1 Jake Miles Joseph, Acting Associate Minister Plymouth Congregational Church, Fort Collins, Colorado Mountaineering with Christ: Transfiguration 2/7/2016 God, transfigure us today and make of us disciples of your way and your path. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts, therefore, be good and pleasing to you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Sometimes I start a sermon with a story or a joke or some illustration to wake you up, but today I am jumping right into the Biblical text because it is too important to wait. The Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 9 ends dramatically with a turning of God s face in a new direction: towards the future, towards us as disciples. While our passage today is the, Transfiguration of Christ, (Luke 9: 28-36), if we meander along in the narrative path just a tiny bit, then we quickly run into Luke 9, verse 51 where it says that, the days drew near for him [Christ] to be taken up, [so] he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Our text today is the last thing that happens before the journey towards Jerusalem and the cross begins. The Transfiguration marks an important and fundamental hinge point in the narrative of the Christian Story. This is fitting since today happens to be the last Sunday before Lent, so our text today is the final passage in the Bible before the Lenten journey. You all do remember that Lent begins on Wednesday, right? At this point, only days away from Ash Wednesday, I hope that you are all seriously contemplating what you will be adding or taking away from your daily ritual starting mid-week. I am sure by now, if you have been in church since the 1960 s, you have all heard sermons (probably many sermons) which clearly state how in Lent you may add new practices, gratitude, or mindfulness rather than depriving yourselves of things like chocolate or Social Media for Lent. What is not an option, however, is to skip Lent. Contrary to popular opinion, Lent is not an optional part of the Christian liturgical life, an unwelcome and dreary interlude between Christmas and Easter, but it is an essential part of a liturgically lived Christian life in community. Lent is not optional. Our text today is the preamble that launches us with Christ into the journey of Lent towards Jerusalem. In the Gospel of Luke, the journey itself towards Jerusalem and the cross (the Lent portion of Luke) is, according to scholar and feminist Catholic professor, Dr. Jane Schaberg, the bulk of the Gospel of Luke. The Lent journey, in Luke, is the longest identifiable section of the Gospel. We can t make do without Lent. While the other parts of the Jesus story get all of the attention and joy like Christmas and Easter, it is in the Lent part that does all of the hard work and is most of the story. Schaberg, in her article in The Woman s Bible Commentary (one of my all time favorite progressive-christian interpretive resources) points us to a Structural Interpretation of this Gospel. That means that she breaks Luke into thematic sections based on the movement of the text and runs an interpretive lens (like a microscope) over the way the sections are arranged. We then derive meaning from how the story of Christ is structured in Luke. This long Lent portion of Luke, Chapters 9 through Chapter 19, she says,
2 details a period of intense training in discipleship: its demands, powers, and dangers. Much of [Jesus ] public teaching (often by parable) takes place at meals and is about table community 1 Many of the parables take place in the Lenten journey portion of the Gospel. I know I jumped right into Biblical analysis today, but it matters so stick with me. Two things to remember so far: first, the Lenten journey, in the Gospel of Luke, is the longest segment of the Story of Christ s life in the Gospel of Luke, and the Transfiguration is the launching pad or the literary catalyst for Lent and discipleship. Secondly, and more importantly, this section from Chapter 9 through Chapter 19 (10 chapters in all) is an intensive and intentional curriculum on discipleship. According to Schaberg, the story of journey to the cross, or Lent as we call that journey in our liturgical year, teaches three things about being disciples: its demands, powers, and dangers. The Transfiguration, as the catalyst, tells us why we are doing Lent. Our reading for today transfigures (reforms and reimagines) our understanding of Christ as more than human. Jesus is part of the Trinitarian God. It also transfigures us from being simple Christ-followers to being Disciples with a capitol D. You can follow someone without the right intention right? There is a name for that. That is called being a stalker rather than being a disciple. Lent is about learning to be a disciple of Christ rather than a casual follower or a stalker of Christ. The Transfiguration turns us into disciples and prepares us for our Lenten lessons. Let us hear our reading from Luke Chapter 9: 28-36 again with new ears- remembering that this text changes us as listeners as much as it changes how Christ appears to us. We become disciples in training with this text: Jesus * took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed wide awake, * they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, * one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, This is my Son, my Chosen; * listen to him! 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. Jesus takes his friends with him mountain climbing or backcountry hiking when they, went up on the mountain to pray. Discipleship is mountaineering with Jesus. How 1 Jane Schaberg, Luke, in Women s Bible Commentary, ed. Carol Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 364.
