Year C
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-43a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are plenty of Transfiguration Sunday sermons\u2026 which simply talk about how the presence of Moses and Elijah\u2026 and then their disappearance\u2026 means that Jesus incorporates\u2026 the fullness of the Law and the Prophets\u2026 into himself\u2026 that Moses and Elijah find their fulfillment\u2026 if you will\u2026 in Jesus\u2026 and while that may be true\u2026 it’s not the whole story\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the three disciples\u2026 we too\u2026 are witnesses to a pivotal moment in history\u2026 we’ve moved from a baby in a manger\u2026 with angels and shepherds\u2026 to preaching and healing\u2026 and crowds which have gathered\u2026 to both a literal and a figurative mountaintop experience\u2026 a numinous thin place\u2026 which provides a moment of transcendence\u2026 and in particular\u2026 a significant revelation given by God\u2026 which is both seen\u2026 and not seen\u2026 yet still experienced\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rev. Sarah Henrich\u2026 a professor from Luther Seminary\u2026 wrote that because Jesus\u2019 tangible glory is a visible aspect of God\u2019s holiness and majesty\u2026 witnesses were vital to handing on the experience of that glory\u2026 puzzling and yet hope-filled\u2026 the passage turns on seeing the appearance of Jesus\u2019 face\u2026 and the gleaming clothing\u2026 such as only heaven could bleach them\u2026 represents the entirety of the outer world\u2026 because what begins in Jesus’ interior\u2026 flows out into the world\u2026 and it reflects the path of how Spirit becomes flesh\u2026 and the visible cloud which once protected Israel from the sight of God… now also shields Peter, James, and John from seeing God\u2026 but not from hearing God\u2026 the voice at Jesus’ baptism\u2026 which spoke only to him\u2026 is now heard through the cloud\u2026 and the words\u2026 Listen to him<\/em>\u2026 shatters the cloud\u2026 and reveals that Moses and Elijah are gone\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I prepare a sermon\u2026 I often ask the Holy Spirit\u2026 what do the people I serve need to hear during this time\u2026 what words of insight\u2026 of hope\u2026 of Good News\u2026 tie this day’s readings\u2026 to what they may be thinking\u2026 to what they may be feeling\u2026 and to what’s going on in the world\u2026 and so I share an allegorical story about our own country’s history\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n King George III\u2026 was the King of England when the American colonies declared independence\u2026 and fought the American Revolution\u2026 gaining freedom from an absent king who imposed harsh restrictions and injustices\u2026 thirty years later\u2026 the King decided that America was too much to give up\u2026 and so he invaded from the east\u2026 seeking to regain and improve the footprint of his domain\u2026 his assets\u2026 and his honor\u2026 after all\u2026 America was England’s child\u2026 so he attacked the capitol in Washington DC\u2026 forcing the leadership back to Philadelphia\u2026 where independence\u2026 where something precious\u2026 began\u2026 I don’t think that would have gone over well\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Boris Yeltsin was the President of the Soviet Union in July 1991\u2026 when about a month later\u2026 on August 24, 1991\u2026 the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence from the Soviet Union and renamed itself Ukraine\u2026 thirty years later\u2026 in February 2022\u2026 Vladimir Putin decided that Ukraine was too much to give up\u2026 and so he invaded from the east\u2026 the north\u2026 and the south\u2026 forcing its leadership to retreat from Kyiv\u2026 from the city\u2026 where something else\u2026 something more precious to Putin\u2026 began\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyiv was the birthplace of the Russian Orthodox Church\u2026 and it’s an unfortunate truth\u2026 but religion and politics are too often intertwined\u2026 and in an article published on Wednesday by Episcopal priest Diana Butler Bass\u2026 and in a parallel article published on Thursday\u2026 by British journalist Giles Frasier\u2026 who is also Fr. Frasier\u2026 they both tell a story\u2026 share a historical perspective that’s not been shared in the media\u2026 that this is not simply a conflict over territory or resources\u2026 but over who is going to control the geographical home of the Russian church\u2026 they both explain that\u2026 in the year 988\u2026 when Christian Emperor Basil II of Byzantium\u2026 was threatened with a coup by his military leaders\u2026 he reached out to his enemies\u2026 to pagans in the land of Rus\u2026 and to one pagan in