Year A Last Sunday after Epiphany 2023 Lessons in Awe

 Year A Last Sunday after Epiphany, 19 February 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Lessons in Awe” 

Collect: O God, who before the passion of your only begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us 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; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2 Peter 1:16-21

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Matthew 17:1-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

awe /ô/  noun

a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.

I start there today because we may see the worship and the majesty, but forego whenever we are faced with power beyond our comprehension there is a healthy fear that comes with it. It must. Without a tinge of fear, we don’t know what we’re dealing with.

Like a nuclear scientist knows after the Manhattan project, there is mighty power in an atom. 

Friends, we finish Epiphany every year because Epiphany means the Unveiling. And the Transfiguration, this event we unwrap today, is when Jesus was fully revealed to his closest intimates, his most trusted disciples, Peter, James, and John. And even with them the cost of their inclusion is their silence. Until the Resurrection they are not to mention this to anyone.

At this point in the story we see Jesus turning to Jerusalem with the intent and purpose of what we have come to call The Passion.

There are moments when we see people very differently.

This happened for me with our friend, Father Nana Kessie. Many of you know him. Some of you even ate with him and had him in your homes. I saw him as a counterpart.  I knew his name means Prince. But all that became more real when I walked into the throne room of the King of the Ashanti, and he greeted all of us with a nod of his head. But with Father Kessie, he looked at him and said, “My dear cousin!” and then asked about his family. I saw my friend differently after that. The Power of the Throne lifted him up and set him apart.

This is what happens with Jesus here at the Transfiguration. He is lifted up and set apart. These three intimate disciples saw him differently after that. Peter defends the Gospel message even with his words about this: 

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)

The very voice of God affirmed Jesus as the Ho Agapetos, The Beloved.

Not just known of God, but beloved of God. Known and Loved, the longing of all our hearts. And in the voicing of it, Jesus is proclaimed by God as well.

For my travels with the Triangle of Hope we will receive from the Bishops of Liverpool and Kumasi letters of invitation. We came at their request and under their authority. They say to our State Department and  their countries’ equivalent that we are welcomed, desired, and needed to visit them. We will provide the same for them when they apply for visas to come here. Jesus received the equivalent in God’s pronouncement. 

Beautiful.

Wonderful.

Awe-Inspiring.

But lest we forget, there is a danger in being too near powerful things. We need a healthy respect for things that we do not fully understand and cannot control. As C.S. Lewis said of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, “He is not a tame lion.”

Jesus is now a bringer of power and might. It is right to be cautious. He is more than the disciples ever thought. And you must remember, when the Transfiguration is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the three synoptic Gospels). And in all three, just before this we have Peter declaring that Jesus is the Messiah.

Was this causative? I don’t think so. Peter’s declaration did not cause this Unveiling. However, I do think that when things got to the point that people, probably more than just Peter, thought he was the Messiah. Peter was just the first recorded one to vocalize it. I think more likely it is what we say when we use the phrase, “In the fullness of time…” The time was fulfilled. It had come to fruition. All the dominoes were stacked. We had reached the fullness of time.

[Ponder that.]

With all that background, I want you to consider three things that I take from the Transfiguration. These are my lessons, and yours may be different. But in this powerful and awe-filled moment with a tinge of fear I see these things.

 First, God has a plan.

For the fullness of time to get filled up, there is an intent, a purpose, and a plan. I worked a lot with kids diagnosed with ADHD. And often with them when working on things, it all came back to breaking it down into small manageable tasks. Do this, then this, then this. And then once they got the steps managed, the big picture came into view.

God has to have a plan, or what happened after this makes no kind of sense. After the Transfiguration, Jesus goes to Jerusalem, raises a ruckus with his teachings and confronting the religious authorities, and is crucified for the threat he posed. How do we juxtapose this with the Transfiguration if this outcome was not the intent?

For God to say, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” and for the rest of the story which we know to be the rest of the story then this must have been the plan or our understanding of God is nothing. A) For God to be God, B) for God to have said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,” and C) Jesus is killed a gruesome execution reserved for the worst of criminals, then there must be a plan. If not then God is 1) Powerless, or 2) a Liar, or 3) Clueless. I am not willing to go to any of those three choices. The Transfiguration linked into the rest of the chain of events in this story make it necessary, at least to me, that this all was the fore-ordained order of things. It has to be.

The part of the story that brings me as much comfort is the arrival of Moses and Elijah, heroes of the faith from centuries before. It shows me something simple. 

Second, Time is less important than we think.

We are caught in a river we call time, and as we go through the rapids we cannot think of anything other than the rapid. When we are just meandering and going along we may reminisce, or think about what is to come around the next bend. But even then we are still mostly concerned with the flow of time we find ourselves in.

At the Transfiguration, we see Jesus moving freely in his prayer with Moses and Elijah. They are beyond time and space, and in his prayer, so is Jesus.

When I hear of someone’s passing, often I will say or write. “I am praying for your loved one, for you, and the whole family.” Present tense. Their loved one is dead. But do you think being dead stops God?

It didn’t with Moses and Elijah here. It didn’t with Jesus in the Resurrection, or in Saul’s ne Paul’s confrontation on the Road to Damascus, or John the Revelator’s vision in Revelation. Time and Death are both within God’s Realm, his Authority and Rule. And Prayer enables us to step in, out, and beyond time. 

Time is not the limit. God is not the limit. Our belief in our Prayers is the Limit.

There are no such things as small prayers. Each and every one is a power beyond our comprehension. Our Prayers are powerful when we realize what Oswald Chamber said to be true, “We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.” When God is the focus of our prayers, there are no limits.

Thirdly, Everything is Connected. Moses is connected to Elijah who is connected to Jesus, to Peter, to James, to John, to me, to you. We are all interwoven and interrelated. If time has less meaning than we give it, so does space and distance. We pray for the Ukraine even though you will probably never go there. We lift up our dear brother Father Nana Kessie and his ministry at All Saints Church in Akwosi-Kumasi. We are bound together, and as our brothers and sisters, and strangers and enemies are affected, so are we.

From the earliest of Scriptures, God has been trying to get it through to us that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ and strangers’ and enemies’ and everyone’s keeper. And they are ours.

In the Transfiguration, we see that all of time and space and existence are interwoven, full of power, awe, and fear.

This might be daunting if it were not for Jesus' words to his closest disciples who had fallen on their faces, terrified. May his words to them be his words to us, especially when we are faced with things that seem way too big for us to deal with, so big that we do not even know where to start.

“Get up and do not be afraid.” Too often like Peter we want to stop and feel like this is where we are supposed to land and set up tabernacles. But God is not done, with the world, or with any of us. “Get up and do not be afraid.” No matter the situation, that is probably good advice.

The Unveiling, the Epiphany, is over. God’s Revelation has been made clear. Jesus is the Beloved. And by letting us in on this, through Peter’s testimony, we are too. You are the Beloved of God through his Son.

God’s love is not a Zero Sum gain. When I do weddings, I always say to the parents of the bride and groom, “Expand your family, and add new rooms for your love.” We love those who our Beloved loves. And Jesus loves us, and invites us in. Never forget that.

So, the Beloved of God, know this. God has a plan. Time is less important than you think. And, Everything is connected. And when in doubt, “Get up and do not be afraid.” Amen