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Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
Our brains are wonderful things. When we see things, they allow us to process images and colors into wonderful images others may not see. It’s why when some people look up into the clouds they can see animals. It’s why the ancients saw winged horses and lions; huntsmen and water bearers in the night skies.
In addition, our imaginations, perhaps with a twinge of ecstatic fervor, have seen the Almighty in more than just the clouds and the skies. The image of Christ has been seen in (among other things) Cheetos, tortillas, trees, dental x-rays, cooking utensils, windows, rocks, stones, and walls—both painted and plastered.
During a space shuttle mission in March 2002, a new camera with extremely high resolution was installed on Hubble Space Telescope. One month later the Hubble Space Science Institute released new photographs of the Cone Nebula, also known as the Space Mountain, to showcase this new camera. Located in the constellation Monoceros, the Cone Nebula is a region that contains cones, pillars, and majestic flowing shapes that abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are buffeted by energetic winds from nurseries of newborn stars. Shortly afterwards people, believing they could see the Lord’s face in it, began to call it the “Jesus Nebula”.
A controversial incident that received considerable publicity happened in October 1996 when the face of Mother Teresa was claimed to have been identified in a cinnamon bun at Bongo Java in Nashville, Tennessee. Dubbed the “Nun Bun”(yes, the Nun Bun) by the press, it was turned into an enterprise by the company, selling T-shirts and mugs, which led to an exchange of letters between the company and Mother Teresa’s representatives. On December 25, 2005 (yes on Christmas Day 2005) the bun was stolen during a break-in at the coffee house.
To put the cherry on this sundae, here’s something from the “I saw it on the internet so it must be true” file, The Jesus Toaster. Yes my brothers and sisters in the Lord, you can invite the Lord to breakfast burning his image into a piece of bread. What a great way to start the day, your favorite spread over the visage of the fully-human fully-divine Messiah. List price is $39.99, but it can be yours for only $34.95 at Amazon.com and at jesustoaster.com it’s just $24.95! You want to see the face of our God? Just a little “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” and you better believe you will see the face of Jesus!
How’s that for the changing face of God? As for me, I’d suggest using wheat or rye bread in the Jesus Toaster. Using white bread may be just a bit too on the nose as Presbyterian stereotypes go.
Now, as far as miracles go, toasting bread quit being miraculous a long time ago. Today we read what is in my opinion one of scripture’s great miracles; the revelation of Jesus to his apostles, the transfiguration. This word, transfiguration, literally means “to change face” or as we would understand it “to change appearance.” His essence remained the same, Jesus did not change, but his appearance did. And on the mountain Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James, and John.
His face shone like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white, as white as light. Suddenly, this simple Palestinian carpenter wasn’t engulfed by light; he was light as bright as the sun. His clothes were whiter than alabaster, whiter than the palest moon.
He appeared with two of the greatest heroes of the faith; Moses, the Law Bringer and Elijah, the One Who Was Lifted in the Whirlwind. Then a voice suddenly came from a bright cloud that came over them like a white fog saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased,” and then these words came from the cloud, “Listen to him.”
Now, this voice from the bright cloud isn’t the first time the Lord spoke to the people out of a cloud. Our Old Testament reading has another instance where this happened. In that reading the Lord said to Moses; whether out of a dream, a cloud, or the clear blue air we’ll never know, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait for me there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”
The voice even went as far to tell the tag-alongs to stay with Aaron and Hur. Oh, and if they had any complaints they should be lodged with Aaron and Hur. Appeals up the food chain would not be heard.
Then the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days and on the seventh the Lord called Moses out of the cloud. The appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring, a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. Through the cloud, at the base of the mountain, the people of Israel could see the fiery appearance of the Lord. That is where Moses stayed forty days and forty nights.
In our two readings we have seen the face of God in Jesus, Jesus shining with great heroes of Judaism. We have heard God in clouds and in a disembodied voice. The Lord appeared to Moses as fire. God even spoke as the Word cast in stone to the people in the Ten Commandments not long before this passage. Those who saw these things were some of the greatest leaders and disciples of our Lord and God that we know, Moses, Aaron, Peter, James, and John. We even get a few others like Hur and the unnamed “elders.” So why does God show up in so many different ways to so many different people? I may not have the “correct” answer, but I have an answer.
