| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale x SERMON Last Sunday after Epiphany February 18, 2007 x The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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What lessons we have, today! How wonderful! How incredible! How misunderstood!
Most commentaries, and even our Collect, this morning, seem to assume these lessons are about
“transformation.” In the Collect we pray, for instance, “…grant that we… may be changed into his
likeness…”
In other words, we pray, “Grant, Lord that we may be changed into something – someone – other
than who we are. Grant that we may be transformed.”
Yet a couple of weeks ago I said to you that God never calls us to be other than who we are,
never calls us to act outside ourselves! So what goes on?
It’s simple: transformation is not what these lessons are about. They’re about transfiguration –
and that’s a very different thing!
It’s a strange idea, transfiguration – and one that doesn’t really fit in our world view – doesn’t
really have a place in “our” world!
The concept of transfiguration comes from a world in which “the Holy” is understood as Power!
Not in the sense, say, of “Power to rule” but in almost the same sense as we call electricity power.
The idea of transfiguration comes from a world that was perceived as literally Filled with the
power – the Glory – of the Lord; filled with his Holiness! It comes from a world in which God’s
Glory is his power, and it shines visibly in the world – for those who are blessed to see it!
It comes from a world in which to come into contact with the Holy is to become infected with it –
infected with Glory – charged with the Holiness of the Lord!
Such a world is not our world. We’re much too rational; much too caught up in a world that is
understandable, a world that can be measured and analyzed and “figured out.”
But our world is not the world Moses lived in, or Jesus, or the saints!
In their world, Moses could go up the Holy Mountain where dwelt the Lord’s Presence, and come
down literally aglow with God’s Power, God’s Glory! Aglow so that his people couldn’t bear to look
at him; aglow so that he had to veil his face from them, so they could bear to be around him!
In their world, Jesus could bring his closest friends up to the Holy Mount, and there unveil for
them the Glory that dwelt within him, and awe them with the vision!
In our world, saints are represented in art as crowned in light, aglow with a kind of aura we call a
halo. Ii used to think – and I suspect many still do – that that’s simply a convention by which the
artist indicates holiness or sanctity. But in the world familiar with holiness, they are aglow – aglow
to those who have eyes to see the Glory of the Lord in the world!
And when the Scriptures proclaim that “the Glory of the Lord fills all the world,” they mean that
the whole world is Literally aglow with God’s holiness, with his power!
In the Biblical worldview, the universe was seen as infused with God’s presence in power, and
life was characterized by a whole series of epiphanies, when the holiness of God became
manifest at key moments of change – particularly at those moments involving changes in life,
itself – moments of procreation, of birth and death – as well as in moments marking the lesser
changes of status in life – adolescence, adulthood, marriage. Each of those moments was Holy,
because each involved Not a transformation, but a transfiguration – an Epiphany!
A transformation occurs when something is changed from what it was to what it was not –
something new; something different. But a transfiguration is not a change, at all, so much as it is a
revelation, and a fulfillment of what something – or someone – really is!
When Moses came down from the Mountain, glowing so brightly his people could not bear to look
at him, he was not Changed into someone new or different – but Revealed as the chosen
messenger of God, God’s spokesman and servant.
When Jesus was transfigured on the Mount, throwing his closest friends into a state of confusion
and awe, he had not been transformed into something he was not – rather he was revealed to be
who he had always been: the Son of God, filled, always with the Glory of God, and Holy! An
Epiphany – Not a transformation!
And, indeed, at those special moments of life, celebrated by our ancestors in the faith, holiness
was seen as manifest in persons emerging as what they truly are – first being conceived in life,
then being born into the world, going through the stages of growth into the fullness of adulthood,
procreating, aging, and finally dieing! Each moment, a change in the person’s life-force, itself,
which is the very Breath of God. And each of those moments in life was seen as a moment of
holiness, charged in a very special way with the presence, the power, the Glory of the Lord! Holy
moments!
Whenever these lessons come along, together, in this way, I find myself being more affected than
usual, because they make me think about my own calling, and its strangeness. And they make me
think, too, about the expectations so many people have about this calling.
It’s always struck me as strange that people expect clergy – priests, in particular, I think – to be
holy. And in spite of all the contrary indications that we all see, people still hang on to that
expectation! It strikes me as doubly strange, as well, in that we don’t really like people to seem
holier than we – as witness the phrase, “holier than thou.” But it’s simply not true that clergy are
called to be any holier than other people are called to be!
In fact, the most distinctive thing about Priesthood is not that we are expected to Be different,
but that we’re called to Do different things. Specifically, we are called to function in those holy
situations I’ve been talking about. Indeed, we are Privileged to be so called!
We’re called to be share in all of the most important moments in life – the holiest moments – the
Sacramental moments of life. We’re called to be present and to baptize after birth; We’re present
when the child is first blessed to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Called on when he or she
reaches the adult stage of life, and makes his or her profession of faith in Confirmation. (And, yes,
we do still have Confirmation!) Called to be present when two people join their lives and become
“one flesh” in Holy Matrimony. And called on at the time of death, which is the last – and in its way,
perhaps the greatest, of those holy moments – when the breath of God returns to God and
completes the cycle of life, the cycle of creation. It is a holy moment, filled with the presence and
the glory and the power of the Lord!
I have mentioned to you, before, that three times in all the years of my Priesthood, I have been
privileged – blessed! – to be present and called upon to minister at the actual time of death of a
parishioner. It is, obviously, one of the most difficult things clergy are called on to do – just as it is
for medical people. But rather than being a burden, I’ve come to see it, in fact, as a great and -
yes, again – holy privilege. It’s no easier a task to perform, for all that, and one I could wish never
to be called upon to perform, again – but a privilege, nevertheless; a blessed and holy moment.
What it is, is an awful moment in the original and true sense of the word – that is, it’s a moment
full of Awe!
Today’s Old Testament Lesson and Gospel – the Transfiguration of Moses and of Jesus – are
about life! They’re about life at it’s fullest – which is life at its holiest! Transfiguration is about our
Father’s greatest gift to us: His Life, itself; His Breath; His Spirit – our life!
And our task as his children is to be transfigured in our lives even as he was transfigured: to
reveal in our lives, and even in our deaths, as He revealed in His life and death, the reality of who
and what we are – unique and Holy children of God, Himself – incarnating Him to His world - being
God in and for His world!
In His Name! Amen
Most commentaries, and even our Collect, this morning, seem to assume these lessons are about
“transformation.” In the Collect we pray, for instance, “…grant that we… may be changed into his
likeness…”
In other words, we pray, “Grant, Lord that we may be changed into something – someone – other
than who we are. Grant that we may be transformed.”
Yet a couple of weeks ago I said to you that God never calls us to be other than who we are,
never calls us to act outside ourselves! So what goes on?
It’s simple: transformation is not what these lessons are about. They’re about transfiguration –
and that’s a very different thing!
It’s a strange idea, transfiguration – and one that doesn’t really fit in our world view – doesn’t
really have a place in “our” world!
The concept of transfiguration comes from a world in which “the Holy” is understood as Power!
Not in the sense, say, of “Power to rule” but in almost the same sense as we call electricity power.
The idea of transfiguration comes from a world that was perceived as literally Filled with the
power – the Glory – of the Lord; filled with his Holiness! It comes from a world in which God’s
Glory is his power, and it shines visibly in the world – for those who are blessed to see it!
It comes from a world in which to come into contact with the Holy is to become infected with it –
infected with Glory – charged with the Holiness of the Lord!
Such a world is not our world. We’re much too rational; much too caught up in a world that is
understandable, a world that can be measured and analyzed and “figured out.”
But our world is not the world Moses lived in, or Jesus, or the saints!
In their world, Moses could go up the Holy Mountain where dwelt the Lord’s Presence, and come
down literally aglow with God’s Power, God’s Glory! Aglow so that his people couldn’t bear to look
at him; aglow so that he had to veil his face from them, so they could bear to be around him!
In their world, Jesus could bring his closest friends up to the Holy Mount, and there unveil for
them the Glory that dwelt within him, and awe them with the vision!
In our world, saints are represented in art as crowned in light, aglow with a kind of aura we call a
halo. Ii used to think – and I suspect many still do – that that’s simply a convention by which the
artist indicates holiness or sanctity. But in the world familiar with holiness, they are aglow – aglow
to those who have eyes to see the Glory of the Lord in the world!
