1 St. Paul s Episcopal Church 414 East Broad Street Westfield, New Jersey 07090 The Feast of the Transfiguration (A) August 6, 2017 DRAFT A Sermon by the Rev. Joe Parrish Dazzling white DRAFT The Gospel: Luke 9:28-36 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was
praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 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 2
you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him! 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. 3 Dear Lord, may we seek your holiness in our day to day lives. Amen.
My uncle worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratories for several years and got me a pass inside the research laboratories one day when I was a high school student and was making a Science Fair project for the city s Science Fair. One of the things I was shown was a water enclosed nuclear reactor core which glowed a bright blue at the center, a glow called Cherenkov radiation, named after Russian scientist Pavel Cherenkov who was the first to detect it experimentally and who won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics. Perhaps you 4
5 may have seen pictures of a nuclear reactor which shows this remarkable glowing phenomenon. There are two examples of something similar to this in the Bible; one was when Moses went up the mountain to talk to God and came down with a face glowing so brightly that he had to wear a veil so the people would not be frightened after each of his visits with God. And the second example is in today s Gospel for the Feast of the Transfiguration when the appearance of Jesus face changed and his clothes became dazzling white.
I submit that these observations are possibly early reports of Cherenkov radiation; Moses was due to having come into close contact with Almighty God; and then when the three disciples see Jesus full glory as himself being the Son of God. In fact when a high energy beam is used in the treatment of breast cancer, the patient s chest emits a similar sort of glow. The energy of such beams that can cause a human part to glow are in the 6 to 18 megavolt ranges. But the radiation can result in remission and 6
sometimes complete cures of cancer. Cherenkov radiation from the human body also occurs when patients internal organs are being imaged using a variety of radioisotopes such as Fluorine-18 and Iodine-131 [per Wikipedia], which are not dangerous to the patient but very useful diagnostically or for disease treatment. In today s Gospel reading the three observing disciples themselves do not glow, so apparently the radiation causing Jesus clothes to glow is somewhat limited spacially; however, in the case of 7
8 Moses, his face did glow due to his various close encounters with the Most High God. The cause of this glowing is in the realm of holiness rather than in the realm of physical radiation, but the results in both instances are quite similar to what is observed in modern technology. Human flesh will give off a glow if its molecular structure is in the presence of a very high energy source, as will water, and probably clothing as well, as in today s Gospel lesson when Jesus clothes become dazzling white. A direct
encounter with God does just that it is comparable to what happens in an encounter with something of extremely high energy. You may recall the novel story in Second Samuel 6:7 when Uzzah was with men carrying the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem carefully on an ox cart; Uzzah touched the Ark when the oxen stumbled and he thought it was going to fall, and he was immediately killed. A direct encounter with God s presence can be lethal. It is something like touching a block of Uranium-235 or Plutonium; there are a number of 9
10 recorded instances in the nuclear age since 1945 of at least 21 such deaths around the world occurring in lab researchers who became careless in handling highly radioactive substances. In some instances there was a definite white flash as the accident was happening. In today s Gospel lesson Jesus clothes glow for some time in the disciple s presence. We do not have any record that they received any sort of a lethal dose of radiation, so one hypothesis is the white flash was in the
11 realm of a Cherenkov event, when the radiation is generally not at all lethal, although there have been devices constructed in which there is a burst of x-rays rather than visible light, and indeed such a weapon has been developed by the US. However, I believe that the power that produced Jesus glowing clothes is likely comparable to the power which killed Uzzah on contact. It is a more contained power, but still a potentially lethal power if one gets too close.
What this brings to mind for me personally is the possibility that some in our churches have been too casual in offering Holy Communion to anyone who wants to receive it. St. Paul says some have come to communion for their own detriment. He said in 1 Corinthians 11:27, 29 that whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; and anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on themselves. 12
Various theories have been expounded to explain Paul s warning. But it seems to me that one needs to be aware that our church generally believes in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. We do not go so far as some denominations who say the Holy Eucharist actually becomes the body and blood of Jesus, but we also do not downgrade the Holy Eucharist to being only a memorial of the Last Supper. We Episcopalians take the Holy Eucharist seriously, at least the majority of Episcopalians do. So it behooves us that 13
we do prepare for taking the Body and Blood of Christ and not do so in a casual manner. But as I noted, not every Episcopal Church has quite the same take on the issue. Yet today s Gospel of the Transfiguration and the story of Uzzah and Paul s letter to the Corinthians need to be taken as at least a directive to be aware of. For Jesus came to heal us, not to condemn us. But he has come and will come again in great power, and he is truly with us now as the Holy Spirit. 14
A saying I have sent along to others this week is, Don t tell God you have a big problem; tell your problem you have a big God. Amen. 15 Description: The three disciples encounter with Jesus on the mountaintop of Transfiguration has elements which are consistent with a physical phenomenon called Cherenkov radiation, safe, but something not to be taken lightly. Our Holy Eucharist is
16 another instance where we should be aware of the real presence of Christ. Tags: Cherenkov, radiation, Oak Ridge, laboratory, glow, science, fair, project, uncle, high school, real, presence, Jesus, Christ, death, encounter, accident, Uzzah, 2 Samuel, 2 Corinthians, weapon, x-rays, flash, energy, uranium, plutonium, fluorine, phosphorous, radioactive, clothing, water, Eucharist, Holy, God, Moses, disciples, James,
