I Am Grateful for my Church Because...
April 10, 2024
This Sunday, Pastor Alex will preach on one of my favorite liturgical Sundays of the year, Transfiguration Sunday. Each year, on this special day, we read one of the texts from either Matthew, Mark, or Luke’s Gospel (17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, 9:28-36 respectively) in which Jesus invites Peter, James, and John up a mountain to pray. On the mountain, Jesus begins to shine brightly, his clothes are changed, and suddenly Moses and Elijah appear beside him.
Of all the miracles in the Gospels (or the entire New Testament for that matter) what is unique about this Transfiguration scene is that the miracle happens to Jesus himself. Whereas Jesus is usually the one casting out demons, turning water to wine, healing folks, feeding large crowds with fish and crackers, here (not unlike his baptism) something miraculous happens to him.
Granted the “inner-three” (Petey, Jameson, and John-O) are with him, I wonder if one of the spiritual lessons we might glean from the Transfiguration of Jesus is the simple truth: we ALL need to undergo transformation at some point; and it must be done to us ourselves!
2 Peter 1:16-18 alludes to the Transfiguration scene (briefly), but I find that the writer of Colossians – did you know Paul likely didn’t write Colossians? Crazy, right?! – does a fine job of speaking to this spiritual lesson.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in
him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and
overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow
and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental
spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the
Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.”
(Col. 2:6-10 NIV).
The invitation is for us to get out of our heads and embrace a wholistic, radical life change. But really change doesn’t do it justice. To change usually means to alter, modify, make different, or substitute; and it typically is associated with new beginnings.
“I’m changing careers.”
“I need a change.”
“Well, that’s a refreshing change of pace.”
Whereas transformation, spiritually speaking, more often occurs when something old falls apart. I’m not talking about a hubcap falling off your vehicle with 200K miles fall apart. I’m talking life-altering, mind-blowing, chaos-inducing revolution.
You and your spouse divorce.
You find out you have that disease.
You lose your job.
You didn’t live up to the expectations you set out for yourself.
It’s usually through these moments of proverbial “face-slaps” that once the disorientation wears off, once we accept the grief accompanied with a loss of what once was, and once we take a step forward that we come to see things in a… different light. Perhaps that’s why Jesus embraced and went through death?
I appreciate that the author of Colossians uses the word Christ in this text. Because good ole Pete, happy-go-lucky James, and Johnny-boy knew Jesus. They clung to him well. They followed him for three years. They even went on hiking trips up mountains with him without complaining. But when they finally got close enough to a mystical and miraculous experience they no longer were looking at Jesus. Nope! They were looking at the Christ. A universal, holy, sacramental, and anointing power that is accessible to you and I. Christ is everywhere and offers us a pattern of being and loving and anointing the world around us – transforming pain and suffering into love and mercy.
They experienced this and the miracle didn’t even happen to them! Consider how differently our lives would play out if we allowed the miraculous to happen to us! I suspect it requires a loose grasp on our “hollow and deceptive traditions,” as Colossians calls it. Like an actual face-slap that can be painful, letting go of the traditions. But I suspect, too, the new life on the other side will be pretty miraculous.