Epiphany Last C 2007 Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-36

There’s a true story that an English Bishop told in the parishes of his diocese during his visitations one year. The story was about a visit he'd paid to a local school. One of the children asked him what his stick was for, and the bishop had thrown the question back at the children. Their answers were interesting. One thought it was a walking stick, another thought it was a stick used to hit people! But one little girl named Kim said: "I think it's a stick which a shepherd uses."

It had been the highlight of the bishop's day to see the beaming smile on Kim's face, and to see the delight of the teachers, that Kim had gotten it right when the other children had not. You see, Kim was the only child in the school with Down's Syndrome. Kim’s face and her whole being were transformed because she got the answer right. And through the bishop’s story, her brief transformation has had a lasting and transformative effect on many other people. (1)

And so we come again to the Transfiguration. The temptation, of course is to say the same old things about AHA moments, mountaintop moments, transformational moments, important as they are. But let’s take another look.

One astute observer has noted that “Some scholars believe this story has been chronologically misplaced, and rightly belongs after the resurrection, as one of the resurrection appearances. Interestingly enough, that's where the rock opera 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' places it, and the story does seem to fit very comfortably as a post-resurrection story. It seems much more likely that Jesus would be meeting with Moses and Elijah, those long dead characters from the OT, after his own death.

“So why did the gospel writers include it here, before the death and resurrection of Jesus?

“Perhaps the gospel writers see the transfiguration of Jesus as a precursor of the resurrection itself. The theme of the transfiguration seems to be that ordinary things, ordinary moments can be transformed by Jesus. The resurrection takes this theme one stage further, by showing that not only ordinary times, but also terrible times, black times, disasters -- the Crucifixion -- can be transformed by Jesus. (2)

“The first baby in the family transforms the lives of both the young couple and their wider family. A holiday can transform those who have been feeling jaded or run down. A kind word or a thoughtful act or unexpected good news can transfigure the day for the recipient. Spring sunshine can transfigure those who suffer from winter blues….

“But all these different transformations, wonderful and delightful as they are, are transient. None of them last forever. The delightful new baby may become the difficult toddler. When the holiday ends it's back to the daily grind. Spring sunshine often changes to cold rain. Work, however much it's desired, can become commonplace or tedious, or tough and tiring. Perhaps it's a mistake to expect transformations to last forever.” (3) Because it’s always back to the valleys where the real work of the Kingdom is done.

That may be true because our responses to mountaintop Aha transformational moments may be wrong. Maybe we are so busy enjoying the moment, feeling so good because we’ve had it, that we miss the meaning. Maybe we don’t take time to listen to the meaning of the moment, to the still small voice of God speaking to us inside of it.

Perhaps it’s just the odd way I have of looking at the world, but it seems to me that the silence of God is , strongest, loudest in the bright sunlit desert and in the densest fog at sea. Whenever I’ve been in the great expanse of the American southwestern desert I hear its eerie silences echoing across the stark beauty of its endless empty spaces. I become particularly contemplative in the midst of such vast emptiness. And I can easily imagine God speaking to Moses in such places.

And while it might seem strange to talk of dense fog at sea in the same way, I recall the time far out on the Chesapeake when dense fog suddenly closed in on me
in the days before GPS with nothing but a compass and dead reckoning to guide me. I was struck by the utter silence around me until I neared buoys and markers whose warning sounds could penetrate the fog, and help me set a course for safe harbor.

“Most of us, at some time another, have had transforming experiences, times when we recognize clearly that our lives are about to be, or have been, forever changed, times when we absolutely glow. How else would you explain people's uncanny ability to ask the right question at the right time, if we didn't emit some kind of glow: Are you in love? Are you expecting? Did you get a raise? Did you finally break par?

“Have you ever watched a child open a card and find money in it?,
“Have you ever watched a senior open an acceptance letter from their first pick school,
“Have you ever watched a teenager open the door after their first goodnight kiss,
“Have you ever watched a golfer after they search around the green only to find the ball in the hole,
“Have you ever watched a mother or a grandmother when she holds a new baby,
“Have you ever watched a father when he walks his daughter down the aisle?

“No words are needed, the look says it all, the glow speaks volumes: disappointment, disbelief, completeness, loneliness, awe, joy: every word is written on the face.” (4)

This morning's texts are woven in such a way that we are given a glimpse as to what it means to have a life forever changed by the knowledge and presence of God. And let us keep silent before it.

AMEN


1. Janice Scott, The Transience of Transfiguration, The Village Shepherd, css.com
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. “A Kind of Glow”, Author unknown, e Sermons Illustrations for Epiphany Last 2007