THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF CANTON
Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor
February 11, 2018 ~ Transfiguration Sunday

Sermon: “Jesus Was Transfigured, We Are Transformed”
Gospel Lesson: Mark 9:2-9

© 2018, Dr. Tamilio

I
There are moments in our lives when we change. I am not talking about physical changes: going through puberty or realizing that you can no longer do some of the things that you could do when you were a young man or woman. I am talking about times when you look at life differently. I remember that when I graduated from college I felt different. I wasn’t much older than I was when I graduated from high school, but I was certainly a different person. I thought differently. For me, college didn’t teach me a bunch of facts. Rather, it taught me to think critically and to look at the world through a different lens. Some people have similar experiences when they get their first full-time job in “the real world,” or when they join the service, or when they get married, or when they have kids. It is during those watershed moments that we are transformed.

Today’s Gospel Lesson is just such an event in the life of Peter, James, and John. They have been following Jesus for quite some time. He brings them (the inner circle of his inner circle of followers) up a mountain. It’s a curious passage. Moses (who represents the Law) and Elijah (the embodiment of the prophets) appear on a mountain and converse with Jesus. (Symbolically, all of Scripture personified appear together.) Just prior to that, Jesus is Transfigured before them. Mark tells us that “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” And if that weren’t enough, the voice of God bellows from the sky, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Furthermore, the disciples want to remain on the mountain. They want to build three abodes — one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah — so that they can freeze this moment for eternity.

Why this event? Was it the way that God revealed who Jesus really was? Would we look at Jesus differently if this event didn’t occur? Don Stewart writes, “The Transfiguration provides further evidence that Jesus was the divine Son of God. It is not coincidental,” he continues, “that this happened soon after Jesus had acknowledged Himself to be the Christ, the one who left heaven’s glory to come to earth. Now three of His disciples were to get a glimpse of that glory.” Even though the passage ends with Jesus telling them not to say anything to anyone about what they witnessed until after the resurrection, the fact that the followers of these disciples recorded this event eventually means that it is quite significant. Maybe the real meaning of it all isn’t the change that they witness in Jesus, but the change that occurs in themselves. Maybe the real meaning isn’t that we puzzle over this event 2000 years later, but that the change that occurred in the first followers of Jesus occurs in us as well. Jesus was Transfigured and we are transformed.

II
One cannot become a Christian and remain unchanged. If that happens, then one needs to ask if he or she has really accepted Christ into their life, into their heart. The world sees things one way. In his Confessions, Saint Augustine puts it quite nicely: we seek achievements to satisfy “man’s insatiable desire for the poverty he calls wealth and the infamy he knows as fame.” Indeed, the world sees wealth and fame in a very narrow way: amassing a fortune and being the most popular. But is that real wealth? Is that real success?

When we accept Christ into our lives, we are changed. We see the world differently. A reversal takes place. Even Jesus said, “the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Also, “those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” That reversal brings many things. One of those things is hope.

III
Granted, we are not the only people on the planet who have hope. People of other faiths (and people of no faith) hope in various things. But our hope is different. It is founded on the promises that Christ embodied and offered through the cross and the resurrection. Nicholas Naso writes about how one day his life fell apart. He says, “My priorities failed me and my health failed me.” You may know what that looks like yourself. You also may have felt the floor fall out beneath your feet. Naso immersed himself in the Scriptures. In the teachings of Jesus, he found hope.

Some say that this hope has to do with eternal life — that when we die, the grave will not have the final word. Because Jesus defeated the powers of sin and death on Good Friday and Easter, we too will enjoy everlasting life. That certainly is part of the hope that we possess as Christians, but our faith is not just about pie in the sky when we die by and by. Much of the hope we have has to do with this life.

IV
Call it being optimistic. Call it having a positive demeanor. Call it having an attitude of gratitude. Being a Christian does not mean being Pollyanna, but it does mean that we look at this existence a bit differently. Sure, there is war, terror, greed, genocide, abuse, and a host of other evils — but these are man’s doing, not God’s. God says that there is another way, and that we can make a difference when it comes to such things.

We are not just all bad. There is goodness in humanity. We see this whenever there is a disaster. Be it 9/11, the Boston Marathon Bombing, or natural disasters that strike various parts of this country or halfway around the world. When such horrors occur, we see people come to the aid of others. Strangers assist strangers. Women and men sometimes risk their lives to help those they do not even know. This is when we see God in action. This is when hope manifests itself in this realm. This is when we know that the way of the world does not have the final say.

We find this hope in the living Christ. Jesus was Transfigured and we are transformed.

V
Look beyond the news, my friends. Don’t let the doom and gloom that floods your TV screen make you so dejected that you become apathetic. As the poet Seamus Heaney once wrote,

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracles self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.

Yes, that shore is reachable. We find it on the mountain with Peter, James, and John. We hear it in the conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. We find it here, and out there, and everywhere. We find it in the God who promised never to abandon us, but to be with us always, even to the end of the age. Be transformed, my friends. Be love. Amen.