Exodus ; 1 Kings 19:9b; 11-13a; Luke
Transfiguration Sunday: February 14, 2010
We cannot make the mistake of reading the transfiguration passage in the gospel as an account of “something that happened one day.” To begin with, I’m confident the author of Luke would turn in his grave wondering why in the world he went to so much trouble to write something so intentionally symbolic only to have it read like an entry in someone’s diary.
The transfiguration calls us to a different kind of reading – it is a different kind of story. It is different because it is one of those passages in the bible that tells the whole story all at once. And when I say the whole story, I mean the story with a capital “S” – the story of God and God’s relationship with human beings throughout history.
The author wants us to know it’s a passage that captures the whole of Jesus’ life, with allusions to his baptism, his death and his resurrection. But we are also to see that the transfiguration points us to the story of the Israelites before and during the exile, with the presence of Elijah. Moses pulls us back even farther, adding in the foundational story of the Hebrew people…the exodus and giving of the commandments. And what about all the shining? The brightness takes us back to the purity of creation and points us forward to when we will see the world restored to what God intends for all of humanity.
This passage tells the meta-story of our faith – the grand narrative that deeply touches us, shapes us and offers us a worldview to guide us in life. All stories like this, the meta-stories of faith and life, seek to answer the “big” questions. Theologian N. T. Wright says there are four basic questions about existence that meta-stories attempt to answer. Who are we? Where are we? What is wrong? and What is the solution?
So if this transfiguration is meant to remind us of, and connect us to, our meta-story of the whole bible, what is that story and how does it answer these basic questions?
The story is found in the connections between the lives of the prophets up on the mountain that day. These are the major prophets of our faith…the big three. First we have Moses, the prophet who acted on behalf of God first to free the Hebrew people living in slavery in Egypt. Then Moses was the one to bring God’s word of how to order their new lives as the nation of Israel in the form of the ten commandments. In the book of Kings we hear of Elijah, a prophet living during the times of the Israelite kings whose oppressive reigns led to the exile of the Jewish people from the Holy land.
And we are shown again and again that Elijah is the new Moses. The similarities between their lives – and these two passages especially – are obvious. They are meant to be obvious. Elijah, like Moses, is at Mount Horeb. Elijah, like Moses, is there forty days and forty nights. Elijah, like Moses, experiences an overpowering, forceful coming of Yahweh marked by a massive event of nature.
And as we should already be realizing, these themes are all picked up again in Jesus’ life. Here they are on the mountain, the voice of God comes in nature, Jesus had been tempted for 40 days and 40 nights. Notice even the connection between Jesus and the foundational story of the Hebrew people the exodus. We are told the three are talking about Jesus’ departure that will be accomplished in Jerusalem. The Greek word translated as departure here is Exodus. Jesus brings the new exodus. Now he is the new Moses.
Each of these prophets, each a replica of the one who went before, meet God who breaks into the world with a word – a word to carry to the people. And when we listen to what they say and pay attention to their lives, we realize that the word they bring is actually an entire worldview. They provide the way we are to look at our lives, our purpose and the world’s condition. And this new worldview – this new way of seeing things, is dazzling…almost too dazzling to behold. Faces must be covered, booths must be built.
But we need these prophets and their worldviews because there are so many other worldviews out there. These are the worldviews supplied by the dominant culture. These world view tell us lies and call it truth. They tell us how to find meaning in life, only to leave us high and dry in the end.
But in Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, we see a worldview that competes with and challenges the dominant world view of their day. God speaks to Moses at a time when slavery was the accepted way of life. Pharaoh saw people in two distinct categories: those who were human and those who were subhuman. This worldview justifies the slavery and oppression of the Hebrew people. Moses comes and speaks a new way – a way that directly challenged how Pharaoh saw things: He comes with the news of Exodus, of liberation for all those who suffer under this dominant culture. He reminds both those in power and those who had lost their sense of identity after generations of slavery that there is no such thing as subhuman. There is no place in God’s creation for categories of people. And after the people had been freed, Moses then comes with his face shining to deliver God’s commandments – the new worldview that will replace the worldview of slavery.
Elijah comes at the time of Kings. The deal when the Hebrew people reached the promised land was that they were supposed to live together under God’s rule and commandments. They were supposed to care first and foremost for the widow, the orphan, the vulnerable and the stranger. But by the time of Elijah, the king represents the entire self-serving royal enterprise. These kings were wealth seekers, living extravagantly off the backs of the poor. They had forgotten all that Moses had said. They had abandoned the worldview he brought from God. They saw things in terms of material goods and conquest of other nations and peoples. That was the goal. They believed if they had much wealth and much land, they would be fulfilled/happy. Elijah brought back the way of the Torah and reminded people of how the world would look if they lived by God’s commands.
