Last
Sunday After the Epiphany, February 26, 2017,
St Martin’s Episcopal Church, Moses Lake by Annette Fricke
The Epiphany
season begins with Jesus’ baptism and ends with this story. Both stories are about identity; the identity
of both Jesus and Jesus’ disciples. The gospel lesson for today is about
transformation of both Jesus and us. The
original Greek word is the word prior to our English word, metamorphosis. It is the same Greek word used in the gospel
according to Mark as well as in Paul’s writings, also to describe the
transformation that occurs in us. Jesus does not transform himself and neither
do we transform ourselves. God is the
active agent in both cases. We are recipients of God’s grace acting upon us,
enabling us to go out into the world as God’s agents of transformation. Matthew
draws many parallels between Moses and Jesus. Both go to a mountain. In ancient times, a mountain was thought to
bring someone closer to God. Moses goes
to receive the commandments of God.
Jesus, on the other hand delivers the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes those commandments and explains
their intended meaning to the people.
Just as Moses brings with him three companions, so does Jesus but Jesus
takes all three with him to the mountain top.
Connected to the Old Testament teachings of old, yet transformed. Similar, but not the same. Once again, as in the story of Jesus’ baptism
and the Sermon on the Mount, we are informed as to what is different about
Jesus and what God now wants to teach us.
Jesus is fulfilling God’s mission for him on earth so that God’s will is
done in both places. However, we are like Peter and we are confused and do not
understand. We want to stay where it is comfortable and capture that moment. We swing like a pendulum, back and forth between
faith on the one hand and doubt on the other. We switch from moment to moment, similarly
like Peter. We are solid rocks one moment and slippery, sliding mud the next. Sometimes we listen to God and other times we
don’t. Who, in their right mind wants to see their best friend go to the cross? It defies explanation in a human’s mind. Why do we have to make that shift? But we are
God’s people through our baptisms and know this is necessary. There is no resurrection without Jesus’
death. There is no redemption or
transformation any other way.
From a
very early age, as people, we want to be something else. Some want to be a princess, some want to fly,
while still others have in mind what they want to be when they grow up. It is always something beyond ordinary. Think about it, a child never says something
like, “I want to be a janitor when I grow up.”
It’s more like, “I want to be a doctor or a lawyer and sometimes underlying
that notion--if I don’t become that, my parents will be disappointed.” This
whole idea was packaged when the Transformer toys were invented. Embodied in The
Transformers were the idea that we can become ANYTHING we want. Years before
that, our high school English teacher perpetuated that idea.
“The
premise behind the Transformers toy line is that an individual toy's parts can
be shifted about to change it from a vehicle, a device, or an animal, to a
robot action figure and back again.”[1] This
toy was ideal because it represented the longing of humanity to be something
else, hopefully that something else will make us feel better than what we feel
right now. Most people do not like feeling ordinary. Most people cannot resist the temptation to
plaster across Facebook that they are something special. Other people avoid Facebook for that very
reason. If we only had that power---the power to be anything we wanted, perhaps
we would be happy. However, many people
seek power and security only to find out that there are no guarantees in life.
It is a fantasy. It is fantasy both
because it probably won’t happen that we actually become like a Transformer, and
because we are seeking the wrong thing; seeking what seems attainable if only
we wish or work hard enough towards our goals.
We are not able to transform ourselves at the mere push of a button. We
will never really fly like Peter Pan or become a real princess just because we really
want to be one. Not that we should stop dreaming, but as we see some of our
dreams fade away, most of us become more realistic.
Reality
is that we are dependent on God for God’s transformation of us. We are not the actors, but the acted upon. It is not our work, but God working in
us. We are the people whom God loves so
greatly that God is found in the smallest pieces of bread and mere drops of
wine, God’s presence in the Eucharist. We may never be able to go back in time
to Peter, James and John and experience that awesome, indescribable, blinding
presence of Moses, Jesus, and Elijah. We
may never understand why God loves us so much, reaching out to touch us in such
a way as to calm our most terrifying moments. Unlike the people in Moses’ day,
Peter, James and John saw what Jesus saw or so we are told. They are not denied access to this encounter,
rather, Jesus touches them, reassuring them with his words, “Do not be afraid.” The vastness of God is found in the ordinary;
in food and drink that sustain us, in the moments when if left to ourselves we
would be lost in anxiety and fear. God
is there to reassure us of God’s presence in our lives despite the ordinariness
of them, despite our faults and failures.
Sometimes doing ordinary things is doing something great both through
God and for God. Even our greatest and grandest achievements we owe to God
because God is the one who created us for good works. Good works are both great and small. Even
small gestures can mean a lot to someone in need. We are to allow God to work
through us regardless of our assessment of it’s worth to others. We are to do as God would have us do, not our
secularly derived sense of what the right thing to do is. As Paul puts it in Romans, “Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so
that you may discern what is the will of God---what is good and acceptable and
perfect.” Paul makes it clear that God
is the one to transform us. Unlike that
day so long ago for those three disciples on the mountain, we know what
happened to Jesus. We know that the veil
between us and God is no longer there, because Jesus has accomplished what God
requires of him through his death and resurrection. God is with us as much as
Jesus was with the disciples with a healing touch to calm us in our darkest
days. As Paul says in I Corinthians, “And
all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though
reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one
degree to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Just
as Peter is asked by God to listen, so that is also asked of us. We are to listen to God, what God wants for
our lives individually in relation to others as well as what God wants for us
as a congregation. Listening is a skill not readily learned in a society where
talking is valued. Centering prayer is
designed with active listening. Praying does not mean that we simply dump on God,
venting all our frustrations and disappointments. We are called to listen and
evaluate the needs of those around us to discern where we are needed to bring
healing to our world. At any given time,
the person needing healing could be as close as the person who is sitting alone
in a back pew, the one leading worship, or the neighbor who no longer has a
place to stay or food to eat. As we enter Lent this Wednesday, let us recommit
to listening to each other and to God, to serve God as best fits God’s will.
