Transfiguration Sunday

Year A

Matthew 17:1-9

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Business of Transfiguration

Not many people will debate that God’s creation is awesome. There are so many beautiful places to visit and I look forward to one day doing more traveling especially in this country. I grew up in southwest Florida on the Gulf of Mexico which certainly has its own beauty especially the water and the sun but while living in paradise when I had a chance to travel on my vacation, I seemed to gravitate to the mountains. I’m originally from Utica, New York which is located just a few miles south of the Adirondack Mountains. For many years while my grandparents in Utica were still alive, I would travel there in the fall so I could see the beautiful mountains ablaze with color.

When my daughter was in her teens, we spent two of our summer vacations in Hendersonville, NC at the Episcopal Conference Center, Kanuga. Many of you either have heard about Kanuga or have had a chance to visit this beautiful place in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The summer guest weeks they offer are filled with all kinds of activities for the whole family and of course, some of those activities included hikes up the mountains. One such hike takes you to the top of Eagle Rock Mountain. Eagle Rock gets its name from the shape of its boulders at the very top so that if you could stand in front of the mountain you would see that the rocks are shaped like the head of an eagle with out-stretched wings getting ready to soar into the air.

My time on top of that mountain both summers turned out to be a profound spiritual experience for me and I found it was always hard to leave and go back down. When you are up there, you can’t help but feel so very close to God and it was there that I came to inwardly know Isaiah 40:31 “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” It was on the top of that mountain that I began to know in my heart and mind that God was calling me into a deeper relationship as I began to feel and see just the very beginning of what God might be calling me in faith to do. After our second summer week at Kanuga, I began the process for ordination to the Diaconate.

So, I have no problem imagining that mountain top experience that Jesus, with Peter, James and John had with God. People in biblical times knew the magic of the mountaintop. Moses, Elijah, Abraham, Jesus, they all received religious insight on the top of mountains. A mountain was often regarded as a holy place where the heavens could touch the earth, and where God could speak to humankind. Thus, it was no accident that the Transfiguration of Jesus took place on a mountaintop. Just six days after Jesus had confided in his disciples that all of his teaching and hope-filled healing would lead to his suffering at the hands of authorities, to his execution, and finally to his rising from the dead, he leads Peter, James and John “to a high mountain apart” so that God could reveal Jesus’ true identity to them. In that place, they learned that Jesus was not just their teacher, but was in fact the Son of God. It was the ultimate epiphany moment for them and the most dazzling breakthrough of the glory of Christ; all taking place on a mountain.

The exact site of this extraordinary event is not known for certain, but it probably took place on Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon, which rises to 9,200 feet, is situated a short distance from Caesarea Philippi. From what I have read about this mountain, it’s not a very big one more like a “foothill.” But it sits out in the northern plains of Galilee in the middle of a huge plateau, so that it seems to be surrounded by a valley. The view is supposed to be spectacular! Peter loved that mountain top vision so much he wanted to capture the moment, so he suggested building three dwelling places right there on the spot. He wanted to stay there and tend a shrine to this vision surrounded by God’s light and that feeling of being filled with holiness. How much better it would be than to return to the valley where they would have to fight the crowds following Jesus and deal with all the poor, the sick and the sinners who were attracted to him.

Peter’s response was spontaneous and honest, and easy to relate to. We all have had times when we felt especially close to God, and we know how painful it can be to feel those experiences fade into memory, to feel the doubts creep back in as we face the challenges of real life. But, Peter wasn’t allowed to stay on the mountain, and neither are we. The Transfiguration wasn’t meant to last forever. This experience took place so that Jesus and the disciples could come back down the mountain with a renewed sense of purpose. It gave them the necessary strength for their trip back to those sick and hurting people, and for the final conflict that they would soon face with Jesus. That final conflict would also take place on a mountain, on a holy hill, and on a cross from which Jesus would also “come down.”

This Wednesday we enter that season of the church year known as Lent. One of the mysteries of the Lenten message is that God’s victory in Jesus came in the agony of the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. But, Jesus’ journey to the empty tomb shows us something very important about God that just as God stood with Jesus, God stands with us on the mountain tops of our experiences and holds us up as we find our way back down into the valley of reality. It is on those mountain tops that we truly come to know who God is, a God of love, and it is in the valley that we find out who we really are and what is important to us. Because it is when we are forced to struggle with injustice issues, wrong or evil that we grow the most. The struggle through the crises of life is the path to our mountain tops.  Where the view is a view of Jesus’ journey from the cross to the empty tomb, and it is also a view of our life’s journey when we give our lives over to God. When we spend time with God in worship, study and prayer we get a new perspective, a purpose and the strength to be able to face the world below.

Then, business as usual is no longer possible after we have seen the vision of God’s good future revealed to us in Jesus Christ. It was no longer business as usual for the disciples. These men were changed, transfigured, by their experience from fishermen to evangelists. Peter must have known and understood because later after Jesus’ death and resurrection, he relates the story in 2 Peter “So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed.” In the transfiguration, Jesus showed his true identity as God’s divine son and the disciples began to know that there mission and ministry was to go out into a dark world and light it up with the message of Christ.

The message of Christ exists and is alive today because of what many have done before us. The message is clear that God is about the business of bringing hope and healing to a broken world through Christ and through us. People are hungry to experience the good news that God is with us and our goal cannot be to stay on those mountain tops basking in God’s light and love. Our goal is to go back down, renewed, refreshed and ready to bring this saving, healing light and love to the world; ready to invite others to make the journey up the mountain to see the glorified Christ, then back down to the world, to join the suffering and crucified One in his mission. And that light of Christ through the Holy Spirit stays with us until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts.