The Transfiguration of Jesus – February 19, 2023
Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9
BE TRANSFIGURED. Be transfigured and transformed! Transformation is possible for us, anytime and anywhere. The world abounds in divine glory, and so do you. Everyday life is a window into Infinity. Every moment is a thin place, revealing God’s glory. Though we may close our senses, the wonders of creation flow through every moment of experience. Transfiguration Sunday invites us to cleanse the doors of perception, so that we might experience Infinity in passing time. (William Blake and Aldous Huxley)
Epiphany blossoms into theophany and concludes with creative transformation. The quest for the revealing God leads to a dramatic manifestation of the divine. Moses and Jesus are transfigured and those who witness are filled with awe and, dare we say, terror. Such mystical experiences and divine encounters partake in what Rudolf Otto describes as the mysterious, tremendous, and fascinating, and for at least a moment we are all mystics. We are ushered into a world in which anything is possible, in which God is alive, and we share somehow in this divinity. Radical amazement characterizes our daily life.
Jesus is transformed on the mountaintop. The full spiritual energy of the universe flows in and through him. In seeing him transformed and in companionship with sages of the past, his followers are transfigured as well.
ECSTASY ABOUNDS. Some have suggested that the problem of our times is ecstasy deficit. We have become so busy about our own affairs that we have lost the vision of beauty. We have tamped down wonder to consume, prophesy to profit, beauty to buy, and awe to acquire. The world becomes flat. We focus on the literal word of scripture and deny its wonder; we settle, as the apostle Peter notes, for the letter and not the life-giving Spirit. The Bible becomes on dimensional. In the process, our beauty deficiency has led to making the Earth a garbage dump, as Pope Francis asserts. “Father/Mother, forgive us, we don’t know what we see.” The ecstatic rejoice in the goodness of the earth and the wonder of all being. Transfiguration throw opens the doors of perception and infinity blasts open our senses.
AWAKENING TO WONDER. Most of the time we are oblivious to the wonder of our being and all being, and see the world in terms of consumption, filling our deficiency with things, market share, and product placement. We don’t have time to marvel at a baby’s birth, a child’s laugh, a photo of a far off galaxy, a bird in flight, a whale breaching, or a couple walking hand in hand. We become objects to ourselves – we are what we tweet – and not beloved children, mysterious, wonderful, and a little wild. “Father/Mother, forgive us, for we don’t know who we are.” We need to confess our failure to experience the fullness of reality and the immediacy of grace.
THE AIM OF THE UNIVERSE IS TOWARD BEAUTY. Alfred North Whitehead affirms that aim of the universe, the aim of God, is toward the production of beauty. Beauty, for Whitehead, is not just a nice feeling; beauty is a deeply religious emotion that issues in ethical action. Morality involves bringing forth beauty wherever we find it. Defacing beauty is immoral, whether it involves our complacency at allowing millions of children to die or be diminished as a result of malnutrition or choosing to prefer short term financial gain over protecting the planet. The experience of beauty, at best, leads to gratitude and an ethic of beauty-making and beauty-preserving. We feel with, Albert Schweitzer, a kinship and reverence for all life.
THIN PLACES EVERYWHERE. The Celtic Christians and pagans speak of “thin places” that are translucent to the divine, places where “heaven and earth meet” and God’s grandeur bursts forth in a craggy rock or grove of trees. Today’s scriptures describe such “thin places” of the Spirit: a fire on the mountain as Moses receives divine guidance and the illumination of Jesus as he talks with saints of old.
Light bursts forth from our cells and souls at such moments, and we along with Moses and Jesus are transformed. The world is charged with the grandeur of God, as Hopkins says, and so are we.
We need as we look toward Lent, a transfigured perception and way of life. Epiphany is about abundance, Lent turns us toward simplicity. Yet, abundance and simplicity complement and inspire each other. Those who live by God’s abundance can live simply, so the planet might flourish. Their abundance precludes them from settling for the faux abundance of consumerism and power brokering.
Their abundance inspires them to generosity rather than greed or hoarding of resources. Their abundance drives them toward interdependence and not individualism. Individual creativity, personal artistry, is not a result of isolated creation but the interplay of divine call and human response, creation’s bounty and human imagination.
THE ETHIC OF TRANSFIGURATION. The ethic of epiphany is about transfiguration. It is about transforming the world, reclaiming the garbage dump and creating a garden, reviving dying ecosystems and bringing new life to decimated environments, restoring broken communities and rejoicing in new forms of sustainable employment for those displaced by corporate greed and technological advancement.
When Jesus and the followers go down the mountaintop, they are confronted by a desperate father. Jesus responds with healing power, the power of the universe, flowing through him. The fruit of the mountaintop is service to the planet, not self-interest.
This morning as I walked through my Potomac, Maryland, neighborhood. My senses were filled with wonder and my mind was inspired. I didn’t race home, but rejoiced in the sunrise moment, knowing that I would return home to write this commentary. With singer-song writer Carrie Newcomer, I anticipated the beauty of the beach flowing through me:
The empty page
The open book
Redemption everywhere I look.
The transfiguration of Moses, Jesus, and us, leads to redemption, not redemption from the world to a far off heaven or a destructive Second Coming, but redemption of the world, healing the good Earth. This is our calling today, our Great Work of Grace, to be God’s companions in healing the World.
+++
Bruce Epperly is a pastor, professor, spiritual guide, and author of over seventy books, including THE ELEPHANT IS RUNNING: PROCESS AND OPEN AND RELATIONAL THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM; PROPHETIC HEALING: HOWARD THURMAN’S VISION OF CONTEMPLATIVE ACTIVISM; MYSTIC’S IN ACTION: TWELVE SAINTS FOR TODAY; WALKING WITH SAINT FRANCIS: FROM PRIVILEGE TO ACTIVISM; MESSY INCARNATION: MEDITATIONS ON PROCESS CHRISTOLOGY, FROM COSMOS TO CRADLE: MEDITATIONS ON THE INCARNATION, and THE PROPHET AMOS SPEAKS TO AMERICA. His most recent book is TAKING A WALK WITH WHITEHEAD: MEDITATIONS WITH PROCESS-RELATIONAL THEOLOGY. He can be reached at drbruceepperly@gmail.com
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In