Transfiguration Sunday

Today is kind of a funny day in the church calendar.
Normally, we should be observing the 9 th Sunday after Pentecost today.
But today is also the Feast of the Transfiguration:
Which always falls on August 6 th .

August 6 th , just happens to be on a Sunday this year:
And this Feast outranks Pentecost 9.

There are only a few feast days that are so important that they take precedence
over a Sunday:
And all of them are feasts related to Jesus himself.

Today, we commemorate how Jesus was transfigured before his closest disciples:
Peter, John, and James--
How his glory was revealed in dazzling white light,
And how God’s voice proclaimed:
“This is my Son, my chosen: listen to him!”

We know this story.
We read it every single year:
Only we don’t usually read it in August:
On the actual feast day of the Transfiguration.
​
Instead,
Every year, we celebrate the transfiguration on the last Sunday after Epiphany:
Which is the Sunday before Lent begins.

We aren’t used to celebrating the transfiguration in August:
Even though that’s it’s date for observance!

And we also aren’t used to the word “transfigure”
Outside of this story that we read once a year.
It’s not a word that we generally use in conversation nowadays.
We might use the words “transform,” “alter,” or even “change” instead.

And we really should ask ourselves:
Who is it that’s really being changed in this story?

Jesus certainly appears to be changed.
Luke tells us outright: “The appearance of his face changed,
And his clothes became dazzling white.”

But the truth is:
Jesus really only looks different to his disciples.

It’s Peter, John, and James who are really transfigured.
Their eyes are now open to see Jesus as he really is:
Clothed in light and revealed as the Son of God.

And the disciples’ lives are changed too:
After this experience of God’s presence.

Before, they thought they were following a remarkable teacher.
After, they know that their lives are being woven into God’s plan for the
transfiguration of the entire world.

And that leads us to ask an important question:
“What experiences frame the way that we see and understand the world?”

Much of the way we experience the world is fixed by circumstances beyond our
control:
Who our parents are,
Where we are from,
The language we speak.

But sometimes we have moments,
That allow us to see the world in a new light.
These are the moments when it seems we can see beyond ourselves,
Beyond our limitations,
And into the heart of reality.

When you have this kind of experience:

You can be fairly certain it’s because you have been in the presence of God.

The transfiguration is this kind of experience:
The experience of God’s presence:
That changes us,
Changes the way that we see Jesus and the world.

Jesus took his disciples up on the mountain, hoping to find God there.
They were on a quest:
Actively seeking God’s presence.

Jesus leads his disciples up there because he knows God can be found there.
Like Moses in the reading from Exodus--
God is found on the mountaintop:
Where your vision is clear, and all the noise of everyday life subsides.

But even though it is easier to find God on the mountaintop:
That’s not the only place God can be found.

All of us came to church this morning:
Hoping to find something of God here:
In one way or another.

And God feels especially close in the beauty of the natural world:

Stars shining in the sky,
Waves falling on the ocean shore.

Throughout the ages, people have known this.
Often, when people feel lost or lonely, wondering what’s next,
They find a church to pray in:
A mountain to climb,
A forest to walk in,
A river to sit near.

People remember those places where they have felt God’s presence before:
And they go and seek God there again.

And there’s always that temptation:
To stay put on the mountain:
To use that sacred space as a place to hide from the problems of the world.

Peter gives into this temptation,
When he asks Jesus if they can build dwellings on top of the mountain and just
bask in God’s glorious presence forever:
Content, but removed from all the trouble brewing down on the ground below.

And the answer is no.
God needs us to go down from the mountain:
To leave changed.

To go out into the world:
Taking some of God’s transformative love with us to share.

And if we’re honest:
We know that it isn’t only in those beautiful and set-apart places that we can find
God.
The whole world is filled with the glory of God:
If we only have eyes to see.

Just like our reading last week:
The kingdom of God can appear to us in millions of different ways:
In a mustard seed:
In a pearl.
In some wheat.
In tiny little things.

Because there is no place on earth that God’s love does not go.
If we open our hearts to God’s spirit and go looking for God:
We will begin to see God’s presence all around us.

Our transfiguration comes as our eyes are opened and our hearts are changed.
When we see others as who they really are:
Made in God’s image:
God’s beloved:
Just as we are.

Open your eyes and see the world as it is--
Beloved by God.
Let your own heart be transfigured by God’s love.
Take that love down from this mountain,
And use it to bring more love into the world.

Amen.

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