particular\u2026 named Vladimir\u2026 Basil said that if Vladimir would help him crush the revolt\u2026 Basil would give him the hand of his sister in marriage\u2026 now this would be a game changer for Vladimir\u2026 the marriage of a pagan to an imperial princess was unprecedented\u2026 but first\u2026 Vladimir would have to convert to Christianity\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And so Vladimir returned to Kyiv in triumph\u2026\u00a0 and proceeded to summon the whole city to the banks of the river Dnieper for a mass baptism\u2026\u00a0 and this singular event becomes the founding\u2026\u00a0 of Russian Orthodox Christianity\u2026\u00a0 it was from Kyiv\u2026\u00a0 that Christianity would spread out\u2026\u00a0 and merge with the Russian love of motherland\u2026\u00a0 to create a powerful brew of nationalism and spirituality\u2026\u00a0 in the mythology of 988\u2026\u00a0 it was just as if\u2026\u00a0 the whole of the Russian people had also been baptized\u2026\u00a0 and Vladimir was declared a saint\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Centuries later\u2026 Soviet Communism tried repeatedly to crush all this\u2026 but failed miserably\u2026 and since then\u2026 in the post-Soviet period\u2026 thousands of churches have been built and re-built\u2026 and though the West thinks of Christianity as something in decline\u2026 in the East it is thriving\u2026 and at the heart of this post-Soviet Christian revival… is Vladimir Putin\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their two articles\u2026 the two priests write that few people appreciate the extent to which the invasion of Ukraine is nothing less than a spiritual quest for Putin\u2026 the Baptism of Rus is the founding event of the formation of the Russian religious psyche\u2026 and the Russian Orthodox Church traces its origins back here\u2026 that\u2019s why Putin’s goal\u2026 is Kyiv itself\u2026 and it’s a fair question\u2026 to ask whose glory Putin is seeking\u2026 the Rev. Butler Bass writes\u2026 There should be no doubt that Putin sees himself as a kind of Vladimir the Great II\u2026 a candidate for sainthood who is restoring the soul of Holy Mother Russia… and that\u2019s a real problem\u2026 because when it comes to Russian Orthodoxy\u2026 Kyiv is essentially Jerusalem\u2026<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus\u2026 Peter John and James\u2026 were weighed down with sleep\u2026 yet stayed awake\u2026 this is code language for saying that they both got it\u2026 and they didn’t get it\u2026 as perhaps we do and we don’t\u2026 that’s because spiritual truth comes in stages\u2026 they’re like the man in Mark’s Gospel who Jesus had to touch twice\u2026 in order to heal his blindness\u2026 the first time the men he saw looked like trees\u2026 the second time Jesus touched him\u2026 he saw people clearly\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The effulgent light which radiated from Jesus\u2026 and the light in his words and actions\u2026 exposed the darkness of the world\u2026 and when they came down from that mountaintop\u2026 a plot to kill Jesus\u2026 began to take form\u2026 in a way\u2026 we have been on that same path to the cross for almost two years now\u2026 deaths among our families and friends\u2026 and the death of our sense of normalcy\u2026 and perhaps now even our safety\u2026 and I spoke a few weeks ago\u2026 about how responding with violence\u2026 is never the best choice\u2026 and personally\u2026 I still hold on to that\u2026 but in some ways we find ourselves at another pivotal moment\u2026 and I don’t know how we do nothing in response to Russia’s aggression\u2026 and the unimaginable suffering that’s happening in Ukraine\u2026 I just don’t know\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout history\u2026\u00a0 the church\u2026\u00a0 has in whole or in part\u2026\u00a0 committed brutal atrocities against Jews\u2026\u00a0 and Muslims\u2026\u00a0 and against other Christians\u2026\u00a0 this Lent\u2026\u00a0 I think I’ll reflect on this history\u2026\u00a0 and ask God’s forgiveness on the church\u2026\u00a0 and maybe more so than in recent memory\u2026\u00a0 it would be a good time to start getting logs out of our own eyes\u2026\u00a0 so we can see the specks\u2026\u00a0 in others’ eyes\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 and the Good News\u2026\u00a0 is that in deforesting our eyes\u2026\u00a0 we can begin to see each other\u2026\u00a0 as God sees us\u2026\u00a0 and that vision\u2026\u00a0 will inform our actions\u2026\u00a0 and it’s our actions\u2026\u00a0 that will bring about more of God’s kingdom\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are interested in reading further, here are links to the two articles I referenced in this sermon:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n