Today is Transfiguration Sunday, a turning point in the church year. Up on a mountain, Jesus’ disciples begin to realize on a whole new level who it is they’re following. Jesus is not just a great teacher, not just another wise rabbi or holy faith healer; he is God with them. And his presence with them transforms their lives. May our lives similarly be transformed by the Holy Spirit’s presence with us!
This Sunday also marks the start of ELEA’s Lutheran Schools Week, which we celebrated at Living Hope by praying for our Here We Grow staff in worship.
Today’s Scripture readings are Exodus 34:29-35, Psalm 99, 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, and Luke 9:28-36. This sermon is lightly adapted from my 2017 Transfiguration Sunday sermon, and this year I found helpful Troy Troftgruben’s commentary at Working Preacher.
Here’s the livestream from Living Hope and the sermon podcast audio from Christ the King:
Powered by RedCircle
Grace to you and peace from God our heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
How many of you have read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies? Anyone remember what class Professor McGonagall teaches? She teaches “transfiguration.”
So, who knows what the word “transfiguration” means? It’s not a word I ever use other than in Harry Potter, or this one time in the church year, but “transfiguration” means “a change in form.” In Harry Potter, it means changing something like turning a teacup into a gerbil, or a rabbit into a hat.
In our Transfiguration Sunday Gospel, it doesn’t quite mean changing one thing into another, but rather the disciples seeing Jesus in a new way. And as their understanding is transformed, they themselves are transformed as well.
Here’s the setting: Jesus and a few of his closest friends, Peter, James, and John, go up a mountain. And as they’re up there praying, something miraculous happens. Jesus is transfigured. He doesn’t turn into something else—he’s still human, he’s still the person they know—but the appearance of his face changes, and his clothes become dazzling white.
That’s the part of the story we call the transfiguration, but I’m not sure that’s really right. Jesus is transfigured, but he doesn’t really change. He’s already been doing miracles, teaching, and healing. He’s already both God and man. The difference is, now the disciples can see it. They get a fresh glimpse of who Jesus really is.
They already knew what we talked about last week, that he was a great moral teacher, a wise rabbi. But now they see he’s more than they realized. It’s really their view that gets transfigured, their understanding of who this guy is that they’ve been following.
Then, to add to it, they see two men, Moses and Elijah, two ancient Biblical heroes, right there talking to the glowing Jesus. And Luke says, “They…were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”
I’ve heard this story many times—preached on it at least 10 times—but I learned something new this week. That word “departure” is literally “exodus,” the word for the central story in the Hebrew Bible where God liberates the people from their slavery in Egypt.
Dr. Troy Troftgruben says, “This [word] characterizes Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension—events soon to happen in Jerusalem—as a New Exodus within the larger story of God’s saving purpose.” God is at work here; Jesus is changing everything.
And of course Peter, James, and John don’t get all that at the time. Up there on the mountain they’re overwhelmed with awe, but later, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, this will be one of the key moments they turn to to make sense of what’s happened, who Jesus is.
But in the meantime, in his awe and confusion, Peter realizes this is a sacred moment, a glimpse of heaven breaking into earth, and so he makes a suggestion. Peter says, “Hey, I have an idea. I’ll to build three dwellings, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
As Peter’s babbling, trying to put what’s going on into terms he can understand, God literally interrupts him. Just in case the disciples don’t get it from all the glowing and the great heroes of faith appearing, God speaks to them directly.
This had happened years ago at Jesus’ baptism, and it happens again here. A voice from a cloud says, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.” The disciples don’t have any excuse left for wondering who Jesus is. God just bluntly told them.
And the disciples are even more overwhelmed by the glory of it all. Again, I’m sure they had some idea of Jesus’ identity before, they knew he was more than just a great teacher, another rabbi, but now, suddenly, they grasp it. Up on this mountaintop, they realize they are truly in the presence of the King of Kings.
As we heard in the first reading from the book of Exodus, mountains are important places in Scripture. God has a tendency to appear on mountains.
In that story from hundreds of years earlier, Moses had climbed Mount Sinai to get the ten commandments, and he too had encountered God’s presence. He actually stayed up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights before going back down to the Israelite people waiting below, and when he came down, his face was shining too.
Maybe when Peter suggests making shelters, he’s thinking of that story, and preparing to be on the mountain for the next 40 days.
