"Looking Beneath the Surface" February 7, 2016

Exodus 34: 29-35 Luke 9:28-43 My practice for 32 years has been to come to Church early, before the Village awakes. Where normally in February everything is twice Fifty shades of Gray, soot and ash to steel, with overcast skies and ice, this morning was different. On this Day of Transfiguration, the lake was not frozen, the sky was clear, and everything, everything from horizon to horizon was a blending of hot pink and ice blue. Coming to Church this morning, having not preached the last three Sundays, this morning felt Holy. I have missed this with you, this time in this place, when and where we meet God. Worship for me, is not and has never been reading a canned liturgical script or acting out a performance. Worship is a conversation, between God and this community in this place and time, between the Word of God in both Testaments and the current events and circumstances upon our hearts. So every time we read a passage it is new and fresh and applicable to our lives. I would confess, that there have been experiences of faith that have changed my hair color, those which aged me and tested my fortitude. There have been relationships I wish I had not had to be a part of; and those while I felt incompetent, I was thankful to be used as an instrument of God. What I find especially striking about the passages of Scripture this morning is that Encounters with God change people, when you witness the Holy, it becomes a part of who you are and how you face life. After speaking face to face with God, the face of Moses glowed! On the mountaintop, speaking with Moses and Elijah, Jesus was changed his raiment whiter than white. The point of the HOLY in these words is not that hair suddenly was pink or blue, or faces gleamed, or what we do about it. Moses came to recognize the Holiness was such a distraction to people he veiled his face from them until the mundane crept in and time passed. And there have been circumstances for each of us, where we have attempted to hide our faith, to hide and cover up that we believe; just as other parts of the community of faith have at times tried to build booths and sell indulgences. But the primary distinctions between Magic and Mystery, are that magic requires the Priest saying the right words, making the right gestures at the right time, magic puts the magician in control of hiding what is really going on from the world. Mystery, Faith, is unique to every individual, the holiness becomes reflected in you. There are circumstances where we cry and laugh through funerals, just as that we cry and laugh through weddings, there is no one way that is right for all. And rather than hiding truth, the one revealing what is taking place is God, but not in the philosophical abstract but in our lives. We tend to correlate like events, Moses on Mt Sinai is a reverent moment, like Washington and Jefferson at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or Lincoln at Gettysburg. But as historically vital as those events, there is more beneath the surface here. This is HOLY. I am convinced that whenever the Bible names an event as Holy, the Scripture is pointing to something even more beneath the surface. The point of Moses face being changed, is not that we would be distracted by his appearance, but that we should look beneath the surface of the images. The glow of holiness is like finding Where's Waldo, a pointer, that there is more to be witnessed beneath the image. I do not know if that is what is beneath the surface of some in our culture dying our hair? Honestly, I think, like the television commercial of two women going to their High School Reunion with Purple Streaks, it is just for fun; but may also for individuals emphasize “Pay attention to me, there is more / different / beneath the surface.” Convalescing the last few weeks, I came across a statistic that staggered me. In every War there have been more who have died afterward, as a result of having witnessed the trauma of war, than were killed by bullets or shrapnel. Part of Post Traumatic Stress is fear that no one else could understand, no one knows their secrets, and secrets kill. Believing this statistic could be an exaggeration, I spoke with a friend who was a Viet Nam Veteran, asking whether more had died after coming home than died on the battlefield. He welled up in tears, saying “My Platoon going to Viet Nam had 50 soldiers. 