Trans-gression

Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Transfiguration, March 3, 2019

Luke 9:28-36                         

               ²⁸Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³⁰Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. ³¹They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 

          ³²Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. ³³Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “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. ³⁴While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. ³⁵Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” ³⁶When 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.

          So it turns out that the alternative reading for the second Sunday of Lent, Year C, is the story of the transfiguration of Jesus.  Which would make no sense at all in an ordinary year, because we would have had this reading just two weeks ago, on the Sunday of the Transfiguration, the last Sunday after Epiphany. 

          BUT, we had a congregational meeting scheduled for the Sunday of the Transfiguration, so OF COURSE…it snowed, and we had to cancel church.  So this is a gift to us, because we would have had to skip this really awesome, really weird story about how Jesus went up the mountain and became shiny. 

          This story just happens to be perfect for Lent this year, when our theme is “let your light shine,” and we are talking about all the different ways we can witness to Christ in our midst.  This story provides us with a couple of object lessons about witnessing.

          Object Lesson One:  Peter.  Don’t be Peter.  At least not the Peter in this story. 

          This Peter is confused.  Don’t be confused about Jesus if you want to witness to him.  That might seem obvious, but look around.  If you are claiming faith in Jesus, but your values allow you to act in a way which benefits only you, or people like you, and doesn’t improve the life of your neighbor…well, you must be confused about who Jesus is.

          If you have a mountaintop experience with Jesus, and you see his glory right before you, and all you can think of to say is “this is cool!  Let’s build something!”

          …you are confused.

          Object Lesson One:  Don’t be confused.  Know Jesus.  The real Jesus who ate with tax collectors and sinner.  Know his story.  Make his values your values.

         

          Object Lesson Two:  Peter.  Be Peter. 

          Not the Peter in this story…but the one in Luke’s second book:  The Acts of the Apostles.  That Peter totally got the lesson about Jesus that they were meant to learn on the mountaintop.

          It took a while, but isn’t that often the case?  Some of us have been gazing at Jesus in his glory for decades now, and we’ve still got a few things to learn.

          We do want to learn the lesson of The Transfiguration, though, because it’s important.  Jesus is being revealed on that mountaintop.  That’s why this story gets its own Sunday every year.  This revelation is important.  This trans-figuration is important.  And understanding it starts with understanding the word.

          Anybody know what the prefix “trans” means?

          “Across.”  Or “on the other side of.”

          In Greek the word is “metamorphosis,” and that prefix “meta” can also be translated “across.”

          This moment, this “transfiguration,” shows us Jesus crossing over.  He is unveiled, just as Moses is unveiled in his mountaintop moment with God, when he goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the Law.  In that story, Moses comes down the mountain and his face is still glowing.  That’s how his people can tell he’s been talking to God.

          So this trans-figuration moment is a moment in which Jesus is revealed as one who has gone across, from human experience to divine.  It also reveals Jesus as a trans individual—one who is able to speak from across two experiences, who can cross over boundaries.

          I think we can understand that in our church, can’t we?  We have individuals who have been willing to cross over boundaries, some of whom, like Jesus, are identified as “trans.”  They embody the courage it takes to refuse to let a dominant culture dictate the boundaries of their experience—an experience is not unlike that of Jesus and his apostles.  The story of Jesus—a story we must know if we are to witness to him—that story is all about crossing boundaries.  As his public ministry continues, we find Jesus ever more willing to cross over boundaries.  He is schooled, in fact, by those who have also crossed over:  tax collectors and sinners, a woman of Samaria and a woman of the Syro-Phoenician region.

          So too is the experience of the apostles, including that irascible Peter.  The book of Acts shows the gospel expanding further and further as the apostles learn to cross over boundaries both physical and theological.  In Acts 10, Peter has a dream about all sorts of foods forbidden by the laws of Judaism.  When he declares that he will not eat these profane items, a voice declares, “what God has made clean, you must not call profane.” 

          Then Peter is sent to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, a Centurion of the Roman Empire.  Cornelius invites friends and neighbors to come and hear the word of God, and Peter preaches, beginning with these words:  “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.”  As he is preaching, the Holy Spirit falls upon all present, and a whole bunch of Gentiles are received into the faith of Jesus.

          Even before that story is the story of Philip baptizing an Ethiopian eunuch.  That too is a story of holy transgression—a sign that the gospel will not be confined to a homogenous group of believers, but will break out all over.

          And those who wish to testify to the goodness of the gospel, to the love of Jesus Christ, must be willing to go where the gospel goes.  We must be a people willing to carry the good news across all of the artificial boundaries our culture erects.  We cannot be a people who stop at borders.  We cannot be a people who build walls.  Love does not observe boundaries.  It flows over and under and through, not stopping, not even slowing down for all of the artificial lines we humans draw.

          When Jesus went up the mountain, he was showing his disciples what it looked like when the glory of God broke into our experience.  It looks different.  We encounter difference, and it is good!  Jesus taught us, and the apostles learned and then taught us, that crossing over boundaries is part of what makes us able to love like God loves.    

          We are trans-gressors, in the best possible way.  We cross boundaries for the sake of love, and we love in order to take down boundaries.