Year B Last Epiphany 2024 I Don't Know

Year B Last Sunday After Epiphany, 11 February 2024 St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA “I Don’t Know” 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 Corinthians 4:3-6 Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Mark 9:2-9 Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. I get the opportunity every year to preach on the Transfiguration the Last Sunday of Epiphany. Year A from Matthew, Year B (like this year) from Mark, and Year C from Luke. And John, who would seem to be really into something like the Transfiguration does not even mention. And then Peter brings up the event in his letter which we call 2 Peter.

For 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)

And you all will probably nod and smile while I talk about all this. You have heard this story before, maybe yearly, and you know it is part of something we do. But the hard part is, when it comes to this story about Jesus, most of us cannot even picture it in our minds, and if we can, it is vague and unclear. Hazy at best, I am guessing. We can picture Jesus healing people. We have been sick and we have seen people get better. We can wrap our minds around that. We can picture feeding 5,000 even, as we all eat and have probably been in an embarrassing situation we could not see our ways out of at all. But this, this prayer meeting on top of a mountain where the holiest of ancestors come and God speaks audibly. This is a whole different category for most of us. Epiphany is about the unveiling of Jesus as the second person in the Trinity. From the Wise Men to the Apostles, and at the Transfiguration all hiddenness is removed and we see Jesus for who he is. And that only makes for more confusion and questions. In our limited capacity, in our finitude, in our corporality, we are trapped. We are not all-knowing, eternal, or transmutable. We are mortal, caught in time, and trapped in bodies. Once we get into the omni-whatevers we are on shaky ground. And this event, as described, means that Jesus is all these things: omniscient, immortal, and extra-corporeal. And Beloved to boot. Explaining this is a tall order. We use that word, Mystery, an awful lot, and we don’t want to overdo it. So as we unpack the Transfiguration today, can I just start saying, “I don’t know.”? I know that might be troublesome for some, but it would help me feel more honest. That is the thing about faith. Once you start in the process, the things I cannot explain become easier. I let go of being anxious, and I just lean back into the “not knowing and just trusting.” It is a place that is becoming more and more comfortable the older I get. It is relearning the lesson children get so early. Mom calls you for dinner, and you get to the table. You prepare by washing your hands and acknowledging that you heard her. But you show up, and it is all there ready for you. You can trust Mom. And more and more we have to learn that we can trust God, too. Unless we have the faith of a child we can never enter the Kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3) Not having an answer does not come easy to me. I want to have an answer. I want to instill trust and faith into all our hearts, and repeatedly you all let me know that my vulnerability is better than an unsure answer. So here we are, when it comes to this event, I don’t know. I believe it. I teach it. I preach it. I speculate on it. But at the end of the day, I have to take it on faith. Like everything else. The part that I find beautiful about this Transfiguration event is not the goose-pimple raising sense of holy awe, but the comfort of the voice from heaven. While the idea of a Vox Dei (the voice of God) is often intimidating, God spoke for the disciples much more than for Jesus. You were communing fully with God, when the Voice came bellowing out: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Ho Agapetos, THE BELOVED. These words were for the disciples, Peter, James, and John. Or maybe Moses and Elijah, but I doubt that. I feel pretty BELOVED that God the Father would let us know that Jesus is THE Beloved. That means, in letting us in on this info, that we are pretty beloved, too. Thank you, God! And I love that God says we should listen to Jesus. I should do that more and more. I think we all can say that. Maybe I should just say that. I don’t know about the How or Why of all of this. It is. It happened. Thanks be to God for letting us in on this knowledge of Jesus beyond our comprehension and beyond our belief. Maybe as I mature I am becoming more and more like Mark Twain. A line he said stuck with me. "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." The loving of enemies. Turning the other cheek stuff. That is pretty clear and straight, and much harder to do. I have a much harder time with those. So maybe as I sit in the mystery, I can rest easy in Christ’s words and encourage others to do that, too. I can see why Peter got confused and thought that this was the pinnacle of the story. That the show was over, and it was time for the after party. It seems pretty climactic. But this was the preview of coming attractions. The amuse bouche on the way to Jerusalem. Tabernacles and sites of remembrance are not needed. We need not come here for this is merely a waystation on the destination. We get so easily distracted. I think that is why Jesus told his closest comrades to keep quiet about this. Peter, who was there, could not get straight what had happened and what to do about it. How do they explain to the others who were not there what happened, why they weren’t invited, and what it all means? It was a lot, and Jesus knew, until they had the whole picture, including the resurrection, they just would not get it. Just like us. So still I left wondering, what do I say to you all on this last Sunday of the Epiphany, as we turn our face to Jerusalem? Hold on to your horses, we have just gotten started? Or, more soberly, let us prepare for the road ahead, wherever it may lead? So, dear people of God, the Transfiguration. Yeah, I don’t know. But listen to Jesus and you’ll be okay. God said so. Get ready, the road ahead is not an easy one, but God is with us now, and will be all along the way. Amen