TRANSFIGURATION

Peter did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 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.”

Imagine the disciples, in their confusion and residual fear, actually constructing the three dwellings. Although this is not what happens in the text, this is very much what has happened since.  Those calling themselves disciples of Jesus, Christians through the ages, have set about constructing dwellings.

Under British Law a dwelling is defined as a self-contained ‘substantial’ unit of accommodation, a building or part of a building, caravan, houseboat, or other mobile abode; tents are not considered substantial. Consider the dwellings- churches, basilicas, cathedrals that Christians have built; the theological tomes, intellectual ideas, confessions of faith, hymnary, moral and ethical imperatives, and traditions and matters of piety, around which Christians have constructed their systems, beliefs, and communities. Christians have littered the mountain top many times over with dwellings of all shapes and sizes.

The Gospel of Mark briefly draws our attention to the possibility of three dwellings: one for Moses, one for Elijah, one for Jesus.

Dwelling one has Moses’ name over the door.  This is a dwelling whose unique expertise and gift is the Law. This dwelling, houses faithful people who are focused on loving God and loving neighbour. It is here that the Law is good: it acts as a community disciplinarian, it is a mirror that shows humans their sinfulness, and it is a helpful rule of life.  The Law focuses the community on right living, a living that is bound in covenant with God; it is relationship with God that enables the people to live in relationship with each other. In fact, it is the Law that draws people back to relationship with God, as it becomes apparent that one can not of their own accord keep the Law.  The covenant, the Laws within the covenant, are good, until they aren’t.

Abodes – institutions, governments, religions, cultures- unravel when the focus becomes dwelling on the Law, rather than dwelling in the Law. Dwelling on the Law becomes exclusive, pushing people out who do not meet expectations; dwelling on the Law is all about self-achievement, being better than others, and competition. It turns to works righteousness, the ability for one to work out their own salvation. The importance is on Law, rather, than, living the intent of Law—to love God and to love one’s neighbour to the best of one’s ability. In other words, living the Law in joy and in a sense of freedom. 

Dwelling two has Elijah’s name on the mail box. This is a dwelling whose unique expertise and gift is prophetic. This dwelling, houses faithful people who are focused on hearing the Word of God and envisioning the future – God’s kingdom coming now. Within the dwelling attention is paid to returning to the Lord – as the prophets through the ages have called people to do.  In their midst there is healing and hope. This second dwelling unravels, when the community dwells on the prophetic, rather than dwelling in the prophetic.  Dwelling on the prophetic is focusing on words from one person, constantly looking for the next best thing, a new gimmick, looking for the prophetic speaker or teacher to come to the rescue. The unravelling of this house might be speaking simply to be a voice; or a voice that excludes other voices, deeming their message to be the only message; or perhaps they turn inward and are a voice that is only for the faithful within their walls. This house can be one that makes statements, like prophesying the end of time, or a community that incites fear, to in some way benefit their own community.  Dwelling in the prophetic is different. It is patiently waiting for the word of the Lord, while living in the words of God given from prophets before, continuing to share words of return to the Lord balanced with words of hope for the kingdom of God, while being about bringing it to the present, through doing right, seeking justice, protecting the widow and orphan.

Dwelling three has Jesus’s name on the sign out front. This is a dwelling whose unique expertise and gift is the grace of God, as experienced through the life and death of Jesus.  This dwelling, houses faithful people who are focused on following Jesus and Jesus’s example, and sharing the Good News with the world. Within the dwelling the faithful say their prayers, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, celebrate sacrament, read scripture, and are hospitable. The faithful practice being Christ’s light to each other and to wider community. This dwelling unravels when the focus is placed on being disciples (resting in an understanding of needing to learn more), without a push to move into being apostles--- sharing the Good News.  There are dwellings bearing Jesus’s name who dwell on some glory day of the past, moaning the world at their door steps and are aggravated by the pressure to change to address this world.  Dwelling on the past suggests that there is a fear that the message of the Gospel can not speak to the changed context in which we find ourselves today. Out of fear doors have been locked, communities have turned inward; focus has been directed to dwelling on items, dwelling on budgets, and putting God in a box.  There are Jesus dwellings who see Jesus as a hero, a sage, an example, and do not take to heart Jesus as God’s beloved; this is the house that has made Jesus tame.   

