The Transfiguration of Christ
August 6
O GOD, who on the mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thine only-begotten Son wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistering; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may be permitted to behold the King in his beauty, who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.
Exodus xxxiv. 29; Psalm 27, 2 St. Peter i. 13 St. Luke ix. 28
August 6th has been the day that the church has marked the Transfiguration of Christ. Today we hear the lessons and prayer that General Polk would have read to his to his listeners in a service on the battlefield, and General Lee would have read from his prayer book. We remember this day how Christ took his inner circle of Peter, James and John up on the mount. Some see it as the fulfillment of his promise he had made a week earlier when he said, "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom [Mark 16:28ff].
The Transfiguration also calls to mind our lesson from Exodus this day. The people saw Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the Ten Commandments in his hand, and his face shining gloriously. Moses veiled his face when he spoke with the people, but removed it to speak to God.
At the Transfiguration, Moses appeared standing to one side of Jesus. On the other side was the prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah, and they were all talking. They both were glorious in their appearance before Jesus Christ. These images are not to be passed over lightly. Jesus is the Word made flesh as we hear in the first chapter of St. John. He is the Word that dwells among us. He is the fulfillment of the Word of God. Remember how he said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Here we have the perfect symbol of the unity of the Word. Moses, the symbol of God's law given to guide the people, and Elijah, the symbol of the prophets that God sent into his people to guide and call them back to him time and again, who himself was carried up in a glorious chariot. And finally, in the middle, his face aglow and his vestments shining, the Great High Priest, Prophet, and King of Kings. Jesus bringing mankind into a fuller knowledge of both the law and the prophets. The Transfigured Jesus, the bridge between man and God, to impute righteousness and justification by the merits of his sacrifice.
Peter remembered well this experience on the mount. It is believed that his second letter was written shortly before his martyrdom in Rome addressed to Jewish converts in Asia Minor. He spoke of the promise that Christians would partake of the divine nature of Christ, and escape corruption [v.4]. He spoke of the glorious transfiguration that he witnessed on the mountain, and what it means to every Christian as a sure prophesy - and no empty fable.
The fulfillment of that promise begins with God's election of the faithful. That tiny seed of the Divine is planted within the heart of each of the chosen in spiritual baptism. It immediately begins to grow. Peter lists the fruits of this gift: He says, besides giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. Do you see how Peter goes from the very basics of faith in God, that very tiny mustard seed, and then builds upon it the attributes of the mature Christian? This is indeed a transformation that mature Christians may confirm and witness in their brothers and sisters, and in their own lives. They can sense when those old things are passing away, and when the new things are replacing them. These signs can help to affirm God's grace working within them. God sees it too. He sees that little seed that he planted in baptism, which he has nurtured, begin to grow. Remember in 1st Corinthians how Paul said, "I have planted [that is the Word alone by preaching the Gospel and the chosen receiving it in Faith alone], Apollos watered [that is by exhortation, instruction and discipline], but God gave the increase!" [by Grace alone, Glory be to God alone!]
Dearly beloved, I pray that each and every one of you is able to look into your life and know the power of Christ's transformation. I pray each of you is able to discern the transformation from the old man into the new. We know that our sojourn is one that we work through with fear and trembling. We have put on a new garment as Christians, but there still remains the temptation of flesh, the old evil. Yet, as Christians we are set free from the bondage of sin and death, and given the hope of the Divine. We are able through Christ, through his good will and the power of the Holy Spirit working within us, to model our lives after Christ, to pick up our cross and follow him. We do not boast of this, for all of our efforts are but dirty rags before him. Any good in us is God's doing, and we look continually for that last great day when we will be "transfigured", as is he, and stand before God in our glorious wedding garment with our crowns cast before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, who hast shown man the glorious Transfiguration of thy Son, and has poured upon us the new light of thine incarnate Word; Grant that the same light enkindled in our hearts may transform us and shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, evermore. Amen
Exodus xxxiv. 29
And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vale on his face. But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
2 St. Peter i. 13
I THINK it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 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.
Psalm 27
St. Luke ix. 28
AND it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.
The Reverend Mark Carroll, Colonel Ben Caudill Camp -
The Trasfiguration of Christ, the Year of Our Lord 2006
Preached at Saint John Baptist Anglican Church