Texts for Transfiguration Sunday, February 14, 2010
Exodus 34:29-35 * Psalm 99 * 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 * Luke 9:28-36, (37-43)








Prayer:

O God, as your Child Jesus drew apart
to be in prayer with you,
help us to be apart for a time with you.
W offer our prayers
for the transformation of the world and of our own lives. Amen

Exodus 34:29-35

While Moses was on Mount Sinai the first time, the people of Israel, under Aaron’s leadership, made a golden image of a calf as a symbol of God. So irate was Moses when he discovered the revelry around the Calf that he smashed the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written . God was angry that the people had broken the commandment against casting idols of the deity, but in time has forgiven them; he has invited Moses to ascend the mountain again to receive a replacement set of tablets. While there, he has conversed with God. Vv. 10-26 are the “covenant” (agreement) God has made with the Israelites. In exchange for

being their god ;

acting among them so that the indigenous peoples of the land will recognize Israel’s uniqueness; and

giving them victory over these peoples

the Israelites must, as well as obeying the Ten Commandments:

not enter into any pact with these peoples

destroy their religious symbols

not worship with them

not intermarry;

dedicate their first-born to him

keep the feasts of Passover (Weeks, Shavuot, ) and “ingathering” (Tabernacles, Sukkot);

observe the Sabbath

make pilgrimages three times a year, and

offer the first of the harvest to God

Now Moses descends the mountain again. His face is radiant: an expression of his privileged place as servant close to God: he reflects God’s glory. Perhaps “returned”s an echo of the Golden Calf incident. Moses dons a “veil” to avoid overwhelming his hearers with God’s reflected glory. Again Moses speaks with God. One account says that “the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face” but another (from a different source) says that God only allowed Moses to see his back ). A final point: the word translated “shining” karan, can be written out as keren, meaning horn. Thus Jerome translated it, and so Michelangelo sculpted Moses with horns (seebelow)!

Reflections

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• Moses has been on the mountain receiving the ten commandments. His face is shining because of talking with God. I picture someone who is glowing with being newly in love, or the glow of a woman who is pregnant, or the glow of a parent proud of her or his child...

• "Mountaintop experiences" - a phrase we often use to describe those experiences where we feel close to God. We describe it as 'mountaintop' because we always know we can't stay up there - we always come walking, running, stumbling, trudging, or crashing back to earth again. What's your mountaintop experience(s)?
  
• Diminishing Returns - the example of eating too much ice-cream. The first cone is great, and you want another. The second is good too - you're almost full. By the end of the third though, you're getting diminishing returns. The cone is good, but you are starting to feel sick. You ate too much, and now the joy of the first cone has decreased because you're stuffed. Can God-experiences have diminishing returns? Why would it be bad to be on the mountaintop with God all the time?
  
• Chris Haslam writes that Moses' face being "radiant" meant that God's glory was reflected in Moses' face. I really like that description. If we are made in God's image, then can we reflect God in our whole being.
• Have you ever met someone who radiates the peace or love of God...?
  

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2


2 Corinthians is a letter, written in the style common in the first century AD. From the text, we know that Paul wrote it in Macedonia after leaving Ephesus, probably in the autumn of 57 AD. It gives us a picture of Paul the person: an affectionate man, hurt by misunderstandings and the wrongs of his beloved fellow Christians, yet happy when he can praise them. The letter's prime intent is to combat errors which have arisen in the Christian communities in the Achaian peninsula of Greece.

Paul contrasts his ministry with that of Moses. In 3:3, he says that his readers, supported and enabled by the Holy Spirit, are “a letter of Christ”, prepared by him and his colleagues: a letter written on “tablets of human hearts”, not on “tablets of stone”. This is the “confidence that we have through Christ”

