"Transformed In Hope" February 26, 2006 The Transfiguration of Our Lord

(First read the text for this sermon: Mark 9:2-9)

I nearly cancelled my home delivery of the New York Times a couple of weeks ago. It’s because I was in despair. I confess to you that I was so depressed by what is going on in the world, that I did not want to know, in New York Times detail, how bad things are!

Think of Africa. Now drought and famine are affecting Tanzania and Kenya and Somalia.

Think of the Middle East, with the election of Hamas in Palestine.

Think of the cost of the war in Iraq, with no light yet at the end of the tunnel.

Think of Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Think of how our nation’s oil slurping habits mean that we’re funding governments that sponsor the very terrorism we’re fighting.

Does all of this make you despair? Or am I the only one?

I tell you this: it is easy to forget that the gospel message defies the world’s despair! This morning, for instance, we read a gospel story that provides an alternative reality. The story declares God’s reality that breaks apart human assumptions. We read a story of transfiguration, of transformation.

Six days later, we read (that is, six days after Jesus has “told his disciples that he must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again”[1]), Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

There is a lot going on in this story. You remember that, in the gospel of Mark, the action happens fast and furious. “Immediately” and “just then” and “suddenly” are favorite words used by this gospel writer, to describe the calling of disciples, and healings, and Jesus’ confrontations with the forces of evil. But here’s something else to remember: in Mark’s version of the Jesus story, Jesus is doing and saying all of those things, but his followers don’t understand who he is and what he is up to! Throughout Mark, Jesus cannot break apart his followers’ assumptions of how the world works. They are not open to what he is doing and saying! Their misunderstandings are comical, in a tragic sort of way! (We could get into that if this was a Bible study.)

Perhaps it’s enough to remember that just six days before this morning’s story, Jesus had told his disciples that he must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again – and Peter speaks for the rest of the disciples when he says to Jesus, “Oh, no! That can’t happen to you!” Isn’t this a stunning thing? Jesus’ most intimate friends and followers do not know what God is doing through Jesus.

And so we come to this morning’s story. It’s a story which presents God’s point of view of what God is doing through Jesus![2] Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

There is rich imagery here. Think of what happens up on a high mountain in a pivotal story in Hebrew Scripture. If this reminds you of Mt. Sinai, and God’s call to Moses, giving Moses the 10 Commandments and the rest of the holy law, then I think you’re right with the author of Mark and the connection he’s making. Indeed, in this story from Mark, who appears, along with Jesus? There is Moses himself! Moses is the one who provided the foundation of all religious life for God’s people at the time of Jesus; in the story, there he is, right there with Jesus! And that’s not all. Elijah is there, too, in the vision. Some of God’s people expect Elijah to return, just before the messiah is to appear.

It’s Peter and James and John who are with Jesus on this high mountain. There are petrified by this vision! They struggle to understand what is going on. (That’s true throughout Mark, remember). In his misunderstanding, Peter says to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. That’s the best Peter can do in trying to figure out what’s going on: this must be a holy place, and, like in the annual Hebrew festival of booths, they should make dwellings so they can all stay here forever, worshiping at this holy place. That’s what Peter is thinking.

But to add to their fear and confusion, Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" (God’s point of view is stated explicitly, you see.) And when they look up, quivering with dread and shock, Jesus is alone! Jesus is alone! That means Jesus is greater than Moses, the one who provided the foundation of all religious life for God’s people! And Elijah is gone too! There is no need for the forerunner. The messiah is here!

What richness there is in this story! What befuddlement there is, in the heads of Peter and James and John. But here is why I think the disciples are such numbskulls in the gospel of Mark: it is the author’s way of asking us whether we understand what’s going on. The stories put you and me on the spot: The disciples are clueless, but do you and I know who Jesus is? The disciples are entirely out of it, but do you and I know what God is doing in the human flesh of Jesus?

God’s alternate reality has broken in, through Jesus. Certainly, what God is doing is beyond our capacity to explain fully, or to understand completely. But the gospel writer is challenging you and me: do you give yourself to this Good News that has broken apart our assumptions? Or do we resist it, as the disciples did? Which brings us back to despair. Where are you stuck? Where do you feel hopeless? How do you need to be freed from fearfulness and myopia? Where do you need to be transfigured, transformed, changed into people who see God’s presence in everyday life?

Walter Brueggemann puts it this way: “the [Biblical] story concerns an alternative vision of the life of the world under the rule of the slave-freeing, wound-healing, covenant-making God. This alternative vision is rooted in the will and purpose of God; but it is practiced concretely in risky, bodily acts by the people of this God.[3]

When the Holy Spirit moves within and among us, to open us to what God is doing, we are transformed in hope. And that shows up in how we live, in defiance of despair.

Listen to these words, which end this morning’s story: As they were coming down the mountain, [Jesus] ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Remember Peter’s initial impulse: to build worship dwellings and to stay on top of this holy mountain forever? Instead, Jesus takes them right back down the mountain – right back into their daily lives. And Jesus even tells his closest followers, “Don’t tell anyone about this until the end of my story. I don’t want people to get the wrong idea: that I’m just a worker of sensational religious visions!”

Instead (and this is the point of the whole Epiphany season), we see that Jesus is God in human flesh – and we see that in the nitty-gritty of our everyday human lives. As Brueggemann puts it, “Jesus’ ministry makes clear that the rescue and rehabilitation of creation is not done in one huge salvific act; it is rather done leper-by-leper, widow-by-widow, and neighbor-by-neighbor.”[4]

God breaks apart our assumptions that nourish despair. We are transformed in hope! Our eyes are opened. And what we see is Emmanuel, God with us, active, transfiguring, in our fleshly, daily lives.

In the name of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Mark 8:31
[2] To use a concept of Jack Dean Kingsbury’s in his book, Mark as Story.
[3] Walter Brueggemann, “Mission as Hope in Action” in Journal for Preachers, Lent 2001, page 20. (Italics in the original.)
[4] Ibid.