Listen, Really Listen!
Rev. Tiare L Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
Ps. 50:1-6; 2 Cor. 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9
I’m going to take some time this morning to remind you about the Liturgical Calendar, Transfiguration, Ash Wednesday and even the practice of Lent. I do this because what I really want? Is for you to grow in your faith, to have a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and how invasive and disruptive He is in your life and in our world. I want you to have a lived experience of the Shekinah, the glory, the light that is like no other.
One of the ways to understand this frame is to know that the early church fathers & mothers tried to organize the stories of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, in some kind of coherent order to help the new believers in their nascent faith. Remember, the first recordings of Jesus stories were at gatherings in peoples’ homes, where they would exchange snippets of encounters with Jesus passed on to them by the original disciples. As the church grew across the regions, the Epistle writers collected these oral testimonies, wrote them down, and shared them as communal letters carried by various leaders, including Paul, Timothy, Apollos, Priscilla. They were read aloud in worship as the sermon! Eventually, into the 2nd, 3rd and 4th century, there was the collection of writings to form what becomes our New Testament along with creeds and confessions such as the Apostles’ Creed. With these developments, the institutional church was being formed to connect church members from a broad base of geography. When Constantine declared the whole Roman Empire Christian in 325 AD, church leaders adopted some of his structures of government, shaping them into what we now know as the Catholic Church.
One thing to note: the first calendar, known as the ‘Julian” was created by Julius Caesar in 46 AD. It tracks closely with our yearly calendar but ours has now been adjusted for Leap Year.
In 325CE, the council of Nicaea, yes the Nicene Creed writers, established Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon, occurring on or after the vernal equinox. From this point on, March 21 became the pivot date, as it were. Our Liturgical Calendar is defined by the Moon’s cycle. Just so you know, Easter is delayed 1 week if the full moon is on Sunday. We now follow The Gregorian Calendar, established by Pope Gregory the 13th, in 1582. The Eastern Orthodox follow the Julian Calendar, that is why their Easter dates are different.
The Liturgical Calendar gave order to the life of the local church and everyone knew that all the churches were following the same rhythm. As different feast days and celebrations were developed, they were incorporated into the order of church life.
This is what I call a pivot Sunday on the liturgical calendar. Epiphany is over, on Wednesday we begin Lent with an Ash Wednesday service. The lectionary dispenses with its Scripture order on these pivot Sundays to place fundamental stories in front of us. This transfiguration, this one scene answers the critical question: Who is Jesus anyway? He speaks with Moses and Elijah--the glory is such light there is no darkness. Endearing words=="My Beloved, my beloved".
For us, Transfiguration is that moment when we stop, captured by the unveiling of light, glory as Scripture calls it. or the unveiling of truth, of beauty, or it might deep and abiding sorrow, or suffering. We stop. It is a broad category of change when time stands still. It is the process of Transformation that opens us up to take this still moment into ourselves over time. Its transformative. Continuous action. To change us. To deepen our faith.
Ashes were used in ancient times to express grief. When Tamar was raped by her half-brother, "she sprinkled ashes on her head, tore her robe, and with her face buried in her hands went away crying" (2 Samuel 13:19). The gesture was also used to express sorrow for sins and faults. In Job 42:5–6, Job says to God: "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eyes see You. I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." The prophet Jeremiah calls for repentance by saying: "O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes" (Jer 6:26). The prophet Daniel recounted pleading to God: "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). You may remember when Jonah finally goes to Ninevah, the king has the entire
community and all the animals cover themselves in sackcloth and ashes before God, in repentance.
John W. Fenton, church historian, writes that "by the end of the 10th century, it was customary in Western Europe (but not yet in Rome) for all the faithful to receive ashes on the first day of the Lenten fast. In 1091, this custom was then ordered by Pope Urban II at the council of Benevento to be extended to the church in Rome. Not long after that, the name of the day was referred to in the liturgical books as "Feria Quarta Cinerum" (i.e., Ash Wednesday)." Unquote
During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther maintained some of the practices of the Catholic Church, whereas John Calvin threw everything out, including Ash Wednesday, as papist, obeying the pope. It wasn’t until the 18th Century, that Reformed Churches even began to bring back this practice and it was not wide spread until the renewed ecumenical movement of the 1960’s and 70’s.
