E. Suzanne Wille Seventh Sunday after Epiphany: February 26, 2017 Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 2; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9 I speak to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun; his clothes are dazzling white. They watched as Moses and Elijah appeared, as they talked with Jesus. Then a voice: This is my Son, my Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him! What an amazing appearance! How clear it all is Jesus radiant in glory, God s voice telling us what to do! But, trust me, this isn t the God we want. We think we do. We think we want a God glorious, clear in his being, clear in her teaching. 1 of 11
A God drenched in light, on a mountain top, commanding. After all, how often do I long for a word, a vision, from God to make clear what it is I am supposed to do? To prove that what I believe is true? How often do I sit with you in my office when something hard is happening in your life or when faced with a big decision, and you lament, I just wish God would tell me what to do? Of course. Longing for God s presence; longing for God s voice, for a clear direction is natural, it s human... I recently watched the stunning movie Silence, the Martin Scorcese film adapted from the novel of the same name, written by the great Catholic Japanese writer Shusaku Endo. I commend both to you. 2 of 11
It follows two Jesuits who enter 17th Century Japan during the persecution of Christians to find their mentor who has been rumored to have renounced the faith and to minister to the underground Christians who have been left without pastors. Fathers Rodrigues and Garrupe arrive to find these hidden Christians burning with faith but living in fear, illiterate, impoverished, and oppressed by a government determined to wipe out all traces of Christianity. As he ministers to his people, observes their suffering and fear and is eventually captured and forced to watch as Japanese Christians, his people, are tortured and killed, Father Rodrigues begs For a word from God, begs for guidance from God; yet throughout he experiences only silence. 3 of 11
After much suffering and wondering where God is, what God wants, as he watches Christians martyred not gloriously but brutally, cruelly, Fr. Rodrigues is given the opportunity to act. Only then does he hear God s voice. But it isn t what he imagined or expected, and the instruction is to follow Christ in a way he would never have imagined for himself. He gets clarity or seems to but it s not what he wanted. And despite the glorious Transfiguration that we hear about today, despite the words from God: This is my Son, my Beloved... Listen to him, Well, this is clarity we just might not want. You see, this moment this glorious moment comes at a very specific time: Six days after Jesus 4 of 11
asks his disciples, Who do YOU say that I am? and Peter responds poignantly, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and Jesus rewards his faith by declaring him the Rock upon whom Jesus will build his church. But just after that confession, Jesus begins to teach what it means to be Messiah, and it s not what his followers expect, not a glorious leader who will overthrow oppressors, not one who will restore Israel immediately to power. Instead, Jesus begins to teach that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and then be raised on the third day, a teaching that Peter rejects. For that, Jesus rebukes him and goes on to teach the Disciples that if anyone wants to follow him, they must deny themselves, 5 of 11
take up their cross, be willing to lose their lives... They are given a hard vision of what it means to be Messiah, of what it means to follow the Messiah. One can only imagine that they are beginning to wonder if they are following the right person, hoping that he has it wrong, for, surely, this is not what God has in mind... is it? I wonder if some of the disciples were beginning to doubt, to fall away from this Jesus who teaches such hard things when Jesus leads Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, when they get the kind of clarity that so many of us long for. For how could they doubt that Jesus is who he said he is when they see his face 6 of 11
shining like the sun, like Moses before him, talking to Moses and the prophet Elijah? Surely all doubt was removed when a voice booms from the heavens, repeating the words at baptism: This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased! Certainly, they fell on their faces in awe and fear. And then they receive a new but crystal clear word from God: Listen to Him. Listen to Him. Listen to Him when he says, You are salt and light, Blessed are the poor and those who mourn and those who thirst for righteousness. 7 of 11
Listen to Him when he says, Do not sin. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Listen to Him when he says, The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him... Listen to Him when he says, Take up your cross Follow me. No wonder they fall down in fear. They have a word from God. They have confirmation that, truly, Jesus IS the Messiah, the Son of God. Now they know that all He has said is true, that everything is about to change, that they will follow him, not to glory in victory, but to the shame of the cross; 8 of 11
not to joy but to sorrow. Perhaps we don t want clarity, if this is what we get. [PAUSE] And yet... And yet, look at what Jesus, the Messiah, does. Just as God announces who Jesus is, that they must listen to him, just as they are taking in that the leader they ve been following is going to lead them where they do not want to go, as they lie face down on the ground, overcome by fear, Jesus comes over, touches them gently, and using the same word that is later used to describe his resurrection, 9 of 11
Jesus says, Get up. Jesus says, Do not be afraid. [pause] And they do, strengthened by the vision that Jesus IS who he says he is, by the glimpse of Jesus in glory of who Jesus really is and will be in resurrection, though they don t know that yet they have the courage to listen to him, to follow him back down the mountain and to Jerusalem, somehow trusting that he leads them to a new, resurrection life where they don t have to be afraid, even though they will have to face sorrow and death. [Pause] On this last Sunday before Lent, as we prepare to enter 10 of 11
the season when we trace the final steps of our Lord as he walks the way of the Cross, as we face all that we fear most Sin and Sorrow, Loss and Death we do so with the assurance that we follow the one who isn t as WE would make him but who IS the Messiah, the one who goes before us, suffering for us, the one who will raise us up, who does not remove our suffering but joins us in it, strengthening us to take up our cross, so that we might face it without fear, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory. 11 of 11