roll over me

i'm looking for something else to see

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke:

 

The transfiguration is an important event in the church-year. It always comes right before we head into that season of Lent. It is that final epiphany before we mount up our journey with Jesus to that cross.

Transfiguration is that promise that the one we follow to the cross is indeed God's chosen one.

Yes, the transfiguration is important.

 

The transfiguration is important because we remember that there are occasions when an instant seeing something changes everything, forever.

Yes, this story always seems to capture our attention. When we hear that Jesus gets Peter, James and John together for a jaunt up that hill, we lean forward. For as many times as we have heard this story, we still imagine Jesus' clothing and face begin to dazzle as he prays.

For all of the sermons we have heard preached on this transfiguration of Jesus, we still find it all too easy to identify with Peter's excitement when Moses and Elijah appear and speak with Jesus.

Yes, and when that cloud overshadows those disciples, we can almost hear the voice of God saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen - listen to him," ourselves.

 

The transfiguration, for as well as we know it never seems to get old.

There is something in our bones, apparently, that knows of the importance of this event.

Whether we altogether know it or not, we really are thankful for this event, we are thankful it comes before Lent, we are thankful that it happens - that there are transfigurations at all in this world we live in every day.

 

While, yes, we may not have been physically present for the transfiguration; we have been present for those other smaller transfigurations in our lives, in the world.

It is our presence at those little-transfigurations that confirms to us that this story we hear is an important one. It is because we have witnessed a smaller transfiguration ourselves that we can relate, that we can imagine, this one transfiguration so well.

 

Yes, we may not have been there on that mountaintop ourselves that day Jesus' clothes, his face, changed - we have witnessed transfigurations ourselves...

It is because we have seen a moment transformed with our own eyes, that we know Jesus' epiphany is so important - that epiphanies are important.

Yes, we can all think of moments we've, ourselves, seen transformed, moments that have left us, like it left those disciples, speechless. Moments that because we witnessed them, have changed everything; forever.

 

For myself I can recall seeing a mugging happening on a cold night in DC., I remember how the gentleman mugging another changed, was transfigured, the moment he was treated like a human. I remember seeing his face transformed as time was taken to listen to his story. I remember the transformation in all of us when the man who had been trying to violently take another's money, removed his hands from of his pockets, not with a knife but instead with an open palm to shake our hands.

Yes, when I saw that transfiguration, was a part of it, I really began to learn that poverty is a social disease, a disease that forces people into brutally inhumane situations.

Seeing that man's transfiguration transformed me too. After seeing that I could no longer ignore the folks asking for money at the metro stop, the people who were dehumanized, the folks day in and day out because of their poverty.

It is true, I wasn't on that mountaintop that day with Jesus, Peter, James, John, Elijah and Moses, but I have witnessed transfigurations. Mine eyes have laid ahold of a glory that has changed everything, forever.

And you too - you all have witnessed transfigurations. You know them.

Or there is Brother Martin having glimpsed of that promised land where racism, segregation, discrimination is a thing of the past. Yes, we listened to excerpts of his speech a couple of weeks ago; and in that speech Brother Martin tells of seeing that glorious promised land - Amen!

For Martin, seeing that glorious vista changed everything - and while, as U2 sings, they may have taken his life, they could never take his dream.

That beautiful vision of a land where his daughters were evaluated, not by their skin color, but by their prowess was a moment that transfigured Brother Martin, that changed a nation; forever.

Yes, these moments of transfiguration confirm to us that epiphanies, that Jesus' unique transformation, is important.

 

We know of the power of having seen something ourselves, and how witnessing that moment changes the way we look at things; forever. That is why the transfiguration is such an important event, why it is so significant that we are allowed to glimpse God's glory in Jesus before we go into Lent, before we journey with Jesus to that cross.

But we also know too, don't we; that not every vision is so healing...

We know that not every vision changes things for the good. W.E.B DuBois speaks of a moment when seeing something changed everything; but not for the better.

Readexcerpt from "The Soul of Black Folk"

 

After witnessing and experiencing that racism, W.E.B DuBois' world was changed. From that moment on, he saw the veil of racism, that veil which covered all of DuBois' life, and the world of segregation.

That reality, is finally why Jesus' transfiguration is so important. Why even though we weren't literally present for Jesus' transfiguration; that, that story is our story too.

 

The daily burden that we carry of recalling visions that herald change along with the visions that make us scream out at the injustice of world; is, finally, why Jesus' transfiguration is so important for us.

 

In that definitive moment, up there on that old hill; occasioned by the conspicuous presence of Moses and Elijah, we are finally allowed, finally empowered, to put all of those visions we have witnessed into context.

 

When God finally, decisively and definitively reveals all of God's glory in Jesus, we hear the voice of God giving us a firm foundation to interpret our lives, the world, all of experiences.

That, that is why the transfiguration is so important to us, because we hear the voice of God. And it is that voice, finally, that empowers us to claim those epiphanies we have witnessed in our own lives.

 

That voice of God confirms Jesus' identity, and with it confirms that although Brother Martin's vision of the promised land hasn't completely dawned upon our world yet; that promised land will come - we will make it there.

That voice of God confirms to us that the rebuff poor DuBois suffered simply because the color of his skin will not have the last word. That voice of God confirms that a day will come when humans will no longer be treated like trash because of their poverty.

The transfiguration is so important because when God intervenes in history to tell us who Jesus is; God promises to intervene in history time and time again; to give us that promise we long for; that promise of God's kingdom descending like a bright chandelier.

 

The transfiguration is so meaningful to us because in that moment, in all those little moments of small-epiphanies in our lives, we come face to face with the glory of God.

When we lay our eyes upon that glory everything is changed; forever.

 

Indeed, it is a good thing that the Transfiguration comes right before Lent; but it is also neat that Transfiguration comes in February, during Black History month.

In February we set aside a month - yes it is tragic that it is only a month, but it is an important month - the month when we also remember our presidents - in February we set aside a month to remember all that black Americans have contributed to our nation, to the history of the world.

 

So for those of us who witness the transfiguration then, Black History month is not simply a time to remember, but it is also a time to live into a promise.

Black History month, February, is a time to live into the promise that the glorious world that Brother Martin glimpsed will be a reality. The transfiguration is an occasion to trust that the world of the veil where people are devalued simply because the color of their skin, will come to an end.

 

This is a time to trust that indeed the veil will be torn from top to bottom, and we will be born, we will be reborn into a world where racism comes to an end, a world where we are healed from our prejudices, a world where Black History is not regulated to a single month - it is not bound to a month because we finally embrace our common humanity.

Living after the transfiguration, we live into a promise of a world, finally, where God's glory is completely revealed everywhere, forever.

 

That is why the Transfiguration is so important, because in that moment, in that instant when Jesus' face and clothes are transformed- we are allowed to glimpse a promise that we will all take a hold of one day.

In that moment, in those moments, we come face to face with the glory of God and everything is changed, and all we can do is go in silence into a world waiting, begging for, pregnant with the possibility of change.

Amen