John, Peter, mountain, Transfiguration, Episcopalians, memorial, real, presence, body, blood, mountain, Ark, Covenant, touch, oxen, lethal, treatment, diagnostic 17 St. John's Episcopal Church 61 Broad Street Elizabeth, New Jersey 07201 The Last Sunday after Epiphany: (C) February 10, 2013 DRAFT
18 A Sermon by the Rev. Joe Parrish The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke 9:28-36 Bring us to your mountaintop, Lord Christ, so we can see as you see. Amen. Someone has estimated that the average church member has heard 6,000 sermons and 8,000 prayers; they have sung 20,000 hymns but have introduced zero persons to Jesus Christ. Will
sermon 6,001 persuade us to witness our faith to one other person who has not yet found Christ in their lives? Let us hope so. This week someone asked me when the actual consecration of the bread and wine occurs during Holy Communion, when are they transformed into the body and blood of Christ? The word consecration never actually appears in the Eucharistic prayer because the entire prayer is necessary for the consecration. When we all say the great AMEN at the end of the Great Thanksgiving prayer, 19
then the consecration is completed, and we rejoice in again receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord by our AMEN together. We get a foretaste of the heavenly banquet promised to us in heaven. Our community here together is a sample of the great community of believers we will be joining in heaven. In receiving the Body and Blood of Christ our lives have the potential of transformation, of becoming who we were to become in the first place. We are empowered to live out our lives in new and transfigured ways, becoming 20
who we were always supposed to be. We all have the innate longing to be better or different from whom we are now. And by the power of God we can become who we were always meant to be. We are still encumbered by our past sinful nature, but now we are to throw off that lesser nature and put on our transformed nature, becoming fully alive in the here and now as a sign of who we will be in the hereafter. Three women in Port Arthur, Texas, found a calling to care for some children who were in a terminal care hospital. 21
They decided together to give their time to lift the spirits of one little child. He had become very depressed and despondent. Day by day one of the women came to read to the little boy and to give him a feeling of their love. In time the social workers on that ward saw the boy reenergize and become a person whose spark of life, though soon to leave him, grew brighter and brighter. His life was transfigured by the caring ministry of Christian people. And their lives had been transformed as well. 22
A young boy corresponding with Mr. Rogers of television fame, Fred Rogers, told of a life of abuse and neglect. He had been left by both parents and put in a foster home. But in the foster home he had discovered the love he had always hoped for. He wrote Fred Rogers that now he understood that he no longer had to yearn for an unreachable future, but he had learned to live in the present. He said, If we take care of the present we can take care of the forever at the same time. And that is very good advice for all of us. If we take care of our present 23
24 we will be taking care of our forever at the same time. Our problem is that we share the shortsightedness of the apostle Peter, whose response to the heavenly presence of Moses and Elijah visiting with the transfigured Jesus, Peter s only thought was to freeze this sight in a box, or actually in three boxes or booths. Peter wanted to place a wall around each great person and be able to go back and recall this impressive event whenever he chose to. Our own lives are marked by encounters with the divine, and our
tendency too is to want to freeze them in time and space, but of course that will never be possible. We have to go on in our earthly journey, strengthened by our divine encounter, but not paralyzed into inactivity by it. We are still on the temporal side of reality. We cannot seek to live on a purely spiritual plane, above the fray and frustrations of the world. We are called to engage the world, to help spread the gospel of the hope of Jesus Christ to the world, to deliver his love to the unloved, the least, the lost. And by doing so our lives will take on 25
new and greater meaning. We need to ask what we can do to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the dark and unbelieving world. A young child who had become a Christian said, I feel better now when I feel bad than I used to feel when I felt good. As a Christian I feel better now when I feel bad than I used to feel when I felt good. Finding Christ puts us on a spiritual high from which our whole life gains new energy, meaning, and purpose. What we older Christians need to do is to tap into the enthusiasm we once had 26
when we first encountered the divine call of Christ and accepted that call to us. We are not called to vegetate; we are called to sow the seeds of the hope of Jesus Christ. God will water those seeds and give them growth. We need to let others see Christ s glory in us. Our lives need to be living witnesses of the great hope that dwells within us. If it is to be, it s up to me, should be our motto, thanks to television preacher, Robert Schuller. If the world is to hear the message of Jesus Christ it is up to us. We are on the front lines in the spread of 27
faith in Jesus Christ. This task will take all of our skill and devotion. It is our Number One task. It begins by simply loving others, for by our love they will begin to see the One who first loved us, Jesus our Savior. Transfiguration, after all, is something which all of us, in one way or another, consciously or unconsciously, long for and seek. We want to become better persons, better friends, better spouses, better parents, better grandparents, better whatever. We are not absolutely contented with ourselves 28
in our present condition. We want to find our true selves. We want to escape our self-destructive habits--over-eating, smoking, drinking, and so forth. And we can only do that; we can only transform ourselves by linking up with Christ s power of love and mercy. And we need to extend the power of Christ s love and mercy to others around us. May we see God s transforming hand in our own lives. God will transfigure us. God will change us into the image God s Son has called us to be. He has 29
30 transformed and called us to help him call and transform others. <> Amen.