3-3-2019 Readings & Sermon

A reading from Exodus.

Moses came down from Mount Sinai.

As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone, because he had been talking with God.

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.

But Moses called to them.

And Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them.

Afterwards, all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.

But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out.

And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining.

And Moses would put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with him.

The word of the Lord would speak to him.

But their minds were hardened.

Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.

Indeed, to this very day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds.

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and when the Spirit of the Lord is, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And all of us with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory into another.

For this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.

We have renounced the shameful things that one hides.

We refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word.

But by the open statement of the truth, we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

The word of the Lord.

The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Luke.

Jesus took with him Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

And while while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.

Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.

They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which we which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him.

And just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here.

Let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, not knowing what he was saying.

While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.

Then from the cloud came a voice that said, This is my son, my chosen.

Listen to him.

When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.

And they kept silent, and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him.

And just then a man from the crowd shouted, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son.

He is my only child.

Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks.

It convulses him until he foams at the mouth.

It mauls him and will scarcely leave him.

I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.

Jesus answered, You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and to bear with you to bring your son here?

And while he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions.

But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

And all were astonished at the greatness of God.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Today is the final Sunday in the season of Epiphany.

Throughout this season, Mike has been taking us through a variety of epiphanies.

You know, those big ideas of who God is and how they can shift and change our worldviews.

Today's gospel reading gives us one more very bright idea.

This narrative today starts on a mountaintop.

And in just six weeks, we will find ourselves back again on the top of a hill.

These two mountaintop stories bookend the Lenten journey.

Today, Jesus is on a mountain being transfigured, and in a few weeks, on Good Friday, we will be back on a hilltop where Jesus will be going through a transformation as he dies on the cross.

Today, a few of his disciples are there to witness him in between Moses and Elijah, the great Israelite symbols of the law and the prophets.

On Good Friday, a few of his disciples will be present to witness him being placed between two criminals.

Today there is a great brightness, and on Good Friday, the sun will be blotted out, and there will be a great darkness over the earth.

Today, God's glory is revealed through in part the words that God speaks, saying, This is my Son, my chosen.

On Good Friday, while Jesus cries out, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

God the Father at that point appears to remain silent.

As we begin this journey from one hilltop to another, we move from one epiphany of who God is in Jesus to another epiphany, to a fuller picture of who Jesus is.

Through the epiphany of this transfiguration, we learn that Jesus as God is both transcendent and very much earthy with an earthly mission.

Today we witness the glory of God in Jesus.

In the transfiguration, it is as if the divine nature of Jesus is breaking forth, as if his human body can no longer contain the glory of God, but instead shines through.

In the Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John, and now us also understand that Jesus is God.

Jesus is holy.

Jesus is something otherworldly.

Still, today we have experiences of this transcendent God, if I'm honest.

It happened for me just a few minutes ago during the Alleluia's.

The end of that song just took me to some other place.

It can also happen in times of prayer, at the Eucharistic meal, and through many other means.

It is in these moments where we experience God as holy, we experience Jesus as being truly God, and that the Trinity is completely otherworldly.

And when we experience God in these ways, we are being connected with that other plane of existence.

But God is not so otherly, so otherly, so removed or so distant that God does not relate with God's creation.

As much as God is transcendent, moving vertically, God also moves horizontally.

See, God throughout history has this habit of coming close and being intimate with God's creation.

It is that closeness that walks in the Garden of Eden.

It is that closeness that makes Moses' face shine so brightly.

It is that closeness that is seen and experienced in the incarnation as God takes on flesh and dwells among us.

And it is this closeness that becomes apparent to Peter, James, and John while they are on this mountaintop today.

And what they become, and with that, they become a bit more aware in this moment that God, through Jesus, has actually, in fact, been with them all this time.

This narrative of the transfiguration points not only to this transcendent divine nature of Jesus, but also to Jesus' earthliness.

It is a moment that encapsulates both God's vertical and horizontal movements.

We hear of God's horizontal movements in this conversation between Jesus, Elijah, and Moses.

They speak of his departure, which he is about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

And while when we initially hear this, we might think of some very vertical movement, especially when we think of Jesus ascending after his resurrection.

But actually, I suggest that when they talk about this departure, it's very horizontal in nature.

See, the Greek word here for departure is actually Exodus.

And with this word choice, and with the presence of Moses, the leader of the Israelite Exodus out of Egypt and out of slavery, with these two elements, it is easy for the reader to hear that Jesus is not simply leaving this place by himself, but actually but actually being the one to lead that ultimate exodus, that exodus for all of us, as Jesus breaks the bondage of sin and brokenness, as Jesus leads the nations into a new way of life full of shalom, as Jesus leads the nations into the kingdom of God.

It is not that Jesus is simply departing this place soon, but that through the means of his departure that he breaks the bonds of death.

On that hilltop on Good Friday, we will again witness this final act of freedom from enslavement.

But in today's narrative, we read that Jesus doesn't wait for Good Friday to begin breaking those bonds.

