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The Good News Written
A reading from the wisdom of Ralph Waldo Trine:
The soul is divine and in allowing it to become translucent to the Infinite Spirit it reveals all things to us. As a person turns away from the Divine Light do all things become hidden. There is nothing hidden of itself. When the spiritual sense is opened, then it transcends all the limitation of the physical senses and the intellect.
Luke 9.28-36 (NIV)
28About eight days after Jesus said [that there were people listening to him who would not die before experiencing the kin-dom of God], he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “[Teacher], it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
34While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my [child], whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.
The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, February 14, 2010.
Today in Luke’s story, we find Jesus and Peter and John and James hiking up a mountain to pray. Jesus is a reminder that God is with and in us. Peter, John, and James may represent Faith, Love, and Wisdom…divine gifts to be cultivated in our lives and which are cultivated by the practice of prayer. And in scripture, mountain experiences almost always represent the divine presence, communing with the Infinite, experiencing the Sacred in a particular moment of time.
Jesus…one with his eternal Source, is cultivating Faith, Love, and Wisdom by acknowledging the presence of God in prayer. If we went no further, we’d have a powerful lesson. To experience more of the divine Nature and the gifts that It offers, we need to be intentional about spending time in the Silence, in communion with the Source of Life. But Luke does takes us even further.
While Jesus, Peter, John and James are on the mountain they see TWO men…Moses and Elijah, appearing in a sort of dream or vision with Jesus. Later, in Luke 24 (v. 4), we find at Jesus’ tomb, TWO MEN in dazzling garments! Wonder who those two men are for Luke? Is he placing Moses and Elijah at the scene to say something about Jesus? Is he reiterating what he has crafted in today’s story? We who love scripture and who love Jesus can have a lot of fun exploring the many interesting possibilities.
Moses and Elijah. What do they represent, what are they symbolizing in Luke’s story? What is Luke using these two characters from ancient sacred literature to say about Jesus, and for that matter, about the readers of his gospel message?
Luke is a disciple of Paul’s, not Jesus’. And Paul never met Jesus…though he claims to have had a mystical experience of the eternal Christ on the road to Damascus. And, scholars used to date Luke’s gospel at the end of the first century, but many scholars now think it may be as late as the early 2nd century. So, Luke who is the disciple of a person who never met Jesus, is writing at least 50 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and maybe as last as 90 years after the crucifixion. So, whatever Luke is saying about Jesus he is saying it for the benefit of the people reading or hearing the gospel. He isn’t remembering Jesus, he is imagining Jesus in a way that will affirm and empower people who desperately need encouragement in their lives. To serve this purpose, he borrows a story from Mark’s gospel about experiencing light on a mountain top with Jesus. In the story, Moses and Elijah figure prominently, and they may actually make a cameo appearance again at the end of Luke’s gospel during the Easter story. Let’s look at Moses and Elijah.
What does Moses do? He confronts the powers of privilege and oppression. He leads people into the uncertainty of freedom. Bondage is a sure thing…freedom is risky, but it’s worth the risk. He represents the sacred journey instead of the comfort of the status quo. Egypt may be what we’ve always known…it may seem familiar, but Egypt didn’t want us. Egypt didn’t love us. Egypt didn’t respect us. Egypt didn’t affirm us. Egypt treated us like beasts of burden, and that’s just not good enough for the children of God…Moses represents leading people out of the First Egyptian Church and into the scary wilderness of freedom…where people have to live by faith, and grace, and hope, and courage, and a vision of a promised land still to come.
In Egypt…you were told you were NO GOOD. In the wilderness…you learn to depend on your goodness, to trust it, to depend on it, to let it guide you into richer, more liberating, more fulfilling experiences. Sometimes, in the wilderness, the people miss the days of bondage…it was in some ways easier to be told what to do and what to think and how worthless they were…but whenever they are tempted to build idols to the oppressive past, there is Moses to destroy that golden calf and urge the people on to their true destiny. Bondage kills the soul…liberation, working out your own sense of sacred value with fear and trembling may be harder, but it is also more rewarding…it leads to the promise of milk and honey that is what you are worth and were even before you knew it. Bondage told you what to think. Freedom teaches you HOW to think. God save us from bondage. God grant us freedom, liberation, salvation!
