TRANSFORMING MOMENTS

Kate Thoresen February 22, 2009

click for printable version

Mark 9: 2-10

A friend posed this question on her Facebook page this past week: "Does anyone know how the story of the Transfiguration speaks to all those in the auto-related jobs?"

This is a big question that many pastors in this area of Michigan are probably wrestling with right now. Why? This week's lectionary passage is this story of the transfiguration of Jesus.

When we read this story, did you find it hard to relate to it? We have to admit that it does seem so other worldly, so full of mystery. This is not something that occurs in our own everyday experience, nor do we ever read accounts like this taking place.

So how do we today understand what is going on in this amazing story? What message of Good News is there for us today in this fast paced, cyber-spaced economically crashing world we are living now? What does this say to students? Grandmothers? Teachers? Music students? Insurance agents? Workers related to our car companies and suppliers? Retired folk who are concerned about their pensions or health care? People struggling to make ends meet?

I don't know if we can ever explain what is happening here really. Commentators claim several things such as:

• Moses and Elijah represent the Jewish law and the prophets. Standing there with Jesus confirms him as God's promised Messiah, the One coming to fulfill the law and the prophets.
• The Transfiguration shows Jesus in his human and his divine nature.
• This story with the heavens opening harkens back to Jesus' baptism. God speaks the same words, "This is my beloved son."
• Some say that this is a sneak preview of the glory of Jesus to come when he is rises from the dead.
• We can see the past, present and future all rolled into one, which gives us a transcendent or eternal view.
• This Mountaintop experience is a theophany, that is, when God encounters human beings much like Moses at the burning bush or at Mt. Sinai when he received the Ten Commandments.

We may not be able to explain this story to your satisfaction. But we can enter into it and experience it. I would like to invite you to try a form of contemplative reading of this scripture. You engage with it in your imagination. As you read the scripture this way, you begin to find that it's the scripture that is really reading you. We lay aside our usual analytical ways of reading scripture and approach it in another way. This is the kind of Bible reading that we often do on retreats. I will guide you through this process. If you find that this is not your cup of tea, please don't worry. I simply want to offer another way to experience scripture that at first may seem puzzling or remote.

Shall we begin our contemplative engagement with this story?

Imagine that you are with Peter, James and John. Your friend, Jesus, bids you to come away with him for a while. So you climb a mountain together with your friend. There you can see whole vistas of the valleys around you. There are green fields, some dotted with olive trees and others with sheep. Your eyes sweep over the magnificent views. There's a sense of peace and calm as you are able to leave all those crowds that clamor for healing or food or some miracle from your friend. You breathe in the refreshing air and feel the warm sunshine on your face. When you reach the top you rest for a while. Easy laughter punctuates the stories you share. You love being with your friends. There is something about Jesus that has attracted you to him right away: His warmth, His aliveness, His sureness about the ways that God wants us to live. He is enlivening to be around.

Suddenly, there are two others standing beside Jesus. You look. You look again. How can this be? Moses and Elijah, the great lawmaker and the great prophet, are there talking with Jesus. Here before you is a confirmation that your friend Jesus really is God's anointed, the Messiah that you and your people have been waiting for. It seems surreal, as if you've been transported to another dimension. You get a glimpse into another realm. You want to hold on to this precious moment and somehow capture it. You hear Peter saying that he wants to build something permanent to mark the spot. This is Holy Ground.

What do you notice here? That Jesus seems to have changed from the inside out? That his whole appearance has taken on a radiant glow? That time seems suspended? A sense of the life you know breaking open into a greater Mystery?

Suddenly, a cloud surrounds you. A voice booms. Fear and trembling overwhelm you. You sink to your knees and bow your forehead to the ground. You hear, "This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him." You stay in the radiant silence. You are still, somehow knowing that God is God.

What do you like about being on that mountaintop with Jesus? (Pause) A sense of calm and peace? A glimpse of God's glory? A reassuring voice that names Jesus as God's Son, the Beloved? A new clarity about the purpose of your own life? A clear message to focus more on Jesus and to listen to him?

