Last Epiphany c February 10, 2013
Exodus 34:29-35 Ps. 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36
How
did many of our favorite fairy tales end?
They ended with these words, “And they all lived happily ever after.” We know it isn’t exactly true even though we
like to promote optimism with our children.
Even though we know it really would be “they all lived happily until
they finally died.”
Living happily ever after is suggestion about
a state of bliss in a world where bliss is not the only experience. One of the functions of art, music and
religion is to “transport” us to access a place within our own experience where
we touch the sublime, the eternal and the blissful. It really is not escapism unless it hinders
the realistic dealing with all of the other experiences in our lives.
The Bible and the Gospels are literature; they
are art, they are stories. They are
transporting stories. They are not exact
representations of reality. When we read
about Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life that is where the story ends; we don’t
read about Lazarus getting old and dying a slow painful death. Today, on Transfiguration Sunday, you noticed
that we read the aftermath of coming down from the mountain top experience;
Jesus whispers the inner life of a child and that child is freed from a
terrible inner torment. But that’s all
we know about the child; did he have a relapse?
Did he become a disciple? Or did
he get arrested for stealing chariot wheels in Jerusalem? Gospel stories give us such time lapsed
scenarios and the phenomenon of time lapsing tricks us to another better
place within ourselves.
The Gospel is a spiritual literary art that
transports us to another place, a parallel existence that we can access in our
lives. And this other place is perhaps
an ongoing process of life; this on-going process of life can also be called
the life of the Holy Spirit. And another
name for this life process is transfiguration. A pessimistic materialist might
say that the main process of life is called entropy or a running out of energy
in life but does not energy just change form and shape and what ends or dies is
transformed into another shape or form or manifestation of energy? Transfiguration is the English word for
translating the Greek word from which we get metamorphosis.
Our encounter with metamorphosis came in our
elementary school science classes. We
studied the phases of life of frogs and butterflies and moths. We watched little fuzzy-wuzzy caterpillars
appear to go lifeless in the pupa or cocoon phase, and if we were lucky we
would see the butterfly break out of the cocoon and take to flight. And this entire process of change is called
metamorphosis. We don’t so much know why
it happens; we can but record and witness that it does happen and try to name
this marvelous process.
Metamorphosis is incognito in many costumes;
the tiny egg, the larva, the pupa and finally the butterfly that in turn lays
the eggs. Metamorphosis or
transfiguration is the energy of life, the life force that pulsates through all
of life and this force is impartial to all of it guises. We on the other hand are human and all too
human and we in community become very attached to certain appearances and
manifestations of the process of metamorphosis.
If we took a survey, probably most people would prefer to look at
butterflies rather than tiny eggs, caterpillar or cocoons. In human vestiges we perhaps all have favorite
states of appearance; we want to have the wisdom of Methuselah and the physical
prowess of Adonis and the beauty of Venus.
It is very human to be attached to certain states of our manifest appearances. But metamorphosis does not discriminate; it gives
us no choice. Metamorphosis is equal in
the egg, in the larva, in the cocoon and in the butterfly even though it does
not seem to be equal in the experience of each phase.
The process of this life force of
Transfiguration provides us with encounters of an enchanted kind. Such an enchanted kind is chronicled in the
mountain trek of Jesus, Peter, James and John.
In the state of enchantment the interior life of people become like
incredible projectors putting in their environment things, people and events
not normally seen: Clouds and lights and
space travelers of two saints of old who did not have natural deaths, Moses and
Elijah. If a Jewish person were
influenced and formed by the Sadduceean tradition, they would honor Moses as
the final authority. Pharisees and other
Judaic sects allowed that the writings and acts of the prophets were
authoritative. So Moses and Elijah were seen in the visionary event as
endorsing Jesus to be the Successor within the line of salvation history. But
beyond Moses and Elijah came the testimony of the direct heavenly voice of the
Speaker who declared Jesus to be the beloved Son.
This enchanting experience was like a dream
that one does not want to wake up from.
Peter was so nervous with enchantment, he suggested that they build
temporary dwellings in honor of the three so they could camp out and stay
awhile. And why would anyone want to
leave the event when enchantment awakens us to the appearance of discovering a
person with whom one experiences love and friendship and guidance and comfort
and warmth and light. The
transfiguration process of life became apparent in a most poignant way in the
way in which Peter, James and John encountered Jesus.
But they could not remain on the mountain top
in the preferred state of ecstatic encounter; they had to go down into the “demon
possessed” valley. The reality of
transfiguration on the mountain top had to accomplish some creative reclamation
within the valley of chaos. And we sure
do not like the ugly states of chaos in the phases of transformation. But transfiguration does not avoid the valley
of chaos and the demon possessed. The
power of transfiguration is evident in the life of Jesus to do some serious
people whispering in the valley of the demon possessed. Transfiguration does not keep Jesus or us in
the state of spiritual ecstasy; it brings us into the world where apparently
chaos reigns. We who have been
transfigured need to activate our transfiguring energy; we need to activate our
life force as personal charisma or graceful creativity and do some people
whispering ourselves to help each other and the people to whom we are called to come into new states of mental and spiritual peace.
We need to find the rhythm of transfiguration
within our lives; learning to be recharged in the ecstatic of the sublime, but
then called to release and advance transfiguring energy for people who need
their lives whispered to the next creative and peaceful state of existence.
You and I are called to the transfigured
life. It is a process of God’s Holy
Spirit that impels us through many apparent states; sometimes we’re breathless
with awe and wonder and sometimes we’re holding on in intense waiting for what
seems an interminably delay of transformation into the next phase. Transfiguring life is equal and same in all
phases, even though we naturally prefer certain phases over others.
Let us embrace Transfiguration as the Creative
process of God’s Spirit within us now and within the life of our world. And let us make ourselves available to the
power of transfiguration to be people who are willing to whisper the lives of
other people to a greater sense of peace, love, care and kindness. Let the transfiguring Spirit of God within us
be a heavenly voice that says to each person:
You are God’s beloved and unique and special son and daughter. And God is pleased with you. Amen.
