DAZZLING LIGHT Mark 9:2-9 February 15 th, 2015 One of my favorite comic strips has always been The Family Circus by Bill Keane. I ve been saving one from October 14, 2014 for just the right moment. And I think I ve found it!! This one begins with Mom and Dad in the background, perhaps cleaning up the kitchen after a meal. Billy is walking down the hall in his yellow-footed pajamas, looking very unhappy. He says, I don t think I m gonna sleep very well tonight. I don t member getting any hugs today. The next picture shows him in his mother s arms, sitting on his bed, getting a big hug!! The last frame shows Billy sound asleep in his bed, with a little smile on his face and lots of ZZZZZ S. Last I heard, research has shown that we all not just the kids! need eight hugs a day to stay emotionally and spiritually healthy! We may not be a Hug Machine but most of us appreciate hugs giving and receiving them! Yes, believe it or not I intend to make a connection between hugs and the topic of this week s scripture the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain top. This text can be confusing. Its name, after all, is a word we hardly use. It s a reading that skips nine chapters ahead into Mark s story from the first chapter we ve spend the last several weeks exploring. And it s a day that in some ways culminates Ephiphay (all the bright, dazzling clothes and revelatory voice from heaven), introduces us to Lent (zeroing in on the cross as they leave the mountain), and previews Easter (white clothes and glory again). In his commentary on today s text, The Rev. Dr. Mike Graves, points out the dream-like quality of this passage as noted by biblical scholars. If we were to be honest, he writes, this story, like most dreams, is a bit strange. Jesus and his
closest followers-peter, James, and John go up to a high mountain. Nothing unusual about that, but suddenly Jesus is transfigured, changed!! His clothes become dazzling, blinding white, and they are joined by Elijah and Moses. Peter proposes a monument to mark the occasion, when a cloud comes over them, & the heavenly voice declares, This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him! And that suddenly, everything is back to normal (didn t we hear about this last Sunday in a different way?). No voice. No cloud. No Elijah or Moses. No white robe. No nothing. No wonder Mark writes about how the disciples kept the matter to themselves. I guess so. This is not the kind of thing you blurt out at work over your desk, or when you meet each other at the post office. Sure, talk about the weather. Talk about the cost of gas. But who s going to bring up something like this? They kept the matter to themselves. It does have a certain dream-like quality to it, and you know how dreams are --the details not always making much sense. Jesus clothes turning such a dazzling white that even Clorox couldn t match. These two Old Testament figures showing up unannounced. And how did the disciples know it was them anyway! Do you think they had name tags? Or maybe those signs on a string we wore around our necks in Sunday school when we were role playing? Ok, here, you be Moses. You be Elijah. How did they recognize them? Let s be honest, this transfiguretion story is a bit strange. Unless I miss my guess, Hallmark probably won t be marketing a line of transfiguration cards anytime soon. Luckily, we are given some help within the story itself. There are two parts to this passage: what happens on the mountain (strange as it is) and the discussion about it as they come down from the mountain. Did you notice? Beginning in v.9 Mark tells us what Jesus has to say about the whole event: As they were coming
down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. It may not seem like much help, but it is. Rev. Dr. Graves explains I think in some ways it s like watching a movie on DVD, with those special features, like watching it in French or outtakes, that kind of thing. Only in this case, it s like Mark has provided the director s comments. We see the story unfold but we also get interpretive clues. That s what we have here in Mark s Gospel; it s the director s piece on the plot of Mark. On Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Lent begins, we are given a glimpse of the big picture. You see, in Mark s Gospel there are three major confessions of the Christ s identity: the first at his baptism, where the heavenly voice declares, You are my Son, the Beloved. It s a scent of glory. The last is on the cross, when after Jesus death, a Roman soldier confesses, Truly this man was God s son! It s a scene of suffering. In between these two is this one, a confession that combines his glory and his suffering. Peter wants to build some monuments on the mountain.the only monument will become a cross on a hillside. But none of us really want to go through Lent to get to Easter. Can t we just skip the ashes and sackcloth? Can t we just have some spring now? Can t we just sing Handel s Hallelujah Chorus and be done with all the suffering? The disciples felt the same way. Can t we just overthrow the Romans and be done with it? You probably are aware that in the Gospels the disciples don t always come off looking so good. That s especially true with Mark s Gospel. In this account of the life of Jesus, the disciples are repeatedly portrayed as thick, blind. In fact, in this section of Mark, it s a blind man who proclaims the true identity of Jesus, while his closest followers stumble around in the dark. Actually, in Mark s Gospel
some might even observe that when we hear the disciples are afraid, you could just as easily translate it as confused. In other words, the Greek word for terrified is duh. Peter didn t know what to say, writes Mark, for they were terrified. Same thing in this case. We d rather take the shortcut to Easter, but we can t. In his book Peculiar speech, Will Willimon says, When you join the Rotary they give you a hand- shake and a lapel pin. When you join the church we throw you in water and half drown you. The Lenten journey ahead of us begins with ashes and leads toward a cross. That s the truth. But it s not the whole truth. You see, if the scholars are right, that the trans- figuration is a glimpse of things to come, then it is worth noting that Jesus words of explanation end in resurrection. He comes down from the mountain Let s think about it for a minute with the help of David Lose from Working Preacher. For while Jesus takes his disciples with him up the mountain, after the Period of revelation, transformation, and transfiguration, they come back down again. Think of it: Jesus could have stayed there. Perhaps he should have stayed there. After all, this transfigured state, attended by Moses, Elijah, and his three disciples, was much closer to the state of glory that Jesus deserved than what s coming. Yet he comes back down!!! Down. Down into the mundane nature of everyday life. Down into the nitty-gritty details of misunderstanding, squabbling, disbelieving disciples. Down into the religious and political q uarrels of the day. Down in to the jealousies and rivals both petty and gigantic that color our relationships. Down into the poverty and pain that are part and parcel of our life in this world. Down. Jesus came down. Why is this important? At least two reasons Rev. Lose brings up for our
consideration. First, this text gets to the heart of the gospel, Marks, and, truth be told, that of the whole New Testament. As Paul sings, though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness (Phil. 2:6-7). Jesus downward movement from his rightful place in glory to embrace our lot and life out of love is, in a very real sense, the essence of the gospel. Second, and just as importantly, maybe just maybe, deep down, most of us think Jesus is a little too good for us. That, truth be told, our job is to try our darnedest to become more like him. While that s a good impulse on one level, on another it can prevent us from being honest. Because no matter how hard we try to be like Jesus to be, that is, perfect-we know that we fall dreadfully short. As a consequence, we may feel that the most broken parts of our lives are the ones that keep us from being like Jesus and therefore are the farthest things from him. But this isn t a story about our going up, it s a story about Jesus coming down, all the way down into our brokenness, fear, disappointment, and loss. And of course, it only gets more so, as we will soon watch our Lord travel to the cross, there embracing all that is hard, difficult, and even despicable in life in order to wrestle victory from death itself that we might live in hope knowinf that wherever we may go, Christ has already been and that where Christ is now we will one day be. We have the reassurance that we do not have to dwell in the dark places of our lives, but that when those difficult times come we must assure and remind each other that Jesus is already there. That Jesus is not afraid of what is difficult in our lives. That Jesus will not reject us on account of our failing. Jesus descent back down the mountain reminds us that we don t have to hide the hard parts of our lives from the God we know in Jesus. For God the Father came to us in and
through the Incarnate Son precisely to be with us through death into new life. So trusting the mercy of the One who came down the mountain the One who entered the dark places of the world and still seeks out the dark places of our lives trusting this One, perhaps we will be honest enough to name what is broken and hurting in our lives and world and thereby fear it a little less. For no other reason was Jesus born, lived, died and was raised again, except that we might know that God is unrelentingly and always for us!!! God never meant us to live on the mountain top. The Lectionary doesn t include the next Bible story after the Transfiguration. That s unfortunate because the next story is important to the transfiguration story and Jesus coming down the mountain. He came down with his disciples, and they came right down to the bottom into the valley. They came off the mountain and they came down into the valley and they found a boy who was having epileptic seizures. The mother and father were enormously upset and worried about the desperately sick boy, and the little boy fell into a fire and burned himself. In other words, the disciples came down off that mountaintop right into the problems of real life. Home from the mountaintop vacation and into the real world at home. And the disciples discovered that God is also down in the valley and does not live only or even primarily on the mountaintop. Henry Drummond, the Scottish theologian said, God does not make the mountains in order to be inhabited. God does not make the mountaintops for us to live on the mountaintops. It is not God s desire that we live on the mountaintops. We only ascend to the heights to catch a broader vision of the earthly surroundings below. But we don t live there. We don t tarry there. The streams begin in the uplands, but these streams descend quickly to gladden the valleys
below. The streams start in the mountaintops, but they come down to gladden the valleys below. Our hearts are gladdened by God s presence in our lives and his abundant, unconditional love. We are asked then to share His love with our spouses, family, friends, community, and the world. In closing, I d like to share one more story about hugs! It was contributed by Erin Keeley Marshal on my IDisciple site. She writes: It was one of my first speaking engagements to a crowd of strangers. I felt eleven again. Awkward. Self-conscious. As I waited to be introduced, I tried mind over matter to calm my heart. Problem was, my mind wasn t feeling very confident. I scanned the audience of women my peers and reassured myself that I was one of them. It fit in fine. Even if that woman to my left looked so together and the one over there looked a bit stern and the woman next to her exuded such casual confidence. No turning back, though. I stepped to the podium that was too small to hide behind, breathed a Help me, Jesus, and turned on the enthusiasm. Why does insecurity come so much easier than confidence? No matter how old we get or how varied our life experiences are, none of us is ever far from our inner adolescent. Remember that gawky-middle school phase? If not, you re in the minority. But you know what? Jesus loves the inner child in each of us, and He thrills to show himself strong when we need a boost. In 2 Timothy 2:1, Paul speaks of Jesus caring nature when he encourages his young protégé. Timothy: My child, Christ Jesus is kind, and you must let him make you strong. As I cast my nerves aside during my talk, I felt spiritually hugged by Jesus. I found myself actually engaging the audience and even got a few laughs, which
were at the appropriate times and wonder of wonders not at my expense! Jesus strength was enough for me that day, and He and I together accomplished the job He gave me to do. Will you let yourself bask in His spiritual hug and watch as He does His work through you? Ask Jesus to challenge you today. Then feel His arms holding you and follow His lead. Dazzling white. Christ is dazzling light. We say this in so many ways: Christ is the light of the world. This little light of mine, I m going to let it shine. God from God, light from light. On this Transfiguration Sunday, we get to come face-to face again, with the dazzling light of Christ. And where are we led to see it? We see it up the mountain and apart from the hustle and bustle of lowly, worldly things. But then we are called from the mountaintops to the valleys to share His light that illuminates and provides warmth, to share His love and the Good News of the Gospel with those we meet on these ordinary days of life. God, empower us with your love and light that we may give to others what we have gratefully received from you. Amen and amen.