Sunday, February 26, 2017: "Transfiguration: Human and Divine" Fr. Carey Stone



This sermon has no audio file attached.

 Last Epiphany “Transfiguration” A’17

26 February 2017
Matthew 17.1-9
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone
 
Almighty God, whose power spoke the Word that created the universe and who wrapped your Divinity in humanity: Grant that we might glimpse your Divinity in the diversity of humanity that surrounds us on every side, through your Son Jesus, the Eternal Word. Amen.
 
It took J.K. Rowling 7 novels, each of which measured about 2.5’ thick to complete the epic story of boy wizard, Harry Potter; and this only to cover a span of slightly less than two decades. Now imagine trying to cover the saga of salvation history, from the creation, fall and redemption of the world by a God that no one could see, at least not until Jesus showed up. From the first words written down: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”   
 
Then follows the beginnings of a people chosen by God, then comes the stories of the patriarchs, matriarchs and prophets, followed by the birth of a baby born in Bethlehem until finally those last words were written in the book of Revelation: “The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.  
 
 The long story of our salvation covers several millennia and required a whole library of books, 66 (canonical) in all. With the advent of the printing press these books were bound into a single volume we know as “the Bible.” Each chapter of each book sheds more and more light on God’s plan for the ages. 
 
This saga can prove challenging for a preacher especially one right out of seminary. I recall preaching the first in a series of sermons not long after arriving at my first post at St. Mark’s Little Rock.  After I had preached the first of what was going to be five sermons an octogenarian gentlemen came by the front door and on his way out said – “OK Fr. Carey, I’ve heard your sermon, now what?” My response? ‘Stay Tuned!’ There will be more to follow. You can’t hear it all right now. 
Today we hear another installment in the story of the salvation of the world that has come to be known as “the Transfiguration” when Jesus’ human form doesn’t turn ‘50 Darker Shades of Gray’ but turns 50 shades of brighter dazzling white! Jesus, the carpenter’s son from Nazareth who had become an itinerant Rabbi after his 30th birthday, took three of his closest followers, up on a mountain and suddenly he begins to shine so brightly that they could hardly look at him. Then Moses and Elijah appear and begin talking with Jesus. Moses representing the Law and Elijah representing the prophets stand on either side with Jesus in the middle. 
 
This was a further unfolding of the mystery of who Jesus really was. Up until this time the disciples, particularly Peter, James and John knew Jesus was more than just a good guy but in this moment they were given a glimpse of his divinity, shining through his humanity and he was on his way to being the fulfillment of the ten commandments and of the prophecies of a coming servant who would suffer on behalf of all humanity. 
 
Peter, never being at a loss for words even during such a terrifying vision suggests that they build a temple for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.  But there were to be no earthly temples as all of a sudden a cloud overshadows them and a Voice comes from within the cloud that says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!” Whoa! This is not just Joseph and Mary’s boy but something much more, the very Son of God – the incarnation of the Eternal Word! Through the veil of human flesh shines the Divine light revealing that there is more than meets the eye with this Rabbi. They could only be given a glimpse of this awesome power or they could not have lived to tell about it. Like a transformer takes hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity and converts it to an outlet so that we aren’t blown up when we turn on a hairdryer or a coffee pot. 
 
Now imagine having this terrifying and awesome experience and then being told by Jesus not to tell anyone. Why would he do that? First, if they had gone down the hill and started spouting testimonials of what they had just witnessed there would have been men in dazzling white coats to come and take them away! Folks would have thought they were off their rocker. Secondly, Jesus knew that a truth this big could only be revealed in installments. Through his preaching and teaching parables and by his miracles of healing he was planting seeds that would come to fruition only after the resurrection. 
 
Since the resurrection of Christ his divinity has continued to shine through human faces. Cardinal Newman once said, “I say that Christ, the sinless Son of God, might be living now in the world as our next door neighbor and perhaps we not find it out.”  Has there ever been a time when you have witnessed the light of divinity shining through a person’s humanity? I have, and I didn’t have to be on a mountaintop to experience it. 
 
One day I was in the kitchen preparing one of my daughter’s favorite dishes - pasta, butter and salt. I took it up and brought it over to the table where she was sitting and as I placed the steaming bowl of pasta on the table she turned her head, looked up at me and then it happened. There was a smile like I had never seen before. Like the first disciples who were under a gag order I was instantly made speechless by what I was seeing. Now understand I had seen my daughter smile many times before that day but this smile caused her whole face to change, her mouth curled up into a contortion that would have surpassed a Cheshire cat, her eyes squinted and through her eyelids her eyes glinted and for just a brief moment although I saw something that was very much human at the same time I saw something else, something I can only call divinity. In that moment I saw the smile of a girl that a thousand years from now will be very much alive – I saw Christ.  
 
Frederick Buechner also tried to describe this “transfiguration” we find in everyday life: “It was the holiness of the man shining through his humanness, his face so afire with it they were blinded. Even with us something like that happens…the face of a man woman picking peas in the garden, of sometimes even the unlikeliest person listening to a concert, say, or standing barefoot in the sand watching the waves roll in…Every once and so often, something so touching, so incandescent, so alive transfigures the human face that it’s almost beyond bearing.” 
 
 
The blessing that has been given at the end of each service during the season of Epiphany says it best: May Christ, the Son of God, be manifest in you, that your lives may be a light to the world, and I might add, may we see the divine light of Christ shining through the faces of our family, our friends, in the faces of our neighbors and maybe even the faces of strangers whom we have yet to meet. Amen.