Christ Episcopal Church
February 15, 2015
Last Epiphany
Last year, Easter fell almost as late as the calendar allows. Easter is always the Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox on March 21. So, the earliest Easter can be is March 21 and the latest is April 25-your liturgical trivia for the day! When Easter is late, Ash Wednesday is late since Ash Wednesday is 45 days before Easter. And when Ash Wednesday is late, our observance of Alleluia Sunday is likewise late. So, by the time Alleluia Sunday rolled around last year, I had been on sabbatical about 4 weeks, which was plenty long enough to be reminded of my love for the way we worship at Christ Church. I should probably tell you that what I missed the most while I was away was Easter Sunday, or the pancake supper, or vestry meetings, but that would be a lie, even though all of events are worthy of deep homesickness. What I missed the most was our quirky, lively celebration of Alleluia Sunday, which no one else has ever heard of. I love the hymns. I love the energy. I love watching as we come forward, singing our hearts out, and place our Alleluias in the tomb where they will rest until Easter. And yes, I love chocolate. The church I attended last year on this Sunday did none of the above. Their great loss!
So, I can understand why Peter wanted to build three booths and stay on the mountain with Jesus this morning. Moses and Elijah, two great figures of the Hebrew Scriptures, had joined Peter, James, John, and Jesus on the mountain. Moses was thought to have been buried by God and this morning we saw Elijah carried into heaven in a chariot. In front of Peter, James, and John, and in the midst of these two great heros of the faith, Jesus is transfigured and his clothes became dazzling white. Why wouldn't Peter want to hold onto this moment? And why wouldn't I, and perhaps you, want to sing these hymns and others like them, feel this kind of energy, and stay on this particular mountain holding onto this particular moment, rather than begin our Lenten journey on Wednesday? I experience the presence of Jesus in this place, in the music, in the energy which is the Spirit among us, in the people, and in the bread and the wine. Peter is criticized for being impetuous this morning, or not thinking before he speaks, but I believe he gave the matter due consideration and decided staying on this mountain would work for him. I agree!
The climax of the story comes when we hear the voice of God say "This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him." I wonder if the reason Peter, James, and John had to come down off the mountain was to figure out what those words mean. What does God mean that Jesus is God's beloved Son? The first time Jesus heard those words was at his baptism, when the heavens opened and the dove descended. Immediately after Jesus' baptism, he was sent into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan and Jesus had 40 days to figure out what God's words mean. We will hear that story next Sunday. The disciples came down from the mountain after the transfiguration, and this time they, too, had heard the voice of God claim Jesus as God's beloved Son.
At the end of the story, Jesus tells the disciples to tell no one what they have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. If we read the next bit of Mark's gospel, we learn that the disciples wondered among themselves what those words might mean. What on earth was Jesus talking about when he said that the Son of Man would rise from the dead? How does rising from the dead fit with being God's beloved Son? I wonder what the disciples thought the options were. My guess is that the disciples thought about the very things with which Jesus had been tempted. Mark does not name the temptations, but Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus was tempted with food, special privilege, and power while he was in the wilderness. I have a hunch that the disciples associated being God's beloved with having those very things.
Another way to translate the words "the beloved" is "the one in whom I delight." God says "This is my son, the one in whom I delight. Listen to him." In the transfigured Jesus, we encounter the delight of God. But that is only part of the story. We are told in the Gospel, in Matthew's gospel specifically, that we encounter Jesus, the very delight of God, in the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, and those in prison. I wonder if the reason the disciples had to go down the mountain, and the reason we enter the wilderness of Lent, is to discover what it means to encounter the delight of God not only in the transfigured Jesus, but in all people. Between the transfiguration and Easter, the disciples would encounter the delight of God in all sorts and conditions of people, and we are called to do likewise. Discovering the Delight of God in all people can be hard work and does not always come easily. But through that work, we learn that the Delight of God is found not only in the glorious moments of our lives, the mountain top experiences, but also in the most difficult moments of lives, all the way to the cross. If we stay on the mountain top, we experience the Delight of God only in part. By following Jesus down the mountain and into the depths of life, we can discover the fullness of the Delight of God.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment