One of the things I noticed when I was visiting in Israel three years ago was that cities, and temples, and fortresses were built on top of mountains and hills. For the Israelites, this meant having to carry or revert water uphill. Higher places were best suited for safety… and, we learned, for prestige. The higher your rank, the taller your residence! For example, Herod the Great built two palaces for himself on the mountain of Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. Water was carried from miles away up this mountain until a well was dug. Going up this mountain took our tour group 20 minutes by tram to get to the top. I cannot imagine having to carry clay jars of water all that distance.
Another hilltop we visited was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: home to the holiest places for the three major faiths: The Dome of the Rock which covers the rock where Muhammad transcended to heaven; the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which houses all of the holies for Christians including the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection; and finally, the remains of the Western Wall of Solomon’s Temple. All three main faiths converge on this one small hill top to worship, creating often times mass confusion and a truly good representation of the cacophony at the Tower of Babel must have sounded like.
Mountain and hill tops are seen not only as a sign of importance and power but also as places of transformation. Many feel closer to God… being in this thin place removed from societal busyness. The University of the South, better known as Sewanee…. and as the place where Shelley and her family now live…. Is referred to as The Holy Mountain. A place set apart and surrounded by nature, where we could best connect with a peace and openness that would allow us to better connect with the divine. One of the professors in a sermon close to graduation told the seminarians there that they lived in a bubble… removed from many of the worldly ways. If you have ever been to Sewanee, there is very little there to serve as distraction.
Yes, mountain tops are significant ….and so it is a mountain top that Jesus experienced his transfiguration that is a pivotal moment in his ministry: one that cements his identity as the Son of God. Our reading tells us that Jesus and 3 of his disciples… Peter, James and John…his inner circle that he trusted the most… climbed a mountain to pray. As usual, the disciples fall asleep leaving Jesus to pray alone. And as he prays, a miracle happens: Jesus’ appearance begins to change: his face changes and his clothes become dazzling white. And then the prophets Moses and Elijah appear next to him. Followed by a voice from above calling Jesus… My Son. …My chosen… echoing the words heard at his baptism.
But this miracle is unique among all the others that appear in the canonical gospels in that this miracle happens to Jesus himself.
Thomas Aquinas considered the transfiguration “the greatest miracle” (www.doorscribe.com) in that it complemented baptism itself…the sacrament that marked us as Christ’s own and and showed the perfection of life in heaven.
This miracle is one of the five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Christ: the others are his baptism, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.
Jesus’ mountain top transfiguration is presented as the point where human nature meets God… the meeting place of the temporal and the eternal… the human and the divine…with Jesus as the connecting point… the conduit or bridge between heaven and earth.
Can you imagine climbing the mountain with Jesus, falling asleep (maybe a precursor to their falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane ) and then awakening to find Jesus talking with the prophets Moses and Elijah… all of them glowing with a luminous bright white light.
The presence of the two prophets is important. For one, it fulfills Old Testament scripture that Elijah would one day return. But more importantly, God tells Jesus in the presence of two founding fathers of faith and three disciples that Jesus is the son of God. That He alone is assigned the special honor and glory. This is the turning point at which God exalts Jesus above all other powers in creation, and positions him as both ruler and judge. Israel, who had looked to Moses and Elijah now understands that Jesus is the authority of the church.
But of course, we know that this is not the end of the story but a turning point to the rest of what is to come. For it is here that Jesus leads his closest followers back down the mountain… back to the brokenness of the world… to continue his work. It is his light that leads us to our own change. That invites us to our own transformation.
We are familiar with transformational stories, whether it is about Cinderella football teams or kids from all over the world living their dream of winning a medal at the Olympics.
One of the most fascinating and frankly quite colorful stories of transformation is that of Nadia Bolz Webber… a woman who has many tattoos, swears like a sailor and considers herself a misanthrope. She is also an ordained Lutheran pastor who founded The House for All Sinners and Saints, a Lutheran church in Denver, Colorado.
