February 27, 2022 – Last Sunday after Epiphany
Our ‘mountaintop’ experience – our opportunity to be engaged by the Risen Christ – is offered to us in every Eucharist celebration. We need to open ourselves to receive the invitation!
Let us pray. Almighty and gracious God, we give you thanks for your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us gathered here and in our many places as we participate together. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives to receive the gift of your living word for us this day, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
As you can probably gather from my announcement at the beginning and my naked face, that we’ve received an indication from the bishop’s office that, while we are preaching or reading or praying we can remove our masks.
All of today’s Scripture Readings refer, either directly or indirectly, to the revelatory encounter with God on mountains. Now I think it’s a little difficult for us, living in southern Manitoba, in the Manitoba Lowlands, to relate. There’s not a mountain in site! Though, the city of Winnipeg’s snow removal areas are beginning to look a little bit like mountains.
In today’s First Reading from Exodus 34, Moses is coming down the mountain from his encounter with God, and he’s bringing what is now the second set of the Ten Commandments. And in a way, these Commandments are intended for Israel as a kind of Standard Operating Procedure for God’s covenant with Israel. This encounter with God, and these Ten Words, or Ten Teachings from God – they are to be Israel’s source of hope, faith and grace, as they begin their many years of wandering in the wilderness and eventually arriving in the Promised Land. Note in the encounter that Moses’s face is shining as he returns to the people after encountering God. That’s evidence that he has been in the divine presence, and in some way, it is still with him.
Now this mountaintop experience prepares them for what is to follow as they struggle through the wilderness of Sinai. In the Gospel Reading that I just read from Luke, just after Jesus has given his disciples some sobering and challenging teaching in the verses immediately preceding today’s Gospel, about what it means to be faithful disciples, he said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” This is what lies ahead for Christ’s disciples. And after this Jesus then takes his inner circle – Peter, James, and John up on a mountain to pray, and they experience the divine presence – Jesus being transfigured. His appearance has changed – his clothes are dazzling white. And the three of them actually encounter God in the cloud, and they hear God’s voice, “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him!” It is about as strong an affirmation as they could receive about Jesus – that he really is the Messiah, the Son of God – that this One to whom they shall pledge their lives, is, in fact, the real One from God. And this mountaintop experience prepares them for what is to follow. When they experience their Rabbi, their Lord, being rejected, arrested, tortured, and executed, they still have this larger vision of who he is, which is fully manifested for them at Easter.
So what about for us – you and me? Have we had any mountaintop experiences? And if you have, were they kind of personal and private – experienced only by you? These experiences are good and they definitely are a blessing. They encourage our faith but they don’t really impact our context around us – they don’t impact our world. Or, in many cases, they don’t impact our fellow-believers with whom we relate day to day, week to week. We, as the People of God, need a ‘collective’ mountaintop experience. And if there ever was a need for a divine encounter like that, it is now! We’ve languished in two years of Covid-19 pandemic – never knowing if we’ll get sick next, or if we did get Covid how serious it might be – either for us or for our loved ones. Then, this past month we have suffered through an anti-mandate protest and truck convoy – never sure what will happen next – who will suffer violence, or how it would ever end. And even more biting was seeing signs on television of the Ottawa occupation where some of those were claiming “Christian motivation” for what they were doing. And now, Ukraine and Russia – a seemingly hopeless situation for Ukraine – and no “global Emergency Measures Act” to stop what’s happening and arrest the perpetrators. Let’s not pretend that all of this doesn’t impact each of us because it has to – especially if we care at all for this world and for the humanity for whom Christ died.
Traditionally, this mountaintop Transfiguration Sunday happens on the last Sunday before Lent as it is today; so that over the long and deep “valley” of Lent, we can see the distant mountaintop of Christ’s resurrection. And this gives us the faith and courage we’ll need to do the tough work of “walking with Jesus” through Lent. But this year, it’s not just about our liturgical journey in Lent. It’s not just about our personal, spiritual discipline for the next 40 or 50 days. It is about the very life or our world! We need to be able to walk through tomorrow, this week, this month, this time – empowered by God’s grace, certain of God’s presence, convinced of who really is Lord – regardless of how it looks day to day. We need the life-giving assurance of Christ’s presence and victory in our midst, and we need it together. We need each other – visible witnesses – reminders of God’s reality and truth.
So where is our mountain? Where do we have to go to perceive God’s Son – the risen Christ in all his glory? It is right here – right now – in this worship – in this Eucharist! That is Christ’s promise when we gather in Christ’s name - he is in our midst. When we break the bread and bless the cup – “when you do this you do my remembrance.”, he says. Jesus Christ is the host of this meal. What we need to do together is to open our eyes, open our ears, open our hearts, to this reality – here and now. Engage the words of our Scriptures. God’s words on the Transfiguration mount are still reverberating to we 21st century disciples – “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him!” Last Sunday we heard a portion of Psalm 37 which is so appropriate for us today. “Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; For they shall soon wither like grass, and like the green grass fade away. Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers, the one who succeeds in evil schemes. Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.” Be attentive to the words of our Prayers in this service. Today’s Collect Prayer: “Almighty God, … mercifully deliver us from the darkness of this world,” – not deliver us from this world – deliver us from the darkness of this world. Be conscious of the words that we will sing in today’s hymns. In our closing hymn, Crown Him With Many Crowns, in verse 3 we’ll sing, “Crown him the Lord of peace, whose power a sceptre sways from pole to pole, that wars may cease, absorbed in prayer and praise.” It is the Holy Spirit working in and through us all when we consciously proclaim these words and let them sink into our hearts and our minds. The Eucharistic Prayer that we’re using today recognizes this mountaintop, exalted vision of God and the risen Jesus Christ. Join in those words. Let them invite you around God’s throne – around Christ’s table.
Our mountaintop encounter here and now is not intended to help us just briefly forget the anxieties of the world around us. It is to open us up to the much bigger reality of who really is Lord, and equip us to carry that truth – that reality – back into the challenges that face us. Because we are changed by this encounter. As St. Paul says in today’s Second Reading, “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”
The Lord is here! Let us offer our whole being to God, and open ourselves to receive the fullness of God’s grace. Thanks be to God! Amen.
