Musical Prelude and Service.

Luke 9:28-43
Over the weekend, a number of my fellow clergy were meditating on the question of how the story of the Transfiguration speaks to our current realities. One of our number, my friend Erin, who serves in Cornwall, said we need to focus on God’s instruction to the disciples, “This is my son. Listen to him.”
What has Jesus told us and what does Jesus continue to tell us? Focus on these things.
As I noted last week, this is not always as easy as we may immediately assume, but it does give us a focus. So, getting back to my overall reflection for this Sunday, Jesus in the midst of teaching his followers and healing the people who come to him, takes a break. He makes the decision to get away from people and climbs to the top of a mountain to take some time praying. He takes a few of his closest followers.
In the midst of that prayer, he is visited by Moses and Elijah, two of the key figures in the Jewish religion. People who helped shape the people’s relationship with God.
We are told Jesus is transfigured; he is bathed in a brilliant light in this moment. He is somehow transformed. Perhaps his mission, his ministry, who he is, is confirmed before God in this moment.
Is that what this is about? Or is there something else? Because I can’t hep but think that as much as this story, this moment in the life and work of Jesus is about Jesus, it’s also about his followers – about what Peter, James and John experience.
They witness this event, and they share it with their friends. They see Jesus, whom Peter just recently acknowledged as the Messiah, alongside Moses and Elijah. They heard the voice of God say, “This is my son. My chosen. Listen to him.”
How are they not transformed by this experience?
Peter is ready to build three tents to preserve that moment. But Jesus leads them down off that mountaintop.
Consider this scene for a moment. I have never climbed a mountain, but I have been on mountains. While skiing, I have had the opportunity to stand at the top of mountain slopes and take in the breathtaking views that spread out before me. They offer a glimpse of how immense this world is, how much there is in this world; how beautiful the world is.
I don’t know what Peter, James and John would have seen from their place on that mountain. Apparently, they were surrounded by clouds at some point. Would they have had a glimpse of the crowds of people, gathering to listen to Jesus and to plead with Jesus to heal themselves and their loved ones? Would they have had a glimpse of the road they were committed to taking, following Jesus to Jerusalem and the fate that awaited them there? How were they affected by this experience? It had to be a mystical moment, right? Seeing Jesus bathed in light talking with two long dead historical figures. Talking about Jesus’ exodus to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.
That’s an odd way to consider Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. His exodus. Except, I don’t think it is about the journey to Jerusalem. Exodus is about an exit. It is about the process of leaving. By using
the term exodus, Luke links Jesus with Moses, but it is also foreshadowing the death of Jesus, which we, and Jesus also, knows is coming when he gets to Jerusalem.
This is a great deal of information being downloaded on the three disciples. Confirming who Jesus is, his connection to the great figures of Jewish history and what is coming in their immediate future.
They will never be the same.
And so, Peter does his best to stall things. To hold on to this particular moment; to stay in this mystical moment for a little bit longer.
Can we just sit in this moment for a little while longer, linger in this liminal moment, close to the sacred, the holy presence we so yearn for? They get a little bit of peace as they find sleep. But that too comes to an end. And it is time to go back down the mountain.
We can’t stay at the top of the mountain. Eventually I had to ski down the slope. Admittedly, that’s why I was up there in the first place, but as much as I was awestruck by the views from the top of those mountains, there were other things to experience and to glory in. And as much as the disciples were awestruck and caught up in that moment of transfiguration they had to follow Jesus down the mountain and carry on wit the mission, the assignment, the journey.
A few writers I came across discuss the story of the transfiguration in relation to worship. That we enter this place and are separated from the rest of the world for a moment. We have the chance to experience God in our time of prayer, of listening, of song. We get a glimpse of what the world can be in this place. We can be transformed by this experience.
But we cannot stay here. We must return to the world. We must be a part of the world.
However, what do we take back to the world? Jesus returns to the people at the base of the mountain and is immediately set upon by people asking for teaching and healing. He is frustrated by the inability of his followers to provide healing and so he sets about healing, teaching and journeying to Jerusalem.
His followers still struggle to provide the healing people are seeking. Jesus is clearly frustrated by this – perhaps a touch cranky, but I can’t help but think – at least they are trying. They understand what they are called to do. They are still learning. They are still journeying in their own way, but they are on the road. They have been changed by this process. They are engaged in the world after experiencing the awe of being in God, in Christ’s presence.
We are changed through our worship. We learn, we pray, we reflect. Sometimes something happens in our time of worship that moves us; we experience something we didn’t expect. We see the world in new ways. We get a glimpse of what this world can be. What God desires for us; for all of creation.
And we eventually take our leave of this sacred space. We depart and enter the world once again. We come down off that mountain, but we enter the world transformed; renewed. We bring this new vision of who we are and what we are called to do into the world. We participate in our mission to heal, to welcome, to be agents of God’s love and healing for the world.
So, let us fully engage in what this time of worship has to offer. Let us be open to experience God working in and through us here and now. And let us carry that experience with us into the word that we may be a visible presence of God’s love for the world.
Thanks be to God. Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

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