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St. Charles Episcopal Church, St. Charles, IL
February 14, 2010 – The Feast of the Trasnfiguration – Year C
Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36
The Rev. Elizabeth Gordon Meade

A few years ago, I was back in Washington State and decided to hike into the fabled Hoh Rain Forest over on the Pacific Coast. We left early, and it was a cloudy morning. We walked in several miles that morning under the canopy of ancient fir trees, and I remember my hair was wet and glued to my head, and I was cold. I didn’t dare complain. After all, it is a rain forest, and I had suggested the hike. As I was just about to quit, I saw a clearing up ahead, and plodded forward.

I emerged out of the rain forest and into a rocky clearing about the size of a football field. After about 2 hours of cold, wet forest, I entered a field of sharp rocky scree; I was surrounded by the sharp crags of the Olympic Mountains, dazzling white at their tops. No more dark, damp rainforest; just warm rocks and blindingly bright sunshine. I remember making my way over to a large boulder and climbing up onto it. I took of my wet socks and shoes and jacket and soaked up the warmth and the beauty of the place. I lay on that warm rock, stuffed my wet jacket under my head and just inhaled the beauty and the warmth. The cold in my bones evaporated, and I lay back and felt the sun’s warmth, and the staggering beauty of God’s creation. And I knew – KNEW – that God loved me.

Yes, I was just like Peter.

“"Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Peter was witness to one of the few miracles that ever happened TO Jesus. Peter caught a glimpse of who his teacher really was. He got a glimpse, as we say, of his GLORY.

Peter’s response is a very human one. When something wonderful happens, when we unexpectedly come face to face with the holy, we want to grab onto it – to hold it – so the moment can’t get away. It’s as though we are so thirsty for God, so in need of the love of God, we just want to cling to it when we get a taste of it. Even Mary Magdalene did it. Remember outside the tomb on Easter morning when she recognized Jesus, fell at his feel and cried, “Rabbi?” But do you remember what Jesus said to her? He said: “Do not hold on to me.” GO! Tell your brothers I am alive!

We all want to hold on. When I was a child, I was mesmerized by the fireflies in June. I remember wanting to collect a whole jarful to light up my bedroom at night – to fend off the darkness – but of course, they don’t last long that way. Or whenever my mom would see a kitten, she’d always say, “I just wish there was a pill that would keep them at this cute age.” We all want to hold on.

Where have you felt it? When have you desperately wanted a moment in time, to last forever? Was it the tenderness of a new love? Or looking at a sunset? Was it gazing into the face of a newborn? Maybe you have felt it kneeling before the cross in a dark church. Those “thin spaces” as the Celtic people call them – those holy places – feel very different for each of us, but we know them when we face them. On the side of the mountain that day, Peter got a glimpse of God’s glory. It was just a moment in time that showed Peter that Jesus, his teacher, was more than just Jesus his teacher. Peter saw the Glory of God IN Jesus. These glimpses of “the holy” are gifts from God. They change us. The come from a God who knows our needs, And who recognizes our desire for Him.

For me, when I basked in the warmth of the sun and stared up at the Olympic Mountains, and listened to the stream of living water as it flowed by, I knew God could handle anything I threw God’s way. In that moment in time – I stopped being afraid God couldn’t handle the world. Yes, I really used to worry about that.

These holy moments are gifts from the One who loves us without limits. And they do three things for us. First they encourage us. They affirm for us, in all our doubts, that God is really there. That God is not only “out there, somewhere,” but very present right here, right now, with us. It’s a good thing to know (in a world filed with doubt), that God is with each of us, no matter where we go.

Second, these holy moments teach us. They teach us that in lives plugged into to iPhones, iPods, the tv and the computer, we can, if we are not careful, block out the holy. Did you notice what Jesus was doing when he was transfigured? Let me read it to you again—verse 29: “And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” While he was praying!!! In these noisy lives of ours – is it any wonder that many folks believe that God has stopped appearing? Or that God only appeared back in those good old days of the Bible? We need to take time for prayer. God is here. It is we who tune God out.

And finally, these holy moments have the capacity to change us. A true theophany will give us assurance – confidence in how we live our lives. We will trust more, be willing to handle more. We will feel love more and therefore love more. As Jesus was Transfigured, he knew he could handle Calvary. God will urge us out into the world, and we will go. Why? Because Transfiguration changes us.

Encourage, teach, and change. When God offers us the gift of a mountaintop experience, it is to accomplish these things in us and for us for God’s glory. In them, we are reminded of God’s sovereignty and love, we are fed as we enter more deeply into relationship with God, and we are propelled back into the world to do God’s work.

Transfiguration is simply this: A glimpse of God’s Glory. It encourages us, it teaches us, and it changes us; Freely. For the journey ahead of us.Jesus’ shining moment happened just after the told his disciples about the journey he would take to Gologtha. His holy shining moment had everything to do with the cross. And so do ours.   Lent starts this Wednesday. We will be on a journey that follows Jesus to the cross, But we have crosses too. We are his hands and feet in the world. We are called out into the world with work to do. God reminds us it’s time to get down off the mountain.  We may be like Peter, and resist, but we must go. I had to enter that cold wet rainforest again to return to my life. Jesus had to walk off that mountain and walk toward Calvary. What is God calling you to do or be right now?

Today (at 10:45 service) we are baptizing Dominic Gianluca Russo, (aka “Gian GIan.”) into the Christian Church. As we do that, we’ll get a glimpse of God’s Glory. We will receive him into the household of God, and promise him a life filled with miracles. When we baptize him, we show him the light of Christ, and promise to become his Beloved Community. But he’ll only get a glimpse. And he will come down mountain, and walk the Christian life with the rest of us. But he will have seen! He will have experienced the love of God – here in this place! And we, strengthened for the journey ourselves, will take his hand and walk the way with him.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.