Last Epiphany

 

March 2, 2025

 

Exodus34.29-35; Luke 9.28-43a

 

+I usually don’t preach the Last Sunday of Epiphany.

 

Iam often returning from vacation around this time of the year.

 

Thisyear, of course, I took a longer break, which I definitely needed.

 

Itwas good to have some time to travel, to visit other places and other churches.

 

Itwas good to read more than I usually do (I read 18 books during my sabbatical).

 

Ialso finished a new book of poems, this one being another project with MarjorieSchlossman.

 

Butas good as all of that was, it’s also good to get back.

 

Andit’s good to be here today, on this last Sunday of Epiphany.

 

Wayback on January 6 (doesn’t that seem like lifetime ago already?) we began thisseason with the Magi visiting the child Jesus

 

Inthat event, we had a mysterious star.

 

Then,on January 12th, we commemorated the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan byJohn the Baptist.

 

Thefollowing Sunday, January 19, we commemorated the Wedding Feast at Cana, inwhich Jesus turned all that purification water into fine wine.  

 

Nowwe end the Epiphany season on another glorious high note.

 

First,today, we get this reading from the Torah—from the Hebrew scriptures—aboutMoses’ encounter with the glory of God on Mount Sinai.

 

Theglory of God, we find, is so powerful that it has a kind of residual effect onthose who encounter it.

 

ForMoses, in our reading from Exodus, after encountering the glory of God,  “the skin of his face was shining.”

 

Then,in our reading from the Gospel today, we find a similar event.

 

Wefind another encounter with the Glory of God on a mountaintop: the Transfiguration.

 

Irealize that I have preached a lot about the Transfiguration in my 21 years asa priest.

 

It’san event I have explored so often in sermons and in scripture study and in myown prayer life.

 

Whyis that?

 

Becauseit really is an important event in scripture and in our lives as Christians.

 

Infact, it is such an important event that we actually celebrate it twice in our Church Year.

 

Wecelebrate today of course, the Last Sunday of Epiphany—the last Sunday beforeLent begins.

 

Andwe celebrate it again on August 6.

 

Personally,I truly appreciate that we celebrate it on this Sunday before Lent begins.

 

I’mhappy that we go into the season of Lent with this vision fresh in our minds.

 

Iam happy that we enter Lent with the glory of God shining on the skin of ourfaces.

 

Thereis no better way to enter this season.

 

Theevents of Moses’ encounter with God and the Transfiguration is what willsustain us and hold us and nourish us through these next forty days.

 

ThisTransfiguration and the glory that we see revealed on the Mount was certainly oneof the defining events in Jesus’s life.

 

Andin ours too, as followers of Jesus.

 

Forus, the glory we witness on Mount Tabor is the glory that awaits us in God’sPresence.

 

Itis the glory we see whenever we encounter God in our lives.

 

OnMount Tabor, we have seen the veil temporarily lifted that separates this worldfrom God’s world.

 

Andit is a glory that is almost too much for Jesus’ followers to comprehend.

 

Itis this glory that we glimpse today that sustains us.

 

Itstrengthens us for what we are about to participate in our following of Jesus.

 

Becausefollowing Jesus always involves this glory that we encounter on the mount.

 

FollowingJesus means recognizing in him the fulfillment of the Law (which is representedby the presence of Moses on the mount in today’s Gospel reading) and thefulfillment of the prophecies of the Hebrew scriptures (represented by Elijah’spresence on the mount)

 

Thereis no doubt, as we enter the season of Lent, that the one we follow is not justanother great teacher or leader.

 

Theone we follow is the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed One, the one promised tous in the prophecies, the one who embodies the Law given to Moses.

 

Thisis important to recognize and hold close as we enter Lent.

 

Becausefollowing Jesus also means following him down off the mountain and onto thepath that lead to another hill-top—Golgotha.

 

Itmeans following Jesus from the glory of the mount all the way to the darknessand defeat of the cross.

 

And,of course, to the eternal glory beyond the cross as well.

 

Butwe’re getting ahead of ourselves.

 

Fornow, we are here.

 

Fornow, we are encountering the glory of this moment.

 

Fornow we come down off the mountain with Jesus and his privileged threefollowers.

 

Andwe are struggling to make sense of this event.

 

Weare struggling to make sense of this moment of glory.

 

Whatdo we do when we encounter the glory of God?

