Gospel for February 27, 2022, Transfiguration Sunday

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 9:28-36
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Transfiguration account appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), with a few nuanced differences in the narratives.  It is a “theophany,” when the glory of God is “unveiled” for the disciples to behold.

Luke’s Gospel doesn’t say where the Mount of Transfiguration is.  Tradition holds with Mount Tabor (1,886 feet), which is within the borders of Galilee. However, I hold with the opinion that the logical location of the Mount of Transfiguration is Mount Hermon (9,232 feet), located to the north of Galilee, in the Gentile district near Caesarea Philippi.

This is the region where, according to Matthew 16:13 and Mark 8:27, Jesus asked the disciples the famous question “Who do men say that I am?”  In each of those Gospels, this incident precedes the Transfiguration, just as it does in Luke 9:18.  It only makes sense that Mt. Hermon would be the mountain where Jesus goes to pray, especially because it is the highest point in the region and because of its proximity to Caesarea Philippi.

Whatever the location may have been is neither here nor there.  What really matters is what happens there.

The stated purpose of climbing the mountain is to pray.  And it is during prayer that the “theophany” occurs:

And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.

There are a succession of phenomena that occur.  Jesus becomes luminescent with light; Moses and Elijah appear; the cloud envelopes them; and the disciples hear a voice that repeats much the same thing that the Father said when Jesus was baptized in Luke 3:22:

“This is my Son, my Chosen [an alternate translation is Beloved]; listen to him!”

We can only imagine how Peter and John and James, overcome with fatigue, are processing all that they are experiencing.

First, there is the dazzling light and the transformation of Jesus.  In a sense, the “veil” is drawn back, and the disciples see the divine nature of Jesus after having come to know the human nature of Jesus.  They see his true glory.

Second, there are Moses and Elijah, who of course represent two seminal figures in the story of Israel.  Moses had experienced the glory of God on Mount Sinai (aka Mount Horeb) when he received the Law.  Elijah, the first major prophet of Israel, had also experienced God’s presence in the “still small voice” at Mt. Horeb.

Although we aren’t told exactly what they are speaking about, Luke tells us that they are:

speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Implied in this subject of his departure is all that will happen in Jerusalem — the passion, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus.  The ascension is only clearly described in Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9-10, written by the same evangelist, Dr. Luke.  All of these events may well be described as the ultimate theophany.

Third, there is the cloud. The cloud in this transfiguration account, of course, is often associated with the shekinah in Scripture, the glory of God.  We are reminded of the cloud that signified God’s presence in the accounts of Moses and the Israelites — the cloud that led them in the wilderness, that settled on Mount Sinai when Moses received the law, and that settled on the tabernacle when the Lord met with Moses.

Fourth, the voice of God the Father is heard.  Interestingly, the voice of the Father isn’t heard until Peter pops off with a rather impulsive outburst:

“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.

It is then that the Father speaks:

While he [Peter] 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!”

The Father seems to be silencing Peter’s well-intentioned attempt to “do” something; and the Father is once again affirming his Son and his ministry.

And then, as suddenly as these events had occurred, the experience is over:

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.

At that time it was still premature for Jesus to be fully disclosed to the world, until the time is fulfilled.

APPLY:  

We tend to have a “bias for action” as Christians.  We hear the Word, and we want to act on it, we want to do something.  We want to be:

doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves (James 1:22).

This is a good impulse.  Peter’s misguided desire to build three tabernacles to honor Jesus, Moses and Elijah is well-intentioned.  It’s just not what he was there for.  He was there to be a witness to the glory of the Lord.

This is something that even in our activist, busy, hard-working Christian lives we should probably hear.  Sometimes we simply need to heed the words of the Psalmist:

“Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10).

Only after we have worshipped the Lord and learned to listen to his voice will we know what we are to do in order to serve him.

Mother Teresa described her true source of strength, and the source of spiritual power for her order, the Missionaries of Charity:

In our congregation, we used to have adoration once a week for one hour, and then in 1973, we decided to have adoration one hour every day.  We have much work to do. Our homes for the sick and dying destitute are full everywhere. And from the time we started having adoration every day, our love for Jesus became more intimate, our love for each other more understanding, our love for the poor more compassionate, and we have double the number of vocations.

RESPOND: 

I haven’t experienced anything nearly so dramatic and vivid as Peter, John and James.  My spiritual experiences, though real enough to me, have been more subjective — perhaps triggered by a night sky, or a waterfall, or a moment in a worship service, or a passage from Scripture.

I wonder sometimes why it was Peter, John and James that were chosen to accompany Jesus up the mountain.  Significantly, it was the same three who went with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed so passionately the night of his arrest.

