Pr. Michelle Sevig
Transfiguration of Our Lord
February 13/14, 2021
Delight!
Perhaps the greatest challenge about preaching on Transfiguration Sunday is feeling like I have to explain what the transfiguration means. What is going on here? Why were his clothes dazzling white, more than even bleach could make them? How did the disciples know it was Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets, standing with Jesus; nametags? They’d never seen any photos, right?
What does this mean, Lutherans have been taught to ask, but the people I asked this week had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about the transfiguration of Jesus. Just blank stares. It’s not as memorable of a biblical story as Christmas or Easter. But it is included in Mathew, Mark and Luke’s gospels and celebrated each year as we pivot from Epiphany to Lent.
Most preachers, including myself, have talked about our own “mountaintop experiences” and explained how we are all like the disciples on the mountain, wanting to preserve that spiritual connectedness to the divine. Or we’ve tried to explain why or how Jesus was transfigured.
But not today folx! Because maybe the idea of a brilliantly glowing holy figure isn’t meant to make sense. Perhaps the transfigured Jesus isn't supposed to be figured out. Maybe he’s supposed to be appreciated and we are to simply bask in the warm wonder of his glow. Be open to the mystery, so to speak.
Thankfully, we are a community that relishes in the mystery, in the questions, yet still reminding one another that Christ IS present among us, even when doubts and questions arise. Even when stories and Sundays arrive in our church year that both dazzle and dumbfound us.
Like this one: Jesus is shining brightly--dazzling white--revealing to the disciples gathered that he is connected to the great prophets who have come before him, and a voice comes from the shadows, “This is my son, the beloved, listen to him.” Same voice Jesus heard at his baptism, but this time everyone present hears it too. “This is my beloved one”
If God is capable of smiling, this would be the occasion when that happens. It’s not possible to talk about one’s beloved without breaking into a pleased grin. That’s how lover’s talk about each other. It’s how new parents speak of their babies. When referring to friends or family members who are beloved, you can’t help but smile, right?
Novelist Mary Gorden’s meditation on this mountaintop experience uses a translation that has God saying, “This is my beloved son, in whom I take delight.” She says, “At the transfiguration then, we are in the presence of delight. Delight as an aspect of the holy.”
Wow! “We are in the presence of delight!” This one statement transformed my understanding of the transfiguration, and gave new meaning to theis ancient event. Delight is a word that I delight in, and I use it often. Delight is more than happiness, it is more like a deep joy, with a sense of admiration.
I’ve experienced pure delight at various times in my life; holding my infant children for the first time or while rocking them as they slept in my arms. I’ve delighted in the times one of them has hit a homerun in baseball, or sang and danced on a stage. I’ve been delighted often as I sing silly songs with the young ones in Sunday school and can’t help but smile as we interact playfully. And then there are those times when I’ve delighted in God’s beauty, watching the sun set over the lake, or seen a giraffe run in the wild or had my own holy moments on top of snow-covered mountains or gazing up from lush valleys.
In the transfiguration we, like the disciples, are in the presence of God’s delight for Jesus. They’re terrified, of course, because who wouldn’t be if you saw a dazzling figure right in front of you? But after this brief moment of illumination and glistening clothing, terror strikes the disciples. A cloud overshadows them and from it they are finally able to hear God. “This is my beloved one. Listen to him.” This moment in the shadows changes everything. They look around and see things differently. God delights in the one standing before them, God is with them, and God gives them a purpose when they go back down that mountain.
There is a tender holiness shared on the mountaintop that’s too easy to bypass amid the dazzle and the fear. God loves, so God interacts, not only with Jesus, but also with the disciples. The delighting One expresses their love in self-giving, because that’s what happens when someone adores and celebrates someone else.
It’s what God has done for you as that same delight is showered on each of us. The Holy One delights in you. She wraps her arms around you and scoops you into her warm embrace when you are hurting. He sees you when you make mistakes, or bad decisions, and instead of piercing you with a parental stare down, looks at you lovingly with tears in his eye. They give their very life to you in sacrificial love, because you are adored and delighted in by the same God who delights in Jesus.
Thank God for Transfiguration Sunday--a razzle dazzle story perfect for Mardi Gras, casting a light that leads us into Lent so that we are able to keep our eyes on the one who speaks a word of promise that God goes with us.