Luke 9:28-36, II Peter 1:16-19
Introduction
M.C. Escher was a Dutch artist who made mathematically inspired drawings, lithographs, and other pieces of art. Unappreciated for most of his life, Escher today is well-known and a beloved artist whose pieces mesmerize and spark wonder in those who take in his work.
I can remember the first time I saw an Escher piece, and have loved his work ever since. Julie and I took in the Escher exhibit a number of years ago at the Akron Art Museum.
This well-known piece, entitled “Three Worlds”, depicts the surface of a pond with floating leaves on the water. Look closely and you see reflected in the water the surrounding trees which stand high above the water’s surface. And then Escher takes us into the water’s depths where we see a fish swimming down below the water’s surface.
“Three Worlds” speaks about, and shows, the multiple dimensions of our world and the heights and depths of life, which can be seen by those who are willing to look beyond what’s just in front of them, beyond life’s surface.
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All of us have had experiences that can attest to the truth that beyond the surface of certain events there is a height and depth to be found. All of us have had moments when our spines tingle and we could see the extraordinary shining through the ordinary.
We walk along the beach on an early summer morning just as the sun begins to split the sky and rise out of the ocean, and the colors and majesty of the ball of fire and the disc of water as they play with each other sends chills up and down our spines and we feel like we are gazing at glory. A couple turns and faces the congregation as the minister pronounces them married, their faces radiate with such love and joy they seem transcendent. Being present at the birth of a child, there is a glorious height and depth that outshines the cold and ominous medical equipment and pale blue gowns of the delivery room and we sense we are standing on holy ground.
No doubt I could go on, because we have all had the proverbial “mountain top” experiences where we saw more than simply what we were looking at. We have all seen rays of glory shining through otherwise ordinary and common events. And such moments move us— maybe they even change us. For those who have eyes to see the world in such a way, they see more than just what’s on the surface—the multiple dimensions of our world and the heights and depths of life.
M.C. Escher could see such. And his art helped others see such too. And just like Escher, a select few were gifted with the opportunity to see beyond life’s surface, and what they saw is what we are called to put our faith in—God’s Morning Star.
Move 1
Today is “Transfiguration Sunday”, the Sunday that sets us up for the season of Lent that begins this week with Ash Wednesday. And so the temptation for a preacher at this point is to equate those transcendent “mountain top” experiences we’ve all had, with the mountain top experience had by Peter, James and John when Jesus took them aside, climbed up a mountain, and there was transfigured before their eyes so that his face shone like the sun and his garments radiated white as light. But to equate what we have experienced in our moments of awe to what Peter, James, and John saw happen to Jesus is to risk reducing the meaning and power of the transfiguration to just another spine tingling event.
This event actually transcends the transcendent and becomes a key piece to our faith foundation—and here’s why… There is something important to notice about this scene where Jesus changes before his Disciples’ very eyes. It is important to notice that nine out of the twelve Disciples were NOT on that mountain. Jesus didn’t invite all twelve to come up and witness what was about to happen to him. Nine of them never saw Jesus shine like the sun before their very eyes.
But why? It’s as though Jesus didn’t want them all to see the transfiguration. It’s as though we are being told this is not just one of those experiences everyone has but rather this is a unique event only a few actually witnessed, but one which all the rest must believe and accept through the eyes of faith. And what is faith—but seeing by believing there are multiple dimensions of our world, and the heights and depths of life can be seen when we are willing to look beyond life’s surface.
Move 2
So, what exactly happened on that mountain? What is the transfiguration? And why is it so important?
It was at the transfiguration when the glory of Jesus, which was always in the depths of his being, rose to the surface for that one time in His earthly life. Glory means resplendent beauty and magnificence, but it also means the splendor that shines around God. At the transfiguration Jesus is shown to be the radiant hope, power, and presence of God with us—making it kind of a big deal. Which makes you think Jesus would want as many people as possible to see the transfiguration—because seeing makes it all so much easier to believe.
How often have we prayed for an experience—even just a glimpse of his bright shining face—so that all our doubts and fears could melt away? But yet, we’ve never had such an experience or glimpse. The closest we come is probably Christmas Eve when we are holding high our candles lit with the light of Christ. But even that pales in comparison to the real event. And that’s what makes this passage so difficult to understand because who has experienced a transfiguration?
Ask ten people: “What is the transfiguration?” and nine of them will stare at you blankly and the tenth will tell you they had their “transfiguration” go out in their 1999 Dodge Dakota pickup truck and it cost over $900 to get it fixed.