20 died in combat. Since returning home 29 have died because they could not reconcile what they had experienced with their lives and they could not talk with anyone about it. I am the only one left from 50 men.” Streaks of color in our hair, streaks of tears down someone's face, we need to pay attention that there is more beneath the surface with one another. This passage from Exodus comes from a time of radical cultural change. As long as generations could remember, the Hebrews had been slaves of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Pharaoh not only was King of Egypt and the surrounding Nations, he owned the men and women. He had the power of life and death, breeding and selling the people for Pharaoh's pleasure and profit. Pharaoh had even declared himself to be immortal with the power of God. So when the True God through Moses parted the seas for the people to walk to freedom on dry ground, when God closed in the waters and drown the Egyptians, their weapons of war and technology, the response of the people was “We were slaves of Pharaoh, now we are slaves of Moses' God.” But Moses went up the mountain to speak with God, to receive the Law. We have become weighed down by laws and loopholes, by a system of fines and punishments many of us do not fully understand. We have taken the 10 Commandments out of context, as demanding we go to Church every Sunday, and what we must do in order to be Good or to avoid Evil. Here, the glowing holiness of Moses' face points that beneath the surface, the LAW has a different meaning and importance. Without requirement, God had chosen to save this people: God chose to be their God. The LAW guaranteed people access to God, guaranteed relationship with God as their protector and companion for all time and generations. The 10 Commandments are not presented as IF you do this, then God will be generous; or IF you avoid this God will not punish you. Instead, the 10 Commandments are God's declaration and invitation to us: God will be God for all time and generations. We cannot make God go away, we cannot escape God's kingdom. God provides us the Invitation to choose to be in relationship. Being loved by God, do you wish to respond? What does God expect? God is a Jealous God, so we cannot divide our loyalties. We cannot make idols or create our own Gods. We cannot make God do what we desire, or abuse the name of God. We as Creatures need to stop and reflect periodically throughout life, on the existence of God, the love of God, and on our own lives. All of the remaining laws, describe how we are to live with one another, to honor and trust, to avoid killing and jealousy and lying. I recall growing up, my brothers and I fought constantly, enough that one year for their birthdays our parents asked simply that for one day we not fight with one another. That is the meaning behind Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife or ass or servant. There is however something new and different in the Gospel. When in Luke, Jesus went up the Mountain top with Peter and James and John, it comes at the exact center of the Gospel. Jesus has been proclaimed, born, baptized, tested, he has called his disciples and taught them, healed people and preached the Good News. He could have continued and made a lasting impression on the world as a Great Rabbi, a Success whose words are remembered. But he was transformed and transfigured. On top of the mountain he spoke with Moses and Elijah. Preachers have regularly described Moses = The Law, Elijah = The Prophets, and just as Jesus had described the Greatest of the Laws is the foundation for all the Law and the Prophets, this encounter is the transition between everything that has been in faith in Judaism and Christianity, versus what is to come through his death and resurrection. But even more more, by speaking face to face with God at the receiving of the Law... Moses' Face began to glow with holiness. His face continued to reflect that holiness as time passed. According to the Books of Kings, Elijah did not glow, Elijah did not speak face to face with God, but in the end, when everyone knew he was to go to be with God and Elisha accompanied him until the end, suddenly a flaming glowing chariot and horses gathered him up to heaven. Bothe Moses and Elijah glow with the reflection of God, manifest what is Holy as their being in response to God. But on the mountain top, when Peter and James and John witness Jesus with Moses and Elijah, it is not that Jesus is reflecting their glory, or that Jesus is responding to yet a fourth unseen person in God.... but that Jesus is God, God's Holiness is showing through Jesus. Up until this moment on this mountain, the Incarnation of God in Christ had meant he was as Innocent as a Newborn, he was loved by God and through that incarnation Jesus healed and preached and called. Suddenly the Gospel has changed, everything from this point forward will lead to the Cross, because in his death and resurrection, Death itself is killed, fear is destroyed and we can live eternally with God. When Jesus came down the mountain with Peter and James and John they found the rest of the disciples struggling because they were unable to heal a boy possessed with demons, taking the child aside, he rebuked the demons and healed the boy, and went on toward the Cross, because through the Transfiguration, the Holy points to there being more beneath the surface than healing an individual, or casting out a demon... The HOLY of faith and life all points toward the struggle of the Cross, the struggles of our fear of Death versus our love of God.