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First
Reading
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Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
2 Kings 2:1-12 |
Psalm 50:1–6 |
2 Corinthians 4:3–6 |
Mark 9:2–9
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Transitions often carry the potential to be gateways into greater and deeper maturity. When one needs to find a new job or decides to accept a different position of increased challenge and responsibility, when one accepts or offers a proposal of marriage, or when one becomes aware of one’s own or of a loved one’s mortality, are a few examples of personal transitions that many of us will have.
Today’s first reading is about the transition of leadership within Israel’s ancient guild of prophets from Elijah to Elisha. Elisha is tempted to hold on to the way things were, to continue to lean on Elijah’s greater wisdom, but Elijah firmly reminds him that that is not possible. If Elisha is to grow, he must now leave the spiritual womb of Elijah and become the adult, not the child. The guild of prophets must depend upon Elisha’s mantel to grow, not for Elijah’s mantel to stay the same.
Jesus and the disciples have been going around to the villages on the shores of Lake Galilee. Now Jesus steps back, and takes his disciples on an excursion up the highest mountain in the region, likely Mount Tabor. It wasn’t a trip with the intention to meet and teach more people; it obviously was meant to be a retreat, a step away from the crowds and the routine, and to provide a space to integrate the past with what would lie ahead. Mountaintops are symbolic of the view and perspective that one never gets on the ground. Mountaintops provide an ageless and unique orientation of where we have been, where we are, and where we might be going.
One of the favorite trips of my days at summer camp was taking the boys up Mount Kearsarge (also known as Mount Pequawket) that rose beyond the western shore of the lake where the camp was located. Every evening we would watch from the beach as the yellow sun of summer slid behind Kearsage’s peak and turned the sky into curved ripples of magenta and wispy strips of purple. Indeed the mountain itself seemed an infinite and integral part of the sunset. The view from the top of the mountain, however, showed how close the camp cabins were to the wooded hills behind them, the curvature of the lakeshore, and the actual shape and size of the modest lake, straddling the Maine-New Hampshire border. One gained a sense of place that you could never get from a map or from canoeing out to the middle of the lake. As we ate our lunch, one of the staff back in camp would begin sending signals by mirror and we, of course, responded. Seeing the silver roof of the mess hall and responding to the signals from camp made us aware of the relative closeness of camp compared to the open sky, the jumble of New Hampshire’s White Mountains beyond, and the horizon that surrounded us. That evening as we looked at the mountain that we had climbed and held in our minds the picture of the view from the mountaintop, we understood that we would not look at the our place on the beach by the lakeshore or the sunset over Kearsarge in quite the same way. The view had permanently transformed our perspective.
How much of the transfiguration story was shaped by the collective reflection of the disciples, and the experience of the resurrected Christ within the early church, is impossible to sort out. Unquestionably this experience was important, for Mark, Matthew, and Luke all included it in their gospels. The event transformed the heat, the dust, the arguments, and the weariness of preaching from town to town, and connected them to a new reality that would change the world forever. The transfiguration announced that Jesus would lead us to a new view on the way humanity would perceive God.
When the twelve tribes of Israel were freed from slavery, they immediately struggled during the transition into a different type of society. Moses was appointed its leader to guide them from one kind of existence to another. As a nation, they began to understand that they had been rescued from oblivion and charged by God to teach and serve as an example to all the nations of the world. In the future, Elijah was held to be the announcer of a new world order, an order established by God on the final day of judgment. The transforming experience on the mountain is a focus on Jesus, putting in perspective his suffering and death. It is a perspective that lifts up good news for all of humanity. As the wind swirls around the peak, God seems to say, “Pay attention to all of Jesus’ teaching, all the parables, the signs, and the healings, but remember that they only make complete sense in terms of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.”
So we gather around the table this morning, as a sign that God is leading us to something different and of far greater fullness than where we now stand. God lets us know that our culture and our flat earth view no longer restrict our possibilities.
Nearly ten years before Mark compiled his Gospel, Paul sent a letter to the church in Rome. I suspect he knew of the significance of the transfiguration, for he wrote to that small community living in the midst of the power center of the Roman Empire, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds....”
Once young campers had climbed Mount Kearsarge, they were no longer limited by the view of their camp and little lake just on a surface level. When we understand the power of transitions to transform and the renew our minds....”, our culture no longer limits our possibilities either.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