I believe that the Almighty reveals God’s own self to people in the way the people need. There is no “one size fits all” revelation of the Lord to the people. The Transfiguration even shows that in the special revelation of Jesus Christ the Lord chooses more than one face to show the people.
In the days before Jesus, God appeared to the people through fire, cloud, voice, written word, the word of the Prophets, even in silence and absence. Then God became incarnate, the fully-human, fully-divine Messiah Jesus was born, lived, died, lived again, and rose. Then fifty days later, on Pentecost, through the Holy Spirit, the Lord came to be known to humanity forever.
Now here’s what’s even more important about this, I am not saying that God changes. God is the same and remains the same. No Christian would ever say we worship three Gods, we worship the Trinity of the three persons of the one God whom Karl Barth called not the “three divine I’s, but thrice the one divine I.” I’m saying we worship a God who meets us where we are, Father, Son, and Spirit. God seeks a relationship with each and every one of us where we live—in our homes, in our workplaces, in our churches—everywhere we live. God meets us in our joy and even more in our tribulation. Jesus comes to us and says, “Get up. Don’t be afraid.”
In a changing world, God changes appearance to meet us where we are, but God never changes being who God is. A reading which is often heard this Sunday comes from 2Peter. I will share the New Living Translation because it sounds more conversational, more like something you would hear at a coffee house:
For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts.
Peter tells us we don’t need to make stuff up. We don’t need to create Christ out of Cheetos. The voice of God came to Peter, James and John at the Transfiguration and is shared again in Peter’s letter, “This is my son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Oh, and the first time we heard these words? The baptism of the Lord.
Because of all of this we can have great confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. Their words are like a lamp shining in the dark until the day dawns and Christ shines in our hearts. Because God comes to us where we are, because God comes to us in joy and sorrow, because God comes to us in light when we are at our darkest, we can live in the confidence of our vocation as Christians to shine the light of Christ into the world.
We too are called to shine the light of Christ into the world.
We are to carry on the work of Jesus; going to those who are overcome by fear, those who are terrified. And we are to touch them saying, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” We are witnesses to the grace and peace and glory of Jesus the Christ who walked the earth as a Palestinian Jew two-thousand years ago and continues to walk with us today; empowering us through the Holy Spirit for the work of the church for all of creation. We are the ones who are called to gather and welcome the broken people of the world and through God’s love make us one.
We can give a smile, or a word of encouragement. We can spend time with someone. We can give gifts of ourselves and our works. We can do service for others who need our help, who need to see the light of God in the world. We can give the thirsty a cold drink. We can offer a prayer on their behalf. We can visit people who are alone and frightened.
We are to share the message Jesus shared with his disciples on that mountain top so long ago. “Get up and do not be afraid.” In this word, Jesus reminds his disciples that he is with them. In this word, Jesus reminds us, his disciples, that he is still with us.
“Joan of Arcadia” was a TV fantasy/family drama telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. In the pilot episode, God appears to Joan and reminds her that she promised to do anything he wanted if he would let her brother survive a car crash that left him a paraplegic. God appears in the form of various people including small children, teenage boys, elderly ladies, transients, or passersby. Joan is asked by God to perform tasks that often appear to be trivial or contrary, but always end up positively improving a larger situation.
In its way, it was her own private transfiguration, the same God showed different faces. Each of these faces met Joan where she was in her specific time and place. Each of these faces had a specific thing for her to do. That of course, is the nature of episodic television.
We won’t always have that same “thing to do” when we see the face of God, after all, we don’t live in episodic television. We do have three things though. We hear God’s voice saying “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. We feel the touch of Jesus as he tells us “Get up and do not be afraid.” We also have the vocation of all Christians, “Go and do likewise.”
Go and do likewise, this is the Word of the Lord. Amen.
