August 6, 2006 Sermon
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Transfiguration Day
August 6, 2006 Emmanuel, San Angelo
Unless you are a
student of the Prayer Book it probably won’t mean much for me to tell you that
today, is one of the holy days of the church—one of only 3 which take precedence
of a Sunday. It won’t mean much to say that the day of the Transfiguration only
falls on a Sunday once every
For the older adults, August 6th is better remembered as Hiroshima Day. These days most kids can’t tell you where Hiroshima is on a map, let alone tell you what happened there 60 years ago. That also is regrettable.
There is a story told about the famous bishop St. Augustine of the 4th century, that one day he was walking along the Mediterranean seashore pondering about the mysteries of God…how God could be one and three at the same time. As he walked he came across a child carrying a cup of ocean water to a hole he had dug in the sand. “What are you doing?” asked Augustine. “Sir, I am pouring the ocean into this hole.” At first he started to laugh; but then we are told as he thought about it, Augustine decided that pouring the ocean into a hole in the sand was no more impossible than for the simple human mind to understand the workings of Almighty God. As a friend of mine once said, it’s like trying to pour a 10 gallon idea into a 1 quart mind.
I say all this as a way of introducing an event that, if tried to be grasped by our 1 quart mind could never be done. On this day we read about Jesus going up the mountain with Peter, James and John and being transfigured—metamorphosed before them. There before them in an immense blaze of light they saw Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the prophet with Jesus. Not talking with him, but talking to him: teaching, instructing imparting upon this son of God the essence of Jewish wisdom, the Law and the Prophets. A voice from the cloud demonstrated the presence of the Creator—the same voice which spoke to the chaos on the day the world was created: “This is my son, my chosen, listen to him.” Then, as on the cue of a magnificent ancient playwright, the curtain of cloud rises and Jesus stands alone on the stage.
I find that people who demand that we read this passage with wooden literalism miss the point of the Gospel writers. So also do those who, out of a cold, clinical rationalistic outlook dismiss this passage as some kind of a hallucination, or the product of a later church seeking to defend Jesus’ authority. That is not the point. Rather the Transfiguration is the struggle of an artist, the labor of the poet, to give voice to an intangible insight: that something greater is beyond us—the God of our salvation. Yet this God is with us, and in us; and this God of love wants us to be transformed and to transform this world after his image. Seen in this light this story is not about Jesus at all—it is about us and our response to the invitation we are daily given, to draw near in faith into that terrifying, cloudy presence of God.
Because of what this story says, it comes as Good News in a time when our world seems bent on disfiguration rather than transfiguration. Every age has its own examples of “man’s inhumanity to man”. But in our lifetime the circumstances leading up to the 6th of August 1945, and the subsequent unleashing of the atomic age makes us painfully aware that that at any time the worst could happen again. The Middle East is a mess. Our nation, once blessed with riches and abundance now seems to be sinking, or at least losing its direction. Even our beloved Episcopal church, that strong tower throughout the ages, now seems to be shaking at the foundations.
Or so it seems. For in darkness there is light. In death there is life. Peter, the witness to the event writes in our 2nd lesson: “You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place…” Human will does not hold the ultimate sway in this world. True destiny is not up to us but to God. Terrified, and bewildered, the disciples stayed there. They did not run. And while many things would not be clear until after the resurrection, Peter for one, had that “blessed assurance” that God’s will was being done. And so can we.
You and I are daily called to be transfigured, transformed, and metamorphosed—in the image of Jesus Christ. This story is our story. You and I are to be God’s hands, feet and voice in our age, to be people of healing and justice in our society in the world today. Starting here, and going forth from this place, we can’t do everything, but we each can do something to make this world a better place. Therein by God’s grace will we radiate the message of Christ to the world around us.
Copyright © 2003 Emmanuel Episcopal Church. All rights reserved.
Revised: 08/13/06