The Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord, 02/26/2017

Sermon on Matthew 17:1-9, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. ³And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. ⁴And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁵He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” ⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. ⁷But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” ⁸And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. ⁹And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

THE GIFT OF GOD: SINNERS’ LIGHT

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

“Peter, James, John, and...you...come with me to the mountain. Whatever burdens you are carrying, just set them down right where you are. They will all still be there later if you must pick them up again, and I know there are some burdens you cannot set aside permanently. I know there is yet work for you to do while it is day before the night comes when no one can work. But for now, set them down right where you are. And...come with me to the mountain.”

“Oh, I know how difficult this is for you to come with me to the mountain. You like to be in control, and you like to know in advance what is going to happen. So many questions. ‘Why? What am I going to see? How long will this take? I’m not really into that sort of thing. Going places where I’m not in control.’ Oh, I get how difficult this is for you, but come with me. Take a chance. Be a little adventurous.”

“Oh, while you are setting things down, set down your phone. Go ahead now. If you’re texting or playing video games or even trying to figure out where this is going and how it all fits together and what this all has to do with you and your busy life, you’re still hanging on to too much baggage you just don’t need to carry with you. Take off your watch and put it away. Forget about everything else but coming with me to the mountain. Come.”

“Oh, yes, I almost forgot. This is really difficult for you, because you’ve got that whole rationalistic thing going for you. Let’s see. You can’t stop thinking that it’s the last weekend in February 2017. You are where you are in space and time. And if there’s a mountain to climb, you’re not seeing it in this room. Oh, right, if only you had a big video screen to look at with mountains, or, like if you were standing in the midst of a green screen and you could be looking at some computer graphic image of mountains all around you, then you could really get into it. But imagination and suspension of your disbelief are really, really difficult for you when there’s no picture of a mountain. If it doesn’t make sense to you, then it just can’t be possible.”

“But I ask you, isn’t that whole rationalistic thing just one more heavy burden to carry around? I mean, don’t you get tired of being like some tough Olympic judge who always has to give out the worst scores on everything in your life? Don’t the people you know sometimes say to you, ‘Lighten up, Francis.’ Come on. Close your eyes if it will help you to get started, and come away with me to the mountain.”

“We’re going to see Jesus. In fact, He’s the One who is inviting you to the mountain. He just asked me to pass along the invitation. And now that, in and of itself, is maybe tougher for you, because maybe you think of Jesus as past tense. He was, but He no longer is to you, because that doesn’t make any sense. It’s tough to turn off that rationalistic switch. You probably don’t even remember when they installed that switch. Maybe it was when someone important to you said, ‘Now don’t be silly. All that God stuff. All that Jesus stuff. Who can believe it?’ Perhaps you even heard the oldest contrary words ever spoken, ‘Did God really say?’ Or, ‘You don’t really believe that? Not you? You’re far too smart to buy that! You know it’s just people trying to control your life! They want you to turn off your brain. Listen to me...not to Jesus!’”

“But...I ask you...why is it that Jesus is inviting you to lay your burdens down and to come with Him to the mountain, but some people keep telling you it’s all coercive? There is no coercion. You can stay right where you are. You can wrap yourself in the warm, familiar cloak of rationalism. You can hang on to your burdens and schlep them around until you drop. But you don’t have to, there’s another way of being. You can come with Peter, James, John, and me to be with Jesus on the mountain. Yes, on that mountain, you are going to see and to hear things too amazing to explain. You are going to see, perhaps for the first time, Jesus is God in the flesh.”

“About now, maybe you’re saying to yourself, ‘I knew it! Give them an inch, and they’ll take a thousand miles. Just when I was ready to go, they reminded me that if I go, I’m going to lose control. If there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s being somewhere without wheels, without my independence, without my being in charge. OK, I realize there’s a lot of things over which I have no control, but, nevertheless, I’m still in charge as long as I think I am!’”

“But...I ask you, how much control do you really have? Have you ever gotten up one morning thinking you knew exactly what you were going to do all day, and then the day went entirely away from you with one phone call, one text, one email, one knock on the door? Have you ever found yourself sitting in a hospital waiting room out of control? Or have you ever woken up in a hospital bed not knowing how you got there...out of control? Have you ever opened your eyes in the middle of the night and asked, ‘How did I get where I am? What went wrong? I didn’t expect to be here! Not me!?’ Have you ever buried someone you really loved?”

“Come with Peter, James, John, and me to the mountain. There you will see Jesus, the Light of the World. Whatever darkness you’ve been hiding in. Whatever heaviness that’s been crushing you. Whatever loneliness or despair that has stolen your joy. Whatever shame or guilt or hurt or loss that has almost sucked the life and breath out of you. Jesus says, ‘Set it down. Lay it down. Give it to me.’ Yes, come to the mountain.”

²And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

“As you come to the mountain, if you come, you will see Jesus, the Light of the World, and you will see yourself as you really are and not as you pretend to be and not as others tell you that you are or must be. You will see yourself broken in need of healing, rebellious in need of being brought back, weary of the mind games that people play, sick of being lied to and conned and used and thrown away, afraid of being known as you are, and most certainly dying and yearning for real life. Oh, it’s a terrifying thing to be in the presence of Jesus, the Light of the World, where time and space collapse, where past, present, and future are now, where Moses and Elijah, Peter, James, and John are surrounding you with all the people you have loved who always and only hoped to be with Jesus and His Father and the Holy Spirit forever.”

“On the mountain top, you will be there with Jesus and with all His people of every time and every place, and you will bow down, maybe fall down, because you are in the Brilliant Presence of Jesus, the Light of the World, whom the darkness can never overcome. And you will hear the Father’s voice speaking to everyone but most certainly to you: ‘This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!’”

“And that is not all! Because all time and space have collapsed into the eternal Now, you will see Jesus nailed to the cross. And you won’t just see His beaten, emaciated Body nailed there. You will see all the burdens He asked you to set down, all your deepest secrets, all your worst moments, all your most foolish and selfish choices, on His shoulders. And you will hear His promise spoken by Isaiah: ‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed’ (Is. 53:3-5).”

“Oh, yes, on the mountain you will see amazing things, and as you fall on your knees in awe before Jesus, you will suddenly find yourself kneeling at the altar rail, reaching up with yearning to take hold of His true Body and to drink His Most Precious Blood, and as you listen to Him as the Father as asked of you, you will hear Him say: ‘This is my Body and this is my Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ And you will feel the weight that you no longer need to carry taken from you. The Crucified Jesus will take it from you. And He will say, ‘Rise, and have no fear!’”

“And, lo, He will be with you always to the end of time. So...won’t you come with me?”

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

STS Samuel D. Zumwalt
Wilmington, North Carolina USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net www.societyholytrinity.org

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