True Glory

A Sermon preached on February 19, 2023 at St. Augustine’s, WI and St. Christoph, MZ

Exodus 24:12-18, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9

Today the season of Epiphany comes to a close with what we call a Theophany, a word meaning appearance of – and usually encounter with – God (Theos). It is related to the word Epiphany – which means revelation - and our Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters call the whole season Theophany rather than Epiphany.

As I’ve mentioned before, we use a three-year lectionary cycle for our Sunday Eucharistic readings. This means that we last heard today's readings on February 23, 2020. Just three Sundays later we were in lockdown and only Steve, then my curate, and I were church to record and later upload a simple, spoken service of morning prayer. All we had was an iPad perched on the piano as our camera and microphone! As far as technology is concerned, we've certainly come a long way!

Lent always has a very different flavour compared to Epiphany, especially in this part of the world where it coincides with carnival! But we did not expect quite such a difference, quite such an extreme change, nor that Lent would seem to last so long - in some people’s perception, Lent lasted for two years. It has certainly been a roller coaster of emotions since March 2020 and appropriately, today's Gospel reading also covers this idea of an emotional roller coaster!  

Six days before the event we call the Transfiguration, according to Matthew’s timeline, Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had declared that Jesus was the Messiah, anointed by God and the Son of the Living God. Together with Jesus he, and two other disciples, now ascend a high mountain where Jesus is transformed before the disciples, so that his divinity shines through, and where he seems to already come in glory: “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” (Matthew 17:2) Peter’s declaration is confirmed by a voice from the cloud declaring – again, we heard similar words at Jesus’ Baptism – that “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

But it does not stay that way!  They come down from that mountain and back into the world again. In the episode that immediately follows, Jesus has to heal a young boy after his disciples failed to do so. Clearly this experience is somewhat of an anti-climax after all Jesus has just experienced, which might explain his somewhat exasperated response when he hears that the disciples could not cure him. “Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.’ (Matthew 17:17) A rare example of Jesus getting angry! And when the disciples come to Jesus privately later and ask “’Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith.’” (17:19-20)

We see once again how quickly human beings can forget God’s glory and God’s light when we move back into the shadows, how quickly we can ignore our promises and our commitments. One of the most extreme examples in Scripture is what we hear every year on Palm Sunday when within a few days the “Hosanna” of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem turns into the “let him be crucified” when Pilate asks the crowd “what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”! (Matthew 27:22) God is faithful and unchanging in God’s love for us. We are often not.

In many ways, Jesus’ transfiguration story echoes Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai that we heard about in the Exodus reading. Jesus is accompanied by Peter, James, and John. Moses is accompanied by Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, although they are not allowed to the very top of the mountain with Moses. Moses’ appearance is also changed, after encountering God his face shines. And when Moses returns from the glory of his mountain-top experience, he has good reason to be very frustrated and angry when he discovers that Israel has become faithless in his absence and begun to worship the golden calf.

But the Gospel does not just point back to Moses, connecting us with that part of the story of salvation that we have in common it our Jewish brothers and sisters. It also points forward to Jerusalem and the cross, to Good Friday. When Jesus returns to Jerusalem, he is confronted with condemnation by the people he had loved and with abandonment by his friends especially by Peter – despite having accompanied Jesus to the mountaintop.

In the Transfiguration, on the mountain Jesus is revealed in glory. At the crucifixion on a hill outside of Jerusalem Jesus is revealed in shame. Here his clothes become dazzling white, there the Roman soldiers strip them off. Here he is flanked by Moses and Elijah, standing for the law and the prophets. There he is flanked by two criminals. Here a bright cloud overshadows them, then darkness descends. What both events have in common is Jesus being identified as God son. Here on the mountain, it is as I said God, speaking from the cloud, who identifies Jesus as “my Son, the Beloved.” There it is a centurion who says with amazement “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (Matthew 27:54)

The Transfiguration is not the end, and not the final glory, but a sign of the glory and transformation to come. It is also intended to encourage the disciples, and strengthen them, even if that did not work as well as intended. But Jesus must first come down from the mountain, he must first go through a death on the cross before his final glory in the resurrection. From the Collect for Fridays (Morning Prayer): “Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified.” There is no divinity without humanity, no glory without sacrifice, no beloved without loving. There is no shortcut to glory for Jesus, and there is no shortcut for us either.

Jesus tells his disciples: “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” (Matthew 17:9) For the same reason, the church puts Lent and Holy Week between the Transfiguration and the Resurrection. We need them to understand the meaning and the cost of Jesus’ sacrifice. This coming week, on Ash Wednesday we will begin our desert experience, our time of denial in Lent, our period of preparation, of repentance and renewal.

Like Jesus, we must come down from the mountain and into the world. We do this every Sunday. First, we encounter God in the Eucharist at the altar. Then, strengthened and renewed, we are sent back into the world to do our work, to tell our story, to heal as Jesus healed, and to point to the glory that is to come. Even then, deep down in the valley, we can be secure in the vision and message of the Transfiguration that Jesus is God’s beloved Son, that in him we encounter God. We hold on to that knowledge. We are never abandoned, never lost. Death and sin are never victorious. The Collect for Fridays concludes with “Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

Amen.