Transfiguration (Matthew 17)

     In Nomine etc..

     We celebrate the Transfiguration twice each  year: on the last Sunday of Epiphany, and again on August 6. By a long process the Church arrived at August 6 as the date for the feast. Much later, Lutherans and others, from whom we adopted the practice, commemorated the event on the last Sunday of Epiphany. The two commemorations divide the year, and allow us to look at the whole year in their light.

     We are on the brink of Lent, the period of preparation for the celebration of our Lord's Resurrection. It is as though we are standing on the mountain of the Transfiguration, gazing over a deep, somewhat shadowy, valley, and we catch a glimpse of a height on the other side of the valley, where we see the light of the Resurrection itself. The transfigured body of the Lord precedes the resurrection body of the Lord. It is, as it were, a "fore-lighting" of the Resurrection, and so it is appropriate that we commemorate it in this season, before Pascha. The Orthodox refer to the Transfiguration as "Small Epiphany," and so it is equally fitting that we bring the season of Epiphany to a close in this way, to remind us of what God has revealed to us at Epiphany, or Theophany, the "God-showing" of our Lord.

     Let us look closely at today's Gospel reading. It begins, "six days later." This is not a casual, transitional phrase, a mere bridge passage in a long narrative. It is rather a clear reference to the Creation story in Genesis. It links Jesus and his Transfiguration to the Creation itself. It reminds us what the Creation is for: to reveal God in his glory, and to reveal our true nature in that Creation. We remember that on Day Six in the Genesis account, God created the living creatures --- the creatures on land, that is --- and the human race. So we are meant to understand the Transfiguration of Jesus as the appearance of the new humanity, paralleling the original appearance of humanity in Genesis.

     "Jesus led them up a high mountain, by themselves." This is a reference to the mountain on which Moses received the Commandments. And as we hear, Moses appears on a mountain with Jesus, as does Elijah. Matthew is placing Jesus firmly in the tradition of the prophets. It is not the same mountain as that of the Commandments, but it is a place, a high place, where traditionally God and humans have met. To this day there are sacred high places, where people worship God. When I was in Athens, on my way to visit the monasteries of Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, I visited the Acropolis. On my way up, I passed a church named for the Transfiguration, appropriately located on a mountain where divinity has been worshiped for thousands of years. And of course, the Mother of God is supposed to have visited Athos, the Holy Mountain, and in spiritual terms, she has.

     "He led them up a high mountain, by themselves." By themselves. This event was not a mass spectacle, but a revelation of Jesus's glory to his closest disciples. The event become known to others only after the Resurrection, since Jesus told them not to tell anyone until that time. Jesus reveals his glory to his closest friends, who in turn reveal it to others. This is one of many patterns of Christian life. Jesus reveals himself to his first followers, who pass his revelation on to others, and so on down to us. And we in turn pass it on to those who come after us. This reminds us that Christian life is incarnational. God works in and through men and women to make himself known.

     "And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white." This shining, this brightness, is not reflected light. It came from within Jesus, as sunlight comes from within the sun. Jesus in fact is this light, as the Gospel of John says, "I am the light of the world." Our Creed describes Jesus as "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God." The light of the Transfiguration is what the Orthodox call the "Light of Mount Tabor," or, the "uncreated light." It is the light that Paul saw on the road to Damascus. It is the light which is God himself.

     "A bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved!' " Commentators have typically regarded the 'bright cloud' as the presence of the Holy Spirit. Since the Father is present in the voice, and the Spirit in the cloud, and the Son is present in person, we may think of the Transfiguration as a revelation of the Trinity, locating the Trinity not in the speculations of later centuries, but in the lived experience and understanding of Jesus and the people around him. The Trinity was a living reality for them, and in celebrating the Transfiguration, we help to make it a living reality for ourselves and others.

     Liturgy, it seems to me, is a kind of Transfiguration. We hear the Father's Word in Scripture, we believe that where two or three are gathered in Jesus's name, he is present, and we call down the Holy Spirit on ourselves and upon the gifts on the altar, to effect the transformation that we are called to make real in our lives. Symbolically speaking, the vestments of the clergy are the dazzling garments of Jesus on the mountain, the incense is the cloud from which God speaks, and we are the disciples on the mountain experiencing the marvelous vision. 
     I don't know whether we are "overcome by fear" as the disciples were, but I do know that the disciples are not allowed to remain in fear for long, as our text says, "Jesus came and touched them, saying, 'Get up, and do not be afraid.'"    

     And likewise we are not allowed to remain in fear, and all it takes is the touch of our Lord to release us. The fear that we are talking about here is not dark terror, but rather awe, wonder, astonishment, and the realization that something far greater than the disciples, than us, is present. Such an experience can be so wonderful that we want to stay in it. But our Lord does not allow that to happen. The mere touch of Jesus snaps the disciples out of it. And the touch of Jesus in Holy Communion snaps us out of it, to bring us back to the daily world in which we live and work. We don't bask in the light, but we take it with us out into the world, as the disciples did, after the Resurrection as Jesus commanded them.

     So we return to where we began, on the brink of Lent. May the light of the transfigured Christ guide us through this season, that we may more readily perceive, and joyfully celebrate, the light of the resurrected Christ.
     In Nomine etc..