How are we to approach this well worn story of Jesus’ transfiguration. We are familiar with its glory, the audacity of Peter and the voice from the bright cloud.
Peter says of himself in the letter, we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known the power and coming of the Lord.
Lord, keep us from this temptation as we approach this passage of scripture.
It is a revelation of Jesus as the crucified Son of God and of God as the Father. It is a revelation of the Christ who was to be killed and after three days rise from the dead.
Peter says, no prophecy is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Let’s receive this story as such.
To Peter he recalls the word spoken out of the cloud as he was inviting himself into the conversation, This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. So important is this revelation in the letter he says it is a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts. Mattthew adds, Listen to him! To what God spoke.
And how Peter’s heart must have burned as he declared his faith in Jesus as the Christ, Son of the Living God, a heart soon to be cast down as he rebuked Jesus when he said that he was to suffer, be killed and rise again after three days. This is Peter who Jesus first calls a Rock on which faith is to be founded and then Satan. This is Peter the one who would deny Christ three times. This is the Peter who here learns to listen.
On the mountain he saw and recognized Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus and boldly joined the conversation without being called, Lord it is good for us to be here… let us build…, only to be engulfed in a cloud.
And the voice of God speaks from a bright cloud like a devouring fire we hear in Exodus. Moses had to wait and listen for the call for six days in the cloud we learn. Six days after the rebuke, get behind me Satan, Jesus had called Peter and James and John up to the holy mountain.
On that mountain, in a vision, Moses, Elijah and Peter, James and John hear God speak, This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!
Listen to him! This is the command of God from the mountain. Listen to him!
Holy is he! The psalm teaches us; he is to be extoled and worshipped: the Lord our God is holy.
When Christ is truly revealed to us in his holiness; when words fail us, we fall to the ground overcome with fear.
Jesus touches us and says, Get up do not be afraid.
Get up, do not be afraid.
This is the morning star rising in our hearts. And as we look, there is no one except Jesus himself alone.
The vision has ended and life on the mountain is resumed, the disciples and Jesus go down the mountain and Peter, who six days earlier was rebuked carries the word, This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!
We have the Law. We have the Prophets. We have Peter and the traditions. Elijah had to learn to hear the sound of sheer silence in his time of darkness. Moses taught of the forgiving God, whose word is to be found near us, in our mouths and in our hearts. The Psalm teaches, the LORD to be a righter of their wrongs; avenger of their wrongdoings.
This is the grace of the cross where God is perfectly revealed. Listen!
This is the throne of Christ, the earth shook; in his death and resurrection Jesus is transfigured, exalted over all peoples.
Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob, on Calvary, on the cross.
And at the table, a feast of good things is laid before all principalities and powers as we share in the cup and the bread is broken; truly the flesh and blood of Christ; real food transfigured.
We may be few, appear foolish, but Christ is revealed in and through us, in what we say and in what we do, and as Christ is revealed in us we are transfigured and the world is transformed. Go deep little children: God deep and listen to him!
Grace and peace.
Takeley Chapel 