Or perhaps he’s just thinking that up on this mountain they’re in God’s presence, they’re encountering God’s glory, so why wouldn’t they want to stay as long as possible?
Jesus doesn’t stay up on the mountain. Following Jesus means going out into the world, down the mountain. The disciples don’t get to stay up there where it’s peaceful and sacred feeling. We don’t get to stay here in a church building ignoring the rest of the world.
If you keep reading the story in Luke 9, they come down the mountain and there’s a crowd there waiting, a crowd full of people in need. There’s a boy who needs healing from his convulsions. The need is great.
The good news is that God’s not only up there on the mountain. Remember the last thing Jesus says to his disciples, up on another mountain, after his death and resurrection.
Right before he ascends into heaven, Jesus tells us to go and make disciples, to baptize, to share what he has taught, and “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
That’s the promise we cling to. God is present with us. The Holy Spirit is working in our midst. That’s the foundation we’re working to give all the kids at Here We Grow and in Sunday School.
The transfiguration is a glimpse of God’s glory, but what matters right now is God’s presence with us in the ordinary, in the midst of our lives.
In the rhythm of the church year, today is a transition point between the seasons of Epiphany and Lent. Since Christmas, we’ve been in Epiphany, reflecting on God coming to us in the baby Jesus. We’ve been learning about who Jesus is, what his mission on earth is, and what it looks like to follow him as Christians. Up to this point in Jesus’ life, the disciples also have been learning who Jesus is and how to follow him.
This week, we begin the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday worship. I think many of you know by now how much I love Ash Wednesday. Not that I like talking about death, but it’s so powerful to celebrate the promise that even in the worst times, even in death, even after our bodies have returned to dust as we’ll hear on Ash Wednesday, God is still with us.
It’s the same promise we cling to in the face of Lois’ death this week, the promise we proclaim at funerals. Death does not end God’s love for God’s people. That promise sets us free, as Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians. God is transforming us from death to life. We don’t lose heart when things go wrong in our lives, because we trust God is with us and God is faithful. Death loses its power. We don’t have to be afraid, because God is faithful.
God’s not up there somewhere; God has come to be here with us. That promise is the core of our faith, but it can be easy to forget. Hopefully, it’s pretty easy to remember God when you’re in a church service. And it’s easy to notice God during mountaintop experiences like the disciples have, particularly when there’s a heavenly voice speaking from the clouds. Maybe you’ve had moments like that in your life, moments in nature where it’s so peaceful that you can feel God’s presence.
Maybe you’ve literally been on a mountaintop and felt God’s presence. It’s easy to give God credit when everything is going well. Our monthly ministry for March is Crossways Camps, and a big part of what’s so valuable about camp is that it can provide those mountaintop experiences for people, times to step out of ordinary life and notice God’s presence.
I also think it’s easy to remember God and pay attention to God in a crisis. When everything’s falling apart in life, people reach out to God for help. Sometimes in a hospital room, it’s easier to pray, to admit you need help. Other times in a crisis, it can be harder to pray or to see God, and you might wonder where God is, what God is doing, why God isn’t helping. Either way, times of crisis force us to wonder, and to think about faith.
The times I have trouble noticing God are not in the valleys of life, the low points, the times of crisis, or in the really good moments of spiritual highs, the mountaintop experiences; the times I forget about God are in the normal, mundane parts of life, the plains, if you will.
It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day routines of work, school, family, in the busy-ness of the news cycle, in whatever keeps you busy one day at a time, and forget about God’s presence.
But the promise of faith is that God is there too. God isn’t just on the mountaintop, or deep in the valley. God is present in everyday life, if we can be transfigured to notice.
And knowing God is present with us impacts how we live. It impacts how we treat each other, how we use our resources, how we care for our families, what we care about in the world. God is active in the day to day, not only on Sunday mornings or on mountaintops.
When the disciples do come down, they’ve been changed by their experience. They’re the ones who have been transfigured.
They see the world in a new way. The world isn’t all better, but they have a new perspective. They see God at work around them.
They don’t totally understand it yet, and they won’t until well after Jesus’ death and resurrection on Easter, but they’re getting there. Jesus is Lord not just on the mountain, but in all of life. And that promise will shape the rest of their lives.
May you also be transfigured to see God this week, on the mountaintops, in the valleys, and on the plains, at work, at school, and at home. Wherever you go this week, may you know God is with you.
Amen.