Sermon: Transfiguration of Our Lord (14 Feb 2010)

Sermon: Transfiguration (14 Feb 2010)
(Exodus 34:29-35/Psalm 99/2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2/Luke 9:28-43a)
From Glory To Glory

The Lord has shown forth His glory.
Come, let us adore Him.

Note: The Revised Common Lectionary places the Feast of the Transfiguration on the last Sunday of Epiphany and not on 6 August as do Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglican lectionaries.

St. Jude, the brother of our Lord, was deeply concerned for the purity of the faith. Just a few decades after the events of our salvation he writes:

Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 3-4, NRSV).

There are those in every age – Jude’s and ours – who, through active disobedience or passive ignorance distort the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Some merely wander away from the truth themselves; some, tragically, draw others away with them. And so Jude reminds us, the church must be ever vigilant and uncompromising in defending its faith in our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

So how do we know, some two millennia after St. Jude’s time, that we have received and now hold the true faith? How has the faith once for all delivered to the saints been preserved for us? The compact answer – which itself takes great care and time and effort to unpack – is this: the ancient and true faith of the Church is preserved in the Tradition of the Church. As Paul writes to Timothy, the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth (cf 1 Tim 3:15). The Tradition of the Church is multifaceted, consisting of scripture, creeds, ecumenical councils, hymns, prayers, liturgy, and the communion of the saints – all of whom lived for and many of whom died for the faith. We read the truth in the Scripture and we proclaim the truth in the creeds. We sing the truth in ancient hymns and we pray the truth in our common prayers. We worship the Truth, in truth, through sacred liturgical word and sacred sacramental action and we embody the truth as we take our place in the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us as we do these things. All these repositories of the faith work in synergy to teach and preserve and pass on the faith – the whole faith and nothing but the faith – each supporting and supplementing the other. The faith once for all delivered to the saints is “that which has been believed always, everywhere, and by all,” as St. Vincent of Lérins expresses it.

This faith is not of human origin or devising; it is the stuff of revelation and experience. Peter writes:

16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain (2 Peter 2:16-18, NKJV).

Peter describes the Transfiguration of the Lord, clearly a pivotal moment in his faith and a testimony to all who follow. We have the Transfiguration in Scripture, in the records of eyewitness testimony – here and in all the synoptic Gospels. But we have it, too, in other repositories of the Tradition: in hymns and prayers which serve as the Church’s commentary on Scripture. These offer great insight into the significance of the event for those who witnessed it and for all who have received the Tradition.

From the East there are two hymns: the Troparion and the Kontakion of the Transfiguration.

Troparion of the Transfiguration
You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, revealing as much of your glory to your disciples as they could behold. Through the prayers of the Mother of God, let your everlasting light also shine upon us sinners. O Giver of Light, glory be to You!

Troparia are musical collects; they collect or summarize the theme or themes of the liturgical celebration. The Troparion of the Transfiguration is sung at Vespers on the eve of the Transfiguration and again at Matins the following morning. What themes does it express?

First, it proclaims that the man Jesus transfigured on the mountain was Christ our God, that the glory seen there was the glory of God in the face of man: You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God. Paul says it this way:

15 He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross (Col 1:15-20, NKJV).

Jesus is the image, the exact likeness, of God – God in his fullness in flesh and blood; that’s what was revealed on Mt. Tabor that day. But this God, Creator of all things, was also revealed as the Christ/Messiah, the Redeemer of all things, who through the cross would reconcile to Himself all things on earth and in heaven. This was Jesus the man the disciples knew, and this was Jesus their Savior and God – one Person, truly man and truly God. Jesus’ humanity was not a disguise he wore and laid aside at the moment of Transfiguration, nor was his divinity something foreign and added at the moment of Transfiguration. Jesus was revealed as he is and ever shall be: one Person, fully God and fully man – Christ our God.

Second, the troparion says that Christ our God revealed only as much of his glory as the disciples could behold. Did you ever wonder why only Peter, James, and John were selected to witness the Transfiguration? The troparion suggests – and the church fathers agree – that only these three were ready and able to behold the glory of God, to see the uncreated light. There is biblical precedence for such a notion. In the Beatitudes Jesus says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” These three had the purity of heart to see the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus on the mountain. Of course this challenges us: if we would see God – and the Tradition maintains that we can – then we must pursue the purity of heart acquired only through a disciplined life of love and obedience, of prayer and fasting and repentance.

Let us pray.

Grant us, O God, to behold your light and your glory as we are able and, through your mercy, purify our hearts that we may be worthy to behold you ever more clearly and fully, through Jesus Christ our God, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Amen.

Kontakion of the Transfiguration
You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, and your disciples beheld as much as they could of your glory, so that when they would see you crucified, they would understand that You suffered willingly; and they would preach to the world that You are truly the reflection of the Father.