I wonder if the others felt any envy or jealousy?  I warrant that they did, based on the fact that in this very same chapter of the Gospel, the disciples start arguing:

An argument arose among them as to which one of them was the greatest (Luke 9:46).

The point is not “Who gets to be closer to Jesus?” or “who is more important?”  If I take my sin seriously, I know that I deserve nothing from Jesus.  Yet he loves me so much he was willing to leave his heavenly throne, empty himself of all but love, take human flesh upon himself, and die for me!

In light of that, as the Syro-Phoenician woman said to Jesus,

“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:28).

The crumbs from the table of heaven are preferable to the most luxurious delicacies that this world can offer.

Lord, my glimpses of your glory are enough to draw me closer to you; but I look forward to beholding your glory without the veils of this world one day. ‘Now I see in a glass darkly, then I hope to see you face to face.’ Amen.

PHOTO:
“Transfiguration of Christ” by Gerard David (1460-1523) is in the Public Domain. It is displayed at the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium.

Epistle for February 27, 2022, Transfiguration Sunday

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is drawing a contrast between the covenant revealed to Moses and the new covenant revealed in Jesus.  He has pointed out in the passage preceding our Scripture that this is a:

new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6).

Paul’s interpretation of Exodus 34:29-35 suggests that the veil Moses put over his face wasn’t merely to shield the people of Israel from the awesome radiance of God, but was also:

to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside.

Paul makes very clear in his other letters that the giving of the law to Moses was a provisional revelation.  Though the:

law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good (Romans 7:12),

he makes clear that the law serves as a mirror that reveals the human inability to attain God’s standards.  The paradox is that the righteousness required by the law is impossible for human beings to attain, unless God himself fulfills the requirements.  This he did through the atoning death of Jesus and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of the law was positive, to drive the sinner to Christ:

 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore, the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith (Galatians 3:23-26).

The problem is that the law, represented by Moses, is a fading glory superseded by the glory of grace.  Unfortunately, those who continue to focus on establishing their own righteousness by works of the law will continue to be hardened and frustrated:

Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.  Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

By faith in Christ, the veil that conceals the true meaning of the old covenant is removed.  The believer has new “eyeglasses” provided by the Lord, who is the Spirit, who enables the believer to understand and live out this new relationship with God:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

The freedom that the Spirit brings is not a freedom to do anything we want to do — that is antinomianism which leads to anarchy.  The freedom the Spirit brings is the freedom from  sin, and the freedom to become what God intends us to be:

And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

The imagery here is powerful.  When the veil is removed the believer begins to gaze upon the glory of God and to grow into the image of Christ!

There is a little tag, or footnote, to this inspirational summit that Paul describes as:

being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

He follows this soaring rhetoric by applying it to his own life and ministry:

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.  We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

1 & 2 Corinthians are among the most autobiographical of Paul’s epistles.  He describes the factions that threaten to divide the Corinthian church, and the hardships and persecutions that he has endured in his missionary work.  He is answering accusations from some who are critical of him. So here he is asserting his complete transparency, and his refusal to give up.

APPLY:  

There is always a tendency in human nature to look for rules and formulas for success and self-esteem and even for righteousness.  That is the false promise of legalism — “Do this, and you will be — successful… happy…healthy…wealthy, etc.”

Paul makes it clear that though the law is holy and good and just, we don’t read it properly when we try to establish our own righteousness by our efforts to keep the law.  Such efforts only end in frustration and hardness of heart.

But when we turn to Christ in faith, the veil is taken away, and we find that what our own efforts are unable to do, no matter how hard we try, the Spirit is able to do in us effortlessly:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And once the veil is removed, we behold the image of Christ, and we begin to be:

 transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

This is the grace of sanctification in us, accomplished as we surrender to the Spirit.

RESPOND: 

I love to go into my yard on clear nights to monitor the progress of the waxing moon.  This isn’t merely because of an interest in astronomy, although the moon and the stars do fascinate me.

When I watch the moon growing brighter and fuller night by night, it reminds me of the process of sanctification.  The moon in and of itself is only a cold, dark piece of rock.  But when the light of the Sun shines on it, it becomes radiant and warm.

I think that’s like sanctification.  In myself, I am a cold, dark sinner.  But as I turn to Christ, his light brings radiance and warmth, and perhaps by his grace I can be:

transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

Our Lord, I pray that the veil is removed and that I do behold you, as you transform my life into your glory.  Amen. 

PHOTO:

“2 Corinthians 3 verse 18” uses these photos:
“4% Illuminated Waxing Crescent Moon with Earthshine“, “Waxing Gibbous Moon on 11-20-15,” and “Full Moon on 11-25-15” are all by Stephen Rahn and are licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license.

