Last Sunday after the
Epiphany, Yr. B; February 19, 2012
2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:1-6;
2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9
Sermon Preached at St.
Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Last night I watched the
movie Pete’s Dragon for the first time.
It’s a story about a little boy and his pet dragon. Elliot, isn’t a pet, exactly. He doesn’t depend on Pete to care for
him. In fact, it’s more like
Elliot takes care of Pete. Most
people think that Elliot is Pete’s “imaginary friend”, something Pete has
concocted to cope with a difficult and loveless life. Pete says, “Elliot comes to those who need him.” Pete really needs him. But as it turns out, Elliot is a REAL
dragon. When people see him for
the first time, they are terrified … even though he is quite a nice, helpful
dragon. Seeing a real live dragon
is just a little too much to take in. The few who do manage to see Elliot, run off screaming
in fright.
So we don’t have to wonder
why the disciples with Jesus are a bit confused when they witness the
transfiguration. It’s a little
more than they can wrap their minds around. And it’s not surprising to hear Jesus tell them not to tell
anyone. I’m sure it’s something he has to spend a little time processing too.
Up on this mountain Jesus
is suddenly engulfed in blinding light, and Moses and Elijah appear with
him. Moses is a sign of the law,
the torah, the instruction written on tablets of stone by the finger of God
that the Israelites accepted at Mt. Sinai. Those instructions form the Israelites into a community of
God. The law teaches them how to
live as God’s people. It teaches
them how to act in love with one another. The law communicates God’s mercy and compassion. Love God. Love yourself.
Love your neighbor.
Elijah is a sign of the
prophets, the voice of God that speaks to the present time. Prophets call the people back to
God. Prophets see the world as it
is, without all the trappings of personal self-interest getting in the
way. They strip away illusions of
power, and remind us of our place before God. That’s one reason prophets so often face resistance to their
message. No one likes to be
reminded of their own insecurity and arrogance.
Both Moses and Elijah had
questionable endings. Elijah was
whisked away by the fiery chariots of God. Tradition says that he never died. He was taken right to heaven. Elijah’s return would mark the beginning of the restoration
of God’s kingdom on earth and the coming general resurrection at the end of
time. Moses died before reaching
the promised land. God allowed him
to get a glimpse of the prize, but he was not permitted to enter into it. Moses died, but his burial place is
unknown. Both men appear with
Jesus. Why?
Perhaps because for
Christians, Jesus was the logical next step. Jesus was the end of the equation. The law and the prophets were embodied in him. Jesus came to fulfill the law, not
destroy it. Jesus also came to
call people back to God, to call the church back to God … to be a prophet. Jesus was both “the living Word” and
“the one speaking that Word”. He
was what he proclaimed. By his
nature he existed in an eternal right relationship with God. He was a light that shone so brightly
the world could not stand to be in His presence for very long. People who experienced the fullness of
Jesus just couldn’t take it all in.
It was overwhelming. It was
bewildering. It was awesome. It was hard to understand exactly what
you were seeing.
Our Christian tradition
tells us that we attain by grace what Jesus was by nature. Jesus was that living example of what
life could be like if it were lived in full communion with God. Jesus was the fullest expression of our
human potential. He was created
that way; we have to work a little harder to get there. In fact, we don’t get there on our
own. We need God’s grace to close
the gap. But that’s the goal of
our Christian life. That’s the
path we walk after our baptism.
Knowing ourselves to be one of God’s beloved, we begin the journey of
walking toward God and walking toward the prospect of our own
transfiguration. Our Christian
life isn’t about living so we get into heaven. It’s about living a life that leads to our own
transfiguration. It’s a life
seeking to be transformed into the same blinding light that was Jesus on that
mountaintop with James and John.
It’s about seeking to be a light of God in the world, just as Jesus was
… knowing that by the grace of God we can be transformed too.
A Sufi mystic, Hafiz,
wrote this:
At
Some
point
Your
relationship
With God
Will
Become
like this:
Next
time you meet Him in the forest
Or on a
crowded city street
There
won’t be anymore
“Leaving.”
That is,
God will
climb into
Your
pocket.
You will
simply just take
Yourself
Along![1]
You will simply just take
yourself along. What Jesus was by
nature, we are called to be through our baptism. We have chosen to become Christians because of what we see
in Jesus. As disciples of
Jesus, we are called to be like Him.
It is the nature of our relationship with God that makes that
transformation even remotely possible.
John speaks a lot about
God abiding in us, about God making a home in us. Hafiz says “God will climb into your pocket”. Same thing. God chose us from the beginning, and at our baptism we choose
God because of Jesus. In essence
we gave God an open invitation to “climb into our pocket”. Then we spend the rest of our lives
figuring out how to live together in such close quarters. What was Jesus’ nature, takes work for
us, and grace from God. We have
our own wants and desires that make us tend toward self-centeredness, but God
shows no partiality. We want
community to benefit “us”. God
wants community to benefit “the community”. We are afraid of loss, but nothing is lost in God. God transforms loss into gain. Space allows voices to be heard. Space allows room for creativity to
flourish. God is in the business
of making all things new, and so are we.
It used to be
That when I would wake in
the morning
I could with confidence say,
“What am ‘I’ going to
Do?”
That was before the seed
Cracked open.
Now Hafiz is certain:
There are two of us housed
In this body,
Doing the shopping together
in the market and
Tickling each other
While fixing the evening’s
food.
Now when I awake
All the internal instruments
play the same music:
“God, what love-mischief can
‘We’ do
For the world
Today?”[2]
We
are cracked open in baptism. God calls us “beloved” and “climbs in
our pocket”. Like Pete’s dragon,
it is invisible to the rest of the world.
But we know it’s
real, as God transforms us from glory into glory. “God, what love-mischief
can ‘we’ do for the world today?”
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment