Draw Near

Transfiguration 2014
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC/HolyDays/Transfig.html


In winter, we long for the summer sun. In the winter of our lives, we long for the dazzling light of Transfiguration.

This feast is a sign of hope amidst any struggle or doubt. This feast is pure gift and grace. The early church thought it was a respite, a kind of break, from struggle and toil. If anyone draws back from the challenge or the struggle of following Jesus, today’s feast, re-telling today’s story, gives us heart and strength.

The text from Exodus was composed by people who were discouraged and in danger of forgetting who they were. Remember that what we call the Old Testament was largely assembled by scholars in Babylon, where Judah was in exile, having lost the Temple and their homeland. “Remember”, says the story of Moses. “Remember how Moses spoke to God, and how his face shone with divine light. Remember how the light frightened them, but how Moses called them near. The light was for them, and the light was for all who heard the story and who longed for light and glory in their exiled lives.

The early church carefully told this story in the Gospels and referred to it often in the Epistles. The texts of the New Testament were composed when the infant community of Christ-followers were in deep crisis, rejected and pressured from outside, divided and frightened within. “Remember”, says the Gospel story. “Remember how the Lord Jesus was transformed. Remember how the light and glory of God shone from him. Remember the cloud, the same cloud that covered Mt Sinai, remember how Peter and James and John were afraid when they entered the cloud. Remember the voice, the words ‘This is my chosen.’”

“We were with him on the holy mountain” says the old teacher in 1st Peter. “We saw, we heard, we tell you.”

The Scriptures tell you. Countless lives lived amidst doubt and struggle in the light of the Glory tell you. And I tell you.

I tell you that, even in the sameness of my days, even in the repetition of my tasks, even amidst the losses and sorrows that surround my ministry and the lives of so many around me, I long for the light of glory, the light of God shining forth from Jesus Christ. I tell you that, at the most surprising moments, I have glimpsed that light and glory. Mostly I have glimpsed that light in the cloud of my own confusion and misunderstanding, of my own mixed-up fears and doubts. The light of God is so bright that it dazzles the eyes of the head and of the mind and can appear as darkness, just as we are temporarily blinded by bright light.

But this feast, this radiant gift, speaks to me of the truth beneath all truth—the light, the glory, the radiance, the utter and complete hope beyond all hope that is always straining to burst through the surface of what we think are the Way Things Are. It is the light of unspeakable glory that truly is the Way Things Are. Remember, bask, drink deeply, lift up your hearts. We say that every Sunday.

Said an early preacher, “Since each of us possesses God in our hearts,” and is being transformed into the divine image, we also should cry out with joy ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here’—here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity, and stillness; where God is seen.”

Remember, draw near, do not fear. The light is kind. The light is for us.