Then Jesus, your friend and your companion, comes over to you and touches you. All you can see now is him. All is well.

He warns you not to speak about this transcending, transforming incident until after he is killed and then rises in three days. You are speechless. What does he mean?

What are you invited to do or change as a result of interacting with this story? (Pause) I would love to hear your reactions and what you experienced. Maybe some of you might give some highlights with me afterwards.

Let me share a bit what this story has stirred in me.

It invites me to listen again to his voice in scriptures. To pause and ponder some of his questions like:

• "What are you looking for?" (John1:38)
• "Who do you say that I am?" (Mark 8:29)
• "For what does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but forfeit themselves?" (Matt. 16:24)
• "Is not this the reason that you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?" (Mark 12:24)

I also hear his words of challenge,

• "Follow Me." (John 1:43; Luke 9:59; Matt.4:19; Matt. 8:22; Matt. 9:9, etc.)
• "You are the Light of the world." (Matt. 5:14)
• "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." (Matt. 3:17)
• "Love God with all your heart, soul strength and mind, and your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:29-31)

Knowing how many times I fall short, I need to hear his words of tender assurance and encouragement as well:

• "Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7)
• "Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28)
• "Take heart, get up, he is calling you." (Mark 10:49)

I'm reminded of Henri Nouwen's insight that said: "Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the Voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply." (Reference unknown)

Another thought also occurs: Transforming moments do happen to human beings, but often not in dramatic ways shrouded by Mystery as in the Transfiguration story. But there are those moments when Jesus touches our lives and something changes.

For me those moments are often not on a mountaintop, but usually when I'm in the pits. Like when I was with my mom when she died. She was on a ventilator and clearly she was ready to go. I happened to be with her. It was Holy Ground. As she was taking her last breaths, I found myself saying "I love you, Mama" and then that benediction just flowed out of my mouth, "the Lord bless you and keep you..."

Later, when I could talk about it, which was much later, the thoughts began to stir. It was a privilege to be with her in that time of her transition, to walk that last part of this life's journey with her. I asked myself, "Why did I wait until the end of my mom's life to share those words of love and blessing?" Something changed or transformed within me to realize, "Why not express those words of blessing and love with people right now as we journey in this life?"

That was a transforming moment for me, that has impacted my own life ever since.

As a spiritual director/companion, I get to hear the stories of the transforming moments in the lives of others, those moments when it seemed that they caught a larger perspective or a greater view of life and what is really important, like that view that Peter, James and John got on that mountaintop with Jesus.

One person, a policeman, went through a bitter divorce. His heart was broken open. But it was there that he met Jesus, the Beloved One. His broken heart was open to the Spirit's touches of love in new ways. He experienced God's undying love for him. He got it. Now he drives a school bus, and every day he sees as an opportunity to greet each kid with a smile. He opens his heart as he opens that school bus door. He says it's a privilege to share the love of God in so many ways, and he hopes each day he can help transform the hearts of some of the people he meets.

There's another story. A young woman is presently battling her drug addiction in a rehab center in California. Her mother tells me that on those nights when Amy wakes up, drawn back to her old addictions, she now takes a deep breath and repeats over and over again, "Be still and know that I am God." She discovers a transforming moment of strength from beyond her when she chooses to be still and focus on God.

And then I wonder: Could our society itself may be in a time of transforming moments? Moments when we realize that we need to focus back on Jesus Christ and listen to him, really listen, and enter into living into that abundant life he came to show us?

• A God-filled life energized by love and good-will?
• A life of realizing our blessings of being alive?
• A life of gratitude and not grasping?
• A life of calm and stillness rather than anxiety and tension?
• A life of trust in a greater plan and an adherence to simple values?
• A life dancing in the Trinity of loving God, others and self?

This coming Wednesday we begin the season of Lent. Let this be a time of consciously walking with our Risen Lord, seeking to keep our focus on Him, listening to his words and opening to His transforming presence.

Now unto God, who is able to do far more abundantly than we could ever dream or ask, to God be the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

©Kate Thoresen 2009