Psalm Reading for February 27, 2022, Transfiguration Sunday

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 99
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm of praise extols the holiness of God as King over all. The character of Yahweh is declared three times:

He is Holy!

God’s holiness describes his unique separateness from all other reality.  God is, as theologians might say, Wholly Other.  Creation is finite, and God is infinite and transcendent.

Some of the imagery in this Psalm describes a supernatural realm beyond the realm of normal human experience.  Yahweh:

sits enthroned among the cherubim.

Not only are the people to tremble but even the earthquakes because of his supernatural power.

The term cherubim is the plural form of an order of angels that appear at various points in Scripture:

• They guard the entrance to Eden after Adam and Eve are expelled (Genesis 3:24).
• The cherubim are represented as two figures of gold on the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25:18-22).
• The Lord spoke to Moses from the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant between the two cherubim (Numbers 7:89).
• When the ark of the covenant is installed in the temple after the reign of Solomon, prayers are directed toward the Lord who is perceived as seated above the cherubim (2 Kings 19:15, Isaiah 37:15-17).
• In Ezekiel, the cherubim are part of the unearthly “wheel within a wheel” vision that appears to the prophet (Ezekiel 10). In this vision they fly and deliver God’s fire to be scattered over the city.

Needless to say, the cherubim are beyond normal human experience.

And yet this same God, who sits enthroned upon the cherubim and who is holy and transcendent and otherworldly, also reigns in human affairs:

The King’s strength also loves justice.
You do establish equity.
You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.

Yahweh works not only through the ministering angels known as cherubim, but through his human agents:

Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel among those who call on his name;
they called on Yahweh, and he answered them.
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud.
They kept his testimonies,
the statute that he gave them.

There are actually three orders represented by these men — Moses the prophet, Aaron the priest and Samuel the judge.

The Psalmist points out that the original self-disclosure of God is given in the pillar of cloud which guided the Israelites in the wilderness, and which filled the tabernacle in their camp when Yahweh met with Moses face to face.  And further, the decrees and statutes were also a form of God’s self-disclosure.

God speaks through the extraordinary and miraculous means of the pillar of cloud, but also through the moral and ritual guidance of the law.

And the Psalmist suggests that God’s self-revelation discloses the balanced nature of God, both compassionate and just:

You answered them, Yahweh our God.
You are a God who forgave them,
although you took vengeance for their doings.

Finally, in this Psalm there is a kind of “refrain” that is repeated twice (almost identically).

Verse 5:
Exalt Yahweh our God.
Worship at his footstool.
He is Holy!
Verse 9:
Exalt Yahweh, our God.
Worship at his holy hill,
for Yahweh, our God, is holy!

The reason for such worship is the same — God is holy and is worthy of our worship.

APPLY:  

Why do we worship God?  Because we are exhorted to do so by a worship leader? Perhaps.  Because we see his magnificence in the world around us? Certainly.  Because of his characteristics of justice and righteousness and forgiveness? Of course.

But perhaps the most telling motivation for worship is simply the very nature of God — he is holy.  Holiness means that he is uniquely set apart by his transcendence, majesty and ethical purity.

This same sense of his holiness is suggested when the people are exhorted to:

Exalt Yahweh, our God.
Worship at his holy hill,
for Yahweh, our God, is holy!

The name revealed to Moses — Yahweh, the “Tetragrammaton,” i.e., the four letters of the “I Am” (YHWH) — reveals the nature and identity of God.  We get the same sense from Revelation 1:8, where God says,

  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Our only proper response to the Creator and Finisher of all things, and to the Eternal One, is worship!

RESPOND: 

I ran across a wonderful little “meme” on Facebook recently, entitled “Leibnez’ Contingency Argument” by Dr. William Lane Craig.  This is a fast-paced, fun, and visually entertaining Youtube exposition on a very sophisticated argument for the existence of God.

I will try to sum it up as simply and briefly as possible:

1. Everything which exists has an explanation of its existence.
2. If the universe had an explanation of its existence, that explanation must be God.
3. The universe exists.
4. Therefore — The explanation of the universe’s existence is God.

If the first three premises are true, then the fourth premise must follow.  Some people, the Youtube narrator suggests, might question the obvious logic of the first premise.  They picture Bertrand Russell smoking a pipe and saying “The universe is just there, that’s all. No explanation needed. End of discussion.”

