The Pastor's Sermon - Sunday of the Transfiguration, February 19, 2012

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"

• We all have at least 5 senses. Taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing. The largest organ of sense in the human body is... our skin, the organ of touch!
• When we are born, the first sense that appears to operate is hearing, and that one operates even before we are born. An unborn baby can respond to a person's voice while in the womb. A newborn will respond to voices and sounds long before the child can see.
• As our lives come to a close, we have been told that the sense of hearing is the last to leave us. People in comas have been known to come out of the coma and report what was said around them while they were in the coma. In my hospital training, we were always told to assume that the person can hear no matter what the status of their consciousness.
• We might bear this in mind when we read the Bible and especially when we hear the Word proclaimed in worship. It is particularly there that the Word is the “Living Word”. When the Word of God is spoken aloud for all to hear, that Word, one we could all read for ourselves in the Bible, takes on a character all it's own. If we read the word of the Scriptures in our own homes, think about them, meditate on them, digest them, and let them take root, then we can speak those words as living words. They become our words since the Word of God inspires us and resides in us.
• When the Word of God is proclaimed in worship, everyone who can hear may hear and those words become living words.
• As Luther once said, “The Bible is the swaddling clothes and manger in which Christ was wrapped and laid."
• All this being said, it seems strange that Mark's account of the event we call the Transfiguration has the disciples overshadowed by a cloud after they see Jesus in glory with Moses and Elijah. From the cloud comes a voice telling them to “listen to him!”
• Such an odd thing to say to people who have experienced a visual display that would rival and out-shine any fireworks display or light show we might ever see!
• Would the three disciples actually listen? We all know that they would eventually. Some commentators say that the Transfiguration is placed right in the middle of Mark's account of the ministry of Jesus in order to sustain the disciples through the fearful events that were to come. The opposition to Jesus' message and his subsequent arrest, trial, and crucifixion would be enough to drive away any of his followers... and we know that is exactly what happened. The disciples would come to understand why all this had to be, but there were dry times to come and it appears that the Transfiguration would only serve it's purpose in looking back.
• It is very possible that there is another reason for the narration of this passage. As we've heard before, in Mark's Gospel only a few characters know of Jesus' true identity – Jesus, the demons, the author... and the reader. It seems once again that this passage was written for us.
• We cannot see what the disciples saw; we cannot be present on that mountain top. We, and so many other Christians, are separated by time and space from this wonderful event. We can, however, hear the words of Jesus and let them sink in to inspire us and change us.
• We can't see the miracles, the crowds, the healings, the exorcisms, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection; we can only hear about them. Yet that is what God, speaking to the disciples, tells US to do in this passage.
• It's no mistake that John calls Jesus “The Word” in the prologue to his Gospel.
• It's no wonder that Paul puts so much emphasis on hearing the Word in his letters. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes: “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
• It is the Word that come to us that is our source of salvation. It is in the Word proclaimed that we encounter Jesus. It is in the Word embodied in the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion that our Savior reaches out to us. It is the Word enfleshed in the community of faith around us that supports us in our faith and our continued journey with one another and with our Lord.
• So now we're coming on to Lent, starting with Ash Wednesday in the middle of this week. No matter how we keep this Lent, today's readings can help to sustain us even as we figuratively come off the mountain and find ourselves in the desert of Lent and in the exile of penance.
• This can still be a time of listening, since Lent is all about setting aside the things that keep us from hearing the Word of God. Be they good or bad, we may lay them aside in order to spend our time and energy in something better. If we make this a Lent of listening - really listening – then what is said at Easter will mean a real celebration for us all.