Readings
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99:5-9
2 Peter 1:13-21
Luke 9:28-36
How many of you have heard the phrase “If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail?” It’s a fairly common phrase and is often used as a pejorative, indicating that the person in question is limited in some way. But what if it isn’t simply pejorative, but a description of the reality that many, if not all of us find ourselves in from time to time? What if it could be understood to be a description of how we function in the world when we have found a comfortable or comforting way of understanding reality? Or to use another idiom, what if it is as common as apple pie?
Today we hear the story of Jesus’ transfiguration before his three closest friends and followers. As is Jesus’ pattern, the story starts with them going up on a mountain to pray and while there Jesus’ whole appearance changes before their eyes. He becomes dazzling. His clothes become white as fresh snow. And he is miraculously seen conversing with Moses and Elijah. Most scholars agree that this image is to show that Jesus is in continuity with the law and the prophets, or even perhaps the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Regardless he is presented as fully rooted in the faith of his ancestors.
Peter responds to this amazing event by suggesting that he set up “three dwellings” one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Dwelling is an unfortunate translation, because in our modern ears we understand a dwelling to be a home or a house. The actual word is tabernacle. And so, Peter is really talking about setting up three places to worship and adore them. Much like the tabernacle in the wilderness which Moses and the children of Israel created to have an encounter with the living God, Peter is suggesting, because of what he has just experienced, that it might be a good idea to do the same for those whom he has just seen in glory.
At once, however, a cloud descends upon the disciples and in the midst of that cloud a voice rings out telling them “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.”
In the ancient world clouds are, in the context of a story such as this, intended to be understood as a place of mystery; a place to encounter the sacred or the divine. And so it is here. These disciples encounter the living God telling them something about Jesus and about how they are to respond.
Isn’t it interesting how Peter’s first reaction to recognizing the holiness of Jesus and the prophets is to raise Jesus up? To adore and worship him? Isn’t it also interesting that God’s response is first to confirm who Jesus is, but then to tell them to “listen to him.” God does not say “worship him” nor does God say, “adore him.” The voice of God says, “listen to him.”
The two central messages of today’s Gospel are that Jesus is the Son of God and that we are to listen to him.
It is far too easy for us to pick on Peter at this point. To, once again, talk about how, in his propensity to be overzealous, he misses the mark. It would be easy for us to attribute to Peter the idiom of the hammer and the nail that we talked about in the beginning. To say that poor foolish Peter wants to set up shrines because of how awed he is, when what he really is being called to do is recognize who Jesus is.
But I would argue that Peter does recognize who Jesus is. It is that very reason that he suggests setting up the tabernacles. His desire to worship Jesus is, in one way, completely understandable. He is only doing what anyone in the face of such supernatural intervention would be prone to do. He is using his understanding of the sacred and the appropriate human response as best as he can.
And are we any different? Whenever and wherever the sacred breaks into our lives, whether it is a miraculous appearance of Mary, a weeping icon, or some other miracle, we set up shrines and thousands, if not millions, flock there seeking to come near the sacred. To encounter the divine.
And are our churches any different? Is our practice of religion any different. We come to church primarily to worship God and to worship his Son. We offer our love, belief, and devotion in the hope of coming near the divine. We practice the supper that Christ instituted hoping to, in some way, touch the sacred.
In terms of our spirituality, we like those before us, have been offered a proverbial hammer and encouraged to use it for all of the spiritual dimensions of our lives. We have been encouraged to use it as the sole prism through which we shape the pattern of our life in relationship to God.
But neither the voice from heaven in today’s Gospel story, nor Jesus himself throughout the Gospels instruct us primarily to worship or believe in Jesus. Jesus, more often than not, calls his disciples to follow him. Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God and the nature of human life in relation to God. Jesus calls us to not simply love God, but to love our neighbor as ourselves. In fact, his teaching, taken as a whole, makes it clear that the way we love our neighbor communicates primarily how well we love God.
It is clear from the scriptures, Jesus never intended to create a religion with himself as the principal object of our worship. Jesus came into the world to redefine what it means to worship God and to offer us a way, a pattern if you will, on how to know and experience the Kingdom of God. Not just in the life to come, but in this life as well.
The problem friends is not our desire to experience or encounter the sacred or the divine. The problem is that we have limited ourselves in how we understand how that occurs. Now don’t get me wrong, prayer and worship are an important part of one’s spiritual life. But they are only one tool in response to the presence of God. No, if we are to know the Kingdom of God and to be close to the divine, to touch the sacred, then we are called to listen to Jesus. In other words, we are to follow him. We are to make the shape and pattern of our life match the shape and pattern of his.
But this gets to why we have limited ourselves. In comparison, worship and prayer are easy. To be a follower in the way of Jesus is demanding, difficult, and at times requires real sacrifice. We are to move away from our animal nature and stop focusing on survival. We are to move away from the temptations of the ego. We are to live for the other and not for ourselves alone.
But the promise of doing so is clear. When we do we will have a far more profound sense of the presence of God. We will encounter the sacred on a regular basis. We will live, in this life, within the Kingdom of Heaven/the Reign of God.
If we have but the courage and the will to step into the proverbial clouds of our lives and make the shape of our life match the shape of Jesus’ life, we will find our tool belts equipped with more than just one tool and we will discover that the miraculous is all around us. We ourselves will be transformed and even, perhaps, transfigured. We will know nothing less than the Son, the Beloved, in whom God is well pleased.