The Youtube video then offers a wonderful little rebuttal to this nonsensical idea by picturing the viewer and a friend as two cartoon friends hiking through the woods and coming upon a shiny sphere in the middle of the forest.  You would wonder how the sphere came to be there, and you would think it odd if your friend said “There’s no explanation for it. Stop wondering.  It just IS.”  Not a very satisfactory answer, I daresay!

And the video goes on to say:  if the ball were larger, even to the size of the universe, the change in its size wouldn’t remove the desire for an explanation. We are predisposed to require explanations, scientifically and intuitively — and I would add theologically!

The Youtube meme continues and does an excellent job of demonstrating that while some things exist contingently (depending on the existence of other things — e.g., your birth depends on your parents), God exists necessarily because everything that exists depends ultimately on him.

I recommend that you check out this video on Youtube: Leibniz’ Contingency Argument.

The bottom line for me is that I believe in and worship God not because of a philosophical argument — although I find that helpful and encouraging.  Ultimately, I believe because I have experienced God through Scripture and through personal faith.

Lord, as the Psalmist exhorts me, I exalt you and worship you because you are holy.  Thank you for your forgiveness and your love.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

"Psalm 99" uses this photo:  "M31 - Andromeda Galaxy (NGC 224) [Explored 5/9/2010 #20]" by Cyrus II is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for February 27, Transfiguration Sunday

This window by Max Ainmiller, c.1855 is in Peterhouse College chapel, Cambridge. [photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Exodus 34:29-35 
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is another of the great “theophanies” in the Scriptures, which describes God’s manifestation of himself to Moses.

In this case what we see is the after-effects of the encounter between God and Moses.  Moses has been on Mount Sinai in the presence of God for forty days, neither eating nor drinking, and recording God’s Laws.

Now Moses descends the mountain carrying the tablets of the covenant, and his brother Aaron and the Israelites are astonished — Moses’ face radiates with an unearthly glow.

Moses has been in the presence of the Shekinah, the “glory” of God.  God has made it quite clear to Moses in Exodus 33 that no man can look upon the face of God and live.  The presence of God is simply too intense for frail and fallible human flesh to endure.  But Moses has had a kind of oblique, indirect view of God’s glory as the Lord has imparted his revelation to Moses.  Apparently, this otherworldly view of God, even though it is partial, is so powerful that it has the effect of illuminating Moses’ face.

We should remember that this is actually the second set of stone tablets that Moses has carved.  When he first descended from Mount Sinai with the first set of tablets, he came upon the riotous revelry of the Israelites, worshipping the Golden Calf and engaging in bacchanalian orgies (Exodus 32).

Moses’ response to their debauchery was to shatter the tablets and punish the Israelites.

So, in this passage, when Moses puts on a veil in the presence of the Israelites, the pretext is that he is being merciful to them.  They cannot endure too much exposure to the omnipotent holiness of God, even reflected in a human face.

APPLY:  

As we will see when we read 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 in this week’s Epistle reading, there are somewhat different interpretations of Biblical events.

In Exodus 34:30 we are told:

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.

When we consider the transcendent and terrible power of God’s holiness, this is a reasonable reaction to Moses’ transformation.

However, Paul interprets these events differently, as we will see.  He will use this passage as a symbol that suggests the superiority of the new covenant, revealed by Christ, over the old covenant revealed to Moses.  Paul says Moses:

put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside (2 Corinthians 3:13).

Other translations make it clear that the glory of Moses’ revelation was fading splendor (Revised Standard Version) or even more strongly, was passing away (New International Version).

Paul interprets Moses’ motives as an attempt to hide the fading glory!

Are these two views of the same event contradictory?  Not necessarily.  The two views of Moses’ radiant face and his veil may be snapshots of the same event taken at different times.

When the Israelites initially see the glow on Moses’ face, they are afraid.  Moses has obviously been in the presence of something so supernatural and so powerful that they shrink back from him.  After all, they have already seen the power of God at work many times.  So Moses covers his face initially because he is motivated by mercy.

But Paul’s interpretation is a snapshot taken some time after Moses has returned from the Mountain.  Moses sees that the glory is now fading, and he wishes to hide that fact from the people.

Initially, Moses put on the veil motivated by mercy.  But later, the veil becomes a disguise for his insecurity.

This tells me that two views of the same event may still both be true, depending on perspective — and time.

RESPOND: 

What would it be like to be so radiant with the glory of God that people could see it in my face?  To have been in the presence of God to such an extent that it becomes evident to others?

It appears to come with a cost.  Moses devotes time and self-denial to his relationship with God. What am I willing to risk for my relationship with God?

Lord, draw me to the Mountain where I may experience your glory. And help me to overcome the fear of your glory that I also feel.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Moses with the Tablets of the Law” by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.