2 Kings 2: 1-12
NPMC
Psalm 50: 1-6
2 Corinthians 4: 3-6
February 22, 2009
Mark 9: 2-9
Anita Retzlaff
Transfiguration: A Mountain Encounter
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the
Christ. In our moment of silent prayer this morning we contemplate the journey
of Jesus as the season of Lent approaches. We do not glorify suffering but we
acknowledge that the way to peace and the road toward justice involves
self-giving. Jesus gave himself to the cause of love in a distracted world. We
contemplate this gift with gratitude. Let us pray…. Inspire us Lord to give
ourselves to a world in need through the testimony of our lives; each one as we
are able. AMEN
Lent begins on Wednesday this week, Ash Wednesday, a moment in our yearly
pilgrimage when Christians around the world receive ashes of humility
symbolizing repentance and fasting and prayer. Today we anticipate the
unfolding. On the cusp of this penitential season we orient ourselves to the
story of Jesus and the journey upon which he is about to embark.
In Mark’s telling of the gospel story Jesus shares with his closest friends that
he will suffer and be killed. When Peter protests vigorously that this cannot
happen, Jesus openly chastises him for his lack of understanding; then, ups the
ante announcing that if anyone really wants to follow him they will have to give
up their lives so that they can truly live. All of this is backdrop to today’s
account of Jesus who leads his closest companions up a mountain to witness, for
themselves, the power and the glory of God. Up there they encounter the holy,
the divine reality that is the source of Jesus’ life and the authority behind
his ministry. In front of their eyes Jesus takes on the glory of God; his
appearance is altered. God is at work making it undeniably clear to the three
disciples on the mountainside that the Jesus with whom they are living and
eating and teaching is at one with the divine, with the very being of God. Jesus
is Holy Other.
In an overwhelmingly brilliant display of light Jesus’ appearance is changed. On
the mountain, removed from the press of crowds, away from the routine of daily
life, Jesus illuminates his divine connection. In the tradition of The Law and
the Prophets, represented by Moses and Elijah Jesus continues the mission of God
in the world. The gift of love, our Lord Jesus the Christ, is clothed in the
light of God’s power and glory and that moment dramatically set apart from the
mundane and the earth-bound. If I were to have been with Peter, upon seeing the
transfigured Jesus covered with light and the brilliance of God’s blessing, I
would also have said, “Let’s remember this part of the journey. Such power! Here
is a winner! We should build booths around this moment. We could build
structures and live here always. We will institutionalize this occasion – make
it the cornerstone of our faith. Jesus is powerful, influential, brilliant.”
The revelation on the mountain is indeed a life-altering encounter! God comes
very close. It is meant to be so. Jesus leads his closest friends into a
profound experience of the living God with the express purpose of showing them
that he is God’s own; that he himself is divine. Peter, James and John see the
light and the power of the Lord of the Universe. It is meant to leave them
awestruck. There is however much more to learn about who Jesus is.
We too have profound moments of encounter, with other people, with God;
encounter which we would like to enshrine and keep at the centre of our
consciousness: high points maybe in travel or in study or in a relationship or
group experience that stimulates our minds and quickens our hearts, giving us
new understanding and new enthusiasm for the deeper mysteries of life. This has
happened to me in various ways. I have heard a number of stirring speeches by
authors of books that have been formative for me. The experience of hearing a
live address has, more than once, left me with a sense of profound connection to
not only the speaker but to God in a new way. At times such as these I would
like to stop the clock and remain suspended in the glow of that intense
encounter. But I know that I can’t stay there; I must move along. There is
always more to learn, new things to hear and insights that need to be translated
into action. Nothing stays the same for long; there are always new revelations
and new relationships that must be explored.
My trip to Europe this last spring is another example of a profound encounter
that I would like to memorialize in a way. I stood in places where history was
made, where our Anabaptist story unfolded. At the Limmat River in Zurich,
Switzerland, Felix Manz became the first Anabaptist martyr. My daughter Alison
and I stood at the site imagining the event of 500 years ago. We attended a
church service on a Sunday morning in the City church in Wittenberg; the church
in which Martin Luther preached countless times and we visited Wartburg Castle
where Luther translated the New Testament from Greek into German over the period
of one long winter. Maybe most poignant: the half hour that I stood in front of
the Issenheim Altarpiece, a painting by Matthias Grunewald depicting Christ on
the cross; a Christ covered with a horrid skin disease, the same disease that
was ravaging Grunewald’s world at the time. At the bottom of this amazing work
of art - a lamb standing with a sword pierced through it, a symbol of Christ’s
life that Anabaptists hold in high regard. These are the moments that are etched
into my memory and my soul. I hold them up as mountain encounters. Along with
Peter I am inclined to memorialize these experiences and be satisfied to limit
my faith to a few high points. We cannot give in to that temptation. Intense
experiences of God finally lead us to something even more profound.
Let’s listen to the Transfiguration story one more time from the creative
translation of Eugene Petersen:
Then Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain. His
appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. His clothes
shimmered, glistening white, whiter than any bleach could make them. Elijah,
along with Moses, came into view, in deep conversation with Jesus. Peter
interrupted, “Rabbi, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials—one for
you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking,
stunned as they all were by what they were seeing. Just then a light-radiant
cloud enveloped them, and from deep in the cloud, a voice, “This is my Son,
marked by my love. Listen to him.” The next minute the disciples were looking
around rubbing their eyes, seeing nothing but Jesus, only Jesus. Coming down the
mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t tell a soul what you saw. After
the Son of Man rises from the dead, you’re free to talk.” (The Message, Mark 9:
2-9)
A deflating ending to the story, wouldn’t you say? The three have been party to
a close encounter with the divine and they can’t tell anybody? Why would Jesus
insist that they say nothing until after his death? We stand at the threshold of
a mystery. Herein lies a profound truth about Jesus that the disciples will
learn of bit by bit as they continue to walk with him into suffering and death.
If you have not quite identified it yet, our story today sets up a real problem.
At the same time that Jesus says he will suffer and die, he is also transfigured
by the power of God as one divine and chosen. How can it be that on one hand
Jesus has the power of the universe at his fingertips yet on the other is
preparing to fall victim to human enemies and die? This is God’s glory and power
– humiliation, betrayal and rejection?
Well I am with Peter! When Jesus says that he will be tried and executed, I
would be quick to protest, “Oh no, that can’t be. I am sure that we can prevent
this. We just need to be careful.” And also with Peter I am tempted to
immortalize the glorious transfiguration scene and remain up on that mountain.
I, like Peter, will choose the glory of God over the suffering of God. The
profound truth that is set before us today, however, is that we cannot choose
one or the other, glory or suffering, divine or human, a mountain top or a
cross. The secret that the disciples must keep – for awhile - is that Jesus is
both and at the same time, human and divine. The God of power is going to die on
a cross.
The glory of God witnessed by the three in the transfigured Jesus is the
preferred choice over that of a suffering and rejected Jesus. As human nature
would have it we are not inclined to choose sacrifice over success, death over
glory, humility over influence. So the secret of Jesus’ power must be kept until
the world knows also of the self-giving, humble servant Jesus.
The profound discovery we make this day is that God’s message to the world is a
message of mercy and forgiveness, covered with the light of divine glory but
symbolized in the cross. It was the choice of the God of Israel that divinity
would be emptied of its power so that self-giving, put more plainly yet, that
love, would be the way to live well upon this earth. The glory of the mountain
is manifest in the humility of the cross. The divine and the human meet in the
person of Jesus Christ and the light shines in the darkness. AMEN