"Transfigured to Transform" February 19, 2012

2 Kings 2:1-15
Mark 9:1-12
What do we say or do with TRANSFIGURATION SUNDAY?
I believe there are moments in life, moments in history, when the limitations between Heaven and Earth are especially close. Not dictated by Astrology or Astronomy, forecast by Nostradamus or the Myans, not dictated as having to be historically, but Apocalyptic Moments when we DO see God.

When Moses encountered the Burning Bush and received a name for God, as well as when he received the 10 Commandments, we know these identify our relationship, and the Law we are to follow. Christmas, we know to be the gift of the Savior to the world. Just as Delilah, baptized this morning, has changed the life of this couple forever, the gift of the child at Christmas changed all the world. Lent, Holy Week, Easter, we have traditions to follow and understand the meaning of each event. But what do we say about an event 2000 years ago, when Jesus went up a mountain, not with 5000, not to preach a sermon or to feed 3000, not even with all of the disciples, but with three?

After healing and teaching and preaching, he asked the disciples, whom they think he is and what it means to be the Messiah, the Christ, and he explains that he must suffer and die, not simply risk, but being the Savior means he must actually die to atone for Sin with a Capital S. And the three who aspired to sit at his right hand, the three who are always the first to respond: Peter, James and John, went up the mountain of God with Jesus, where they entered into a cloud and witnessed Moses and Elijah... Some have speculated that because they saw Moses and Elijah with Jesus, then Jesus alone, that the Law and Prophets no longer have meaning! Others that this signified that Jesus ministry fulfills the Law and the Prophets of Old. Regardless, a Voice, like that which separated light from dark, and order from chaos at Creation, a Voice like that which spoke at Jesus' baptism, spoke saying “This is my Beloved Son, LISTEN to him.” It is not enough to arrive at the right answer, if the correct answers mean nothing to you.

One of the most significant problems with our having a Transfiguration Day, the most significant problem with the Apocalyptic moments of Life, is that we look for answers, we seek truths to know, and we miss the point of what God is doing with us.
We are awed by the mystery of life, that loved ones did not die on a holiday, or birthday, will wait for a child traveling cross country to arrive, or will pass as soon as everyone leaves the room for coffee. As much as humans strive for what we believe to be a GOOD DEATH, the point of life is not how we died. The point of death is closure, and the point of life is how our life has affected others. Not EFFECTED, but AFFECTED, not how we were able to elicit response from others, but that our being changed the life and circumstance and understanding of others.

The Transfiguration is not about Jesus' clothing turning dazzling white. The point is what witnessing Jesus with Moses and Elijah meant to Peter, James and John and to us, throughout human history? Not only that Jesus is equal to, and surpasses Moses and Elijah; but no where else in Scripture, at no prior event in history, had historic figures come together. Circumstances, events were perceived as isolated in time, what the Transfiguration calls us to consider is connecting ideas, making connections between the LAW of Moses and the Challenge of the Prophets and the life of Jesus. Making connections between what we have been taught, what we know and believe, with our experience. The Transfiguration is not Theoretical, this is not Philosophy... the sensory experiences of Climbing a mountain, entering a cloud, seeing Moses and seeing Elijah, and hearing a voice from Heaven, ALL come together to say this is real. While the Mountain may have been changed. While the cloud may have come down. While Jesus' face and clothing may have shown. The point of the Transfiguration is the TRANSFORMATION it provided in these disciples and all of us.

Elijah was carried to heaven in a flaming chariot. That is a sign worthy of being in the Bible, and being about an individual whose life we know from the Bible, we would want to know how he died, or as recorded here, that he did not die, but went to be with God. Yet this is not the point of the telling. Cain killed Abel with the Jawbone of an Ass. Methusalah lived 969 years and died 7 days before the flood. These are interesting trivia, but pointless without application of the story and the transformative effect. Elijah had been a Prophet of God who stood up to King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Elijah had contested between the Worship of the Idol Baal and the Worship of God Almighty, challenging that you cannot have both. When the contest was over, God was victorious and all the prophets of Baal were killed. And no one was more afraid of the circumstance than Elijah, who went to the Mountain of God, where Moses had witnessed God, and Elijah heard the still small voice, asking “What are you doing here Elijah?” Elijah was commanded to anoint a new King over Syria and a new King over Israel, and a new Prophet to continue in his place, Elisha. So the first thing he does is to anoint Elisha to take over.

In this last event in the life of Elijah, we are told they went to Gilgal, to Bethel, to Jericho, and to the Jordan and across to the wilderness. These are not random cities, these are all Biblical places, as if mentoring Elisha the places and histories important to Israel's relationship with God. The difficulty in any teaching and mentoring, is that there comes a point of letting go, of the master passing and the student carrying on. When asked what he wants, Elisha responds “A Double portion of your faith,” which Elijah responds is a hard thing. What exactly, Elisha thought he would receive we do not know, but at the passing of Elijah, suddenly Elisha is filled with GRIEF, so much so he rips apart his own clothing and takes up the mantle of Elijah to carry on. What they do not teach in Business programs of in Seminary, is that with great responsibility/ with great faith, also comes great grief.

In the next few weeks, our culture moves on from the Superbowl, and before March Madness to the hype about the Oscars and greatest Films and performances. I am not certain there are so many great films, as there are scenes, realizations in films that embody life. One of my favorites was in the 1980s films The Karate Kid. Not the Martial Arts, not the violence, but after experiencing the waxing of a car, and the hammering of boards into a building, that instead of just wax on wax off, he has been transformed. The point of our passages this day, the point of Transfiguration is not the Transfiguration of Jesus, not that Elijah was carried up in a Chariot or whirlwind, but the effect of these experiences to TRANSFORM lives.