3 many of you have ever prayed in the mountains? I know in Colorado this is a rhetorical question. It is an awe-filled experience isn t it? I want you all to take a minute with me to picture yourself now in your favorite Colorado mountain setting where you have felt God s presence or the transcendence of God. Picture that place which has compelled you to pray. Now, I know some of you are sleeping and already have your eyes closed. That is fine. I respect that sermons are long. If you need sleep and my voice sounds like a lullaby, then I am honored that I can facilitate your need for repose. For all of you with your eyes open, however, please close them. Picture yourself in your favorite sacred mountain setting. It can be winter quiet with snow, summer with sun, fall with golden Aspens, or spring with wildflowers. Take a deep breath of the pine and sage infused air. Take in the view. Can you see a peak in the distance? There goes a Hummingbird! Maybe you are fly fishing in the Colorado River or in a hammock in Breckenridge, taking in the view from Rainbow Curve in the National Park, hiking in the Flat Tops in Jackson County, or rock climbing at Crystal Palace up the Poudre River. Personally, I am in Strawberry Park near Steamboat. Where are you? If you are in a place with a name, say out loud now name that place for yourself. Now I want you to picture Jesus with you in that place, smiling. And while you are praying in the mountains with Jesus, the appearance of his face changes, and his clothes become dazzling white. There is a reason I want you to picture Jesus with you being transfigured in your favorite place in Colorado. It brings us to one of Schaberg s three Lenten lessons for disciples from Luke: the dangers of Discipleship. In our passage today the disciples fall into the trap of thinking that they can contain Jesus to one sacred place on one mountain in the Middle East. When they see Jesus transformed, when they experience the sacred on that mountain, rather than wanting to share Jesus, they say, Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings or tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah not knowing what he said. They want to enshrine them in a single place. This is like only praying once a week on Sunday when you are in church during prayers of the people or assuming that the ministers are taking care of your prayer for you as contractors or conveyors of faith you all know what I am talking about. Once it is listed on the prayer tree, do you still really pray? The disciples fall into the danger of trying to contain God, to create a shrine out of the Living God. This is the number one danger of discipleship: to try and own or wall-off God. Building a shelter or tent alludes to the worship settings of the Old Testament with clear boundaries between the Divine and us people. Instead of understanding Christ as a moveable God, they try and put down stakes and recreate the old ways of doing things. As modern day disciples, we fall into the trap of thinking that Jesus only exists in the Middle East and that we cannot experience the presence of Christ in a deeper way. We do
4 not want to seem religious after all. Marcus Borg once said, Myth is stories about the way things never were, but always are. The Transfiguration is a story with power about how things always are in all times and all places. This Lent, I want us to not fall into the danger of believing that Christ has been contained to Plymouth or to church or to a mountaintop in the Middle East, but I want us (whenever faith seems old and mothballed), to remember that this story is about how Christ transfigures and transforms life for us in our local sacred places. The first lesson of discipleship is this: don t think that we can contain God to a worship setting. It also means allowing Christ to be imagined in our sacred spaces. We should allow Jesus to enter our local and mountaintop spaces of the sacred. Bring Jesus with you hiking. Discipleship is mountaineering with Christ. In Divinity School, one thing you learn about Christianity that is unique amongst many world religions is that our experience of faith not only allows us to see and visualize the face of God in Jesus Christ, but it allows that to happen contextually wherever we are. We have a moveable yet visual God- envisaged. This is a unique and authentic part of what it means to be Christian. We see and experience the incarnate God, so claim this part of your faith. Let yourself visualize Christ in your midst. We are mountaineering with Christ. Okay, so the first thing we learn from this text is not to try and confine God to one location or place. The danger of discipleship, therefore, is thinking we have some control of the Deity and of Jesus. This Lent, as we journey, whenever it all seems pointless or God and Christ seem to be as far away as a mountain in Ancient Israel, I want you to remember Jesus with you in your sacred mountain location being transfigured. Jesus said no to the tent and said yes to the world. God is with you everywhere and cannot be settled down in one tent or geography. The danger of discipleship is to forget this. Secondly, Schaberg says that Lent is about learning the powers of discipleship. What is the power of discipleship? On Wednesday, my friend, The Rev. Melissa Saint-Clair, from the Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), who we work with for Faith Family Hospitality (FFH), came to interview me for a movie they are making for their Annual Meeting. At her church, they are interviewing community members about how we (as those community partners outside of Heart of the Rockies) understand and experience their ministry as transformative for Fort Collins. Great idea! After the brief one minute interview, while talking with Melissa about the upcoming season of Lent, she told me about how important discipleship is for her congregation because it is in their name and identity: Disciples of Christ. They literally identify as and call themselves disciples. This got me thinking. They call themselves Disciples. Do we, as Congregationalists, understand ourselves often enough as disciples? Do we claim that power in our daily Christian identity? In our passage today, the disciples have the secret knowledge (it says they keep this experience to themselves) of the power of Christ. The power of discipleship is, therefore,
