future ordered by grace and mercy. That’s some good news, and we sure do need it!
Today is the day we celebrate – and wrestle with – the transfiguration of Jesus, and it’s kind of like the exclamation point at the end of the Season of Epiphany. I realize that not everyone is into celebrating the seasons of the church year (apart from Christmas and Easter), but here’s why Epiphany matters to the church and to the world. We make such a fuss about the birth of Christ, and once the presents are opened and the decorations put away (or repurposed for Mardi Gras) we tend to forget why that birth mattered so much.
Epiphany is the season that reminds us why the birth of Jesus matters. It is nothing less than the God of all space and time, of all that is and is not, revealing God’s own self in a way that helps us make sense of all the good, bad, and ugly of the world that we enjoy and endure and ultimately embrace. From the wise men to his baptism to the sermon on the mount – and finally to the transfiguration of Jesus – God is made known.
While God’s revelation is completed through the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, this is the moment of divine confirmation that the work that Jesus is doing is the work that God is doing in and through us all, even here, even now.
I hope that feels good to hear, but I also hope it is a little confronting for you to hear. It certainly is for me. First off, these stories include ecstatic visions that are pretty hard to relate to and offer plenty for the skeptics in our midst to challenge on their technical merits. I think that’s a good conversation to have, but not the one that I believe we need to have right now.
Right now I want you to close your eyes and think about a “mountain top experience that you have had in your life.” Go ahead. You’re safe here. Close your eyes and think on a time when you had a clarifying life experience. Maybe it was on a mission trip or a church conference or a camp. Maybe it was in a hospital room. Maybe it was when someone was born or when someone died. Maybe it was a time of personal achievement or a time when you helped someone else reach their potential. Think about these things. Remember how it felt and who was with you.
Ok, open your eyes. I have no idea how many of those experiences were shared or similar. That also is a conversation that would be fun on another day. There is, of course, one that we all share in this town, and that is Mardi Gras!
We talked about Mardi Gras last Friday at Pub Theology as a part of a conversation about letting go. At first, we talked about letting go of things that make us anxious, but then we shifted to the release we find in the celebration of Mardi Gras! We were, of course, speaking in terms of moderation. After all, Lafayette Mardi Gras is a family-friendly event, so we talked about the simple joy of a parade and the way it helps us forget all of our troubles, even if only for a while.
We talked about the traditions of Mardi Gras that are rooted in the Jewish tradition of cleaning out leavening agents and preparing for the Passover of God, and that ultimately it should be a way to help us recognize that God is God and we are not.
You can certainly criticize the whole culture of Mardi Gras parades on those grounds, but we also have to remember the joy that it brings, the resources that it generates for our community, and the way it draws us together and celebrates the common good of people who are distracted by shiny things. It’s not a perfect celebration, but it sure is fun. Some might even wonder why we can’t do it more often. Why can’t we feel this connected and joyful all the time?
Well, we probably could, but it takes a lot of work. According to scripture, it also takes more reliance on God’s grace more than our work. It takes remembering that all we do is in response to what God has done, is doing, and will do. God will do it in spite of us or in partnership with us. That part is up to us because God is going to do what God is going to do.
We see this pretty clearly in all of our readings. In Exodus God is the one who invites Moses up the mountain. Moses still waits until the 7th day and is up on the mountain for 40 days and nights. These numbers are all indicators of completion, they remind us that things happen in God’s good timing.
In the same way, God interrupts Peter just as he is trying to make sense out of seeing Moses and Elijah, much less the divinely glowing Jesus! Can you imagine? Can you imagine hearing the voice of God in such a way that your body just falls to the floor?
Yet Jesus lifts them up and says, “Don’t be afraid.” There is not only grace in that statement, but there is mercy. We, limited humans, are not made to endure the presence of eternity, yet Jesus speaks with authority because of the one who spoke from the heavens and claimed him as beloved.
Because of God’s claim, Jesus is the one whom we know as the fulfillment of the law and the profits. He is the embodiment of the command to love the Lord your God with all that you have and all that you are and your neighbor as yourself. He is the one who invites his disciples to go, without fear, down the mountain, and toward the cross.
In a funny way, the joy they must feel as they walk with him reminds me of the scene in “A Christmas Carol” where Ebenezer Scrooge celebrates his own funeral procession. He doesn’t quite realize it at first, but the joy of the procession is for the death of his greed and the power that he so mercilessly held over others.
