Luke 9:28-36
February 14, 2010
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
I was reading this passage this past week, and clip from my memory suddenly shot out. I remembered a clip from Saturday Night Live from back in 1979. You can see the clip if you go to
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=50236871
That’s a lot of stuff to type into your browser, but it’s worth it. In the skit, the comedian Steve Martin walks out on stage dressed like a tourist with high black socks, shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt, while goofy piano music plays in the background. He stands in front of the camera looking beyond it at something we can’t see. He stares a bit and then yells out, “What the heck is that?” (although he doesn’t use the word “heck”) SHe yells out again, “What the heck IS that?... What’s that dang thing doing here? How’d that get here? What the heck IS that? What the HECK IS that? How did that dang thing deal get here?” Then, looking offstage to his right he yells to someone, “Hey! Come over here and look at this deal!”
At that point Bill Murray, looking much like the goofy groundskeeper from the movie Caddyshack walks over and says, “What the heck is that?” The dialogue ensues:
SM: “I don’t know what the HECK that is!”
BM: “What in the heck is THAT?”
SM: “Hey you kids! Get away from there!”
BM: “Uh,... I would not mess with that thing.”
SM: “Don’t put your lips on it!”
BM: “What the heck IS that?”
SM: (handing a camera to Bill Murray) “Well, get a photo of me with it anyway.”
BM: (bringing the camera to position) “Careful of that thing… (clicking the camera and then handing the it back to Steve Martin) Oh, I know what that thing is.”
SM: “Well what the HECK IS IT?”
BM: “What the heck is that thing?”
SM: “I don’t even care WHAT it is,… WHAT THE HECK IS IT?”
BM: “I don’t know what the heck that thing is.”
SM: “Oh, I know what it is.”
BM: “Oh yeah…” (and they both start walking off camera and there’s a pause)
SM: (both leaning back into the camera view) “What the HECK was that?!”
I’m reminded of this skit when I read our passage for this morning because I’m convinced that Peter, James, and John must have had a similar reaction. I can imagine the three of them standing together, rubbing sleepy eyes, looking at Jesus, and saying, “What the HECK is that? What the HECK IS THAT?” They were looking at Jesus, and suddenly his face is shining, and he is standing next to Moses and Elijah. Then a mist surrounds them and they hear a voice saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” What were they supposed to make of this? What are we supposed to make of this?
Today we’re just as mystified by the transfiguration as they were in Jesus’ day. One of the things that I like about the Bible is that often it describes experiences without explaining them, which, to me, gives it authenticity. In fact, one of the things I’ve learned to respect about the Bible is how it offers things without explanation, including putting contradictory stories together without saying which one is true. For instance, did you know that there are two creation stories in the Bible? There’s the story of the 1st chapter of Genesis, in which God creates the world in six days, and then rests on the seventh. Then in the second chapter we learn about the creation of the world in a completely different order. For example, humans are created on the 6th day in the Chapter 1 after everything else is created. In Chapter 2 God creates humans before creating plants and animals. The Bible doesn’t explain the discrepancy. It just puts both stories there. Also, if you look at the Noah story you find the well-known story in Genesis 6 of Noah taking the animals into the ark two-by-two. Yet in chapter 7 it is retold with Noah taking in seven pairs of every ritually clean animal, and two pairs of every ritually unclean animal. The Bible doesn’t try to explain the discrepancy. It just puts the stories there side-by-side.
Because we Presbyterians aren’t listeralists, we accept the discrepancy and recognize that the Bible isn’t just trying to tell us history. It’s trying to tell us about who and how God is. To me, the discrepancies lend a sense of authenticity because everything isn’t wrapped into a nice, neat package. Literalists are always trying smush everything together to make it all fit. The Bible doesn’t do that, and it doesn’t do that with our story for this morning. The transfiguration takes place, but there’s no real explanation about what was really happening, or what it really means. It leaves us a bit confused, wondering, what message are we supposed to get from it?
I believe that one the messages (there are always many messages to any biblical passage) of the transfiguration is that it gave the disciples and us a glimpse—just a glimpse—of eternal life. It gave a glimpse of what happens when we open to eternity and the divine, a glimpse of both the afterlife and eternity in this life. Jesus’ face shone with a light that radiated out from within him. I believe that this passage is saying that when we are truly open to God, to the divine, our lives can shine with this kind of light. The eternal life is filled not only with light, but also with love and joy. And in this moment Peter, James, and John fully see Jesus as he really is, not as they’ve been seeing him.
Of course, being human like us, they also do what most humans do when they are faced with things they don’t understand. They couldn’t just stand in awe. They had to do something. They looked at Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, and say to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” This is the common human affliction: “Don’t just stand there, do something.” Yet in the face of the transfiguration they were really being called to a different message: “Don’t just do something, stand there.” They were called to simply be with Christ, Moses, and Elijah and stand in awe. There was nothing else for them to do.
This is really great guidance for us. There are times in life where we are simply called to be open to God’s grace and to be willing to look for light and joy in the world.
I believe that the real spiritual life isn’t always so much a life of doing all the right Christian things. It’s not always about having to be perfectly moral or morally perfect. I believe the real spiritual life is about finding joy and light in life, especially in the small things. As many of the spiritual masters of Christianity have taught, God is found in the mundane, not the spectacular.
Unfortunately, a lot of us get caught up in the problems of life, and we can’t see the joy and the light that is already always there. And there is joy and light. If we are willing to look for joy and light, we can catch glimpses of the eternal and see life transfigured. But we have to be willing to be open to life in awe and joy.
Let me close by asking you to go to a computer and watch an internet video, which to me is a very spiritual video even though there’s no mention of God in it. It’s a video found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&feature=user. Or you can go to the original website, which is http://www.wherethehellismatt.com. I’m not going to explain the video, other than to say that it’s a video of taking joy in simple things. And in that it is very profound. So go now and look at the video….
We are called to live transfigured lives—lives that live not only here on earth, but also in eternity.
Amen.