(3:4). The dead letter of the Law has been replaced by the living letter of the Spirit. Moses wore a veil lest the radiance of God’s glory, shown in his face, be too much for his hearers. The new covenant in Christ sets aside the old. The thinking of Israelites was frozen in time (“hardened”, 3:14), and it still is: when they hear the Law read (“old covenant”, 3:14; “Moses”, 3:15), they only see God’s plan for saving people dimly, i.e. through a “veil”, but when one is converted (“turns to the Lord”, 3:16), one sees the plan clearly. In Judaism and Christianity, the motive force is the spirit, but for us Christ and the Holy Spirit are one (“the Lord is the Spirit”, 3:17), and in Christ we have “freedom” from the Law: as we become more and more Christ-like, we are more and more able to render to God the honour (“glory”, 3:18) he is due, with the Spirit’s help. In 10:9-11, Paul’s accusers claim that he is strong on words but weak on action. He now retorts: “by God’s mercy” (4:1) he has turned from persecuting Christians to “this ministry” which he does with “great boldness” (3:12), not losing heart. Unlike his accusers, he has cast aside his horrible hidden deeds of the past, namely unscrupulous acts and misrepresentations of the gospel (4:2). He speaks openly, appealing to all to authentically discern the truth.




Reflections

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• Paul tells us that in Christ, the veil is set aside between us and God. Christ brings us right up to God, face to face. The ancient Celts spoke of thin places, places where the spiritual realm and the mundane world are very close. Where are your thin places? Where do you get a sense of something behind the veil...?
  
• Paul uses reflection/mirror imagery. We are being transformed more and more into God's image, reflecting God's glory in us, since we, "with unveiled faces" can see and experience God's glory. Where do you see God's image reflected?Have you changed over the years as you walk the way with God? Where do you better reflect the image of God?
  
• Paul plays with the veiled/unveiled imagery - in Chapter 4:2, Paul talks about renouncing the things that "one hides" - we uncover the truth, uncover our sinful selves, and move on in Christ's forgiveness when we remove, with Christ, the veil that keeps us from God. Reflect on that image, of Christ pulling back the veila

Luke 9:28-36,(37-43a)
Jesus has predicted his suffering, death and resurrection to his disciples; he has called on them to “take up their cross” (v. 23), has warned that those who hear the gospel but fail to trust in it will be condemned, and has promised that some present will see the kingdom of God. Now he and the inner circle of disciples ascend “the mountain” (v. 28). In Luke, Jesus always prays before an important event. An aura of unnatural brightness is linked with mystical appearances in Exodus and Acts; “dazzling white” (v. 29) is a symbol of transcendence. In Jewish tradition, both “Moses and Elijah” (v. 30) were taken into heaven without dying. Jesus’ agenda is in accord with the Law and the prophets; he is doing God’s will. “Two men” also appear at the resurrection and at the ascension. Jesus’ “departure” (v. 31, exodos in Greek) is his journey to Jerusalem and his passage from this world. Peter clearly doesn’t understand; perhaps he thinks he is witnessing a super Feast of Tabernacles (“dwellings”, v. 33) – a time when the whole city was brightly illuminated. The “cloud” (v. 34) is a symbol of God’s presence; the words from it recall Jesus’ baptism, and add “listen to him!” (v. 35). Vv. 37-43a, the healing of an epileptic child, present three contrasts: from the mountain to the needy world; Jesus’ great power over evil (vs. the disciples’); and Jesus’ fidelity to God vs. general human infidelity. The child is in miserable condition. In healing him, Jesus shows God’s “greatness” to “all” (v. 43).

Reflections

• "The appearance of his face changed." Obviously, this passage ties neatly with our Exodus reading. How are we changed after experiencing the presence of God?Is it significant that it is the face in both passages that is described as changing? The face is the window, perhaps, into our soul - the place on our selves where one can read what is really going on.
• Peter wants to prolong this joyful, awesome experience. Who can blame him? Things change so quickly in our world, and we face so many struggles, that we really want to hang on when things are clicking into place. Is there a time, moment or season that you would have liked to extend indefinitely?
  
• Likewise, Peter and Jesus and company couldn't get to the joy of Easter if they wouldn't leave this Holy Retreat. What if Jesus decided to stay up on the mountain?
• From the mountaintop Jesus goes down to teach and heal. Is this the pattern for Christian life? Spending time with God and then going out to help others?

• The disciples' response to what they see is fear. Has an experience of God and who God is ever caused a response of fear in you? We often fear what our relationship with God might require of us. Seeing God and God's glory face to face in such an undeniable way would leave us with an undeniable responsibility to act, wouldn't it?