“Transfiguration’s Intense Labor of Love” - Transfiguration 2018

The Transfiguration of Our Lord - 2018
Acacia Park Lutheran Church

Saint Mark 9:2-8

I was talking with a retired pastor friend of mine who also, on occasions, functions as a supply preacher for his denomination and he told me that it was not something he was comfortable doing because he didn’t know where the people were in their faith journeys.

This surprised me because he is not a glass-half-empty character but rather one of the kindest, gentlest, pastors I know.  He has that wonderful ability to establish deep rapport with almost everybody he meets and was a wonderful pastor to his very large congregation for over twenty years.
 
That being said, he just felt an inability to speak to the people’s real needs as a guest preacher.

The good news for you is that I love this. I love being able to come in, meet a fine new bunch of people, have some coffee, and most of all try not to do too much damage.  I also love exploring church buildings  looking at their architecture and finding interesting spots that make the place unique. (Even if those places are snow covered!)

My guess is that we should not have any problem relating to one another thanks to today’s Gospel for all of us have had mountaintop moments in our lives.  I’m willing to lose you for a few seconds here while you remember your own.

Perhaps it was the day you got married or the moment you realized that you had fallen in love.  Perhaps it was when you had scored that new job you had always longed for or were awarded that degree you had worked so hard to earn. Perhaps it was when you heard the doctor say about you or a loved one: “Your free of that disease. You’re going to be okay.”  Perhaps it is just that moment when you come in the door and your dog greets you as if you had been away on a long vacation and all you had been doing is taking out the trash.

We’ve all had a mountaintop moments and that is why I think Jesus has just as much to show us this day as he did for Peter, James, and John on their outward bound experience.


You all know that mountains are the traditional locations where God is revealed but they also can be frightening places.  Think about Moses on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments amid the fire and smoke of Mount Sinai.  Think about today’s first reading where Elisha watches Elijah being taken up in a “chariot of fire.” 

Strange things happen when God is present and few things are more strange than what we have before us today.  It has been tempered by time and our yearly exposure but it is a strange story full of twists, turns, and hidden meanings.  That is as it should be when the kingdom of God arrives in full force.
 
Nobody quite knows why Jesus decided to go up the mountain or why he chose who he chose for the journey we only know that he suggests this excursion and they, perhaps with nothing better to do, go along.

We know what happens next.  Our translation only tells us that he was “transfigured” but others say “Suddenly his face began to shine with glory”1 ... “His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes.”2

The light wasn’t shining on Jesus it appeared to be coming from Jesus.

And his clothes. “(H)is clothes became dazzling white, such as no one[on one[on earth could bleach them.”3

The Rev’d Sue Eaves, Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia pointed out something I had never noticed before. 

In the years before modern washers and dryers and uneatable Tide Pods, clean laundry was a sign of respectability that was a result of lots of hard work. She remembered her mother in England literally boiling the dirt out of clothing, lifting it steaming from the tub, running it through a mangle, and then hanging it in the sunshine until it was “dazzling white.” Dazzling clothes she said were the result of “an intense labor of love, and that was what Jesus was all about.”

That is what Moses and Elijah were all about too. Their lives proclaimed God’s intense labor of love for God’s people.

Labor requires movement. 

You and I know this from the last few days.  I spent an enormous amount of time looking out the front window and thinking about having to shovel snow. I had an good excuse --- I was writing this sermon! Still the only way to remove that snow was to shovel it. 

And so it was with Jesus. While chatting with the leaders of yore might have been exciting and enlightening still there was work to do. An intense labor of love was calling.

Peter didn’t hear that call and preachers have been giving him a beating for years over it.  We blame him for wanting to start a building program but he doesn’t do so to save the moment but to protect the moment.

Peter was aware of the history of his people and that history was one of a wandering tribe who when they wanted shelter from the storms or safety from the enemy pitched tents.  In a moment of insecurity --- which was certainly what the first Transfiguration was for Peter --- he wanted safety. 

In the midst of that deep desire there is an interruption. It is no less than the voice of God shattering Peter’s dreams of security and reminding him that an intense labor of love was calling.  “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” booms the voice that we think probably sounded like Morgan Freeman’s and the disciples are wakened from their dreams.  For what Jesus says is, in essence, “Let’s go!”

Dr. Karoline Lewis, professor of Preaching at Luther Seminary in Saint Pail writes: 

But we try to stay where we are. That’s the safe option, after all. Same. Staid. Solid.  Especially when we see what we have known, on which we have relied, in whom we’ve believed all crumbling before our very eyes. Whether these disintegrating edifices are  our denominations, our democracy -- or our relationships, our communities, our country -- too often our only options in response appears to be pop up tents, quick fixes, provincial vision statements, or nearsighted adaptations --- none of which actually trust in a future that God holds.

This leads to another overlooked truth of the Transfiguration -- that what we’ve seen so far is nothing compared to what’s in store. The Transfiguration is no mere demonstration of God’s glory, but that which insists God’s glory will persist in the midst of and in spite of all that would point to the contrary.5

We all know of these experiences too.  Time when only an intense labor of love will do.

They come when we flip on the television news, or open up a newspaper, or even check our phones and the news feed gives us more challenges, more stress, more unhappiness. 

They come when we fall out of love  and perhaps things have gotten so bad that the divorce paper are signed. They come when your boss tells you that your services are no longer needed. They come when you received your first “F”. They come when the doctor appears at the door with a grim look on her or his face. They come when, instead of greeting you at the door, you find your dog with its head in the trash can.

Jesus leads his disciples down into the valley, into labors of love, to show that nothing less that God is present in all these places too.

Dr. John M. Buchanan, Pastor Emeritus of Fourth Presbyterian, wrote once:

We do our believing in those moments of clarity when God gives us experiences of sharp truth. We do most of our living on faith, on the path, in the fog, remembering the clear picture we were given, anticipating another one but, in the meantime, walking on in trust.6

The good news for today is that we have been to the mountaintop with Jesus and the even better news is that is not where Jesus wishes to stay. 

He is with us on our mountaintops to be sure but he is even more present with us in the valleys.   He is with us as we gather in place around his table but he is also with us at our desks, at our kitchen tables, in hospital rooms, and all the dark places in which we find ourselves.

Christ is with us as we assume our roles as partners with him in the all the intense labors of love that this world may toss our way.

That is what unites you and me this day. You, me, and even my preacher friend trying to relate. That is where all of us are. 

We spend our lives - all of us - alternating between mountaintop highs and valley lows.  Yet, we all are wrapped up in God’s labor of love - love for neighbor, for each other, love for the world because we know that Christ loved us to the point where he was willing to become involved in this messy business of living.

We give thanks that the words of the hymn are true.

 For Christ goes with us all the way,
 Today, tomorrow everyday,
 His love is never ending.
 Christ the living, to us giving,
 Life forever.
 Keeps us God’s and fails us never.

Thanks for listening.

____________

1.  St. Mark 9:2. (TLB) (TLB=The Living Bible)

2.  St. Mark 9:2. (MSG) (MSG=The Message)

3.  St. Mark 9:3. (NRSV) (NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version)

4.  Eves, Susan. "A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday." Asermonforeverysunday.com. February 11, 2018. Accessed February 9, 2018. http://asermonforeverysunday.com/sermons/b12-2-transfiguration-sunday-year-b/

5.  Lewis, Karoline. ""It's Good To Be Here"." Dear Working Preacher. February 5, 2018. Accessed February 9, 2018. http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5057

6.  Lauermann, Connie. "One Magnificent Church." The Chicago Tribune Magazine, January 10, 1988.