Kontakia are long, theologically rich songs; typically only a short portion of each is sung in worship. The Kontakion of the Transfiguration echoes the same themes as the Troparion but adds an important element; it connects the Transfiguration to the crucifixion. The Transfiguration reveals ahead of time that the crucifixion is not a defeat but a victory. The Transfiguration reveals ahead of time that the glory and power present on the mountain are also seen – and perhaps best seen – in the shame and weakness of the cross. Jesus is compelled to die only by his love for man and his obedience to the Father, not by the cunning of the priests or the abusive power of Rome. His life is not taken from him, but offered up by him. Jesus himself says as much.

17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (John 10:17-18, NKJV).

The Transfiguration reveals the cross as a thing of glory amidst shame and power amidst weakness. As Paul writes,

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18, NKJV).

Of course this challenges us: to embrace shame and weakness as the true Christian expressions of glory and power. If we would be transfigured with Jesus on Tabor, we must be crucified with him on Calvary through a life of dying to self.

Let us pray.

Let us see, O God, as much glory in the shame of the cross of our Lord as in his Transfiguration, as much power in the weakness of the cross of our Lord as in his Transfiguration, and let us ever hold fast to that life-giving cross that, joined to his death, we might know also the victory of his resurrection, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

We have heard from the East in these two great hymns. Now, from the West there is a prayer, the Collect for the Transfiguration.

Collect of the Transfiguration
O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This collect explicitly links Jesus’ transfiguration to our own: Grant to us that we…[may] be changed into his likeness from glory to glory. These words reference St. Paul: 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18, NKJV). To look upon the glory of the Lord – to look upon it in Spirit and truth and worship – is to be transformed into that same image, transformed into like glory. We become what we gaze upon; we become what we worship. This is the hope and promise of theosis: the purification, illumination, and glorification of man – union with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We do not know or see this fully yet, be we are granted a glimpse of glorified humanity in the Tranfiguration of our Lord; what he is in his humanity, we shall also be. About this, St. John writes:

2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:2-3, NKJV).

But this collect also explicitly links the glory of our transfiguration to the burden of our cross: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory. So many in the communion of saints have known – and still know – what we often prefer to forget: that suffering is the womb of glory, death the seed of resurrection. St. Paul writes:

10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

There is a fearful and wonderful symmetry here[1]. We see Christ transfigured and then take up his cross. Thus strengthened, we take up our cross and are transfigured.

Of course this challenges us: to see the way of the cross as the way of glory, to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus Christ our Lord, to die with him – moment by moment, that we may live with him unto the ages of ages.

These two great hymns and this one great prayer are sure repositories of the Tradition of the Church, the faith once for all delivered to the saints: that Jesus transfigured is Christ our God; that Jesus transfigured willingly sacrificed himself on the cross for us and for our salvation; that Jesus transfigured, crucified, and risen again, bids us take up our own cross; that Jesus transfigured transfigures those who bear the cross into his glorious likeness – from glory into glory. Amen.

[1] The symmetry of the collect is chiastic (from the Greek chi, X) and has the form ABBA:
A – Jesus’ transfiguration
B – Jesus’ cross
B – Our cross
A – Our Transfiguration
It is interesting in this context – though purely incidental – that X is the first letter of Christos/Christ. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiastic_structure.

Sermon: Transfiguration of Our Lord ( 22 Feb 2009)

Sermon: Transfiguration of Our Lord (22 February 2009)
(2 Kings 2:1-12/Psalm 50:1-6/2 Corinthians 4:3-6/Mark 9:2-9)

If you will you can become all flame.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
_______________________________
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’

Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.’ [1]
_______________________________

The church tells the story of two and a half men. It is our story, as much for women as for men, though the outward form is sometimes gender specific. And it is – as all true stories are – God’s story. It starts…well, it starts in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, when through the Word all things came into being: light and life and men. ”And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27, NASB). Adam and Eve, scripture names them – our first parents, the exemplars of our race.

Man was, by nature, oriented toward God, in communion with God – a partaker of the divine nature. God’s breath was man’s life. God’s will was man’s desire. God’s love was man’s goal. Man walked a path through the Garden toward God in company with God, progressing from one degree of glory to the next. Man, created in the image of God, would, through obedience and communion, progress ever toward the likeness of God and would be drawn ever more fully into perichoresis, the mutual life of the Trinity. Such was man’s purpose and nature – man’s logos. And so it was until man was deceived by the father of lies, the serpent Satan. Satan offered precisely what man wanted, a fulfillment of man’s God-breathed life and nature – to become like God.

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:1-5, NKJV).

