“Can You Just Listen?”

(Exodus 34:29-35 and Luke 9:28-36)

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.  Afterward 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 on his face again until he went in to speak with him. 

            Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.  And 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 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.  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 said.   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.

            First, let’s talk about what the church calls this day.  It’s Transfiguration Sunday.  This is the Sunday before Lent begins which is this next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday.  The word transfiguration means a complete change of appearance into a more spiritual state, so the word describes what happens to Jesus in our Luke reading.  It also hearkens back to the change in Moses’ appearance after his encounter with God on the mountain (you heard about that in the Exodus passage).

            So, why do we have Transfiguration Sunday right on the eve of Lent’s beginning?  I think it’s probably because our ancestors in the faith thought, before we begin the Holy season of Lent, that we all should be on the same page and perfectly clear about who Jesus was. 

            So, there he is on the mountain with three of his disciples, Peter, John and James, getting ready to pray.  While he was praying, he was changed.   His appearance was transformed.  His face glowed, his clothes turned dazzling white.  Then Moses and Elijah joined Jesus.  The three of them were talking about what was going to happen to Jesus in the next little while.  Our translation talks about Jesus’ Exodus at Jerusalem.  This image would have been so powerful for the first listeners.  What was going to happen in Jerusalem would suggest Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.   But the word Exodus recalls the Israelites’ experience of being liberated from their bonds of slavery.  When it comes to Jesus’ liberation, perhaps, it has to do with his being freed from the bonds of human suffering and how he was about to show us the glory of his spiritual transformation.

We are reminded that the road ahead for him was going to be filled with pain and troubles. But in this Transfiguration scene we know that Jesus’ experience runs the entire gamut between heaven and earth because he was both human and divine.

            All right, now that we have set the stage, let’s deal with those clueless disciples who were clearly not good listeners, shall we?  When we hear that Peter and his companions “are weighted down with sleep.”  That should remind you of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene.  He had asked Peter to stay awake with him, but, as we know, Peter kept falling asleep.  Personally, I have great sympathy for Peter because I know what it feels like to have my eyes weighted down with sleep. 

            These three disciples were groggy, but they did wake up in time to see Jesus’ transformation and Moses and Elijah there with him.  Peter, who obviously hadn’t been paying close attention before, maybe not even yet awake, immediately went into action, talking, presenting his “amazing” plan.  “Hey, everybody, I have this great idea.”  Let’s build three booths for you three guys, Jesus, Moses and Elijah.  (The booths he was referring to were the shelters that faithful Jews built for the Feast of the Tabernacles or Sukkot, as it was called, which was a harvest festival, but also a remembrance of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness with no shelter).

            The thing is, Peter didn’t really know what was going on, but he sure knew that he wanted to act like he knew, by talking and presenting his big strategy about the Booths.  Suddenly a cloud came, and, clearly, as we’re told, it overshadowed them.  From it came God’s voice saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”

            We know that, later, the disciples were going to be disappointing to Jesus because they could not fully wrap their minds around who Jesus really was—in spite of what they were just told from the cloud.

            And isn’t that how we all operate in the church?  We think only of how we can help the church to survive rather than listen to God saying about Jesus, “This is my Chosen, my Beloved.  Listen to him.” 

We, like Peter, James and John want to get busy with a plan that will only make our numbers grow and, maybe, prevent church as we know it from dying.  We want to stay with what we know and pitch the ideas that have worked in the past.  So, we want to continue what we have always done.

            So, this is an example of what not to do, courtesy of the disciples: Peter immediately began talking about what they had always done when, clearly, God was doing something brand new in Jesus.  Peter must have had in mind this program that he thought was no-fail.  But the voice from the cloud had a different vision….  Our lesson is this: rather than sticking always and ever with our own plans, let’s see what God has in store.

            …Our new Bishop met with the clergy in our area.  I just love this guy.  He is Korean-American, and his name is Hee Soo Jung.  He has been a bishop for a number of years and has been sent to Ohio to preside over merging the East and West Ohio Conferences.  Big job!  He did a Bible Study with us on Mark 2:1-12 which endeared me immediately to him.  It is one of my favorite passages in my favorite Gospel.  The favorite of my mentor, Dr. Bogey Dunn, as well.  You can check it out later, but briefly, it’s the story of the friends cutting a hole in the roof of the house Jesus was staying in and lowering their paralyzed friend to be healed by Jesus.

            Anyway, our Bishop is the real thing.  He told us a story illustrating how churches have trouble thinking outside the box.  There were two guys who decided to go fishing together one chilly morning in Wisconsin.  The guy who owned the boat was noticing that his buddy would catch a large fish and immediately throw it back, over and over.  Now and then he would catch a small fish and put it in the cooler to take home.  Finally, the boat guy asked him, “My friend, why are you throwing the large fish back and only keeping the small ones?”  He replied, “Because my frying pan is only this big!”

            Rather than embracing the abundance of what it means to be the Jesus People, we shrink ourselves down to thinking we must stay within our small vision for ourselves, to think everything is scarce.  Rather than seeing our Jesus as God’s Chosen and Beloved, we think we have to manage him so that we can put a certain outfit on him so that he fits with a Children’s sermon.

            The common thread for us Christians is that our Christ is bigger than we can imagine.  He is God’s Chosen.  He is God’s Beloved.  We are God’s beloved.  We need to worship in a way that welcomes all people to an abundant life of love.  Jesus’ message is, love the way God loves, the way Jesus has shown us. 

            So when God said out of the cloud, “This is my beloved.  This is my messenger.  Listen to him!”  We gotta listen.  We can’t just immediately go into strategy mode.  We can’t immediately go to our default setting of doing what we’ve always done.  We can’t immediately say no because we’re scared we won’t have enough.  I know these are frightening times.  In some ways, we have no idea what the future of our country and our world will be.  But when it comes to the business of Christ’s church, we have to follow Christ, we have to listen to Jesus because he is God’s chosen, God’s Beloved.  …As are we.  Amen.