 

Howdo we process it?

 

Howdo we make sense of glory?

 

Idon’t know if we can make sense of it.

 

Butwhat we can do it is embody it.

 

Whatwe can do it open ourselves to this glory of God.

 

Becauseit is a glory that is given to each of us, no matter who we are.

 

Eachof us—no matter who we are—carry within us that transfiguring glory of God—ofthe God who appeared to Moses, of the God whose glory descending upon Jesus onMount Tabor, of the God who is our God as well, who loves us and knows us andis well-pleased with each of us.

 

Andthat is what we take away from our encounter with the vision on the mount ofthe Transfiguration.

 

Itwould be nice to stay here, basking the glory of this event.

 

Itwould be nice to stay put and not come down off the mountain.

 

Becauseonce we come off the mountain, we must face some unpleasant things.

 

Forthe followers of Jesus, they must endure their own betrayal of Jesus, they mustendure the fact that their betrayal contributes to Jesus’ torture and murder.

 

Inour lives, we must come down from the mountain and face our own issues.

 

Wemust face a country in daily chaos.

 

Wemust face a lack of empathy and compassion in our society and in our government.

 

Wemust face a world in which tyrants are celebrated and dictators emulated.

 

Weface a Church that is trying hard to respond to that chaos, to the forces ofdarkness that seem, at times, to prevail.

 

Wemust come down and face whatever issues we are wrestling with our lives—issuesthat seem in many ways to detract from the glory that we have just witnessed.

 

Andas we come down and face those things, it is amazing how quickly the vision ofGod’s glory vanishes from our minds.

 

Inthat one moment, when all seemed clear, when all seemed to have come together,we find in the next instant that everything is topsy-turvy again.

 

Andthat’s this crazy thing we call life.

 

Itoften works this way.

 

Wefind that we can’t cling to these glorious, wonderful events that happen.

 

Butwhat we can do is carry them deep in our hearts.

 

Whatwe can do it not let that glory of God that dwells within us and shinesbrightly on the skin of our faces to die away.

 

Andif we recognize that, if we embrace that, we find that somewhere down that roadaway from the mount, it will still be there, borne deep within us.

 

Somewhere,when we need it the most, that comforting presence of the God of glory weencountered on the mountain will well up within us and sustain us when we needsustaining and shine brightly on our faces.

 

Ofcourse, the stickler about this is that it is not something WE can control.

 

Wecan’t make it happen.

 

Wecan’t conjure that glorious experience whenever we want it.

 

Ithappens on its own.

 

Ithappens in God’s own time.

 

Ithappens when it is needed the most.

 

Andwhen it does, it truly does sustain.

 

Inthese next forty days, we will need to be sustained by the glory we encountertoday.

 

Inthis upcoming season, we will be encountering a somewhat more dour side ofspirituality.

 

OnWednesday, we will have ashes smeared on our foreheads as a reminder that wewill all one day die.

 

We,in this upcoming Lenten season, will face the fact that we truly do have limitations.

 

Wewill remember and repent of the wrongdoings we have done in this life—to God,to others and to ourselves.

 

Andwe will fast.

 

Someof us will fast from certain physical foods or drink.

 

Someof us will abstain from certain practices.

 

Someof us will struggle to use this upcoming season to break certain dependenceswe’ve had on things and people.

 

Andin this season, we will hear in our scripture readings and participate in ourliturgies the continuing journey away from the amazing mountain-top experiencetoward the humiliation of the cross of Golgotha. 

 

Inthose moments, we will need to find an inner sustenance.

 

Inthose moments, we will truly see how far we have journeyed away from the mountof Transfiguration.

 

Wewill, at times, no doubt, feel as though we are far separated from the glory ofGod.

 

Itwill not seem that this glory will be shining on the skin of our faces.  

 

But,then, on Easter morning—there again, that glory will be revealed to us onceagain and it will all fall into place once more.

 

So,let us begin our Lenten season with our faces still aglow with this encounterwith God.

 

Letus go knowing that no matter what will happen—betrayal, physical and emotionalpain, even death—we know that what ultimately wins out is the glorious light ofGod’s loving presence in our life.

 Letus go from here carrying that glory within us, without detachment.

 

Letus go from here transfigured with Jesus—changed by this encounter with God’s gloryso that we can reflect and spread this glory even in the midst of whatever maycome to us in the days that are to come.