And when the Scriptures proclaim that “the Glory of the Lord fills all the world,” they mean that
the whole world is Literally aglow with God’s holiness, with his power!
In the Biblical worldview, the universe was seen as infused with God’s presence in power, and
life was characterized by a whole series of epiphanies, when the holiness of God became
manifest at key moments of change – particularly at those moments involving changes in life,
itself – moments of procreation, of birth and death – as well as in moments marking the lesser
changes of status in life – adolescence, adulthood, marriage. Each of those moments was Holy,
because each involved Not a transformation, but a transfiguration – an Epiphany!
A transformation occurs when something is changed from what it was to what it was not –
something new; something different. But a transfiguration is not a change, at all, so much as it is a
revelation, and a fulfillment of what something – or someone – really is!
When Moses came down from the Mountain, glowing so brightly his people could not bear to look
at him, he was not Changed into someone new or different – but Revealed as the chosen
messenger of God, God’s spokesman and servant.
When Jesus was transfigured on the Mount, throwing his closest friends into a state of confusion
and awe, he had not been transformed into something he was not – rather he was revealed to be
who he had always been: the Son of God, filled, always with the Glory of God, and Holy! An
Epiphany – Not a transformation!
And, indeed, at those special moments of life, celebrated by our ancestors in the faith, holiness
was seen as manifest in persons emerging as what they truly are – first being conceived in life,
then being born into the world, going through the stages of growth into the fullness of adulthood,
procreating, aging, and finally dieing! Each moment, a change in the person’s life-force, itself,
which is the very Breath of God. And each of those moments in life was seen as a moment of
holiness, charged in a very special way with the presence, the power, the Glory of the Lord! Holy
moments!
Whenever these lessons come along, together, in this way, I find myself being more affected than
usual, because they make me think about my own calling, and its strangeness. And they make me
think, too, about the expectations so many people have about this calling.
It’s always struck me as strange that people expect clergy – priests, in particular, I think – to be
holy. And in spite of all the contrary indications that we all see, people still hang on to that
expectation! It strikes me as doubly strange, as well, in that we don’t really like people to seem
holier than we – as witness the phrase, “holier than thou.” But it’s simply not true that clergy are
called to be any holier than other people are called to be!
In fact, the most distinctive thing about Priesthood is not that we are expected to Be different,
but that we’re called to Do different things. Specifically, we are called to function in those holy
situations I’ve been talking about. Indeed, we are Privileged to be so called!
We’re called to be share in all of the most important moments in life – the holiest moments – the
Sacramental moments of life. We’re called to be present and to baptize after birth; We’re present
when the child is first blessed to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Called on when he or she
reaches the adult stage of life, and makes his or her profession of faith in Confirmation. (And, yes,
we do still have Confirmation!) Called to be present when two people join their lives and become
“one flesh” in Holy Matrimony. And called on at the time of death, which is the last – and in its way,
perhaps the greatest, of those holy moments – when the breath of God returns to God and
completes the cycle of life, the cycle of creation. It is a holy moment, filled with the presence and
the glory and the power of the Lord!
I have mentioned to you, before, that three times in all the years of my Priesthood, I have been
privileged – blessed! – to be present and called upon to minister at the actual time of death of a
parishioner. It is, obviously, one of the most difficult things clergy are called on to do – just as it is
for medical people. But rather than being a burden, I’ve come to see it, in fact, as a great and -
yes, again – holy privilege. It’s no easier a task to perform, for all that, and one I could wish never
to be called upon to perform, again – but a privilege, nevertheless; a blessed and holy moment.
What it is, is an awful moment in the original and true sense of the word – that is, it’s a moment
full of Awe!
Today’s Old Testament Lesson and Gospel – the Transfiguration of Moses and of Jesus – are
about life! They’re about life at it’s fullest – which is life at its holiest! Transfiguration is about our
Father’s greatest gift to us: His Life, itself; His Breath; His Spirit – our life!
And our task as his children is to be transfigured in our lives even as he was transfigured: to
reveal in our lives, and even in our deaths, as He revealed in His life and death, the reality of who
and what we are – unique and Holy children of God, Himself – incarnating Him to His world - being
God in and for His world!
In His Name! Amen