There goes Peter, again, being one of my favourite disciples because he’s so relatable. Sometimes just so clueless and so downright human! He experiences something that’s good, and wants to do something to make it last. He witnesses the Transfiguration of Jesus and suggests they build dwellings for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses, and stay there forever. And, really, who can blame him. I mean, Elijah and Moses were and are big names in Jewish culture.It would be like going up the mountain with Jesus, seeing Jesus transform into something visibly miraculous, and then seeing Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi show up too. Just unbelievable. We’re even told that Peter didn’t “know what to say, for they were terrified”. I know that when I get nervous, sometimes, I start babbling and speaking quickly, not really thinking about what I’m saying. It seems here that Peter might be having one of those moments.As Rev. Caspar Green puts it, "Peter’s response is like looking at a light bulb and going blind instead of looking around the room and understanding what the light from the bulb reveals." But this grouping was a pretty big deal, and he seems to have gotten caught up in that. Moses is often connected with “law”, especially the ten commandments, because he brought God’s commandments to the people, and Elijah was known as one of the major prophets. So the two, together, represent the law and the prophets, both of which Jesus fulfilled in his coming to earth.
And then, as Peter, James, and John are looking on, a voice calls down from the clouds, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” And when they looked around again, there was no one but Jesus and themselves left on the mountain. And Jesus looked normal again, instead of his transfigured self, with dazzlingly white clothes, whiter than anything on earth could bleach them. And, with that, they return down the mountain.
The tough part comes as they’re returning, and Jesus, as he often does in Mark’s gospel, tells them not to tell anyone about what they’ve seen. At least, not until “the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” Which, at this point, would have been even more confusing for them than what had just happened. They follow his command, and they don’t tell anyone, but I can only imagine how tough that must have been. On the one hand, who would have believed them if they told anyone?? It would sound like a pretty strange and far-fetched story, likely as not. But, on the other hand, after seeing something like that, how could you not talk about it?!? That’s the idea of “transfiguration”. It’s something that totally and complerely changes you. These three disciples would never be the same again. I imagine them supporting each other, talking about the event secretly with one another, whenever they were alone. Trying to understand it, and figure out what it all meant.
We have another interesting story of transformation, in our story from the First Testament, with Elijah and Elisha.Elijah, the same one who reappears in our Gospel passage, was a great prophet, and was well-known for that. He was a mentor to Elisha, who was going to follow in his footsteps. And, as we heard in our story, he experienced some miracles in his life. We’re coming into this reading at the end of his time, just as he’s going to be “taken up to heaven by a whirlwind”. And Elisha isn’t ready to let him go just yet. It’s not easy to lose a mentor and friend. I would guess that most of us, at some point in our life, have had a mentor, someone we trust, someone we look up to, someone who has taught us important things. Could be a friend, a relative, a teacher, or someone else we’ve encountered on our journey. And yet we know, at some point, that person will no longer be a part of our lives, and we’ll have to say goodbye. Endings are never easy.
The interesting thing, though, is that often the roles then shift, and we may find ourselves in the role of mentor. That can be a pretty powerful and shocking thing. And it’s what we see happen to Elisha here. After Elijah disappears up into heaven, Elisha picks up Elijah’s mantle, which was a cloak or cape, often worn by prophets as a sign of their calling from God. So Elisha takes up Elijah’s mantle and does the same action Elijah did earlier in the passage, striking the water to part it and pass through. And it works. Elisha is now taking on Elijah’s role on earth. What a daunting and overwhelming task for him. Elisha knew that time was coming, and seems to have been so worried about this that before Elijah is taken away, Elisha asked that he be given double the spirit that Elijah had gotten. That could sound like he wanted to be twice as big or important as Elijah, but I think of it more along the lines of Elisha being so nervous that he didn’t have what it takes, so he wanted to make sure he had enough of the spirit filling him to make it work out. But when Elijah is taken away, Elisha doesn’t have a mentor and guide to turn to anymore. He has to start living into and trusting the spirit guiding him.
