Transfiguration: Knowing the Extraordinary within the Ordinary

 Last Epiphany B      February 19, 2012

1 Kg 19:9-18      Psalm 50:1-6

2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9

Lectionary Link

  If we were arguing about the best home run hitter in the history of baseball, whose opinion do you think would carry the most weight?  What if Babe Ruth suddenly did a reappearance and did an interview and stated, “Well there’s no question about it; Barry Bonds is the best home run hitter in baseball.”  And what if Roger Maris appeared too and said, “That’s right, Babe, there has been no better home run hitter in baseball than Barry Bonds?”  If such a thing could occur, certainly Barry Bonds would be happy and the weight of opinion of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris would have to be respected.

  The opinions of what departed Hebrew heroes would be most respected by people who lived in the first half of the first century is Judaic Palestine?  Probably the two most revered figures in first century Judaism were Moses and Elijah, and King David, the Messiah would have been a third.  But Moses and Elijah were different from David; David had a recorded death but Moses and Elijah had very interesting ending disappearances in their lives and so there was a belief that they like Enoch, did not really die natural deaths; rather they were assumed into heaven.  Since Moses and Elijah had interesting Assumptions into the afterlife, there were Jews who believed that they would be important in reestablishing God’s will and order for God’s people in their futures.  There was a book written called the Assumption of Moses.  It is even written in the book of Jude that Michael the Archangel argued with the devil over the body of Moses.  A book entitled The Apocalypse of Elijah was also known in religious communities in the first century, indicating how important Moses and Elijah were as figures who could intervene and influence the opinions of those who lived many years later.

  So the two who were assumed into the afterlife were like space travelers.  They would return to be present in that visionary event that happened on the Mount of the Transfiguration where Jesus and his disciples, Peter, James and John had climbed.

  For you and me, to be honest,  this event of the Transfiguration is a literary event.  Why?  Because we only read about it in the text book of our Christian faith.  And the text book of our Christian faith in the Gospel section is about the identity of Jesus and the significance of his life.  The author of the Gospel is very interested in the association of Elijah and Moses with Jesus.  If Moses and Elijah have come to give their full endorsement of Jesus, then surely no self-respecting Jewish person could sit on the fence about Jesus of Nazareth.  But there was even a higher witness than Moses or Elijah; there was the divine voice that declared, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”  This was like the proclamation in the Psalms when the writer wrote about the Messiah: “The Lord said to my Lord, You are my son, today I have begotten you.”   When Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai, his face shone from his encounter with God and the people of Israel were asked to listen to the voice of God through the Law.  Elijah’s fiery departure was proof that the prophetic flame had passed on to Elisha.  But now on the Mount of the Transfiguration Jesus was seen as the one who surpassed Moses and the witness of the law and also Elijah and the prophetic word.

  For the Gentiles readers of this Gospel, they knew about becoming a son of a god.  When the Caesar became Augustus, a title of divinity conferred by the Roman Senate, then the son of Caesar Augustus was a divi filius or a son of a god.  For the Gentile reader of the Gospel of Mark, they could know that there were higher conferring authorities than the Roman Senate when it came to conferring divinity; Moses, Elijah and the voice of God were more reputable than the Roman Senate when it came to recognizing the surpassing divine excellence of Jesus.

  We have read about the Mount of the Transfiguration as a literary event today.  And so what does it have to do with you and me?  We are not that engaged by Elijah or Moses anymore except through Bible stories.  We probably haven’t heard the voice of God lately, or we wouldn’t admit to it if we did, since we would be declared “crazy.”  So what are we to make of this literary report of the event of the transfiguration today?

  We can say, “I have never experienced anything like this, so this lets me off the hook regarding my faith and my commitment to God and Jesus.  Because, if I had such an encounter, certainly I would be more devout.”  Are you and I letting ourselves off the hook because we’ve not had such poignant encounters.  Probably.

  It is convenient for the church to enshrine experience within the lives of the 12 disciples and the saints and put them on a pedestal, because then we are excused from having a God-experience validated or recognized in our lives that could actually change our lives.

 But what if the purpose of the Gospel is actually to help us locate and validate our own experience of God, then we would have to understand a fuller intent of the Gospel writings.

  The face of Jesus was transfigured; it had undergone a metamorphosis.  The Greek word that is translated, "transfigured" is also more directly translated, “metamorphosis.”  Jesus was ordinary enough to be recognized as a human being; but he was extraordinary enough to be recognized as God’s Son.  So the meaning of the metamorphosis of faith is to discover the extraordinary presence of God within the very ordinary occasions of human experience.

  Jesus is a revelation of the incarnation of God within what is human.  So the meaning of the life of Jesus is that human experience is elevated and validated as being the only way that you and I can come to know God.   God has always, already been extraordinary within the ordinary, only we have not always recognized it or validated it as God’s presence to us.

  Faith includes the attitude of being on watch for the appearances of God.  It happens in the awe of sunrise and sunset; the lovely green on the hill side, the love of spouse, children and friends, the touching chord of a piece of music, the tear provoking story in a movie or book, the pain and sacrifice that is redeemed because they contribute to the betterment of someone else’s life.  You and I are not let off the hook when it comes to God touching our lives.  Where have you and I failed to recognize God?

  Just because everything does not occur in our lives with accompanying Jesus subtitles, it does not mean that God has been absent from your life and from mine.

  The meaning of the transfiguration is that God has appeared to us in the ordinary course of human experience.  And with the practice of faith, we take time to smell the roses of God’s presence to us.

  God has enveloped your life and mine providing the occasions for the divine presence to be known to us.  That is the meaning of the Mount of Transfiguration for us today, and the heavenly voice is saying to us to us within our very ordinary human experience, “You, too, like Jesus, are my child, a beloved son and daughter.”  Amen.