Fear and Awe

Fear and Awe: Transfiguration 030214

Matthew 17:1-9

“Six days later”—later than what?  6 days after Jesus begins to tell the disciples that he’s heading for suffering.  And of course at that point, the ever impetuous Peter says, no no it can’t be so.  But Jesus tells them yes it is so, and they need to be willing to go there with him if they’re really going to be his followers.  So 6 days after that….

“Jesus led them up a high mountain”—mountains again! Remember Theva pointed out that mountains have huge significance in ancient, and even modern spirituality…they are holy places of revelation, where they stand on holy ground….we climb mountains seeking something special ourselves, to watch a sunset or sunrise, to  get away from our busy lives into quiet….. Jesus invites them away from the usual for a brief time, and he led them; they didn’t take it into their heads themselves to go seeking….they listened and were ready to agree to follow him, not knowing what might happen. We’ll come back to this listening and ready stuff later.

And there he was transfigured before them, his face shining, his clothes dazzling white—light, brightness: like the mountain image, this puts more emphasis on the holiness of the moment—light also is an integral part of spiritual insight, ancient and modern, people describe aha moments as a flash, others experience light at near death times. 

Something clearly very out of the ordinary is going on here.

Then they see Moses and Elijah talking with him—now we’re really into an odd state.  Remember Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels; it’s important that his readers understand Jesus as legitimately in the line of the ‘greats’…..Moses the law giver, Elijah the prophet, together the sum of Jesus’ faith.

I imagine this was just as important a moment for Jesus as it was for the disciples, or for Matthew’s readers….if he has recently come to understand where his ministry is taking him, to experience the affirmation of his ancestors must have been a powerful encouraging vision.

As Jesus ‘morphs’ from an ordinary guy into someone of great glory, whose inner Spirit shines from the inside out, he and we are all reminded of the power of God ‘way beyond the ordinary.

But one of our tendencies in those illogical incomprehensible  is to explain an experience—it was just a dream, or it’s just a metaphor for something else….biblical scholarship often does this.  Another tendency is to box it in and package it in some acceptable way.  Unfortunately both tendencies water down the incredible awesomeness of the experience, because what’s really AWE gets expressed in FEAR, which we know better.  We fear what we can’t explain.   We control what we fear.

That’s what happens to Peter.   He’s trying to hold on to this experience long enough to find an explanation, so he blabs the first thing that comes to mind:

I’ll put up three shrines here, one for each of you

But while he’s still speaking a bright cloud overshadowed them and from the cloud came a voice

More doo doo doo doo language—cloud and voice from nowhere are added to mountain and light……do we get it yet?  This is powerful stuff challenging our Christian tepidity.  I found a quote this week online, from Annie Dillard’s “Teaching a Stone to Talk”

(from Sermons.com)

While Peter is still speaking his marketing babble, this voice shuts him right up.  There are some situations where words just won’t do.  These words from the cloud must have reminded Jesus of his baptism, words again of deep affirmation and love, now adding “listen to him”.  Do we?  What has God or Jesus said to you recently?  How well have we been listening?

Quote from vacation book “On Looking” by Alexandra Horowicz—

The human ear is open all the time; it has no lid to naturally refresh the auditory scene.  Even holding our hands over our ears in the way children do, elbows akimbow and face a-grimace, many sounds get in. But while our ears are always open, we only half attend to sounds they carry, given the racket coming from within our own heads.

We need to learn to shut up and listen.  Perhaps Lent is a good time to do that.

Illogical, incomprehensible, indescribable moments still happen.

The sudden death of a loved one, or the birth of a baby

A difficult diagnosis, an unexplained healing

A September 11 event, a random act of kindness

In them all, the voice says listen.  

Listen to what?  Listen to Jesus.  So what did Jesus say?

Jesus came and touched them saying, Get up, do not be afraid.

When have you been afraid?  God says Listen, Jesus says do not be afraid.

When have you been awestruck?   God says Listen, Jesus says do not be afraid.

When have you found yourself in a situation you just don’t understand? God says Listen, Jesus says do not be afraid.

One day on vacation I was out for a walk, struggling with a difficult personal decision that had me a bit afraid.  I turned the corner into the lane back to our hotel and there in front of me was an awesome rainbow.  God says, listen.   What does the rainbow mean?  God’s promises can be trusted.  Jesus says do not be afraid.

If we just shut up and listen, we will receive those cosmic love letters.

Let’s make Lent a good time to practice that.  Shut up and listen.

God says Listen, Jesus says do not be afraid.

Amen.