Then I proceeded to use the below as bullet point notes for mu sermon. Perhaps because I was bored giving this sermon for a second time. Perhaps because the Spirit moved me. But regardless, here is the manuscript.
+Have you ever been transfigured-- so effected by an experience that your actual appearance—how you look, how you carry yourself, changes? It can be negative—when something horrible happens and the wind is taken out of your sails--or positive-- you’re in love, you’ve gotten your life back on track after some rough spots.
Something about how you appear, how you present yourself to the world changes.
But sometimes the causes of these transformations, these transfigurations aren’t as clear-- they’re more mysterious.
Mary Oliver describes such experiences in her poem, Mysteries, Yes:
“Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood”----or even explained. These mysteries are experiential and describing them, let alone understanding them, is impossible ----but the effect? That’s life-changing.
In Celtic spirituality these are known as Thin Places.
Thin Places are those moments when we feel especially close to the Divine. When, all at once. one feels incredibly small and yet larger than life; one with God, one with all of Creation.
Maybe it occurs when witnessing a gorgeous sunset, or the birth of a child.
Or perhaps in the midst of an ordinary day—driving the car, washing the dishes, cooking dinner. Thin Places are available to all of us at any time and in any place.
Thin places occur when we let the guard of our humanity down long enough for the fullness of the divine to breakthrough.
I think that the Transfiguration was a Thin Place for James, John and Peter. I also think it was a mystery too marvelous for words.
No one knows exactly what happened on top of that mountain, but something most definitely happened. Something transfigurative for Jesus, transformative for his friends and sacred for us all.
It helps to set the stage a bit: All summer we’ve been reading from Matthew’s gospel. Today we pop out of Matthew for a week and dive into Luke. We leave the active part of Jesus’ ministry—his teachings throughout Galilee, the parables, the stories, the healings-- to be with Jesus as he heads for Jerusalem and into the very first Holy Week. Jesus is trying to get the apostles ready. He needs his friends with him for this journey. He needs them to get it. He needs them ready for the increased scrutiny, for the arrest, the torture, the death… for Jesus being gone. They need to feel all of this, for only in feeling it---really feeling it---will they be open to the ultimate Thin Place: the glory, wonder, and awe of the Resurrection.
And they aren’t getting it.
Maybe they don’t want to, maybe they simply can’t.
Regardless, his closest friends—Peter, James and John-- follow Jesus up Mount Hermon because He needed to get away and in His wisdom Jesus knew they needed to get away too.
It’s only then, when they get away from the distractions of their life, when they get quiet enough, relaxed enough, open enough, that this thing happens. Jesus’ appearance-- his countenance--changes. One commentator describes what happened like this:
“The indwelling Deity darted out its rays through the veil of Jesus’ flesh; His face shone with Divine majesty, like the sun in its strength” At that transfiguring moment, God’s glory could no longer be contained within Jesus…it burst forth.
Sometimes, God’s glory just can’t be contained. Sometimes it over flows, overwhelming our senses.
It’s what happens in Thin places: we’re overwhelmed by God’s Glory.
In Thin Places, God’s Glory can no longer be contained.
Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary was a Thin Place, as was Christmas morning, Jesus’ baptism, and the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. Each of these moments were times when, in the course of a routine action---Mary going about the household duties of a young Galilean woman, the birth of a baby to a poor traveling couple, the baptism of a follower of John, the fulfilling of purity laws by a devout Jewish couple, and the quick trip up a mountain for some retreat time with friends----in the course of these ordinary events--- God’s radiance bursts through, our efforts to shut the Divine out of our lives, the noise of daily life which tries to outshine the radiance of God, fails, and we are overwhelmed with what is pure and holy and sacred.
Our humanity can’t manage a steady diet of this radiance. We spend a lot of time and energy layering “life” upon the in-breaking of the Holy—the radiance of God. Therefore, moments of the Holy-- Thin Place experiences--- are usually fleeting…not because God retreats, but because, being overwhelmed, we reach back into the familiar—the noise of daily life--to ground ourselves in the routine, the ordinary, the familiar and unchallenging ebb and flow of our days.
The Feast of the Transfiguration is one of those days in the church year which reminds us to stop all the noise, to shut down all the distractions and make some space for the mystery of God to burst forth when we least expect it, and yet amazingly, most need it.
So, my friends, enjoy these waning days of summer, make space for the Divine and be prepared to have the love of God, as given to us in the person of Jesus Christ, transfigure and transform us into exactly who it is God created us to be!
Amen!
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