He points to this ultimate exodus through examples of freedom along the way to Jerusalem.

Let me ask you, when I read this morning the gospel, did it feel a bit odd like Ellen maybe put in a little too much into the bulletin and that I read a little too far?

Did that last section feel a little out of place?

Well, it's there intentionally, and I suspect that this scene is there to point us to the fact that unlike Peter's desire to stay up on the mountain, Jesus and his crew come off the mountain and return to the valley where there is work to be done as they continue their journey towards Jerusalem.

This mountaintop is not their final destination, but only the starting point.

Jesus comes off the mountain and touches the lives of those around him, already breaking the bonds that hold people back from having the fullness of life.

The boy experiences God's glory through the restoration of his health.

The father experiences through the restoration of his only son.

The son who in health can support the family and carry on the family line into the next generation.

As Jesus comes down from the mountain, he begins to move more horizontally, bringing freedom and life to others.

This narrative of the transfiguration is about experiencing God both in those transcendental, transcendent mountaintop moments, but also in those earthy, gritty realities that we find in the valleys.

When I was in college, about my second year, I had a very intense, serious disagreement with a dear friend of mine who I'd been friends with for years.

And it was such a bad fight that I was sure there was no way that we could heal and move on from this fight.

I was sure that it was the end of our relationship.

And to be honest, in that moment, even if I felt like there was a way forward, I wasn't sure I wanted to take it.

And in the middle of that fight, I get a phone call from some skydiving friends who say, Hey, do you want to come up and make a couple of loads tonight?

See, in the weeknights, we'd only get a load going if we had enough warm bodies to fill the plane to cover the cost to take it off.

It was a random Wednesday in autumn, and I said, yes.

I needed that escape to get out of the situation for a couple of hours.

So I drove up north to the drop zone.

And on my second jump, it was a sunset load, which meant the sun was literally setting as we got out of the plane.

As I jumped, and I got out of the plane, it was as if I jumped into a whole different world.

I had an otherworldly experience.

You might think, sure, any skydive is gonna be a bit otherworldly.

This was the one that was truly otherworldly.

As I said, it was autumn, and we were jumping right south of the Appalachian Trail, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Pennsylvania, and the sun was setting on the western end.

So as I get out of the plane, it just so happened I was facing east.

And I turned around, and there I see it.

The sun is setting over the mountain.

And the trees were already painted in these gorgeous autumn hues that I'm sorry, but Houston cannot compare to.

And as the sun set, it was as if the sun set those leaves on fire.

It was truly otherworldly.

And in that moment I felt and was reminded of God's presence, God's transcendent nature, but God's nature being with me in that moment.

And as I took as long as I possibly could under parachute to enjoy that view, I felt this overwhelming sense of peace, of comfort, and of hope.

And as I drove back down to school that evening in the dark, I realized that God was with me in this situation with my friend, and I was given a new sense of hope and courage to do the hard work to seek reconciliation.

So in that moment, I experienced both this vertical, transcendent, otherworldly experience of God, but then also was able to live it out in the horizontal.

I hope that for y'all here, that Sunday worship is one of those places where the transcendent can be experienced and worshiped, that this place can be maybe your regular mini mountaintop experience.

But I also hope that as we leave this space, that we meet God and God's transformative glory, God's bondage-breaking love in the world out there that surrounds us, in our office, at our schools, in our neighborhoods, and in our own homes.

When we conclude the service each week, as deacon, I normally say, go in peace to love and serve the Lord, to which you all respond, thanks be to God.

Just checking.

This is a reminder that as we go out from this place, that we go out to bring God's love into the world around us in which we live, that we are called to participate in that horizontal movement of God.

This coming Wednesday marks the start of the Lenten season.

And Lent allows us to move from these big epiphanies, these big revelations of who God is, toward living out these revelations.

With the intention that we find ways to connect in deeper, more meaningful ways with God and with one another.

Lent ends with Holy Week.

And the events of that week, especially the death and the resurrection of Jesus, are defining moments in the Christian faith.

We remember these events every year.

We remember them, though, in such a way not to just call them to mind, but that we can then connect with them and participate in those very events.

And because Holy Week is so pivotal, we have this whole season of Lent to prepare for it.

And it is a practice of many to give something up for Lent.

And if there are habits in your life that seem to be getting in the way between you and God, or you and others, then it may be a good time to use this Lent as an opportunity to break some of those habits.

But I suggest this year, instead of giving something up for the sake of giving something up because that's what you do in Lent, maybe try to take something new on.

It may be helpful to prepare for Holy Week by taking on practices that allow us to experience that transcendent God who is also present in the most earthly ways.

Maybe take on one practice that will help you to be more open to experiencing the transcendent God, and taking on a practice that will help you experience the God who dwells with us.

As we journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem this season of Lent, may we take these epiphanies we've been given and find new ways to experience God, both in the sunsets, the allelujias, and our prayers, but also in witnessing the breaking of bonds of death as God moves and works and is among us.