CEC Breaking News !
…Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist Sundays March 10, 17, 31. We will have Morning Prayer March 24. Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist Ash Wednesday at noon, March 6, 2019. Father Riley wishes me to remind everyone: Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting.
… We will begin our Lenten early morning (9am) Sunday School with Father Riley March 10th. The theme this year is to seek guidance from Father Riley on topics from the Bible and Prayer Book which we may not fully understand. If you have questions about 'fasting', the Lenten classes are a great place to ask questions.
...Daylight Savings Time begins this Sunday: turn your clocks ahead one hour...or be late!
…We will soon be starting our 2019 Capital Campaign for raising funds to repair and paint the exterior of our beautiful church. We expect to have final proposals from contractors this week. Some of you have already contributed to this needed activity and we greatly appreciate your support and love of our congregation. Stay tuned for more updates.
LAST EPIPHANY - C - 19 LUKE 9. 28-36
Today’s gospel reading
contains two distinct sermons. The first has to do with a spectacular
manifestation, or Epiphany, if you will, of our Lord to Peter, James and John
atop a mountain. The second takes place after the Epiphany on the mountain and
Jesus and his disciples have ascended to a waiting crowd below.
Here the scene is concerned
with faith, or perhaps the lack of it, where Jesus performs a healing the
disciples were unable to perform. I have chosen to focus my remarks on the
first, the Transfiguration of Jesus. Luke has it occurring on the threshold of
Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem
It is a fitting ending to our
Epiphany season as we approach the Lenten one in which through the readings of
these 40 days we travel with Jesus to the Holy City
Each of these gospel writers
did their best to describe what took place there even though they were not
eyewitnesses. Luke writes that the appearance of Jesus’ face changed and that
his clothes became dazzling white. He was reporting what Peter told him that he
saw on the mountain sometime after the fact. For at the time of their descent
they said nothing to anyone.
It would only be after the
resurrection that they would be able to relate their experience to others with
authority having been eye witnesses. Before we get much further with this, we
need to be reminded of what has taken place prior to Jesus’ taking Peter, James
and John up on the mountain.
Jesus has feed the 5000,
Peter has confessed Jesus as the Christ, and immediately before ascending the
mountain Jesus has made his first prediction of His Passion. Once they were
atop the mountain Jesus began to pray. The disciples were sleepy. Just as they
would be later in the garden when Jesus asked them to watch with him prior to
his arrest. What began in prayer grew
into an intense religious experience.
Apparently, it took place at
night, which only magnified the aura of unnatural brilliance that surrounded
Jesus. It was his glory that the three disciples saw which roused them from
their drowsiness. It was the presence of Moses and Elijah that caused Peter to
blurt out that it was good for them to be there so why not stay?
Moses represented the law and
all those who have died. Elijah represents the prophets - since he did not
experience death - and all those who are alive in Christ. Their presence shows
that the law and the prophets, the living and the dead, all bear witness to
Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament, and manifests the
communion of saints.
So far, so good was their
experience. But then, darkness overshadowed the light. A cloud, Luke says,
engulfed them. I like to think of it as a divine fog. The three became afraid.
They could no longer see Jesus, Moses or Elijah. Then a voice came from the
cloud and said: “This is my son, my chosen; listen to him.”
When the voice had spoken the
cloud, the fog, if you will, dissipated. Then they saw Jesus alone. Luke tells
us that they kept silent in those days not even sharing the experience with the
other disciples. I have often thought what could they say. How could they
describe what they had seen?
They did not understand what
they had seen, at least not yet. So what did happen up there on the mountain?
What spiritual truths does this event in the life of Jesus present to us today?
Jesus’ suffering had been predicted, now his glory is revealed. But for whose
benefit?
The Transfiguration is but a
foreshadowing of Christ’ future glory that will be manifested on the cross.
Before Jesus suffered, his glory was manifested in an effort to prepare his
disciples to bear it. They were given the vision of his glory and the assurance
of His divine authority - this is my son, my chosen one, listen to him.
But it didn’t help. They all
abandoned him before the cross. We too find it bewildering to know how to
understand all that God is doing, and saying, both in times of our great joy
and great sadness.
We look at the world around
us and within our own society and we can’t help but ask - what is God doing? Or
as some might say, why isn’t God doing something? However, God has and is - in
and through His Son, Jesus Christ salvation has come to the world.
What happened up there on the
mountain was for the benefit of the disciples, and us, not Jesus. For an
instant of time, God’s glory shone through the face of His Son and created an
aura about him. Moses and Elijah’s appearances bore witness to the fact that
Jesus was God’s anointed one, the promised Messiah. The voice from the cloud
confirmed it.
Although they did not
understand it then, the glory that was revealed to Peter, James, and John would
one day be theirs and ours. In today’s Epistle, St. Paul writes to encourage
the young Christians at Corinth. He tells them that in Christ the glory of the
Lord is revealed. In him, we have seen the glory of God unveiled.
It is His glory that in turn
transforms us into his image. Albeit, as Paul says, degree by degree. Sometimes
I think we Christians prefer to live in the fog rather than the light, even
though the fog scares us. However, God’s call to us in Christ Jesus is to live
in the light of His glory and reflect that light like a mirror to the world we
live in.
The Transfiguration was not
only a foreshadowing of the fullness of Christ’ glory that would be revealed on
the cross, but the Hope that we, “beholding by faith the light of his
countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his
likeness from glory to glory.” Amen+
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