And Jesus comes in the midst of a world that was dominated by rulers and leaders who had no time for God and God’s ways. Jesus brought again the possibility of the kingdom of God – announcing that it is here if we choose that kingdom over the way of the Empire.
When we put this all together, we realize that these three prophets point to the whole biblical story. The story that begins with Creation, moves to Slavery, proclaims the Exodus, tells of Exile, and promises New Life in God. This is the story told time and again throughout human history, punctuated with God’s prophets who come with their worldview that frees and restores.
So, how does this great story answer those four basic questions; Who are we? Where are we? What is wrong? What is the solution?
First, who are we? We are God’s. We are a part of Creation. We were created and called good, stamped with God’s image. Yet we are also free to turn away from this identity of our and take on others. We are free to choose another worldview.
And where are we? I think we occupy many places within the larger biblical story all at the same time. On one end of the biblical story, we can feel like we are in Pharaoh’s Egypt, enslaved to economies and political systems that depend on the virtual slavery and oppression of the poor to serve the accumulation of wealth for those with power. At times we are the slaves and other times we are Pharaoh. Sometimes we really feel powerless to change such powerful forces. We’re trapped and we can’t figure out how to rescue ourselves and others from things we know cause suffering. At the same time, we do have more power than so many others in the world. We sometimes choose to live in and benefit from those systems of slavery and oppression – not challenging them and not listening to prophets who beg us to let the people go.
Then, there are times when we live in Babylon. We feel like outsiders, we feel lost and not at home. The world seems to go on around us, but we don’t know how to be a part of it. We yearn for something different and we wait for God to show us the way home. In exile, we can feel like God has abandoned us, left us alone in the wilderness.
And finally, in the United States, I think we are in some ways living in first century Palestine, and we are the Roman Empire. We seek control over all others because we believe we can impose our way of life which we genuinely believe will lead to peace and goodness. But the price of seeking such a goal is war, violence, suppression of all other views and understandings, a heavy hand brought down on so many in the meantime…the price, in other words, is we loose the possibility to ever reach the goal we seek.
Given who we are and where we are, what then is wrong? I think so often what is wrong is that we feel like there is no hope for change. The dominant stories always seem to win. It seems the king almost always defeats the prophet. The powers of the dominant systems always appear to be stronger and more durable than those prophets who speak for humanity. I think what’s wrong is that too often we give up because it all seems so hopeless. The prophets comes and we turn away – their truth too painful to look at.
The solution to this, I believe, is the meta-story itself. Too often our perspective is limited and we forget that we are a part of a much larger story. We are connected all the way back to the story of creation, and as far forward as the stories about the reign of God coming in full. And what the bible tells us, what this story tells us, is that this massive span of time is dotted by prophets – by God breaking in and speaking to us.
And prophetic speech is an act of relentless hope that refuses to despair, that refuses to believe that the world is closed off in patterns of exploitation and oppression. You can’t silence the prophets…their insistent voice will always rise up and will have the ability to bring the powerful to their knees, and remind us all – powerful and weak alike – that we have turned away and can now, because of God’s grace – turn back.
It’s Black History Month. Each year we remember the history – the story – of Black Americans, a history that tells of slavery and exodus, exile from their homeland to a new place of freedom after oppression. A story of new life, of resurrection. And at the end of our worship, we will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing”; a hymn that invites us to remember this particular story. On one level, it is clear that this is not the story of all of us. Most of us are not African American. It is particular to one time in history, and to one people.
Yet this hymn deliberately points to the larger story of our faith. The civil rights movement was an example of great prophets – modern day prophets – coming with a word of liberation, of homecoming and of reconciliation. But remember, these prophets are just another generation of the prophets Moses, Elijah and Jesus. When we get to the third verse, listen carefully to how the writer moves from the particular story to the story of God’s presence and action throughout all of history.
Consider one last thing our three great prophets have in common…look at how the stories tell us of the end of their lives. In all three, there is no body. Moses dies, but it is Yahweh who buries him and we are told his body can never be found. Elijah is swept up into heaven…he doesn’t even die. And Jesus is resurrected. There’s a reason for this. The story does not end. God does not stop working through prophets and sages to bring us the dazzling word of hope. There is no death of the prophetic movement and message.
When these prophets come, it might be hard to look at what they are saying – so different is their worldview than ours. But we can trust them. They are telling us how to turn the page in the story of humanity: to move from chapters of slavery to liberation; from chapters of oppression to justice; from chapters of hatred to love. Let us give thanks for these prophets, and let us give thanks to God that the story never ends. Amen.