5 (at least in part) a self-knowledge (deep personal) of being a part of a community of Christians who have experienced Transfiguration (as a verb). The power of discipleship is the power of knowing that when we do community service, we don t do it for the same reasons as the United Way or other not-for-profits, but we act because the Creator of the universe calls us to that work. Discipleship changes the power of our intention- our reason for being. Discipleship is as much about being transfigured with Christ as anything. There is a power and a responsibility in calling ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ, not as the denomination across town, but as Christians. Claim this power with me now: I am a disciple. Congregationalist, as a name, evokes more of a sense of our power rather than God s power in ecclesial structure to come together, debate, make budgets, form search committees, or make logistical decisions for the good of the institution and that is all good and well. Our identity and power of faith, however, is not rooted in being Congregationalists. That just says how we govern our politics. Our identity, in order to possess power of faith, must be rooted in something bigger than polity. Our identity must also be that of disciples who have a self-knowledge of having been transfigured with Christ. Otherwise we are Christ-stalkers with a nice building. This Lent let us own our power as disciples to be change-makers living in the Imago Dei/ Image of God. A disciple is more than a follower. It is someone who follows with a powerful purpose. Remember this: we are not Christ-stalkers or followers- that is just creepy. We are disciples and students with the power of purpose in the world. We are not just well off agnostics with something to do on Sunday mornings. We are disciples of Jesus Christ. Finally, the lessons of Lent discipleship from Luke teach us about the demands of discipleship. Jane Schaberg says that, The Gospel of Luke is an extremely dangerous text, perhaps the most dangerous in the Bible. 2 Here is the dangerous Lent demand in our Luke passage today: It is simple- only one thing is said of what the disciples must do first and foremost, verse 32, While Peter and his companions were weighed down by sleep [they were tired] but they stayed awake anyway. Another translation would be that they were fully awake or wide awake. Okay, I know I said you could sleep, but try and stay awake for this last point. Later God s voice from the cloud says, verse 35, This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him! The demand is to stay awake and listen for God. The demand of discipleship is the easiest of the three goals of this Lent crash course of discipleship: don t give up and go to sleep, stay awake, and listen to the voice of Jesus wherever and whenever your hear it. My favorite song from my time on pilgrimage in Taize in France was one that goes like this: Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray watch and pray. Hundreds 2 Schaberg, 363.
6 of us in languages from all over the world sang those words over and over until Jesus was transfigured in our hearts and in our midst. The transfiguration of Christ is when we are transformed from simple followers, friends, or stalkers of Christ into earnest Disciples of Christ. It matters. As we enter this season of learning how to be disciples, may we pay attention to the three lessons Luke has to teach us beginning with the transfiguration? Luke is a crash course on the danger, power, and demand of discipleship: The danger of discipleship is to stop believing that Christ can join us even in our time and in our space. The flip side of that danger is to give-into the distorted belief that we can claim Christ as ours alone and for us to hide him in a tent of our making. The power of discipleship is the power we bring with us of intentionality and purpose in the work and worship we undertake for the sake of God s realm and outposts of love. Our power is our keen sense of purpose and change of substance in our work as the ecumenical Disciples of Christ. It is to own the saying: I am a disciple. The demand of discipleship is to not fall asleep and to miss the constant moments of transfiguration in our midst, on the mountain, in the song, in the laugh, and in our lives. The demand of discipleship is to listen to Jesus and not fall asleep and become numb to the Sacred and Divine all around us! Plymouth, stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray watch and pray do not sleep, do not stress, but join in the lessons of discipleship, the demand to alertness, the power you possess as disciples at work for Christ, and the danger to forget that Jesus is ever and all present. Let us climb a mountain with God this Lent and see what awaits us in the still unfolding and transfiguring realm of the Creator of All. Amen.