Are You in Spiritual Metamorphosis?

 Last Epiphany B      February 11, 2018
1 Kg 19:9-18      Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9
Lectionary Link

Have you ever said or heard some one say, "I'm high as a kite?"  I'm not asking anyone to confess their hippie pasts.  What I am trying to elicit is how we use elevation as a metaphor of what we might call unique and sublime experiences.

Before we had space travel and before we had air travel, what would be the available metaphors for height?  Bird flight.  Biblical writers spoke of mounting up on wings of an eagle as a poetic way of speaking about attaining panoramic view of the world below.

But in biblical geography, high and holy events happen on the highest places in the landscape, on mountains.  Mountains are metaphors for the places where the earth meets the heavens.  It no surprise about the metaphorical status of mountains in biblical "God events."  Mount Sinai, Mt. Carmel, The Mount of Olives, Mount Zion, the holiest place in Jerusalem, Mount Nebo, Mt. Gerazim for the Samaritans, The unnamed mount where the famous beatitudes of Jesus took place, and Mt. Tabor, the assumed Mount of the Transfiguration.

The Mount of the Transfiguration is presented as an update on the events on Mount Sinai and Mount Carmel.  On Mount Sinai, the Torah was given by God to Moses and the face of Moses shone.  On Mount Carmel,  Elijah called down fire from heaven to challenge the priests of Baal with the might act of the God of Israel. Elijah also was directly assumed into heaven on the chariot of fire.  And on the Mountain of Transfiguration, a new living Torah in the person of Jesus was being revealed to his followers.  And the inner space time travelers ,Moses and Elijah appeared to witness as they affirmed the surpassing greatness of Jesus.  And the voice of God declared the identity of Jesus as God's beloved Son who was to be listened to.  You might say that the disciples Peter, James and John were high as a kite in this event of the Transfiguration.

The word transfiguration in the Greek language is the word from which we get the English word metamorphosis.    One could say that Gospel writers presented the life of Jesus as a process of metamorphosis.  Not as the cycles of the life of a butterfly, but a very special metamorphosis.

God as Word was made flesh; became a baby, was known to be a prodigy child, conformed to the rite of baptism by John, ministered with wisdom, whispered people from the grips of dark inner forces, healed and brought the ostracized back to community,  went to extreme suffering and death on the Cross, and in the butterfly of butterflies moment, he rose from the dead.

Jesus lived the profound spiritually transformative life of transfiguration and metamorphosis.  Jesus instituted metamorphosis as the spiritual process for his movement; and for you and me.

The Mount of the Transfiguration event was a butterfly moment in the metamorphosis of the life of Jesus.  It was a pre-figuring of the eventual resurrection, ascension and glorification of Christ.

And do you know what?  Jesus left with his followers the process of spiritual metamorphosis to be the continuing spiral of spiritual advance both in us as individuals and in the churches as communities of the spiritual metamorphosis of the continuing life of the Risen Christ.

What do the phases of the metamorphosis present?  They present contrasts.  Eggs are tiny, larva immobile, caterpillars can be fuzzy and cute pests on plants, cocoons seem lifeless, but then the glorious butterfly is born.  But the butterfly eventually dies after laying eggs to begin the cycle again.

Perhaps all of us prefer the butterfly phase, and even wish that there should only be the butterfly phase.  In spiritual topography,  we all would like to live in mountaintop experiences forever, being perpetually high as a kite.  We perhaps wish our spiritual life could be the life of being perpetually in the butterfly phase.

What does transfiguration and metamorphosis that derived of the life of Jesus teach us?  It teaches that we live a life of spiritual metamorphosis.  We spiral upward going through the various phases, even phases of doubt and dark nights of the soul, but each phase is only a prelude to the next phase, the next advance.

Peter, James and John witnessed the spiritual mountaintop experience of the Transfiguration.  And then they witnessed the horrifying events of the trial, the flogging, and the crucifixion of the previously transfigured Jesus.  What was real for them?  Was the glowing Son of God real for them?  Or was the dying man on the Cross real for them?  Well, both.  But the post-resurrection appearances of Christ and the experience of the Holy Spirit showed them the purpose of the cycle of metamorphosis of the life of Christ.

And Peter, James and John went forth to tell all their listeners about this wonderful spiritual and transformative metamorphosis which was given to us by Jesus Christ.

You and I are invited today to continue within this process of spiritual metamorphosis.  We are to called to trust the creative advance of this spiritual process.  And if your experience seems to be like nearly invisible tiny eggs; hold on, there's a larva coming.  And if your experience seems so undeveloped and immature; hold on, there's a curious fuzzy little caterpillar phase coming, a phase when you might wear yourself out with growth, even to the point of needing a long phase of "rest."  A cocoon phase, when it might even seem like a hibernation with no end; but hold on, there is a glorious butterfly waiting to be born.  The long trip from the valley to the summit can suddenly pay off with a new incredible view in seeing things in completely new ways.

The life of Jesus was a life of unique spiritual metamorphosis.  And the Risen Christ has left the Holy Spirit life process of metamorphosis for us to live out in our lives today.

Today, no matter where we are in our life experience, can you and I embrace our lives as being proof of the spiritual metamorphosis, the spiritual transfiguration of the Risen Christ in our lives.

Let us today, allow the face of the transfigured Christ shine again through us as we are animated by the same Holy Spirit that animated the life of Jesus Christ.

My friends, let us on this Transfiguration Sunday, accept our lives in the continual process of spiritual metamorphosis, because the Spirit of God who was in Jesus, is the Spirit of God in us.  Amen