A Short Sunday Sermon - Transfigured

 

If you follow the new-fangled ABC, tripartite Lectionary you'll have heard St. Mark's account of Our Lord's transfiguration this morning. Here:

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

 

Next we see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, he is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and Peter speaks out, "Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

It seems a strange thing to say and Mark admits as much, "For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid." But hold on. Some days earlier Peter had made his confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And now, before his eyes, Christ was transfigured; the Messianic age had arrived with supernatural glory and power. What were God's people to do? The Psalmist tells us, exalt "in the tents of the righteous."

Again, look to the Feast of Tabernacles, during which faithful Jews set up tents in memory of their journey in the Exodus wilderness, all the while looking forward to the time God would tabernacle with men in the person of the Messiah. It must have seemed to Peter that the time had come, there was Christ, transfigured, the Majestic Glory. 

Seen in this light, Peter's outburst makes a kind of sense, but no, the time had not yet come. Return to Moses and Elijah, conversing with Jesus, what did they talk about? St. Luke tells us, of our Lord's "imminent departure" in Jerusalem, of his exodus through the Red Sea of the Passion and Cross to the promised land, the glory of the Resurrection.

Our Lord's transfiguration signifies and foreshadows this, but the time had not yet come, first the Cross. Accordingly, Jesus does not answer Peter but the Father does, the cloud of glory descends upon Tabor and the Father speaks, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." And so we must, he is the living Law, the Torah Incarnate.

Peter, in his Epistle, is adamant that this happened, "we do not follow cunningly devised myths" but beheld the Majestic Glory on the holy mountain. The vision was real and it's real for us, we too are invited to climb the mountain.

For Peter, James and John the ascent was physical. For us it's mostly spiritual, an ascent which begins in the foothills of humility and repentance, blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn, and climbs upwards through righteousness and its enactment, mercy, to purity of heart and the vision of God.

What do we see there? Christ, who shone in the darkness from the beginning, the light of the world in whom there is no darkness at all, who was light on Tabor. Seeing Him, we too become light and will shine like the sun in the kingdom of heaven.

God give us grace to climb the mountain,

LSP

Walk In The Light

 

…his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. (Mark 9:3)

In 1831, Nicholas Motovilov wrote of seeing St. Seraphim of Sarov transfigured with divine light. They had been discussing how a person can acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, but Motovilov was puzzled: 

“I do not understand how I can be certain that I am in the Spirit of God,” he asked. And then, by way of reply, Father Seraphim took him firmly by the shoulders and said, “We are both in the Spirit of God now, my son. Why don’t you look at me?’ Motovilov replied, “I cannot look, Father, because your eyes are flashing like lightning. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain.” Father Seraphim reassured him, “Don't be alarmed, your Godliness! Now you yourself have become as bright as I am. You are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God yourself; otherwise you would not be able to see me as I am.” 

 

The righteous, says Christ, will "shine like the sun."

The divine light which Peter, James and John saw on the holy mountain, on Mount Tabor, the light which belongs to Christ by nature as light from light, as the only begotten Son of the Father, is real and offered to us by grace.

We see it in St. Sarov, Paul saw it on the road to Damascus and it struck him blind. It suffused St. Stephen testifying before the Sanhedrin, “his face was like that of an angel,” and again with Moses who talked with God on Sinai and in the Tent of Meeting, whose face shone with such brightness from the encounter that he had to veil it. Perhaps you have seen it yourself.

To return to the Russian holy man. It's said that he spoke with bears and in particular, Misha:

Two other sisters witnessed such a scene: Fr. Seraphim sat on a log, when suddenly out of the woods came an enormous bear on his hind legs. The nuns were quite startled. The Elder said: “Misha, why are you scaring the orphans? You’d better go and get some sort of consolation, or I won’t have anything to treat them to.” The bear returned in two hours bringing with him a fresh honeycomb, covered with leaves. The elder took the honey, gave him a piece of bread and bade him depart.

 

I love this short story, it speaks of the peace which passes all understanding and the reversal of the Fall, a return to Eden. Strive to walk in the light, in the divine radiance. 

God bless you all,

LSP

A Short Sunday Sermon

 

It's the last Sunday of Epiphany and, in the newfangled lectionary, we're presented with Christ's transfiguration on Mount Tabor. There the veil is lifted and we see Jesus shine with divine radiance. Then, as the cloud of God's glory descends upon Tabor as it did on Sinai, the Father speaks, "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

I won't preach but  perhaps you'll find St. Gregory the Great helpful:

The Lord reveals his glory in the presence of chosen witnesses. His body is like that of the rest of mankind, but he makes it shine with such splendor that his face becomes like the sun in glory, and his garments as white as snow.

The great reason for this transfiguration was to remove the scandal of the cross from the hearts of his disciples, and to prevent the humiliation of his voluntary suffering from disturbing the faith of those who had witnessed the surpassing glory that lay concealed.

