Let me start by saying that I find
Epiphany to be an odd season. Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter
all have a particular focus. Advent is all about preparation.
Christmas is celebratory. Lent is a time for introspection and
reconciliation. In Easter we spend time with the risen Christ. And
even the Season after Pentecost (Ordinary Time) has a discipleship
focus. Epiphany, though . . .
Epiphany is both liturgical and
ordinary. It begins with a liturgical focus with the arrival of the
magi and Jesus' baptism where we recognize Jesus' manifestation as
God's Son to the world. And then it moves to an ordinary setting
with the calling of the disciples and moving through the Sermon on
the Mount (this year) or other miracle stories. These all point to
who Jesus is, but it's done in a rather ordinary way. And then, just
as we get into the rhythm of the story, we arrive at the Last Sunday
after Epiphany and the Transfiguration. The length of the season
lasts anywhere from four to nine Sundays, and is a season of
ordinariness punctuated by liturgical events.
I bring this up because this Last
Sunday after Epiphany can seem jarring if you've been paying
attention to the story being told through the rest of the season.
We're just settling in to hear passages from the Sermon on the Mount
when, all of a sudden, we find ourselves up on the mountain with
Peter, James, and John watching Jesus be transfigured and visited by
Moses and Elijah.
But if we pay attention, the stories
from the sermon and the transfiguration are not all that dissimilar.
Over the past few weeks I have pointed
out that, with regard to the law, Jesus came to neither abolish it
nor to simply fulfill the black and white, legalistic plain text of
the law. He came to transform the law in a way that only he could.
The law was given to help a formerly captive people live in freedom.
Jesus is transforming the law so that we see all of the law leading
to life, not death.
You are the salt of the earth and the
light of the world – act like it. You have heard it said, but I
say to you. In these and other examples (which we didn't hear),
Jesus is getting his listeners to think about the law in a different
way. He's getting them to think of it not simply as a code of
conduct to follow, but in a way that becomes life-giving. He is
transforming not only how the law is interpreted, but how we live it.
He is transforming us to live life as God intends, living beyond the
words and into the heart.
In short, the written law is what God's
people were originally given and how they related to God. Jesus
transformed it so people could see the law behind its written
covering.
In today's gospel we have this same
scenario – kind of. Jesus came teaching and preaching. Like the
written word was the covering of the heart of the law, the humanity
of Jesus was the covering of God incarnate. And these two things –
written word and human body – sometimes make it hard to see what's
behind them.
For instance, the law is very clear
that the sabbath is to be kept holy and no work is to be done. But
as Jesus pointed out, that doesn't mean that we can't work to feed or
heal people on the sabbath. Or when we look at someone who disturbs
us, it's very easy to ignore the fact that they, too, are a child of
God.
In today's gospel Jesus takes Peter,
James, and John up the mountain. While there he is transfigured.
The image of Jesus being transfigured is often seen or described as
him being changed. The reality is that his full and true nature was
revealed. His complete unity with God shone through. He transformed
how these three disciples saw him and how they would talk about him
after his resurrection.
We are at the end of the Epiphany
season. Lent begins in three days. We have heard Jesus interpret
the law in a transformative way such that it provides life for all
people, thereby revealing its true nature. Today we hear the story
of Jesus being transfigured, or transformed, before our eyes,
revealing his true nature. And in three days we begin our Lenten
journey where we will be asked to, hopefully, make transformative
changes to ourselves as we look to live into our true nature for
which we were created.
So maybe Epiphany isn't all that odd
after all. It has an ordinary rhythm interrupted by a few important
events, much like life itself. As we close out this season of
transformation and move into Lent, maybe we could ask ourselves one
questions: How are we being transformed by the living word of God?
Amen.
0 comments:
Post a Comment