Each year, just before we enter into the season of Lent, we encounter this amazing, mysterious passage about the event in the gospels called the Transfiguration.
Jesus and three of his disciples climb a mountain to pray. While they were up there, Jesus’ appearance changed. He began to shine. While he was shining, Moses and Elijah appeared, speaking with Jesus. The disciples dithered for a while. Peter suggested making shelters for Jesus and his visitors. And then . . . a voice came out of the clouds, “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him.” After the voice, there was a silence. And the mysterious visitors were no longer there.
What are some of the things this passage can say to the church for its life and work today? How can this event of the Transfiguration assist in transfiguring the church today? I’ll suggest four possibilities from our gospel lesson:
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A transfigured church is a church that embraces its history.
- A transfigured church is church that practices generosity.
- A transfigured church is a church in which we’re all free to make mistakes.
- A transfigured church is a church that moves on into God’s future.
1. A transfigured church is a church that embraces its history.
Moses and Elijah were important historical figures for Jesus the Jew, and for the three disciples, also Jewish, who joined him on the mountain. Moses was the great liberator and lawgiver. Elijah was regarded as the greatest of the prophets who confronted kings with the demands of God’s justice. As Peter, James, and John saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah, they saw Jesus with the great figures of the community’s history. They embraced their history. And God calls the church today to embrace its history.
But let me qualify that a bit. Often, in churches here in Australia, when someone says “history”, you get a few people who think “old buildings”. When I speak about the church embracing its history, I’m not talking about the church embracing old buildings and squandering its resources on bricks and mortar. Far from it.
When I speak about the church embracing its history, I’m speaking about the church today seeing itself as part of the on-going story of the people of God throughout the ages. Peter, James, and John, up there on the mountain with Jesus, saw themselves as being part of the continuing story of the people of God, knowing that this on-going story - as seen in the figures of Moses and Elijah - was part of them. We, too, can know that the story of the people of God is part of us.
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Patrick using something as simple as the clover of the meadow to teach profound truths of the nature of God. Somehow, that’s part of us.
- Francis of Assisi renouncing his family wealth to share the gospel by a life of profound simplicity. Somehow, that’s part of us.
- John Wesley leaving a comfortabe academic career to share the good news with the poor and forgotten of England’s Industrial Revolution. Somehow, that’s part of us.
- Mother Theresa working among the poor and the dying in the slums of Calcutta. Somehow, that’s part of us.
- Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Albert Schweitzer, Father Damian, Caroline Chisholm, Mary MacKillop, John Flynn, Robert Knopwood: Somehow, their stories are part of us.
2. A transfigured church is a church that practices generosity.
Peter came up with the idea of making three shelters: one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Often, when people preach on this passage, the idea comes up that Peter was just being thick, that he was trying to build some shrines so that the mountaintop experience could be repeated almost on demand.
Perhaps . . . but then again perhaps Peter was merely exercising a bit of hospitality. Moses and Elijah were their guests. They lived in a culture that valued hospitality. Visitors needed to be properly provided for. Perhaps Peter’s comments could be seen in this light, rather than in the light of Peter dropping another massive clanger.
And Christ calls the church today to be a church that practices generosity in its life together. A phrase that is frequently used is that the church is called to live as “a culture of generosity”. It’s often the poorest of the poor who understand this culture of generosity most fully. In my four visits to Bangladesh for the Christmas Bowl in the 1990s, I learned that it’s often the people of the poorest villages who go the most “over the top” in expressing hospitality to a visitor. The church today is also called to live as “a culture of generosity”.
A transfigured church is a church that practices generosity.
3. A transfigured church is a church in which we’re all free to make mistakes.
But, then again, let’s assume that Peter did drop a massive clanger. What happened? Did Jesus chew him out? No. Did the other disciples bite his head off? No. Peter was free to drop his clangers, to make his mistakes.
We worship God of an incredible patience and generosity. God gives us the freedom to b e wrong. God gives us the freedom to make mistakes. God does not hold our mistakes against us. I realise that there are some Christians who believe in a much scarier sort of god. But we know the real God who revealed Godself to humanity in Jesus, as self-sacrificing love. God gives us the freedom to make mistakes. God calls us to give one another that same freedom.
A transfigured church is a church in which we’re all free to make mistakes.
4. A transfigured church is a church that moves on into God’s future.
The fact that we even have this story tells us one thing: Peter, James and John did not stay up there on the mountain, seeking to make their “mountaintop experience” a permanent thing.
Rather, they followed Jesus off the mountain. They sought to move on, while taking the fruits of their experience with them as they sought to live their lives. They chose to move on into God’s future. God calls us, as well, to move on into God’s future, whatever that future might be.
This congregation will probably never be in a position where we have kids swinging from the rafters Sunday after Sunday. Very few congregations are. But that’s OK. We can have a strong ministry with mature adults. This may well be the future God leads us to. (But let us also make sure that we provide good quality nurture both to the children and young people we can work with, and to the adults that they will become.)
In all ways, let us be open to the future to which God leads us.
A transfigured church is a church that moves on into God’s future.
And so …
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A transfigured church is a church that embraces its history.
- A transfigured church is a church that practices generosity.
- A transfigured church is a church in which we’re all free to make mistakes.
- A transfigured church is a church that moves on into God’s future
So may it be for us.
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