It’s all Here

A sermon by Andrew Colman on Exodus 24:12-18 and Matthew 17:1-9

Today is the feast of the Transfiguration! It is a Magnificent occasion! An occasion of radiant splendour, one worthy of celebration.

Though it's kind of an odd thing to have a feast for if you think about it.

 What really happened? It's not like Christmas, where Jesus was born... or Good Friday, where he was crucified or like Easter, where he rose from the grave...

No, he didn't really do anything except have a talk with some old friends, garner some praise from his Father, and glow.

And yet there is something celebratory and magnificent about the whole thing anyways.

Let's look at our texts for the evening.

If you hadn’t noticed there are some parallels between the reading from Exodus and Matthew.

In both of the stories we find travel to the top of a mountain, we find both the voice and presence of God, We actually find Moses in both of the readings, and there are some incredible displays of light. In Exodus apparently it looked as though the mountain was covered by clouds that resembled a consuming fire. And in Matthew Jesus face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And strangely enough they both mention the number of days between major event... not what happened during those days... just that they passed. More on that later.

There are even more parallels connected to these stories to which I would like to direct our attention. But for these, we need to back our readings up just a few verses.

These parallels have to do with the events that happened just before both Moses and Jesus went up the mountian.

Before Moses was called up the mountain, the people of Israel were drawn into a covenant with God. God gave them a long list of things to do and how to do them so they might stay in good relationship with God.

The final thing on that list was a sealing of a covenant:

After the people heard all of their instructions, the covenant was sealed in three steps with a sacrifice.

1. The altar was sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice;
2. The people said together, "All that God has spoken, we will do."
3. The people were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice.

-The altar signifies God's side of the bargain:
God will make them the chosen people through whom he will bless the world and he will give the land of Israel
-They consent to participation
They will follow a few rules on how to stay right with God.
-Then the deal being closed as they are sprinkled.

And in Matthew what happens right before the journey up is that Jesus predicts his own death,

These are parallels because they both speak of the covenant between us and God. In Exodus the Law is Given and the Israelites make a covenant agreeing to follow the law that was given to them, in Matthew Jesus tell his disciples them that he is about to fulfill the law in their place.

And then we have the mountain-top experiences.

            But there is that interesting little detail in both stories where the authors mention that six days passed between these acts or declarations of the convenant and the ascent up the mountain.

It was on the 7th day that the encounter with God happened in both stories!

You see, both texts seem to be pointing backwards. Matthew says that after six days Jesus called the disciples to follow him, the mention of the six days points to Exodus by alluding to the six days of waiting that Moses did about halfway up the mountain,

and then

In Exodus the author says that on the seventh day, Moses was called into the cloud which alludes to the seventh day of creation that we find in the beginning of Genesis.

Did you get that, Matthew points to Exodus by talking about six days and Exodus points to Creation by talking about the 7th day!

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There is a beautiful play with time happening in the Word here tonight.

With each of the texts pointing backwards from one to another, in a way, drawing each other closer together?

There is this lovely idea of time that isn’t simply a marching forward of events, but one that considers the fact that we feel closer to the past at different times. It’s an idea about time that is more about feel than it is a clock.

Think about Christmas Eve don’t you "feel closer" to previous Christmas Eve on that night than we do to a mid-summer night eve. Or sometimes closer to people who have died on their birthdays or anniversaries than on some random Tuesday?

Charles Taylor coined a phrase called Higher Time, it’s a "feeling of time" that doesn't only move in one direction but has a sense of drawing points in history closer together in a more spiritual way. It’s beautiful really.

In a funny way, I think that's what's going on in Matthew and Exodus this evening. They, each, are drawing elements of the Word of God closer together. Matthew to Exodus, (and remember that he is writing to a primarily Jewish audience so the allusion will not have been lost on them it also helps that Moses is actually there with him) and then Exodus to the Creation Narrative.

So in a very real sense, Matthew is drawing closer to the covenant and the commandments as well as creation as he is telling his story of the transfiguration. It is really quite spectacular!

As strange as all of this sounds, and I'll admit it does sound a bit strange, it is an idea that we are already quite familiar with.

During the Eucharistic prayer, when the bread turns into the Body of Christ, Christ really is here in the building. It's his presence that makes this table not Merely the Table of the church but is in fact, the Table of Christ. He is the host at each one of our meals in this half circle.

And that meal is the very same meal that he hosted in the upper room 2000 years ago. And if that is the case for our table here it is also the case for every table that has ever celebrated communion. We are in this higher sense eating with the whole cloud of witnesses and the communion of saints at each meal.

Utterly spectacular! I try to imagine how massive Christ's table must actually be. When we say more than we ask or maybe this is where the imagination simply cannot comprehend...

Now at first, the transfiguration and the Eucharist might not seem like they fit together, but they play with time and the way we experience it.

And the way they comment on each other is even more fun!

Think about it. Tonight we call to mind and draw closer to the event that happened up the mountain with the disciples, Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

Where Jesus' skin shone like the sun and his clothing emanated light, they were a source of light themselves.

Tonight we remember; we draw closer to a different kind of Jesus than we are used to.

                                    We're used to Jesus

    the teacher, telling parables

                                        the healer giving sight to the blind

                                        the rabbi, debating in the temple

                                        the miracle worker, feeding the thousands

                                        the persecuted, the helpless babe, the crucified,

                                even the resurrected Jesus, where walls can't

        even contain him

But rarely do we think of drawing nearer to Jesus, the simply magnificent, the utterly Divine, luminescent, where even time cannot contain him!

But that is who we draw closer to tonight, this night of the transfiguration.

So as we celebrate communion tonight and the bread becomes the body, think not of the teacher, healer, rabbi, persecuted, crucified but of the magnificent, radiant, divine, time-warping Jesus right in our midst!

Not only that, but draw close to Moses and Elijah, draw close to the covenant that makes us the blessing to the nations, draw close even to the very creation of the Cosmos!

Because tonight on this feast of the Transfiguration, it is all here!