Sermon for the Feast of the Transfiguration
What Shall Not Be Taken Away
One of last living charter members of this congregation now lives in a
nursing home in Jefferson City. Spend a few minutes with this woman, and you
will quickly get the impression that almost everything has been taken away
from her, and what little remains will not remain for long.
· Her one-half room at nursing home is a far cry from the full-sized
home she once owned in Gravois Mills.
· Worthwhile conversation-any conversation, really-has been replaced
by the constant blather of the television. ("I don't really watch it," she
says, "but it is good to hear the sound.")
· This woman's regular liturgical life of every-Sunday worship has
been replaced by shut-in visits from her pastor. (As any shut-in will tell
you, visits from the pastor might be nice, but they are truly a poor
substitute for singing the divine service, hearing the preaching of the
Church, and receiving the sacrament together with all God's people.)
· This woman's friends have almost all preceded her in death, which
means she does not get many visits from those who know her the best. Where
family and friends once daily surrounded her, she now has an inert roommate,
a busy physician, and those well-meaning nurses' aids who speak to her as if
she were a preschooler.
As if enough were not enough already, our dear sister's memory has also been
taken away from her for the most part. More of it seems to disappear every
day. At my last several visits to her, she no longer recognized me, not even
with visual aid of my clerical collar. She cannot remember the names of her
relatives when you ask who they are. At Christmas, she could not remember
the name of that little baby who had been born in Bethlehem to save her from
her sins. Everything, it seems, has been or is in the process of being taken
away from this child of God.
You may find it a sad-perhaps tragic-to hear such things about our
dear sister and fellow Christian. You might find it a bit disconcerting or
inappropriate or even offensive for me to talk about her situation in this
way. If so, you are not alone. The beloved disciples of our Lord experienced
the same sort of feelings when they began to hear about everything Jesus was
going to have taken away from Him in Jerusalem.
Today's Gospel begins with the words "And after six days." Six
days after what? Six days after Jesus began telling His disciples about all
that was about to be taken away from Him. Six days before today's Gospel,
Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and
on the third day be raised.
Peter did not really like to hear such things about his dear Lord-not any
more than we like to hear such things about our closest family members or
our most venerated fellow Christians. You might even say that Peter found it
not only disconcerting, but also inappropriate and offensive for Jesus to
talk about His situation with such openness. After Jesus began speaking
about all that was about to be taken away from Him, "Peter took [Jesus]
aside and began to rebuke Him saying, 'Far be it from You, Lord! This shall
never happen to You'" (Matthew 16:22).
And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and John his
brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And He was
transfigured before them.
After the rosy glow of the Transfiguration in today's Gospel,
Jesus heads toward His crucifixion and death. Piece by piece, many things
will be taken away from Him: All His followers will turn and run away, even
His closest and dearest friends (Matthew 26:56); His reputation will be
destroyed (Luke 23:2) and His words held against Him (Matthew 26:61); His
clothing will be stripped from Him (Matthew 27:28), and His flesh removed by
the rake of the scourge (Matthew 27:26); In the end, His life will be
required of Him and He will give up His Spirit (Luke 24:46).
Among the many benefits and blessings of this Gospel of the Transfiguration,
Jesus shows His disciples on the mountaintop-and He shows you and He shows
me-that there are some things that cannot and shall not be taken away:
"[Jesus] was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and
His clothes became white as light." Deep in His plain-faced humanity, veiled
by His physical body (Hebrews 10:19), permanently dwells the very nature and
Person of God the Son. "I Am" (John 8:58) from eternity was conceived by the
Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. In that conception, God and man
became inseparably and eternally joined together. The man Jesus is about to
face a horrible execution and a bloody death. Everything, it would seem, was
about to be taken away from Him.
But wait! There are some things that cannot and shall not be taken away:
Jesus' enemies may be able to take away everything with respect to His human
body, but His divine nature shall not be taken away. "[Jesus] was
transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes
became white as light." Here the disciples see that divinity remains
steadfast within humanity, not willing to flee the wrath that is to come.
Here the disciples are given a glimpse of the divine victory that will yet
be won for you by Christ's death and resurrection. Here Peter, James and
John are shown a ray of eternal light that will remain pressed upon their
minds during the encroaching darkness. Here they receive assurances God will
yet vindicate those who fall down in death. In the shadow of death "His face
shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light." Some things
cannot and shall not be taken away.
I really quite enjoy going to visit our dear sister in the nursing home.
Each time I go to see her, we have a little epiphany-a mountain of
transfiguration, so to speak-of our own. No, she does not know me any more;
no she can't remember that the baby born in Bethlehem was named Jesus. Her
face does not really shine like the sun, but go ahead and tell her that you
would like to say the Apostles' Creed with her. She will be right there with
you, speaking the Creed from a memory that has not gone away. Pray the Lord's
Prayer with this woman, and she will keep perfect step with you. Why does
she remember these things when all else has been lost? She remembers because
there are some things that will not be taken away.
"[Jesus] was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the
sun, and His clothes became white as light." Maybe we should use this Gospel
of our Lord's Transfiguration as a way of looking at our fellow Christians,
especially our mothers and fathers and all others who will likely go before
us into death. What can we do-other than watch in wretchedness-as everything
begins to be taken away from those whom we love the most? What shall we say
as their health, their memories, their voices, and their bodies drift away?
Dear Christian friends, you and I do not need to cling to things that will
not last! We will hold instead to those things that cannot be taken away. We
will share the confession of faith with these fellow Christians who go
before us into suffering and death. We will pray their prayers. We will sing
their hymnody, and we will place the full weight of our eternal confidence
in the same spot they placed theirs: "I believe in the resurrection of the
body and the life everlasting. Amen."
Perhaps today's Gospel will teach us also to look more soberly at
ourselves. Time cannot be stopped and it cannot be ignored. One thing Jesus
teaches us in today's Gospel is that there are things more important than
the preservation of our physical well-being and things more essential than
our own comforts. Jesus teaches us that, among the many things that can be
taken away from us, there are some things that shall remain no matter what.
St. Peter watched this transfiguration in today's Gospel, in which
the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ beamed brightly forth from His
human body. Then St. Peter wrote a letter to the Church in which he stated
that you and I-by the power of Baptism-participate in that same divine
nature that made Jesus' face shine like the sun and His clothes become as
white as light. St. John was also there on the mountain, and he later wrote
to you about the God who is in you (1 John 4:4). St. Paul was not on the
mountain when Jesus was transfigured, but he is nevertheless glad to tell
you that Christ lives inside of you (Romans 8:10, Galatians 2:20). This
presence of God the Son within you-this divine gift that comes to you
through His Word-gives you full forgiveness of all your sins. The divine
nature living within you, in which you have a participation, means that you
will never die. The Transfiguration of our Lord on the mountaintop means
that you also will one day be transfigured, re-shaped out of you sin-ridden
flesh and given a bright, beaming, resurrection body of your own.
Dear Christian friends, today is the Feast of the Transfiguration.
Today we stop worrying and fretting about all that can be taken away from us
someday, some time. Today we dwell secure, knowing what shall not be taken
away. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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