But it was an event Peter experienced and knew immediately was critical to our faith in Christ, and he was going to make sure others knew too, which is why Peter wrote about this in his second letter—writing to a church suffering persecutions, struggling to see any light, struggling to see how and why faith in Christ was worth the cost. To that church he said: “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty…. for we were with him on the holy mountain…You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
In other words, until life turns around, until a new day comes and our troubles are over, we must keep believing Jesus is no ordinary person. We must hold fast to the belief that Jesus is the Light of the world. And in order to do so we must cultivate a faith that is not dependent on seeing glory first hand on the surface, but a faith that can see the multiple dimensions of our world and the heights and depths of life.
We as people of faith are to look into our dim nights—see beyond the surface, look above and below the surface troubles, to the resplendent, dazzling, magnificent, majesty of Jesus, the Morning Star.
Move 3
But how do we cultivate such a faith? How do we keep walking through the dim valleys of life without being engulfed in utter hopelessness? What keeps the widowed motivated not only to live but to believe? What keeps those battling disease encouraged to keep fighting? What keeps those overburdened and distressed by work or family discord from giving up? What keeps those who have been defeated and deflated from despair? Well you may not realize it but it is your faith in the transfiguration.
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It was during the hardest days of the Civil Rights movement, when nothing good seemed to be happening, that Martin Luther King, Jr. began preaching to his anxious and frightened congregations: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” He was reminding them of the transfiguration and by doing so he was encouraging them to look beyond the surface of the dim days to the height and depth of life where the glory of the Lord still shines forth with hope. King was telling them that for those who never give up, the glory of the Lord will eventually burst forth and bring a new day because no darkness can blot out the one who shines with the resplendence of God.
Faith is seeing what our eyes cannot. When all that we see is what has gone wrong in our lives, our faith reminds us there is more to life than what’s on the surface. Faith sees what is yet possible because the Lord is beneath us, holding us up, and the Lord is above us blessing us in ways we have not yet understood but one day will.
Conclusion
With the coming of Ash Wednesday in three days, we begin the season of Lent. Lent is the time of facing up to, confessing, and working to move away from the sins and dimness in the world and within us. Lent represents those seasons of life when the bottom falls out from underneath us; the time when all we see is everything going wrong; life unraveling. It begins with ashes marking us as those who are aware of our sins and need of a savior—which makes it kind of the opposite of the transfiguration.
And the Transfiguration is way, way more than our spine tingling experiences. It is unique. It is a one-time event, witnessed by only a few, but to be believed and carried in the hearts of many. Because only a faith that can see through the surface of dim trials and tribulations to the light of Jesus Christ shining through like sun rays bursting through storm clouds will keep us going when life gets to its worst.
So regardless of how dim our days may become the power and glory of the transfiguration remains. And when we have eyes of faith to see this that cannot be seen on the surface, then the multiple dimensions of Christ’s hope, power, and presence in the world we be revealed. And it’s then the Morning Star will rise in our hearts. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, February 27, 2022, Transfiguration Sunday
Holy God, we long to experience that of the three disciples who became eyewitnesses to the Transfiguration. We want to climb the mountain too, leaving behind our concerns, making dwelling places so the mountain top experience never ends.
Oh, that we could have been there with Jesus to see for ourselves his radiant countenance; to hear the voice coming out of the heavens, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
Oh, that we could experience such and see Jesus.
We long O God, to have an intimate relationship with Christ such as the disciples had. But we, like them, want to keep Jesus just for ourselves. And, also like them, we do not want to go back down from the mountain to face rejection, humiliation and suffering. We like our comforts, our successes, our own achievements. We hold on to our pride and self-centeredness. We fear being changed, giving up old ways of thinking and acting. We fear what life would be like if we became a new being. So we close ourselves off from the glory of your countenance and from the struggle and the joy of your ministry.
Oh Lord, as you broke through in the world of your early disciples, so break through to us. Show us where your glory is to be found, not only on the mountaintop, but in the everyday moments of offering hope, peace, joy, and love; of serving the poor, freeing the imprisoned, and reaching out to all those who suffer.
And so we lift to you the people of Ukraine, and ask for Your intervention in this senseless war levied against them by Russia. We pray for the families, especially, the children living through the horrors of war and all the upheaval it brings.
We also pray for those protesting in Russia against these violent acts by their government. We ask that You would protect, cover and keep these protesters as they put their bodies on the line in the name of justice and righteous.
We pray for the entire world community, including the leaders in our own country. Give them wisdom and ingenuity to respond in ways that ends this war and moves us all to a world where Your peace abides.
Have us all see beyond what’s just in front of us, beyond life’s surface, to the heights and depths of all creation and work for a world transfigured in the glory of Jesus’ justice and love.
Hear now, we ask, the prayers from deep within our spirits, shared now in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of the Morning Star that is always rising, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…