Nadia is a former stand-up comedian, a recovering alcoholic, and is also a NY Times best-selling author for her memoir Pastrix as well as her book Accidental Saints: Finding God in all the Wrong Places. She writes about personal failings, recovery, grace, faith, and really whatever the heck else she wants to.
She shares … using quite colorful language I must add… story after story of people who have lost their way and have found their way back to God through her unconditional, non-judgmental love. She shows whoever shows up at the doors of the church or reaches out to her in AA meetings…. A God that … once you experience his love…. once you learn of his grace… and once you forgive yourself…. well…. It can be transformational.
She tells one story about gathering names for her All Saint’s Sunday service for which they were making saint cookies… that is another story. Alma White’s name was on the list. And she tells the story of how it came to be. She and a parishioner were walking downtown Denver when they came across a large memorial in front of a rather flashy Pentecostal church that doubled as a radio station. The memorial read, “Alma White, founder of the Pillar of Fire Church, 1901.” She was ecstatic to find a church founded by a woman at the turn of the 20th century and immediately Googled her name. Here is what she found:
Alma Bridwell White was the founder and bishop of the Pillar of Fire Church. She excitedly kept reading. In 1918 she became the first female bishop in the United States. She was noted for her feminism, her association with the Ku Klux Clan, her anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, anti-Pentacostalism, racism, and hostility to immigrants. I can’t repeat what Nadia said next. But I can promise you she Most certainly was very upset.
She says, “I didn’t want Alma White’s name on the Litany of Saints. It just felt wrong. I want racists to stay in the racist box. And saints to stay in the saints’ box. “She says, that’s how it works. “I am faced with sticky ambiguities around waits who were bad and sinners who were good. You know, when Jesus again and again says things like the “last shall be first and the first shall be last”, and the poor are blessed and that prostitutes make great dinner guests…. Pure black and white categories are difficult to line up.
And anyway, she says, “it has been my experience that what makes us the saints of God is not our ability to be saintly but rather God’s ability to work through us sinners.”
Talk about a transformational thinker.
It is obvious that Nadia had an epiphany early on in her life. A transformation. She no longer sees the world in the black and white absolutes. She has seen that in only allowing for two alternatives, we become exclusionary…. So, she has begun the transformation of a “reconciling third.” (Rohr, The Universal Christ)
Transformations are not a once in a life-time happening. Sometimes they are small, and sometimes they are life-changing. These events have changed us…. And how we have changed depends on us. Most of us think in terms of duality…. says Rohr. Things are either good or bad… black or white…. right or wrong. But maybe, he says, there are other options. In his book The Universal Christ, Rohr discusses reality and “how it can change everything we see, hope for, and believe. He says that what many have begun to see is that we need to have a non-dualistic, non-angry, and non-argumentative mind to process the really big issues with any depth or honesty. Unfortunately, many of us have not been effectively taught how to do that in practice. We were largely taught what to believe, not how to believe. We had faith in Jesus, often as if he were an idol, more than sharing the expansive faith of Jesus, which is always humble and patient (Matthew 11:25) and can be understood only by the humble and patient.” (Rohr, pg. 207)
Our reading from Luke today is a good reminder that Christ is the true son of God. That we should not go through our lives sleeping through opportunities of change and awareness but be wide-eyed and alert.
Isn’t that what we are called to be? Transformational thinkers? Transformational leaders? Like Jesus, as Christians, we are in the transformational business! Our job is to help others transform? It is a gift that God gives us to transform. And it is our greatest gift to others to help them do the same. For us to show up as the example of Christ with love, non-judgement, compassion and understanding. To be so aglow with the love and grace of God, that it is unmistakable to others around us.
The Transfiguration of Our Lord is the mystery of light at its most powerful. It announces Christ's Resurrection, the final victory of light over darkness, life over death. We see the glory of God shinning forth from the face of Christ the promise of our own resurrection and eternal life. His transfiguration for our own transformation.
Amen and Amen.
Sources:
Rohr, Richard. The Universal Christ.
Webber, Nadia Boltz. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People.
Aquinas, Thomas. www.dorscribe.com
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