Musical Prelude and Service.

Exodus 24:12-18 & Matthew 17:1-9
Transfiguration is a word that we most likely only encounter in church and essentially once a year.
Today in fact. Transfiguration marks the end of the season of Epiphany when the disciples of Jesus
witness Jesus in a more divine image. They see him in conversation with Moses and Elijah and hear
God name Jesus as the son and the beloved.
So transfiguration becomes that moment when Jesus, who we are increasingly experiencing as the
Messiah, the light of the world, is seen as anointed by God to lead his followers in creating a new
world. For me, this story as much as it tells us something about Jesus is also about the disciples and
what they learn about who they are in this moment. Who they are called to be in relationship to
Jesus, and by extension to God and to the rest of the world. This is my son, the beloved. Listen to
him. They are told to follow Jesus and to listen to him.
Moses walks up a mountain, is obscured from the people as he received the commandments that he
then gives to the people of Israel, outlining how they are called to relate to God and to one another.
Peter, James and John follow Jesus up the mountain. They see Jesus in a new light. They see Jesus
alongside two of the critical figures from Jewish history. The law giver and the prophet who speaks
for the God of Israel in the face of the priests of Baal, and who is carried to God on a fiery chariot.
Jesus is seen alongside the bringer of law and the defender of God’s people.
This is my son listen to him.
Matthew offers us this story of who Jesus is after Jesus has already spent a great deal of time
preaching to his followers and offering them lessons on the coming Kingdom of Heaven.
Listen to him as he prepares to begin his journey to Jerusalem, where he has already told his
followers he will be killed.
And so, what has Jesus already told his followers about living justly and lovingly in this world? Don’t
hide your light. You are blessed as you struggle to make peace. As you hunger for righteousness and
justice. Jesus has told those followers to learn hard into the commandments given by Moses. To love
one another, to feed the hungry and clothe the poor. To welcome the stranger. And to go beyond
those rules that are spelled out to them. To go beyond the ethic of an eye for an eye and to instead
turn the other cheek. To love your enemy. To carry your burden an extra mile. To follow Jesus; to
listen to Jesus, means going beyond the bare minimum.
Following Jesus; listening to Jesus is not a simple thing. Jesus comes to save us, yes, but he also
comes to challenge us. To tell us God sees us as so much more than we have allowed ourselves to
be. Jesus is transfigured on that mountain. Just as Moses is shown to be something more during his
time on the mountain. But those who witness that scene on the mountain are also transformed. They
are offered a vision of a transformed world made flesh in Jesus. They are offered a vision of God’s
love and God’s justice.
And they don’t want to let go of what they have experienced. Peter proposes creating shrines for
Jesus, Moses and Elijah, to preserve this moment, this reality. In essence he says, let’s stay here and
hold on to this. Let’s bask in this holy moment. But Jesus leads them down the mountain, adding for
these three disciples to keep what they witnessed to themselves until the resurrection. Again, a
foretelling of Jesus’s coming death.
Jesus is revealed as the son of God. The word made flesh, the light of the world. Jesus is the
fulfillment of God’s love for creation. Listen to him.
Jesus has already been talking about what God desires for us. Jesus has been telling his followers
how we are called to be part of creating a world grounded in God’s love, God’s mercy and
compassion, God’s justice. But as is so constantly the case in the gospels, the disciples struggle to
truly understand and appreciate just what he is telling them.
Let’s be clear. We are the disciples. The disciples are us. We listen to Jesus. Or we tell ourselves we
listen. But I think we can struggle to truly hear him. We can and often do, find ourselves challenged
to follow through on what we hear. And we get to witness through the Gospels; through the stories
we read in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, just how often the disciples mishear or ignore or shy away
from the teaching and the healing that Jesus offers over and over. Love your enemies; turn the other
cheek, people are hungry? Feed them. Invite the people on the street in to be a part of the banquet.
Serve one another. Don’t turn people away when they come seeking comfort and shelter.
Once again, sitting down to write on a Thursday I found myself confronted by horrifying events from
the day or days just prior to that. This time it was the horrifying news of a mass shooting at a school;
this time in Canada. In Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. It is almost impossible to wrap my head
around the horror and the heartbreak of this event. The devastation of this amount of death inflicted
on a community.
We are beginning to learn more about who pulled the trigger so many times and taking so many lives
and inflicting so many wounds and scars. It is gut wrenching. We will and are inevitably being tested
in this moment, to answer the question and how we will choose to respond. Our emotions of anger;
of sadness, of fear, and compassion are all real and valid. But how we choose to respond; how we
choose to move forward is up to us. We have a choice to make.
We can be tempted to give in to wrath and hatred and fear. There are already calls out there in some
corners to target communities that somehow might be to connected to the shooter. Apparently, the
killer who then took their own life, was transgender. That somehow this justifies painting a whole
community with that same brush. Even though we know such a response is wrong and
dehumanizing. Or.
Or, we can take to heart what the disciples hear on the mountain and listen to God’s son; the
beloved, and listen to what Jesus tells us.
Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are those who mourn.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness.
Blessed are those who are merciful. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Let your light shine and provide light for all the world.
Resolve your anger, love your enemy, if struck by someone turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile.
Do not let the limits of the wisdom of this world, confine you in your response. Be moved by the love
and the wisdom of God who created us and desires a world of love, of peace and of justice.
May we truly listen to the love and the strength and the mercy of Jesus as we discern this moment of
horror of heartbreak. May we be moved by that compassion and that justice as we answer such
violence and anger with true strength, true justice and true love for our neighbours.
Thanks be to God.
Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789