Tell Out My Soul

Mk 9:2-9

Today I’d like to share some thoughts with you about the transfiguration of Jesus. Alongside the resurrection, this has to be one of the most mysterious and astonishing events in scripture. It’s difficult for us to get our heads around what really happened, but essentially what happened on that day was that heaven broke through on earth. 

Several factors came together for this event to take place. Before the transfiguration, Jesus and his disciples were in Caesarea Philippi, a Greco-Roman city at the base of Mount Hermon. And we’re told that six days later, Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain. The timing is symbolic, the idea being that “six days later” meant that the event fell on the seventh day, the seventh day being another name for the Sabbath. So right from the start it was a holy day. 

In many cultures, mountains and high places are where the divine can be experienced. There’s Mt Fuji in Japan and Mt Everest in Tibet; these are both regarded as holy mountains. In Tibetan Mount Everest is called Chomolungma, which means the Mother Goddess of the World. The Sherpas organize a spiritual ceremony (pooja) before attempting to summit Everest and the whole Everest region is decorated with Buddhist prayer flags.

Not only were they on a high and sacred place but it was also a place apart, it was away from people and ordinary everyday life and concerns. Jesus and the disciples were by themselves away from the crowds. Often, it’s necessary to remove ourselves from the everyday things of life to experience the divine. 

And then Jesus was transfigured in front of them, his clothing was a dazzling white, it might have even been difficult to look at. White clothing is symbolic of the presence of the divine. Think of when the two Marys went to the empty tomb and saw the angel: it was written that his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. `

And then Moses and Elijah appear, talking to Jesus… and a cloud came over them and the voice of God came out of the cloud. But it was all too much for the disciples, they were really frightened and totally confused. Poor Peter, practical as always, even suggested that they build three shelters. They really didn’t understand what was going on. It was amazing and wonderful.

And I just want to describe something amazing that happened while I was in the middle of preparing this message. I was reading a totally unrelated book and in it was a quote from Exodus 24:16 Then Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses out of the cloud. This is so much like the transfiguration event. Here we have God speaking out of the cloud, we have the place being a mountain, and also, God speaking on the seventh day. Three factors that are identical in both the handing down of the law to Moses and Jesus’ transfiguration. I thought wow, this is a big coincidence, that I’d be reading about this quite randomly while I’m in the process of preparing my talk. But then I thought of a saying that I like that says: “coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

So I figure that somehow, maybe my attention was being drawn to these two threads on purpose. I don’t know, but a part of me likes to think so.

So… we have several factors coming together to create the perfect conditions for a divine connection: the high place, the isolation, the close togetherness of Jesus and the disciples on that holy day. And of course, Jesus himself, who acted like a lighting rod for attracting and bringing down God’s glory. The heavenly realm broke through into the earthly realm and the barrier between heaven and earth was like a veil that for a moment was drawn aside. 

When heaven breaks through, we see things and hear things and feel things that we don’t normally experience, marvellous, unexplainable events occur; it is the realm of miracles. In Celtic Christian spirituality, these moments are called “thin places,” moments when we perceive just how different things are. The thin place offers an opportunity to glimpse a different dimension, to look at our lives from the outside. It lets us grasp a vision of the deeper things of faith and to sense a more profound reality apart from the mundane and the ordinary.

One can almost imagine that the everyday material world around us is like a three dimensional movie screen, and that it’s possible, if we try hard enough, to poke a hole through it and see the infinity beyond… that heavenly realm just on the other side of the screen of daily life. 

In these events, the presence of God is not just a hoped for event, it becomes a physical reality, we can pinpoint it. It’s as solid and real as this pulpit or the floor under our feet. Our God is perceivable at our earthly level. At the transfiguration, our heavenly Father was manifested; there was a dazzling light, the voice of God, a vision of Elijah and Moses. Peter James and John experienced firsthand, in a very real way, the presence of God. 

Heaven breaks through and the voice of the Lord is heard, then the cloud comes back over and covers the scene and Jesus is left there alone with the three disciples. But this moment contains a message. The voice says: 

 This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.

There are only two places in the Bible where Jesus is called the beloved: the transfiguration, and Jesus’ baptism by John, two extremely significant events in Jesus’ life. He is our beloved. God the Father loves Jesus overwhelmingly, and we are called to love Jesus in this profound way also.

When some people pray, they don’t approach Jesus directly; some think that he is too important or too high above them. Their humility doesn’t allow them to presume to get this close to the Son of God. So they feel better praying via intermediaries like Mary or the saints, etc. Now this isn’t a bad thing or a waste of time or whatever, because God hears all our prayers. And then we have some people who bypass Jesus and go directly to the top, and they pray to God the Father. That’s okay too…

but here we have God during this amazing event calling Jesus, the beloved. God didn’t say my beloved, he said the beloved. Jesus is there for all of us to love.

We were made for a close, one on one relationship with Jesus, God wants him to be our loved one too. And when we love someone like that, we walk with him and we talk with him; we cannot live without him. Because of this great love, we listen to Jesus, God tells us to listen and to pay attention to what our loved one says to us. We can listen to Jesus’ words in the Gospels and we can listen to him when he speaks to us in those quiet moments, when we are deep in prayer.

During the transfiguration, Jesus appears to the disciples gloriously and fully himself. Not just in human form but in his heavenly form, their Lord, but also their friend. Jesus also invites us to share in these special moments when heaven breaks through, and we can experience these thin places for ourselves.

I read where someone asked an Afro-American southern Baptist woman how she was going and she said: I’m living somewhere between “O Lord” and “Thank you Jesus”…  We’re all living between O Lord and thank you Jesus, between the opposites of despair and suffering on one side, and holy praise and thankfulness on the other.

In our day to day lives, when things are “okay for now”, we’re inhabiting a thick place, not a thin place. It’s hard to see and touch heaven when we are caught up in the ordinary world. The veil between heaven and earth is dense when we’re stuck in the middle, taking care of our daily business. Most of the time we’re in between the situations of pain and struggle, when we call out “O lord”… and the exaltation, and gratitude of the times when we say “thank you Jesus.” 

But heaven is visible and is shown to us in the thin ends of the spectrum of experience, away from the middle. When we call out “O Lord” in our deepest darkest moments, in our emotional loss and struggle, heaven can be seen there clear and shining bright against the darkness. It is the open door that we reach for when things get really bad, there our Lord is… and our comfort. And of course, heaven is there in the moments when we whisper, “thank you Jesus,” in our joy and gratitude, when we’ve had a close call with death and gotten away with it, or when we realise just how abundantly we have been blessed.

Sunday morning is a thin place, when we all come together to pray and worship in God’s house. It’s the seventh day, the Lord’s day, and we focus our energy on one thing… loving our God. Conditions are right. When two or more are gathered then God is there. The clouds part and the barrier between earth and heaven is like gossamer, sometimes it vanishes altogether. Hold on tight to these moments because it is then that we hear God’s message coming through loud and clear. He is here… now…we can feel his presence in this place.

Jesus’ transfiguration happened such a very long time ago but through the gospels, we’re the lucky recipients of this wonderful story. On this amazing day, heaven’s veil was parted to three humble fishermen; God’s son shone brightly. May we carry his light within us always. Amen.