Rightly does scripture call the serpent cunning. Man is created in his very nature to desire God, to move toward God, to become like God – but only through divine grace that comes from obedience to God and communion with God. Satan offers to fulfill man’s greatest desire and rightful purpose through an act of disobedience and rebellion. Perhaps you’ve misunderstood God’s instructions, Satan suggests to Eve. Perhaps God wants you to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, wants you to be like him now. It sounds so right and the fruit looks so appetizing that man – in the person first of Eve then of Adam – through disobedience bows down to worship the creature – the serpent Satan. And all hell breaks loose; sin and death come forth victorious and claim their victims. Man is diminished in body and mind and spirit. Man, the glorious creation of God – the bearer of God’s image and the promise of his likeness – is reduced to half-man. Half-man hides from God, unable to bring his shame into God’s presence. And so, cut off from the source of life, death reigns supreme – not over the first man only, but over all the children of man. Man was made for light and life. Man inherits darkness and death.

Yet, the image of God within half-man has not been completely erased; man’s logos – man’s purpose and nature – compel him forward toward life and meaning. But, apart from God, faced with immanent death, half-man knows not where to turn. He has forgotten God, forgotten the height from which he fell. And so it is that half-man turns toward the creation, desperately rummaging there for the answer, desperately seeking there to stave off death and the fear of death, desperately grasping light and life in a place of darkness and death. And so, half-man spirals downward.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Rom 1:21-32, NIV).

Such is the state of half-man – not of each individual, of course – but of the race of half-men: distanced from God, unmindful of his glory, obsessed with self and power and pleasure and death, and spiraling ever downward toward corruption.

Then, into this world of half-men, comes the True Man, the new Adam – the One who spoke man into existence and breathed into him the breath of life, now himself incarnate, now in human form.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-5, 14, NKJV).

This True Man took half-man to the mountain: Sinai, Carmel, Tabor. Look and remember, he says to half-man. Turn from darkness and death toward light and life. See what God intends.

1 And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. 4 And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— 6 because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. 7 And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” 8 Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves (Mk 9:1-8, NKJV).

“Jesus, as far as we can we obey the Law and the Prophets – Moses and Elijah. We say our prayers a little, we fast a little, we give our alms a little. As far as it is in us so to do, we live at peace with all men. What more can we do?” say the half-men. And his clothes become exceedingly white and his face shines like the sun, and the voice of God speaks, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.” Jesus answers without saying a word: If you will you can become all flame. This is True Man, man in the image and likeness of God. This is the proclamation that the gospel is about transfiguration, about half-men becoming true men, about darkness dispelled by light, about death swallowed up in the victory of life. It is about half-men receiving by grace through Christ alone what is Christ’s alone by nature. This is the story of two and a half men: of Adam and the fall, of the race of half-men, of Jesus and the transfiguration.

45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.”The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man (1 Cor 15:45-49).

The power of the gospel is the power of transfiguration, not for Jesus only but for all the race of half-men. Jesus’ transfiguration points the way to yours and to mine and to all who will come to the light of his dawning.

Athanasius, newly consecrated bishop of Alexandria, determined to visit all the churches in his see, to make certain the orthodox faith was being proclaimed. On his journey he learned of three, old monks who lived alone on an island. Like the devoted bishop he was, Athanasius set sail to the island to shepherd, even if briefly, this small flock. He was greeted with great warmth and reverence by the monks. “Tell me,” Athanasius said to them after awhile, “how it is that you pray.” “Father, we are not learned men,” the monks replied. “We simply lift our hands to God and say, ‘We are three and you are three: Have mercy upon us.’”

“Ah, dear Fathers, this will never do,” said Athanasius. “I must teach you to pray as the church prays.” And for the next several days – the monks were slow learners – the new bishop taught the old monks the Lord’s Prayer. Satisfied at last that the monks knew how to pray properly, Athanasius set sail for Alexandria. That very night aboard his ship he noticed a glow in the distance, a glow getting brighter and rapidly approaching the ship. He looked and saw the three old monks running toward him on the water. When they reached the ship they simply stood on the water as on dry ground with holy light encompassing them. “Father Athansius,” they said, “forgive our slowness, but we have forgotten again the words of the prayer you taught us. Please pray with us again.” “No, my fathers,” Athanasius said. “It is you who must pray for me.”

For all the old monks did not know, they did know this: the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (cf 2 Cor 4:6). And through this glory – a glory seen not on Mount Tabor only, but supremely on Mount Calvary – they were transfigured.

And that is the heart of the gospel, that through Christ half-men become true men; that through Christ darkness and death are conquered by light and life; that through Christ man is reconciled to God, becomes a partaker of the divine nature, moves from glory to glory, from image to likeness.

The promise and the challenge of the gospel are one and the same: If you will, you can become all flame.

Amen.
[1] From The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection. Translated by Benedicta Ward. Cistercian Studies Series, number 59. This is saying 7 of Abba Joseph of Panephysis and appears on page 103.