Year A
 Exodus 24:12-18
 Psalm 2
 2 Peter 1:16-21
 Matthew 17:1-9

May the words of my mouth…  O God…  speak your truth…

We began our Epiphany journey on January 6…  with the coming of the Wise Men…  and the journey we’ve been on since then…  has been one of increasing light…  and it culminates today…  in light that is dazzling…  ]  and while the focal point of today’s story is a transfigured Jesus… it’s actually less about Jesus’ identity… and is more a story about what it means to be a disciple…  ]  symbolically…  the high mountain represents the human ascent to God…  and…  spoiler alert…  if a cloud descends while you’re high up on a mountain…  then it usually means that you and God have connected…

And so Jesus invites Peter…  James…  and John…  his inner circle…  to accompany him…  not just to a set of geographic coordinates at a certain altitude…  but to experience an inner truth about Jesus…  ] Jesus’ inner reality…  his relationship with the Father…  permeates his entire being…  and when he is transfigured…  this invisible and spiritual relationship…  radiates out and becomes visible in dazzling white clothes…  and Jesus’ face…  the part of his body which can be seen…  shines…]  it may be…  as the H1982 in hymn #423 and the ELW in hymn #834 claim…  that God dwells…   in light inaccessible…  hid from our eyes…  but in Jesus…  this light becomes approachable…

Today’s conversation takes place on the mountaintop…  but what is talked about…  is God’s mission down on Earth… ]  and Moses and Elijah are associated with mountains too…  in the course of their lawmaking and prophetic careers…  they return to the mountain more than once…  to find both illumination and inspiration…  they ascend the mountain to learn of God’s direction for human affairs down on the plains…

In our reading from Exodus…  and at God’s call…  Moses goes up on the mountain to receive the Law and Commandments written on tablets of stone…  to help guide what happens among us…  and God’s presence…  God’s cloud…  covered the mountain…  for six days…  and on the seventh day…  God called Moses from within the cloud…  and Moses entered the cloud and remained there for forty days and forty nights… 

And then there’s the story about Elijah…  who after his triumph over the priests of Baal… is running for his life because Jezebel is out to kill him…  and after being fed twice by an angel…  he makes his way to Mt. Horeb…  also known as Mt. Sinai…  where God says…  go out… and stand on the mountain… ]  and it’s not in the wind…  or the earthquake…  or the fire…  that Elijah perceives God’s presence…  but in the sheer silence… 

And as Peter…  James…  and John…  experience Moses, Elijah,  and Jesus talking together…  they experience Jesus’ seamless continuity and embodiment of the Law and the Prophets…  and it has made them more insightful and more amenable …  and so Peter defers to and asks Jesus…  if Jesus would like Peter to build three dwellings…  three lightweight tents…  in which the three of them might continue their conversation…  but Peter is directed towards outer activity…  and not inner silence…  and even before he’s finished speaking…  a bright cloud overshadowed them…  and a voice from the cloud said…  This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!

You’ll remember that this is what the voice from heaven said at Jesus’ baptism…  except this time…  God said…  Listen to him…  ]  Listen to him…  and in order to really listen…  you can’t be thinking about what you want to say next…  you must be quiet…  so you can hear God…  you must…  as Ps. 46:10 says…  Be still and know that God is God…  you must be receptive to the inner workings of the Spirit…

It used to be that people on different sides of any aisle…  could hold opposing positions on certain policy issues…  and not only discuss them… . but still go out for a beer afterwards…  or invite each others’ families over for a cookout…  that’s become more difficult in our time…  we don’t really want to listen…  and speaking broadly…  too many have come to believe that their opinion matters as much as someone else’s scholarship…  for many of us…  there’s an unconscious belief…  maybe an underlying fear…  that even just listening to you…  validates your perspective…  and since I dislike your perspective… I don’t think you deserve my ear…

The Windsor Report was published on October 18, 2004…  it was a report of the Anglican Communion…  and expressed concern over the consecration of openly gay priest Gene Robinson…  as Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire…  ] what followed were a few years of pretty contentious diocesan conventions…  and at one local forum held in the Diocese of Southern Ohio…  in the spring of 2006…  a month or so before General Convention was held there…  the Rev. Ron Baird…  a theologically conservative priest…  who served a pretty theologically conservative congregation…  got up during open mike time… and expressed his frustration at not feeling heard…  at not being seen…  at having his position summarily dismissed…  and later on…  as people were milling about and leaving…  I went over to Ron…  and said that as a gay man…  I didn’t always feel heard or seen either…  that too often my position felt dismissed…  and so maybe it would be a good idea if we listened to each other…

What followed were three conversations in June…  August…  and December 2006…  and as Matthew 18:16 suggests…  there were two others who accompanied Ron…   and two who accompanied me…  and became part of the conversation…  and we each learned more about why the other thought and felt as they did…  in the end…  Ron and his congregation left the Episcopal Church…  but it was good to become vulnerable…  and to tell our truths…  even if our voices shook… 

And it can be daunting to have this kind of conversation…  but since we believe that it’s through the work of the Holy Spirit that hearts and minds are changed…  then if we don’t have and invite the Spirit into these conversations…  it becomes that much harder for God’s will…  whatever it is…  to find expression in our lives…

On the mountaintop… Martin Luther King, Jr… saw the potential of Transfiguration… of how God’s word… and redemption… and love… could change the course of history… but since the church… which is supposed to lead by example… is capable of this… it can be no surprise that this other kind of siloing…  is but one of the systemic evils against which we must contend… ] we all want that mountaintop view… but sometimes we want to get there without any of the climbing… sometimes we want to take a cablecar to the top so we can be Transfigured without any effort… so we can be changed even while we hold on to ideas and beliefs which keep God’s light from shining through us…

And while baptism is an ancient… water purification rite… and provides a kind of membership into the church… it doesn’t make us disciples… that is a choice we must make… to mature in our faith and become spiritual adults…  discipleship opens us up to Truth… and Truth changes us… it’s blinding light can scare us so much… that we too become frozen by fear… as the three disciples were… but then God’s warm touch comes… and says… Get up…  and do not be afraid…

As we enter Lent… I pray we seek forgiveness for having resisted the prophet’s voices… and turn back to doing what God calls us to do… that we kindle a fire in our hearts and in our bones…  so that Christ’s grace may soften any of the rigid positions we hold in our heads…  and that we invite and welcome God’s touch… so that we may be Transfigured too…