“YE HEAR HIM”
The Transfiguration of our Lord: 6 February Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
What a day! What a sight! That experience—revelation—apocalypse of power—theophany—miracle/sign of pure Divinity; wouldn’t you have wanted to be there, to participate with Peter, James, and John?
Saint Peter remembered it his whole life: “for He received from God The Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount…whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” [1 Pe. 1.17-19].
So too did write Saint the Revelator: “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes…which was with The Father, and was manifested unto us…and declare unto you, that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all” [1 Jn. 1. 1-2;5-6].
But where are you now? You’re not there with the three Disciples; you’re not there with The Law-Giver Moses or the greatest of the Prophets, Elias. Is Jesus even with you—you, in 2022 corrupt, godless, decaying and dying America, Kansas, Shawnee?
We know that St. Moses first “saw” God when he beheld The Lord speaking to him out of a “burning bush,” a fiery bright glare. And we know when he journeyed up another famous mount to receive The Word of God—The Torah: “and Moses went up unto God, and The Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;” “And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever” [Ex. 19.3, 9].
Elias too went up to speak to The Lord. Yes, as Scripture states in a “whirlwind,” but let us not forget that spirated Holy breath was created by a “chariot of fire, and horses of fire” [2 Ki. 2.11].
Do you wish you also were buried by God as was Moses? Do you wish that you could be translated to The Lord’s side without dying as was Elias? You answer is of course, with all Saints, YES!
And where has He brought you this morning? To what Mount will you ascend as soon as my voice in this homily is ended?
On Mount Transfiguration The Law and The Prophet(s) both finally got to look face to face into the actual FACE—Flesh, Blood—of God, Their Lord and God, even as was Saint Thomas on the Sunday after The Resurrection. Why?
“And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking (communing) with Him (Jesus).” About what? The blessed physician Saint Luke, who investigated everything carefully, being a servant and friend later on of Peter himself, writes by The Spirit in his parallel account: “Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem” [Lk. 9. 30-31].
The Spirit gifted word that Luke uses for “decease” (or ‘departure’ - - going away? Or going to prepare your “Promised Land/Rest”), the word in Greek is exodon (Exodus). Oh, how Saint Moses would have appreciated that. While The Lord had given him and Elias comfort, strength, endurance, and PRESENCE, in both of their own exoduses in this world of pain, struggle, and death; now too The Law and The Prophets could give Our Lord comfort, strength, support, and testifying presence to His own exodus down off the mountain and into the Valley of the Shadow of death, The Lenten lands, leading to another mount. Moses and Elias are doing Saint Paul, they are preaching Christ Crucified—for you; to give you strength in your own woe-filled weakness and withering; to give you a confession of what Christ will do (DID) for you at Mount Calvary.
God suffered and died on a cross for you—He did that because like you, like Adam, He is a Man. But that you might believe and repent, He rose from the dead on the Third Day for you—He did that because He is God. His transfiguration shows that.
The Psalmist wrote: “…and His throne is like as the sun before me” [Ps. 89. 35b], and specifically pointing to the witness of the reflecting Moses and Elias, as well as the trinitarian company of future Apostles, the Psalmist says: “they had an eye unto Him, and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed” [Ps. 34.5]
The cloud that overshadowed Mount Sinai presaged this even. The bright cloud that overshadowed them on Mount Transfiguration presaged the darkness over all of Jerusalem from 12—3 p.m. on Good Friday. The joy of God’s death, rest, and Resurrection, which reaches its apotheosis on Ascension (also from a Mount), wherein Christ’s visible Presence is taken from sight by a cloud—is This day present at Mount Augsburg (Glory be to God on High) up on This Holy Altar.
As you confessed: “God of God, Light of Light,” and as we’ve sung during the Holy Season of Epiphany: “Oh God, of God; O Light of Light…worth The Lamb enthroned to reign, Glory and power amen, amen.” [TLH #132.5]
The transfigured Glory of The Man Christ Jesus—The God/Man; The Lord is enthroned in all His awe-full glory not on Transfiguration Mount but upon Mount Moriah—Golgotha—Calvary. There He stood not with Moses and Elias but with a thief to His left and to His right.
And if this morning’s Gospel pericope were nothing more than history, theology, and Bible stories, than, to paraphrase Flannery O’Connor: “to hell with it!” But THE WORD is Emmanuel!
As Peter has preached: “shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” [1 Pe. 2.9b].
As Paul has preached so you are: “but we…are changed (Transfigured) into the same image from glory to glory” [1 Cor. 3.18].
So though Calvary is gone, today is not. Today is now when you, fallen on your “faces” during confession and absolution, sore afraid at your sins and your sin, are touched by Jesus in His Words and His Sacrament, are told “arise, and be not afraid!”
Tell THIS “vision” (gesture towards altar and rail) to every man—“The Son of Man be risen again from the dead!”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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