With no less forethought he was also providing a firm foundation for the hope of holy Church. The whole body of Christ was to understand the kind of transformation that it would receive as his gift. The members of that body were to look forward to a share in that glory which first blazed out in Christ their head.

The Lord had himself spoken of this when he foretold the splendor of his coming: Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Saint Paul the apostle bore witness to this same truth when he said: I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not to be compared with the future glory that is to be revealed in us. In another place he says: You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

This marvel of the transfiguration contains another lesson for the apostles, to strengthen them and lead them into the fullness of knowledge. Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, appeared with the Lord in conversation with him. This was in order to fulfill exactly, through the presence of these five men [Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John], the text which says: Before two or three witnesses every word is ratified. What word could be more firmly established, more securely based, than the word which is proclaimed by the trumpets of both old and new testaments, sounding in harmony, and by the utterances of ancient prophecy and the teaching of the Gospel, in full agreement with each other?

The writings of the two testaments support each other. The radiance of the transfiguration reveals clearly and unmistakably the one who had been promised by signs foretelling him under the veils of mystery. As Saint John says: The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. In him the promise made through the shadows of prophecy stands revealed, along with the full meaning of the precepts of the law. He is the one who teaches the truth of prophecy through his presence, and makes obedience to the commandments possible through grace.

In the preaching of the holy Gospel all should receive a strengthening of their faith. No one should be ashamed of the cross of Christ, through which the world has been redeemed.

No one should fear to suffer for the sake of justice; no one should lose confidence in the reward that has been promised. The way to rest is through toil, the way to life is through death. Christ has taken on himself the whole weakness of our lowly human nature. If then we are steadfast in our faith in him and in our love for him, we win the victory that he has won, we receive what he has promised.

When it comes to obeying the commandments or enduring adversity, the words uttered by the Father should always echo in our ears: This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

Listen to him. Yes indeed, and in doing so ascend the holy mountain on whose peak we rest in the beatific vision, ourselves transfigured by the light of Christ.

God bless,

LSP

Transfiguration

It's the Feast of the Transfiguration today and I hope you all made it safely out of cuddlespace and into church. Here's St. Gregory the Great, commenting on the Voice which was heard from the cloud of divine glory that descended upon Christ on the holy mountain.

"Hear ye Him," therefore, unhesitatingly, in Whom I am throughout well pleased, and by Whose preaching I am manifested, by Whose humiliation I am glorified; because He is "the Truth and the Life ," He is My "Power and Wisdom." "Hear ye Him," Whom the mysteries of the Law have foretold, Whom the mouths of prophets have sung. "Hear ye Him," Who redeems the world by His blood, Who binds the devil, and carries off his chattels, Who destroys the bond of sin, and the compact of the transgression. Hear ye Him, Who opens the way to heaven, and by the punishment of the cross prepares for you the steps of ascent to the Kingdom? Why tremble ye at being redeemed? why fear ye to be healed of your wounds? Let that happen which Christ wills and I will. Cast away all fleshly fear, and arm yourselves with faithful constancy; for it is unworthy that ye should fear in the Saviour's Passion what by His good gift ye shall not have to fear even at your own end.

Somehow we get the impression that Gregory wouldn't look too kindly on the Gender Swapping Unicorn Cult (GSUC) that passes for so much of latter day religion.

O GOD, who on the mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thine only-begotten Son wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistering; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may be permitted to behold the King in his beauty, who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

Have a blessed Feast,

LSP

Transfiguration

"Christ, like the sun, too bright to look upon, reveals his luminous power." Austin Farrer 

Today, in St. Matthew's Gospel, we witness the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor where, for a moment, Jesus' divine radiance, the light that shines in the darkness, is revealed to Peter, James and John.

Peter babbles, understandably, until he's cut short by the voice of the Father, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him." Rather than listen to my babbling, here's a poem by Malcolm Guite:

For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’,
On that one mountain where all moments meet,
The daily veil that covers the sublime
In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet.
There were no angels full of eyes and wings
Just living glory full of truth and grace.
The Love that dances at the heart of things
Shone out upon us from a human face
And to that light the light in us leaped up,
We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,
A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope
Trembled and tingled through the tender skin.
Nor can this blackened sky, this darkened scar
Eclipse that glimpse of how things really are.

I like that.

God bless,

LSP

Transfiguration

Today's the last Sunday of the Epiphany and Jesus appears in the Gospel, transfigured and standing between Moses and Elijah, as the fulfillment of prophecy and the law. I preached on that, emphasizing the spiritual ascent of the faithful up Mt. Tabor, culminating in our own transfiguration.

Easier said than done, of course, as we fall back down the mountain from time to time. "The Devil made me do it the first time," I told the congregation, "the second time I done it all on my own." 

Some say that a sermon's only half a sermon if it doesn't include at least one line from Waylon Jennings.

Enjoy the game,

LSP