Year C
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
The Glory in the “Coming Down”
You have heard the saying I’m sure that whatever goes up must come down. There may be exceptions but as a rule, whatever goes up must come down. The process is so predictable that we could refer to it as a scientific law. The same process applies to our religious lives. We all have had times where we “go up” to a great experience with God. Those times when we felt that we were really close to God and in tune with God’s plan for us. Those times when we were on top of the world, really happy, confident that we knew all the answers and could solve any problem that came our way.
We call these moments “mountaintop experiences” and oh how we hate to come down off that mountain! We want to hang on to that moment for as long as we can but we can become disillusioned if we do not remember that eventually we have to “come down” again. To freeze that one moment in time can shut off the possibility of the next moment which may be an even greater “mountaintop experience.” Today’s story of the Transfiguration, heard every year on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season, invites us to celebrate those “mountaintop experiences” because soon we go down to Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, when we walk with Jesus to the cross.
Therefore, the Transfiguration calls us to reflect on our life with God which may lead us to look forward to the season of Lent and the demons that await us, as they did Jesus and the disciples when we come down the mountain. Or we may decide to linger a bit and celebrate the glory of God, as it appeared to Moses, Paul, and the disciples in our texts today, and as it appears in our own lives of faith. The texts today insist that glory is the right word for God and even for those who are touched by God’s presence.
The reading from Exodus today reminds us that Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountaintop is not the first mountaintop transfiguration among the Hebrew people. Moses too was literally transfigured, his face changed, after his encounters with the Lord on the top of a mountain. Today we read about Moses’ second trip down from Mount Sinai after forty days and forty nights of meeting with the Lord. Moses descends from the mountain with the tablets of the covenant-the replacement tablets of the law that he broke when he came down from the mountain the first time and found the Israelites worshipping the golden calf.
They become afraid of Moses because, after his encounter with God, his face shines. Moses sensitive to the reaction of his people, veils his face to shield them from his glory. He wears a veil over his face whenever he leaves God’s presence and relay’s God’s message to the people. There is no suggestion from the text that the people are to be blamed for the veiling of Moses face. It would seem to be a natural reaction to the aftereffect of seeing the glory of God on anyone’s face even if it was Moses. But Paul today in his second letter to the Corinthian church implies that the veil is a sign of the Israelites’ determination not to see what is offered to them. He suggests that they deliberately chose to put a barrier between God and themselves, and that the barrier remains until Jesus removes it on the cross.
Paul’s relationship with the church in Corinth was not a simple one. Corinth was a large busy city, home and host to a people of a diversity of cultures and religions, all of which made keeping the church in Corinth unified and at peace an ongoing challenge. This second letter to the church was written after some painful encounters between Paul and the Corinthian church. He offers today a stark contrast between the old covenant of the Mosaic Law, which brings death, and the new covenant of the Spirit through Jesus which brings life and glory. By homing in on the image of “veiling’ Paul is strongly encouraging his readers not to copy the Israelites by putting a veil or barrier between themselves and God.
Christians are to directly encounter the glory of God revealed through God’s Spirit, and by seeing it, to be transformed into its likeness. Faithful spirituality grows from our encounters with God. Luke today, more than likely was reflecting on the same passage from Exodus but he is not interested in the concept of veiling, except that the event is veiled to the disciples until later. Luke concentrates on the dazzling encounter or the vision of the glory of God. This story marks the climax of Luke’s gospel and a turning point in Jesus’ story. It occurs soon after Jesus begins teaching his disciples that he is to die. The transfiguration vison will later give the disciples strength for the trails to come when they go down.
Like a number of other significant occurrences in Luke’s gospel, the transfiguration happens as in Exodus on a mountain and after prayer. Luke would like for us to recognize the parallel in the transfigured faces of Moses and Jesus and the cloud that overshadows the mountain. Jesus’ presence with Moses, the great lawgiver and Elijah, the great prophet, symbols of God’s covenant relationship with his people, make it clear that Jesus is not Moses or Elijah in some new form. Their presence would have affirmed Jesus’ distinct identity as the Messiah of God, God’s chosen one as the voice from the cloud testified to.
The disciples did not understand, what happened on the mountain of transfiguration but were given the guide they will need to help them in the days ahead as Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem and the cross. Everyday reality is not lived on the mountaintop. We are called to come back down to earth into the pain of a broken world as Jesus and the disciples did when they came down the mountain. The glory of God’s presence and the pain of a broken world cannot be separated. Met by a large crowd, including a man who pleads with Jesus to cure his son and who previously the disciples had been unable to heal. Jesus heals the boy after pointing out their lack of faith even among those who had been with him. “And all were astounded at the greatness of God.”
As we prepare to enter the season of Lent, this Ash Wednesday we are invited into a time of greater spiritual discernment and a time of wrestling with some of our own demons, which keep us separate from God and the life God wants for us by locking our faith away in booths. Instead let us be dazzled, seeking God in holy expectation and opening our hearts to God’s presence. We may not have a moment on a mount of transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, but we can be with Jesus on our own mountain or on a mountain together, allowing our faces to shine with glory of God. This light will guide us in our journey and motivate us to go back down into the world and point others to God’s saving brilliant light.