The closest thing I’ve seen to the celebration of Scrooge’s death in real life is a second line. It’s really more of a New Orleans tradition, and it’s basically a walking parade with a brass band and everyone waving handkerchiefs and parasols. You’ve probably seen some version of it. It started with funerals. The family followed the casket first, followed by a “second line” of mourners that included the Paul Bearers and other extended family and friends.
It began as a way to celebrate the power of God over sin and death, and it spilled over into other celebrations like the Social Aide and Pleasure Clubs that offered blacks the opportunity to pool their resources since the white insurance companies would not serve them. Some of them still exist today, and they remind us all that we have the ability to care for one another and the opportunity to celebrate life through our connectedness.
I think the joy of connectedness and the opportunity to care for one another in response to God’s grace and mercy is what God wanted us to understand through the giving of the law. In fact, when we leave today, those who dare are invited – and even encouraged – to form a second line in response to God’s grace and mercy. As we form a second line, let us remember that we follow those who came before us and who remains such a great cloud of witnesses as we can hardly imagine!
As we go, we move toward the cross. As we go, we move toward the resurrection and the restoration and the transformative power of the cross, for Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him. Here is why:
God has been revealed as the One who brings order out of chaos, so we do not need to fear. Even though we can’t see past today, much less 7 days or even 40, we can trust in a future ordered by grace and mercy.
Let us, then, celebrate like Scrooge! Let us give thanks for the impending death of all that separates us from God and from one another. Let us celebrate the fact that we have been called to the way of the cross, and that means the death of all that keeps us from seeing and being seen; from loving and being loved. It’s time to let go of the fear that holds us back.
It’s time to be amazed at the glory of God and expect a future ordered by grace and mercy, even if we are led where we would rather not go. Trust in the Lord, beloved people of God, for you, too, are God’s beloved child.
Even when you try to hold onto what can’t be held, God is holding you. All this grace and all this mercy are ours to respond to with our deepest loves and with every chance encounter.
It’s just that simple, and it’s just that hard, yet God invites us to the mountain and walks with us into the valley again and again and again, and to God be the glory for that, now and always. Amen.
Today is the day we celebrate – and wrestle with – the transfiguration of Jesus, and it’s kind of like the exclamation point at the end of the Season of Epiphany. I realize that not everyone is into celebrating the seasons of the church year (apart from Christmas and Easter), but here’s why Epiphany matters to the church and to the world. We make such a fuss about the birth of Christ, and once the presents are opened and the decorations put away (or repurposed for Mardi Gras) we tend to forget why that birth mattered so much.
Epiphany is the season that reminds us why the birth of Jesus matters. It is nothing less than the God of all space and time, of all that is and is not, revealing God’s own self in a way that helps us make sense of all the good, bad, and ugly of the world that we enjoy and endure and ultimately embrace. From the wise men to his baptism to the sermon on the mount – and finally to the transfiguration of Jesus – God is made known.
While God’s revelation is completed through the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, this is the moment of divine confirmation that the work that Jesus is doing is the work that God is doing in and through us all, even here, even now.
I hope that feels good to hear, but I also hope it is a little confronting for you to hear. It certainly is for me. First off, these stories include ecstatic visions that are pretty hard to relate to and offer plenty for the skeptics in our midst to challenge on their technical merits. I think that’s a good conversation to have, but not the one that I believe we need to have right now.
Right now I want you to close your eyes and think about a “mountain top experience that you have had in your life.” Go ahead. You’re safe here. Close your eyes and think on a time when you had a clarifying life experience. Maybe it was on a mission trip or a church conference or a camp. Maybe it was in a hospital room. Maybe it was when someone was born or when someone died. Maybe it was a time of personal achievement or a time when you helped someone else reach their potential. Think about these things. Remember how it felt and who was with you.
Ok, open your eyes. I have no idea how many of those experiences were shared or similar. That also is a conversation that would be fun on another day. There is, of course, one that we all share in this town, and that is Mardi Gras!
We talked about Mardi Gras last Friday at Pub Theology as a part of a conversation about letting go. At first, we talked about letting go of things that make us anxious, but then we shifted to the release we find in the celebration of Mardi Gras! We were, of course, speaking in terms of moderation. After all, Lafayette Mardi Gras is a family-friendly event, so we talked about the simple joy of a parade and the way it helps us forget all of our troubles, even if only for a while.
We talked about the traditions of Mardi Gras that are rooted in the Jewish tradition of cleaning out leavening agents and preparing for the Passover of God, and that ultimately it should be a way to help us recognize that God is God and we are not.
You can certainly criticize the whole culture of Mardi Gras parades on those grounds, but we also have to remember the joy that it brings, the resources that it generates for our community, and the way it draws us together and celebrates the common good of people who are distracted by shiny things. It’s not a perfect celebration, but it sure is fun. Some might even wonder why we can’t do it more often. Why can’t we feel this connected and joyful all the time?
Well, we probably could, but it takes a lot of work. According to scripture, it also takes more reliance on God’s grace more than our work. It takes remembering that all we do is in response to what God has done, is doing, and will do. God will do it in spite of us or in partnership with us. That part is up to us because God is going to do what God is going to do.
We see this pretty clearly in all of our readings. In Exodus God is the one who invites Moses up the mountain. Moses still waits until the 7th day and is up on the mountain for 40 days and nights. These numbers are all indicators of completion, they remind us that things happen in God’s good timing.
In the same way, God interrupts Peter just as he is trying to make sense out of seeing Moses and Elijah, much less the divinely glowing Jesus! Can you imagine? Can you imagine hearing the voice of God in such a way that your body just falls to the floor?
Yet Jesus lifts them up and says, “Don’t be afraid.” There is not only grace in that statement, but there is mercy. We, limited humans, are not made to endure the presence of eternity, yet Jesus speaks with authority because of the one who spoke from the heavens and claimed him as beloved.
Because of God’s claim, Jesus is the one whom we know as the fulfillment of the law and the profits. He is the embodiment of the command to love the Lord your God with all that you have and all that you are and your neighbor as yourself. He is the one who invites his disciples to go, without fear, down the mountain, and toward the cross.
In a funny way, the joy they must feel as they walk with him reminds me of the scene in “A Christmas Carol” where Ebenezer Scrooge celebrates his own funeral procession. He doesn’t quite realize it at first, but the joy of the procession is for the death of his greed and the power that he so mercilessly held over others.
The closest thing I’ve seen to the celebration of Scrooge’s death in real life is a second line. It’s really more of a New Orleans tradition, and it’s basically a walking parade with a brass band and everyone waving handkerchiefs and parasols. You’ve probably seen some version of it. It started with funerals. The family followed the casket first, followed by a “second line” of mourners that included the Paul Bearers and other extended family and friends.
It began as a way to celebrate the power of God over sin and death, and it spilled over into other celebrations like the Social Aide and Pleasure Clubs that offered blacks the opportunity to pool their resources since the white insurance companies would not serve them. Some of them still exist today, and they remind us all that we have the ability to care for one another and the opportunity to celebrate life through our connectedness.
I think the joy of connectedness and the opportunity to care for one another in response to God’s grace and mercy is what God wanted us to understand through the giving of the law. In fact, when we leave today, those who dare are invited – and even encouraged – to form a second line in response to God’s grace and mercy. As we form a second line, let us remember that we follow those who came before us and who remains such a great cloud of witnesses as we can hardly imagine!
As we go, we move toward the cross. As we go, we move toward the resurrection and the restoration and the transformative power of the cross, for Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him. Here is why:
God has been revealed as the One who brings order out of chaos, so we do not need to fear. Even though we can’t see past today, much less 7 days or even 40, we can trust in a future ordered by grace and mercy.
Let us, then, celebrate like Scrooge! Let us give thanks for the impending death of all that separates us from God and from one another. Let us celebrate the fact that we have been called to the way of the cross, and that means the death of all that keeps us from seeing and being seen; from loving and being loved. It’s time to let go of the fear that holds us back.
It’s time to be amazed at the glory of God and expect a future ordered by grace and mercy, even if we are led where we would rather not go. Trust in the Lord, beloved people of God, for you, too, are God’s beloved child.
Even when you try to hold onto what can’t be held, God is holding you. All this grace and all this mercy are ours to respond to with our deepest loves and with every chance encounter.
It’s just that simple, and it’s just that hard, yet God invites us to the mountain and walks with us into the valley again and again and again, and to God be the glory for that, now and always. Amen.
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