It’s interesting to me for many reasons. One is that it shows up twice a year in the church calendar. It shows up now as a bookend to the Incarnation of Christmas season just before we enter Lent. The second time is in the middle of the summer, in ‘Ordinary Time” that time of the work of the church. The Incarnate God is a God who Transfigures or changes. The Body of Christ (That’s us.) also must be changed. Every year we are reminded of this.
That’s essentially what this passage is about…Getting to know who Jesus really is and how the disciples (and even Jesus) wrestle with that Change. It is for us a reminder that we, too, are to change.
Jesus, the figure of love
the figure of admiration
and of respect has changed.
Jesus has transfigured
from the teacher into the Messiah
from the Miracle Worker and Revolutionary into God.
And in the disciples’ fervor (and their clumsy expression of awe and love…build a dwelling?) and eventual fear as we hear from the story, the disciples show how they are still stuck in the old definitions, the old ways, in the struggles with what they think they know and they cannot get what Jesus is showing them…what God’s own voice proclaims in the words “This is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to him!” They are not ready to love as God is asking them to love…to love God and to love one another in this new way that Jesus will show them.
It’s not so hard to imagine. Is it? Not being ready?
There are so many reasons why we too might not be ready. There are so many ways each of us may be unwilling to love in the way Jesus is asking of us…in the way God is asking of us. Perhaps Tina Turner summed this hesitancy up best when she sang:
What’s love got to do, got to do with it?
What’s love but a sweet old fashioned notion,
a second-hand emotion?
What’s love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?
Perhaps it’s a tragic admission for any Christian, especially a pastor, to say that I hold back from God. I protect myself from God. But I do. I will arrogantly claim the prerogative of “free will” or “soul liberty” and intentionally do the opposite of what God asks. I’m still childish and petulant at times where Jesus is concerned. And even though I know better, even though I know that there’s no reason to build a dwelling for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus on some hilltop, I would rather do that than Love them. I would rather do that than Love the world that God is calling me to Love.
And I doubt I’m alone in that. How do we Love when Love can hurt us so badly? And what kind of God would ask us to do such a thing…to revisit those wounds…We spend thousands in therapy trying to learn how to love our families and God wants me to love the entire world? You have got to be kidding.
I find it heartening that the disciples have the same trouble. I actually find it hopeful that the disciples cannot heal the boy. They still struggle with belief. They still struggle with who Jesus is…and what to do when they have a glimpse of it on a mountaintop. They struggle and they are still called by Jesus. We too struggle and are no less called.
We are heartbroken.
We are grieving.
We can become overwhelmed with the task before us.
We can become embittered and disillusioned.
We can only count the cost and not see the gain.
We are defensive. Frustrated. Angry.
Maybe we’re simply mad at Jesus. It’s okay. We should feel free to express our frustration. This is a relationship after all. Get real with God. What’s holding you back?
But don’t go thinking that cuts only one way. Jesus is going to get frustrated with us, too. We’re going to fail from time to time like the disciples did in the passage from Luke this morning. Jesus is going to get frustrated. But it’s okay. We can receive those words without fear.
We’re going to get frustrated with him, too. We have that freedom. It’s one of the perks of having an incarnate God, you know. You can actually say it to God’s face. You can lift it up in a prayer. You can rant in your living room and let God have it. You can sit here in this sanctuary and be mad at God. You can be bitter and feel shut out. You can share your brokenness and your outrage. You can join Tina Turner and say “No! I want to protect this heart and I’m not sure that I trust you yet!” You can deny love. You can even fail.
I know. Anathema! Heresy! But it’s true.
It’s okay. It’s okay to fail. It’s okay because that failure is not the final word on Love where God is concerned. God doesn’t stop loving us just because we fail…even in our loving hof God. If there is any clarity in scripture it’s about that. Forgiveness.
Jesus is walking with you. Jesus has also been heartbroken…and has struggled with what it means to trust people and to trust God. It’s okay because God also suffers. God loves you even as you hold back what God most wants – your heart. God wants your heart so that God can change it and then rejoice in the new life you live.
But at some point you have to let go. At some point God needs us to let it go…whatever it is. You see; we too must change. We must be Transfigured.
Too often I think we confuse “learn to love yourself” with “build a dwelling for yourself on a mountaintop.” We must learn to love ourselves as one of God’s Beloved and then come down off that mountain.
To be Beloved by God is to be in the world, to be vulnerable, and to show the world something it may not even recognize at first…and for us to be changed by that encounter with the world…to be changed by our neighbors, our friends, our family, and even those we do not like, understand, or who would do us harm.
This is what it means for us to be Transfigured. The figure of Love, the very shape of our love, how and why we love, perhaps even our very character, will change.
