Spiritual Growth :: Sermons
Last Epiphany: The Transfiguration
Feb. 6, 2005
The Rev. Tricia de Beer
Matt. 17:1-8
Several years ago Fred, a Jamaican man from the World Bank, told his story. He had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. After consulting a number of doctors, who all confirmed the diagnosis, he went through what everyone does in that situation. For weeks he denied it. But gradually, with the help of friends, he came to grips with the fact that he was only going to live a few more months. He said "Then something amazing happened—I simply stopped doing everything that wasn’t essential, that didn’t matter. I started working on projects with kids that I had always wanted to do. I stopped arguing with my mother. When someone cut me off in traffic or something happened that would have upset me in the past, I didn’t get upset. I just didn’t have the time to waste on any of that". When he began a new relationship with a woman, she wanted him to get more opinions about his condition. He consulted some doctors in the States and soon after, got a phone call saying they had a different diagnosis. The doctor told him he had a rare form of a very curable disease. And then came the part of the story that was amazing. Fred said "When I heard this over the telephone, I cried like a baby—because I was afraid my life would go back to the way it used to be." Floods of tears, not because he was happy, but because he was afraid that he could not take his new eyes with him into his old life.
It took a scenario that he was going to die, for Fred to wake up. Hard as it was, life was transfigured. It took that kind of shock for him to see clearly and what he saw was glorious. And the amazing part is that what he experienced was so beautiful that he valued it more than his life. He was scared to go back down the mountain and take what he had been given into a newly formed life.
Peter James and John had a similar kind of experience. The three friends had a glimpse of Jesus in a startling new relationship to God. God said "This is my son. The beloved. With him I am well pleased. Listen to him." In the glory of the light pouring though his face, they came to understand that his life, his words were the way to God and more than that Jesus actually embodied the fullness of God. He was God, right there in the flesh. It was so unexpected and overwhelming they "fell on their faces and were filled with awe. But Jesus came and touched them saying, "Rise have no fear." We might assume that they were frightened by the power of the vision and perhaps even the dimly seen implications for their own lives. Perhaps they could feel that following him would be costly. Jesus reassured them. But they wanted to stay right there in the safety of that touch and in the beauty of his light—set up a booth even, to freeze dry the moment, as it were.
But after that flash of insight and inspiration, Jesus led them back down the mountain because that was where the Word must be told and the love shared—that was where Jesus’ mission of reconciliation must be accomplished, and that is where new revelations would be given. Jesus didn’t allow them to stay , but rather leads them into the valley where they will have to face the difficulties ahead. The power of what they had shared, strengthened them for the task ahead.
Like Fred, we cherish whatever it is that has opened our eyes to God’s presence, and the preciousness of our life. Maybe it’s the person who is the unexpected love of our life. Maybe it’s what we experience when the boat cuts through the water as the spray washes over us, maybe it’s Cursillo, or the music program, or a particular job or community that has opened up to us whole new perspectives. We want to hold onto what is precious for dear life. But Jesus says dear life is waiting for us down off the mountain and leads us there by the hand.
Peter Senge the organizational consultant and author, described a transfiguration moment he saw in South Africa. He was giving a leadership workshop for thirty people ; half were white business executives and half black community organizers. Many took personal risks to participate in the program. On the last day the group heard that President F.W. de Klerk was going to give a speech, so they took a break and gathered in front of a television set to watch. This turned out to be the famous speech that set the ending of apartheid into motion. De Klerk began to list all the previously banned black organizations that were now being unbanned. Anne Loetsebe, one of the community leaders, was listening with rapt attention. Her face lit up as de Klerk read the name of each organization: the African national Congress, the Pan Africanist Conference, and so on. She said later that as each organization was mentioned, she saw in her mind’s eye the faces of different relatives who would now be coming home. After the speech, the group finished its work, and in the final session, each person had a chance to say whatever he or she wanted. The first four people said how glad they were to be there and how much they had learned. Then a tall Afrikaans business executive stood up to speak. Peter had been told that white managers there tended to show little emotion. This man who had been reserved during the program, certainly fit this description. He stood and turned to look directly at Anne. "I want you to know that I was raised to think that you were an animal he said. And then he began to cry. Anne just held him in her gaze and nodded. Peter said "As I watched this, I saw a huge knot become untied. I don’t know how to describe it, except to say it was as if a rope simply became untied and broke apart. I knew intuitively that what had been holding him and so many others prisoners of their past was breaking. They were becoming free. And I knew that those people would never be the same. This moment and others like it made it possible for people to see a new future for South Africa. They took that glimpse of the glory of human reconciliation and went back to their various contexts and began to work for the future they had seen in the exchange.
All of us want to freeze dry the precious times, be they seconds or years. We want to hold onto whatever we have found that has opened up the glory of being God’s beloved child. And Jesus comes to us like he did to Peter James and John and says "rise, have no fear". Traveling with him as our leader, we march in the company of those who have seen a light which will not be extinguished. Through Him we come into an unsettling vision of ourselves, each other, and the world we share. The dream always leads down off the rarified air of the mountaintop into the muddy valley below, where men and women are still hungry and homeless, and sick and confused and above all needing to know somebody cares. Our calling is to help make such visions come down to earth in real and practical ways. Strengthened by the light of Christ’s presence, may we have the courage to step into the new.