The church today, our dwelling, is guilty of constructing a variety of buildings on the top of the mountain – dwellings that focus on Law, the prophetic, the past, the budget, and so on... but, the dwelling that looms large and casts the biggest shadow are the buildings where we have tried to tame Jesus. The transfiguration story is meant to uncloud our eyes to reveal the untamed, the untameable, power of God.

Of all the Gospels, Mark’s comes across as the harshest towards the disciples.  Pointedly Mark sets the case for their lack of faith and understanding:  He tells three boat stories all illustrating the disciples’ lack of faith; he shares three Passion predictions that go over their heads; he explains that on the last night with Jesus they fall asleep 3x in the garden while praying; and in the end Mark records the disciples’ three final actions as betrayal, denial, and abandonment.

Set beside these stories, Jesus is shown to be a powerful healer and exorcist who is in conflict with practically everyone, except the confused disciples. The Gospel is found in the contrast of the opponents of Jesus who are trying to trap him, and the disciples who are – despite how they are characterized-  trying to understand; they have chosen to follow Jesus.

They have been called, chosen, sent out…having the secret of the kingdom of God revealed to them.

Despite themselves, their actions, thoughts, fights, confusion, and posturing, Jesus continues to explain everything in private, over and over again. Jesus invites the disciples to experiences like the transfiguration, and asks them to watch with him and pray in the garden of Gethsemane. The disciples are open and eager; Jesus works with them, among them.

On the mountain, Peter comments, It is good to be here.  The transfiguration moment is good, important.  It is not a time to dwell on fears, but, to dwell in the Lord.  Jesus has and will have moments with the disciples where they exorcize demons, go to quiet places, perform healings, go to the mountain top, return to do more exorcisms. In this mountain moment, we are invited to take a moment -with Peter, James, and John- because post-transfiguration life is not for the faint of heart.  Following this moment Jesus, accompanied by the disciples, has set a path for Jerusalem.  This is the last journey, for it is a journey to the cross.

There is nothing safe about transfiguration. This is a Sunday meant to intrude on the safety and discipline of our buildings and constructed ideas.  It is meant to burst the walls we have built out of fear to protect ourselves. Our dwellings are being pulled down because the Gospel is pushing us into Lent, starting on Wednesday night. We are to arrive here on Wednesday night without the comforts of home and the walls we have put up; we come to nakedly confront the cross, to focus on confession, suffering and death, ours and Gods.

From the children’s story of the Three Little Pigs, the wolf visits the straw house, the house made of sticks, and the brick house, and he cries: Let me in, let me in, or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in.

The transfiguration comes upon us as a huffing, puffing wolf to blow our house in.  The transfiguration happens to rattle our foundations, to break down our doors, and to open the windows. God blows the roof off that which we have constructed, defined, limited, restrained, packaged, monitored, inhabited, invested in, and blows through the construction with a wind to carry us, push us, challenge us to a future where the grandeur of Moses and Elijah, the sheer grace of God’s covenants with God’s people explode our expectations, so that we move beyond simply seeing, to honestly dwell as a living embodiment of grace in the world; for a transfigured God demands a transfigured believer.

Words of the Gospel of Mark are about immediacy.  The disciples are confused and fearful, as they face so much, so quickly; too much, too fast… this is the untamed power of the Beloved.  There is no time to consider constructing dwellings.  The disciples, we are called through Jesus’s words in Mark:  follow me, pay attention to what you hear, do not be afraid, believe, you give them something to eat, it’s what comes out of a person that defiles, deny yourself, pick up the cross, those who are first will be last, whoever wishes to be first must be a slave, whenever you pray- forgive. This is what dwelling in God looks like. It is untamed and not stationary, not pent up in an edifice or a building. It is moving. It is not a retreat from reality; it is sweeping through the world knocking dwellings down, exposing the heart. It is dwelling in the transfigured God, who demands a transfigured us…which most certainly is a journey of confession, suffering, and death. 

Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations – would that this continue to be so. In-dwell in us as we seek to dwell in you. Amen.