Love and Light

Transfiguration Sunday

Today's Readings: 2 Cor. 4:3-7; Mark 9:2-8

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday and this story of Jesus’ glowing revelation on the mountaintop bookends the season of Epiphany. The story where we began Epiphany was the story of the magi who followed a great light to the Christ child; which is then followed by Jesus’ baptism. We began Epiphany with a great light, the revelation of GOD to humanity and with the voice of God proclaiming, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ It makes sense then that we end the season of Epiphany once again with a great light, the revelation of God to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. And on the mountaintop, we hear the voice of God repeat words spoken at Jesus’ baptism, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, Listen to him!’

On Wednesday we will transition to the season of Lent, where we enter into Jesus’ journey to the cross. This walk, and any walk through such suffering, is often referred to as time in the wilderness. We will spend 40 days in the wilderness with our Lord. I don’t know about you, but I have felt like this entire last year has been a walk through the wilderness. Through it all, I have particularly clung on to the story of the Israelites literal walk through wilderness after fleeing from slavery in Egypt. For 40 years they journeyed, following Moses to the Promised Land. It didn’t take but about two months in before the Israelites began to grow weary and wish they would have just stayed enslaved in Egypt, for at least there they had food! (Ex. 16:1-3). How soon we too grew weary of the new protocols and longed for life to go back to the way it was, despite the negative consequences. Yet for 40 YEARS the Israelites stick it out and eventually they make it to the luscious promised land of milk and honey.

Now 40 years was just over the average life expectancy back then, so many of those who fled Egypt in the first place did not make it to see the promised land themselves. Yet without those who fled, reaching the promised land would never have been possible for the Hebrew people. The fact that there was still a community that reached the journey’s end means that along the way LIFE still happened! People still had babies and families were raised in the wilderness. I have held this story close throughout this pandemic because over the past year I have had moments where I have seen only death (no life). I have had moments where I have lost faith in humanity, moments where I have wondered if God had abandoned us, moments where I wanted to give up because maybe I won’t get to see ‘the promised land’ on the otherside of this. I have wept for our children among us at what their futures might hold because of our neglect and mistakes. But then I remember. I remember our scriptures, the story of God’s relationship with humanity throughout all of history and how God never ever abandons God’s people and how God is always working toward liberation, toward bringing life out of death and THERE is hope.

We may never see Jesus, Elijah, or Moses aglow on a mountaintop. We may never hear the booming voice of God speak from a burning bush or a fluffy cloud, but nonetheless we still know God. We still hear God’s voice. That light which encompassed Jesus on the mountaintop now lives in our hearts. “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” (2 Cor. 4:6).

We hear the story of the transfiguration before we are thrust into our wilderness journey as a reminder of who God is. The transfiguration story reveals to Peter, James and John AND to us today, that Jesus truly IS the Messiah. This is the truth they needed to cling onto as they journeyed and it is this same truth that will see us through our journey today. The scriptures, the gospel message especially, reveal to us that God is and has always been in the business of liberation, of love and of life. Holding fast to this truth, we can endure any wilderness, for we know that God is present and God will provide. For as sure as God guided the Israelites to the Promised Land, providing water, manna and quail along the way, God will do the same for us.

Now I pray with all my heart this wilderness moment in history does NOT last another 39 years, but even if it does, let us never toss this time aside as wasted or as hopeless, rather let us live each day in the presence of God and in relationship with one another. Like the Israelites, that is all we need to sustain us on this journey. Everyday we are one step closer to the Promised Land, to a better future. Everyday we have the opportunity to shine that light of Christ within us on a world in darkness. Not a day is wasted.

I pray you have those mountaintop experiences where Jesus appears clear as day and the voice of God echoes through your ears. But I also pray you remember how Jesus goes back down that mountain, into the valley and through the wilderness. God encounters us in both the highs and the lows on this journey; always has.. always will. That’s just who God is. God loves us so much that there is no place God won’t follow; even death. God has seen God’s people through some pretty gruesome history and God won’t stop now. Why? Because God loves us so much and believes our lives are so precious that God will stop at nothing to give us life and life abundant. If we know this, then we have seen the light and heard God’s voice. If we know this, then we can hope for a better future, hope to reach ‘the promised land’ .. but we can also live today; knowing that life accompanied with Christ and each other TODAY is enough.. is all that we need.

Take a deep breath.

Revel in that light. Let it fill you with life.

And go share it with the world in desperate need of the hope and love only God can provide. Amen.