What does Elijah do? Elijah is a prophet…prophets are not fortune tellers, they are truth tellers. They comfort the afflicted AND afflict the comfortable. They challenge the complacent and call for fairness and justice. They name hypocrisy and they call people to be their best selves.
The prophet Elijah, the story insisted, somehow escaped death. Instead of dying, he was caught up in a whirlwind and taken to the depths of eternity. Legend said that he might one day return (Malachi 4.5), but he never did. Not in a literal sense.
When Mark tells the story of the Transfiguration event, he says that Elijah DID return in that mountain top vision. He takes great license to interpret the legend for himself…not in a literal way, but in a literary way to suggest that what Elijah represents is available to us here and now. Mark has moved from being told what to think, to learning HOW to think for himself.
The early church hoped that Jesus might return in their lifetimes…in fact, they taught that he would return almost immediately. We see that in Luke’s story today, when he says this all happens right after Jesus said some in his day would live to see the reign of God fulfilled. Maybe Luke, when he is writing Acts, is suggesting that Jesus did return in a symbolic way at Pentecost…when the spirit of God that was in Jesus enlivens the Church to be Christ’s body on the earth (Acts 2). Elijah, the spirit-filled prophet whose spirit doubly blessed his disciple Elisha does return in our mountain top experiences of prayer. And Jesus, the spirit-filled wayshower whose spirit blessed his disciples to lead the early Church does return as we live into the mission of loving the God in all people, by doing unto others as we would have others do unto us. Luke has moved from being told what to think, to learning how to think for himself. He’s left bondage behind, and is calling us to do the same.
Moses and Elijah.
The Law and the Prophets.
The Scriptures…the story of God’s people…the Word of God.
Matthew said the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you IS the law and the prophets (Matt. 7.12), that’s what the scriptures boil down to.
Luke continues that theme in chapter 10 when tells of the Good Samaritan…who is the godly one in that story, the righteous one? Not the Levite and the priest following the letter of the law and hurting someone in the process…the Good person is the Samaritan who doesn’t use scripture or tradition as an excuse to wound, exclude, or dismiss people but who simply shows love where love is needed!
Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets, the scriptures that Jesus knew…and Jesus said if you want to put the whole bible on a billboard here it is: If you wouldn’t like it, don’t do it to nobody else! Just love your neighbor, and PS – EVERYONE is your neighbor.
Well…Jesus and Moses and Elijah on the mountain of God. Peter (FAITH) is tempted to make the mistake we have so often done in the name of faith. We’ve had a marvelous experience…we want to lock it up it tight in a box, claim ownership of it, limit it, control it, freeze it in time, determine who else can have access to it. We want to build shelters, idols…But Peter didn’t know what he was saying…
Notice John (LOVE) didn’t say “let’s create an idol to this experience that is already past.” Notice James (WISDOM) didn’t say, “let’s create an idol to this experience that is already past.” Enjoy your experience…and let others have theirs. We don’t have to hammer out a lot of doctrines…its way more important to learn how to live in love. Don’t enshrine Jesus in a shelter…listen to him. Follow his example. Do what he says…which is love. Love. LOVE!
Love your friends. Love your family. Love your lovers. Love your enemies. Love your NEIGHBOR whoever they are…love your leather neighbor. Love your drag neighbor. Love your trans neighbor. Love your Christian neighbor, your Jewish neighbor, your Muslim neighbor, your Buddhist neighbor, your agnostic neighbor, your Hindu neighbor, your gay neighbor, your straight neighbor, your male neighbor, your female neighbor, your butch neighbor, your fem neighbor….LOVE! Just love. Love yourself for who you are; then love your neighbor as yourself.
Building shelters is easier.
Staying in bondage is easier.
The wilderness of love…that takes work. In Jesus’ name…DO THE WORK.
Work it out with fear and trembling, with courage and hope…That’s what it means to be the church, and maybe that’s what Luke is saying almost a century after Jesus’ execution. Instead of waiting for him to come back and do it for us…let’s allow his light to guide us…let’s US be his body, his people, his church doing the work of love and healing…let’s not wait anymore, let’s start doing it…let’s really be the church of all-inclusive, unconditional love, and when we do, THEN Christ has returned! And isn’t that the good news? Amen.
Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100214_1.mp3)
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