Lord, it is good for us to be here!
This morning we find ourselves at the end of the Epiphany season that follows Christmas.
The green season of Epiphany is a sequence of manifestations, of showings forth:
first, the Twelfth night after Christmas — which celebrates the arrival of the wise rulers from the East; then the Baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan river; then Jesus’ first miracles, first healings, and first teachings — all these stories show forth who Jesus is, with greater and greater clarity.
And so we come to this Sunday, the most powerful of all of these manifestations. Our first reading from the Book of Exodus gives a background to our Gospel. Moses goes up on a mountain, to receive the Covenant Law, and to encounter God.
We’re told that the glory of God settled on the top of Mount Sinai, like a devouring fire that could be seen by the people of Israel far down below. If we think of an emotion connected to this scene, it would be fear and awe — don’t get too close to this side of God, or we’ll be consumed. We would not want to say, like Peter does in the Gospel story:
Lord, it is good for us to be here!
In our Gospel reading, Jesus climbs a new Mount Sinai to bring a New Covenant. He was transfigured before them — a new fire illuminates the followers of Jesus, on a new mountain — possibly the same location as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ clothes are a brilliant white — and from Jesus’ face shines a captivating radiance. I imagine a face full of the power of infinite love — which we catch in glimpses.
Suddenly Jesus is not alone. Two personages from the past are at his sides. Moses is the lawgiver, present at that earlier manifestation of God on Sinai. The figure of Moses represents the ordered and regulated way to follow God —
“keep the law, and the law will keep you—
“break the law, the law will break you.”
But there’s another figure present on the other side of Jesus — the prophet Elijah. The Old Testament prophets were charismatic people, hard to pin down into law. These prophets would sometimes just go into ecstasy, and appear out of their minds. After what seemed like a trance, they would come back to earth and declare: “This is what God wants to say to the people right now. This is God’s will for you.”
The Law and the Prophets are often in tension. An inspired prophet would say that following the letter of the law is not enough — legalism is not life-giving. But if there is no regulation in society, we’re left with competing visionaries.
At this moment of Jesus’ Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophet, blend their contrasting gifts with a common focus in the person of Christ Jesus. I find it appropriate that the figure of Christ Jesus is located exactly in the tension between structure and new vision, situated amidst the weight of tradition and the ecstatic utterances that cannot be generated by any legalism.
Lord, it is good for us to be here!
Today’s Christians and today’s church need to embrace both law and prophets! Some of us are better at institutional memory, at keeping structures vibrant and humane. Others among us are better at the creative gesture, looking to what’s new, finding the creative in what others take to be mere chaos. These are innovators, visionaries, poets and artists following a muse, prophets speaking the truth to power.
Peter and James and John are overawed by this vision, and Peter shouts out:
Lord, it is good for us to be here!
So far, so good. But then Peter starts babbling about constructing a stone memorial to this living experience, as if he can take a spiritual selfie instead of just being present. We’re told that at that moment, a cloud covers the scene, and a heavenly voice tells Peter to quiet down and pay attention to what is happening here: “This is my son, my Beloved, with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” Listen to Him. Listen to Him.
All of us have had some peak experience, a hint of transfiguration of our lives by love, and we may recall some time and place where it all came together for us. And yet, for us as for Peter and his friends, a cloud comes to overshadow the peak experience.
God does not want us building monuments to our transfigured insights, but rather to go about the work of living out the challenge of keeping the law and the spirit in balance. Let’s be open to new and surprising ways that we can experience God’s love, and say:
Lord, it is good for us to be here!
