21^st February 2010

TRANSFIGURATION Sunday (Sunday 14 February 2010)

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley

Lessons -- Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; Luke 9:28-36

And the disciples kept silence and told no-one in those days anything
of what they had seen.(Luke 9:36 RSV)

A surprising end to an extraordinary encounter! Silence in the face of a
blinding vision of two faithful, courageous prophets (Moses and Elijah)
and a person bearing the radiance of God (Jesus). We would have expected
greater enthusiasm. But, apart from Peter's misplaced enthusiasm, the
disciples are 'afraid' of the cloud and silent at the end. No euphoria, no
speech, no chattering among themselves. They are dumbfounded by the
mystery of God!

This is remarkable considering the splendour of a vision which suggests
the awesome majesty of God in Christ. His face is illuminated and his
clothes are 'dazzling white' -- like Moses before God, and the two men at
the empty tomb. Other features too symbolise the presence of God. Clouds,
tents and mountains were all 'places' where God's word of grace-and-
judgment was spoken to his wayward, dispirited people. Such 'places' were
signposts to hope and invitations to faith.

The presence of Moses and Elijah was a good sign. They were figures of
faith, hope and courage, representing the law and the prophets.

Moses was mediator of the law through which God revealed his mercy-and-
goodness to the nations. This was signed-and-sealed in a covenant which
was both an invitation and a command to worship God and love the
neighbour. This was no everyday 'covenant'; Moses' skin shone because he
had been talking with God. (Exodus 35:29f).

Elijah was the mediator of God's justice. At great personal cost, he
challenged the 'covenant people' to worship God alone and to act rightly
in all things. After berating Queen Jezebel for promoting pagan beliefs
and immoral practices he fled to a cave where God spoke in 'a still small
voice'. No fuss, no fanfare, no shining skin.

Elijah and Moses represent the great tradition of the law and prophets.
They are 'mediators' of God's grace-and-goodness to the people and of
their graceless-and-unrighteous fellows to God. Through them God's word is
heard and people are summoned to responsibility before God.

Seen through the disciples' eyes, therefore, it is an honour that Jesus is
in _their_ company! However, they do not yet see that Jesus is the
Mediator who both fulfils the tradition and supersedes it. That Moses and
Elijah are honoured to be in his presence is the reversal of all
expectations.

A number of features of the story make this point:

* It was widely expected that Elijah would return to announce the coming
of the Messiah and the end of Israel's suffering and sin. His presence
suggests that Jesus is that 'Messiah'.

* The voice from the cloud announces that Jesus is 'My Son, my Chosen'
(v35), a term used in the Old Testament of the 'chosen people' called to
be 'a light to the nations'. It suggests that Jesus is the 'Chosen Son' in
whom all people are reconciled to God.

* At the end of the episode we learn that 'Jesus was found alone' (v36).
This is not so much an historical detail as a profound theological claim.
Jesus is the sole mediator between God and humankind. Elijah and Moses no
longer stand beside him.

In the transfiguration the true identity of Jesus is illuminated. As the
Orthodox Bishop Joseph of Arianzos puts it:

'Moses and Elijah are confirming without a margin of doubt that Jesus
is not just a simple person, or a wise teacher, a virtuous reformer of
some new-wave of life-style, a charismatic miracle-worker, or even a
Prophet or a Saint, but He is the Son of the Word of the Living God!
True God from True God! Light from Light! He is the true and eternal
light which illumines and sanctifies every person who comes into the
world.'

In other words, Jesus is not a typical messianic figure. As his later
ministry shows, the task for which he is 'chosen' is marked by victorious
sacrificial action, the like of which is unknown elsewhere in history,
even among brave figures like Moses and Elijah.

This is brought out in the following details which Luke includes to alert
us to Jesus' true identity:

* When Luke (alone of the Gospels) tells us that Moses and Elijah spoke of
Jesus' 'departure which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem' (v31) he points
us to the sad reality that many of Moses' and Elijah's heirs will reject
him on the Cross and the joyful reality that despite this he will triumph.
The crucified Jesus is the risen and ascended Lord!

* When Luke (alone) tells us that Peter and the others 'were heavy with
sleep' (v32) -- as in Gethsemane -- he points us to the sad reality that
many of his own disciples are blind to the suffering that he must bear
'alone' as mediator of God's love and our need.

* The context of the passage underlines the point. Immediately before,
Jesus speaks of his crucifixion and resurrection. Immediately after, a
dramatic healing is accompanied by another prediction of betrayal and
death (vv 37-45). The transfiguration is an early announcement of the
victory of the crucified God.

The reason for silence now becomes clear. If God were not hidden in a
cloud, it would be easy to misunderstand this dazzling encounter as an
unambiguous expression of the 'glory of God'. We are invited to see in
Jesus the costly-and-reconciling love of God for all nations.

The paradox of glory and suffering is superbly expressed in a sermon
preached before the court of James I (C17th) by Joseph Hall, Bishop of
Exeter. It is a favourite on Transfiguration Sunday.

'A strange opportunity . . . when his head shone with glory, to tell
him how it must bleed with thorns; . . . when his garments glistened
with celestial brightness, to tell him they must be stripped and
divided; . . . and whilst he was transfigured on the Mount, to tell
him how he must be disfigured on the Cross!' (R. Shinn, Unpublished
Sermon 1982)

No wonder 'the disciples kept silence'! In this dazzling episode, euphoria
is out of place. Though Jesus is totally different even from the greatest
figures of faith, religious enthusiasm is dangerously wrong-headed. In our
desire to 'place' Jesus alongside other reformers we shall miss the
'strange glory' of God in the One in whom we are reconciled to God.

The transfiguration should be cause for deep joy which springs from a
proper silence in the presence of God. That is why silent meditation is a
necessary part of preparation for worship. We worship God-in-Christ in
company with saints like Cyril of Alexandria (C5th) who said, 'Let what
cannot be spoken be worshipped in silence,' and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(1930s), who said that 'teaching about Christ begins in the humble silence
of the worshipping community'.

Good reason then for us too to be 'silent' before the transfigured Christ.
Silence born of awe in the presence of God is the precondition for
following Christ as Lord. When we are silent in this way, we shall see
the true glory of God and be encouraged to follow Christ by giving
ourselves in love for the world.

We should not forget, as our Eastern Orthodox friends remind us, that the
transfiguration is not significant only for a few religious people but a
sign of God's renewal of the whole creation. It is a sign of hope that,
despite appearances, mercy and justice shall illuminate the earth.

In pointing forward to the triumph of the disfigured Lord, it is an
encouragement to people whose minds and bodies have been disfigured by
affliction, neglect or abuse, whether caused by others or themselves.

In a world where there is so much enthusiasm and chattering, the Church
needs to recover the true art of silence. Then we shall see in the
transfiguration of Christ the splendour of God's costly, triumphant love
for the world and be pleased to worship God and to serve our brothers and
sisters in need as fellow-travellers in the company of the One chosen to
be 'Lord of heaven and earth'.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt
Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of
Confessing Congregations within the UCA.