Although I didn’t know Rev. John well, so I can’t quite say he was a mentor for me, I know he was a mentor for many, and that he was a wonderful leader of this congregation for many years. I feel a bit like Elisha in that sense, taking on the role of leadership and ministry from someone who was well known, well loved, and had filled that position for a long time. It’s both daunting and overwhelming. But I am not him, I am me, and though I may be walking his well-trodden path it’s with the hopes of taking us to new and exciting places. As Rev. John Holbert put it, “Following a giant in the ministry is not unlike following a rich meal with a bowl of watery rice pudding—it can be sweet but runs the risk of little satisfaction.” There will always be comparisons to the one who went before, and transitions are rarely easy. Elisha finds this in stories that follow, that it takes a while for people to be able to take him seriously.
So often in our world, we’re told of the importance of focusing on and living in the moment. Something that I tend to not be very good at. I get caught up dwelling in, or remembering, the past, or dreaming about or planning the future, and forget to live in the present. Which isn’t ideal. But, as we see in the two stories about transformation and the transfiguration today, we can’t dwell in the present either. Peter was happy to stay in the present, stay where he understood things, at least somewhat, and stay where he knew what to expect. Maybe even where he had a little control over his situation. And Elisha was happy to continue in the role of the student, where he always had someone to turn to when the going got rough. But, in both cases, they had to be courageous and continue forward, to serve God in the best way possible. They had to walk away, forever changed, boldly and courageously into their future.
There’s a Woody Allen quote, which came from a Yiddish proverb, “If youwant to make God laugh,tell himaboutyour plans.”Often we think we have things worked out, and God intervenes to show us otherwise. We try to construct boxes and structures to confine and define God, but the Transfiguration comes to remind us that God always operates outside and beyond our expectations. As Rev. Karoline Lewis puts it, “a transfigured God demands a transfigured believer”! And “transfigured” doesn’t simply mean coming to church, sitting in the pews for an hour, singing a few hymns and heading out the doors again. When we’re truly transfigured by God, it shows! God’s love pours out of us, and once we’ve been transformed and transfigured, there’s no going back! If we’re truly transformed, we take it out into God’s world and can’t help but share it with those around us. What would that look like in your life?
(pause)
We’re about to transition into Lent, a time of transformation for us, as individuals, in the church year. This Wednesday, known as “Ash Wednesday”, is the beginning of that time, and we have what we call the “Imposition of Ashes” to mark the beginning of that journey. Many people choose to give things up for Lent, as a reminder of what Jesus sacrificed when he wandered in the desert for 40 days without food or water. And that can be a very prayerful practice. But I think too many people look at Lent as a glorified “diet for God” in a sense, giving up chocolate, or chips, or meat, or alcohol. I’ve been guilty of that in the past. Or one of being really stubborn and strong-willed, proving to everyone around us that we can give up something we love. And although it can be a great experience, and hopefully even a spiritual one, if it’s one focused on depriving ourselves of something, and without reflection about why we’re giving those things up, it becomes more about “getting through Lent”, making it as long as we can before we jump into the Easter baskets on Easter morning and our Lenten journey is over. And, before we know it, we’re back in full force to the same habits we had given up, often with little to no change.
In more recent years, many people have taken up a Lenten practice of taking something on for Lent. This can be things like daily prayer routines, or acts of kindness in the world around us. There are some really good resources online that will even send you a “challenge” of love to do each day during Lent, to show God’s love to the world around us. I’ve signed up for it this year, along with 100 000 other people around the world, and I look forward to it, with a bit of fear and nervousness, as I journey into the unknown for this upcoming season of Lent.
In any case, I invite you to consider what you might do during this Lenten season. Something that will help you to live out your transformed nature in your life. Whether it’s taken something on or giving something up, may it be something that helps you to draw closer to our transformational God as you continue on your journey. May this upcoming Lenten journey inspire you to live the transfiguration out in your daily life.