God’s presence and love is among us, it’s transforming us, it’s leading us, even as we continue to learn and listen to what this means here and now for the sake of all that God has created.
Vicar Andrea Bonneville
Transfiguration of Our Lord, year C
Texts: Luke 9:28-36
Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
We are living in a time of cloudiness.
And it can be hard to see and hear and discern God’s presence.
Our world is clouded with hatred, discrimination, injustice, and oppression. Our lives are clouded with lies that tell us that we are unworthy and lead us to be filled with guilt and shame. Power and money are what people strive for, especially when we are shown and told that if you have enough money and power, you should be able to control any body, any country, any thing.
The more pain and grief and loss that we experience or the more pain and suffering we see our neighbors experiencing the more our vision becomes cloudy and we have to figure out how to discern God’s presence in our lives, our communities, and our world.
But this is why we are here today.
And that is why Peter and John and James where on the mountain top with Jesus on that day. The day when they saw, heard, and experienced God’s glory, even though it was confusing and terrifying.
Like us, they needed to see and experience for themselves God’s glory. But even after seeing the physical transformation of Jesus, hearing Jesus’ talk with Elijah and Moses about his departure and death on the cross, and hearing the voice in the cloud proclaim Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, the Chosen one.
Even after of all of this, we don’t know if the disciples actually knew what was happening.
Luke’s Gospel tells us that they went up on the mountain top with Jesus to pray. And while Jesus was praying his appearance transformed and suddenly, he was talking with Moses and Elijah about his departure and what he would accomplish on the cross.
We are told that Peter and James and John were there, but they were weighed down with sleep trying to stay awake to see Jesus’ glory and hear about what was happening.
Peter tries to comprehend, offering care and hospitality, but we are told he doesn’t have a clue what is going on. Nevertheless, he tried to act and make sense of what was happening because he must have sensed that it was important.
But then the cloud appeared and it overshadowed them and they were terrified. They heard a voice say “This is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to him!” And then Jesus was found alone.
This is how this mountain top experience ends.
We don’t hear about the cloud separating to give way for the sun to shine again. We don’t hear if they talked with Jesus, their friend, to try to learn more about what just happened. We don’t know if their emotions change or if they continued to be terrified.
All we know is that eventually they went down the mountain and kept silent, not talking about the transfiguration and transformation they witnessed and experienced.
It seems like the cloud did more than terrify them, it clouded their lives. Before the cloud appeared, Peter was at least trying to make sense of what has happening, engaged in what was going on, but after the voice spoke from the cloud, he also remained silent.
Perhaps what they then understood was too much for them to share, or maybe they didn’t think that people would believe what they had experience, or maybe they still had no idea what was going on and instead of talking, they stayed silent so that they could continue to listen to Jesus, as he journeyed toward the cross.
But even if they didn’t talk about what they experienced, we know that they continued to follow Jesus. And we know that for them, continuing to follow Jesus meant entering the sin and suffering and death and destruction of the world.
And this is our task today.
Even with our confused and terrified hearts, with pain and hurt, we follow Jesus to the mountain tops and into the valleys of our world attempting to keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to see where God’s glory is transfiguring and transforming our world.
We pray that God clears the cloudiness of our vision so that we are able see, listen, and discern who God is calling us to be and where God is calling us to act with love and service. We do things with love and care, even if we don’t understand the full picture of what is happening.
And at times, we remain silent and open our ears to listen to God and we pray to be in communion with God asking God to lead us and guide us.
We trust and hope and believe that we will be transformed so that we can bear God’s light and love and be the sun that shines through the cloudiness of our lives so that all people may know that love that we have in the Triune God. God with us who gives us and all creation the hope and nourishment we need to sustain, and grow, and transform.
God’s presence and love is among us, it’s transforming us, it’s leading us, even as we continue to learn and listen to what this means here and now for the sake of all that God has created.
Amen.
