Metamorphosis – that is the Greek word that is translated as transfiguration. Change. Let’s explore both transfiguration and metamorphosis.
When Leanne was putting together the service order and powerpoint slides (as she does each week) she had a quick question about Elijah and Elisha, and why did Elijah keep putting Elisha off. I suspect it was a test. Did Elisha really want to be the next big prophet for God for the long haul, or was he just in it for the immediate glory? Elijah set him little tests all the way, and Elisha was not put off. So he got to glimpse Elijah lifted up into God’s glory and he would receive the blessing he has asked for.
Moses, the other key figure on the Mt of Transfiguration, was also caught up into God’s glory. On Mt Sinai, and later regularly in the Ten of Meeting, he would talk to God, face to face. He would emerge from that glowing, put on a veil, because that was too much for the Israelites to deal with, and he would relay God’s Word to them.
These two great Biblical figures, who experienced God’s glory, now meet with Jesus, to encourage him to be in it for the long haul. The problem with jumping 8 chapters to this reading as we get ready for Lent, is that we miss what has just happened. Jesus asked the disciples, ‘Who do you say I am?’ Impetuous Peter jumped in for them all. ‘You are the Messiah.’ Then Jesus tells them that he will be a suffering and crucified Messiah, and Peter immediately corrects him. Crucified Messiah is an oxymoron. Win by losing completely. Live, by dying. No way. Oxymoron. Incompatible statements that can’t go together. But Jesus is with us for the long haul. He truly is the suffering Messiah. He does win all, by being an utter loser. He clearly rejects Peter’s unsubtle pressure to go for immediate glory and very visible success. This night vision on the mountain is back-up in a big way from his heavenly Father for the journey that Jesus chose.
The answer to all our human sin, guilt, failure, stupidity and evil is finally not keeping rules and commandments. At best that just keeps a lid on things, managing to contain them to some extent. It’s not our amazing self-control and heroics. That always goes sour. We either can’t manage and fall into despair, or we think we can and we get so puffed up that we are impossible to be around. The answer to our deepest needs, and our inabilities to manage sin is not our own efforts. The answer is the gospel, the gift of forgiveness and acceptance through Christ. Then we are called to faith, and to let things change from the bottom up, from the inside out. Metamorphosis.
Through Jesus’ faithfulness to going the whole journey to the cross and through the grave,we have the gift of forgiveness, we have the promise of new life, we have hope. We are able to start impossible things like: not give up the instance something doesn’t go our way, like: show love to enemies; like: trust that God does look after us when everything has gone wrong and there are no visible signs of things working out.
Long haul is what Jesus was in for. Long haul is always what creation and salvation have been about. Patient, caring, powerful, loving actions by the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, from the very moment of creation. Long haul mightn’t feel very glamourous or successful, but it is God’s preferred way of working.
Elijah and Moses encourage Jesus on the route he has chosen – to go to Easter through the cross. The voice from heaven, and the divine cloud back that up completely. ‘Listen to him.’
Metamorphosis – good change. Not always painless or problem free. Caterpillars turn into butterflies or moths. But in the chrysalis the old body falls apart and becomes literally caterpillar soup. There’s a whole sermon there – how do we manage when everything falls apart? We’ll explore that image in the future.
Metamorphic rocks, or igneous rocks – hard, strong, durable, but they have been formed by prolonged heat and pressure. Think of all the volcanic rocks in this area. This is strong country, and you have great strength in Christ. The good changes in our lives all happen by grace and are supported by God’s love. It just doesn’t feel that way in the middle of the changes. Awe and wonder have the power to change us profoundly and they do. But often we have to be pushed into transformation, squeezed out of our little, self-centred world into a bigger, more gracious space. You all have your own stories of that.
So, long haul. Don’t give up. Trust that the Holy Spirit is working new life in you and through you. You are on the long journey of learning to see and live things differently, in the light of God’s glory and utterly faithful love. The pressure and the heat also change your human dust, your carbon, into something much more precious.
Finally – immortal diamond! English poet Gerard Manly Hopkins, like Luther, had serious bouts of depression. He also, like Luther, experienced the frustration of being human, being sinful, and not able to fix that in himself. He says (in a very compressed way) that you are utterly important to God, that Easter is stronger than anything else, and that in Christ, your carbon, your flesh and blood, who you are in Christ, is solid diamond.
But vastness blurs and time | beats level. Enough! the Resurrection,
A heart’s-clarion! Away grief’s gasping, | joyless days, dejection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. | Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; | world’s wildfire, leave but ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
You are immortal diamond, in Christ. Hang in there for the long haul, and enjoy the moments when you see things in the light of heaven.