There is a flow and rhythm to this liturgical calendar. Early church leaders wanted a way to capture the record of Jesus in the life of a local worshipping congregation. They wanted it to connect with all of what we now call Salvation History. From creation to redemption, - from Abraham and Sarah, through Israel’s slavery, The Exodus, The wilderness, the Ten Commandments, The Promised Land. Through Israel’s failure as an obedient nation, called back again and again by the prophets, all the way to the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the Holy Messiah. Then the creation of the Christian Faith! All the way to Revelations, when the nations will be healed. This arc of history is open so that you can make sense of your life’s design in light of God’s work and desire for relationship. So much so that in our communion liturgies, we use the plural We like this: when we were slaves in Egypt, You brought us out to the Promised Land. See? You belong in Jesus’s story.
Over time, theologians and scholars generated the Lectionary, Bible readings in 3 year cycles, to go along with the Liturgical Calendar. You are always welcomed and encouraged to read the Bible in your own home, at least some time during the week. It is part of the process of you being transformed by God's doxa. It is a way to Listen, really listen.
In the Old Testament, the word for "glory" is the Hebrew word, כָּבֹוד "kabowd," which carries the idea of heaviness and weight. It is solid, yet can be moved. Regular Humans, like you or me, not just Moses, Elijah or Jesus, can shine with God's glory; it’s a generous light. God's Word manifests Her glory; even creation is filled with the glory of God. Iraneus, 2nd century church leader, says, “the glory of God is a live human being and a truly human life is the glory of God.” Unquote
This glory is strange, though.
Moses carried these words down the mountain in his hands when his face shined. And the people were terrified. Elijah goes off to heaven in a chariot of fire.
This Glory is the residue of God's steadfast love for Israel and for us. This incredible faithfulness in the face of betrayal, over and over again; in full recognition of their and our failure, God offers a dignity and honor we did not choose, Nor would we ever on our own.
In the New Testament, the Greek word is δόξα "doxa," think doxology. which carries the idea of opinion, judgment, splendor, a lovely word. A very close cognate of kabowd. It's what terrifies Peter, James and John up on Mt. Sinai. Jesus prays, like he usually does, then all of a sudden, his face changes. Like Moses? Maybe He doesn't even notice. Then his clothes become dazzling white! Like none that could be bleached. Transfigured, a soon to be permanent change in Jesus, after the cross. The guys get scared.
who shows up Moses & Elijah, two dead men, in solid enough glory, to be recognized by the disciples. It's over the top--way too much. So when the clouds start to speak, the guys fall to the ground, frozen in fear.
Listen to Him! Listen to Him! Listen to Him! God shouts in whispers. Peter's wobbling voice - "Let's just stay up here, we'll build tabernacles for everybody. Let's just not move. Not yet."
Jesus' identity is confirmed in this encounter. Jesus' mission - which is salvation, named departure here - exodos - is the topic he chats over with Moses & Elijah.
This story requires us to set aside our instinct for disbelief, to let the mystery of God appear, like in burning bushes, or doves, or clouds by day and pillars of fire by night. Or being born a human baby from a Virgin's womb.
6 days later...
6 days after what?
6 days after Peter answers the question of the ages, the great question: Who do you say that I am? Jesus asks.
It was 6 days of creation. It was 6 months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy when Mary, now pregnant herself, went to visit. “In the 6th month...” Luke says in chapter 1.
Moses spent 6 days in the cloud of glory on Mt. Zion as he waits for God to speak and give him the tablets of the law.
Jesus asks: “Who do they say that I am?” The disciples respond, “Some say John the Baptist, but others say Elijah and still others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Then dead center, Jesus beads in on them, “But who do you say that I am?” (Pause)
After this declaration, 6 days later, they head on up the mountain where Jesus’ full and true identity is revealed in the Shekinah, the glory, what gets translated, “dazzling white”. For a moment the disciples see Jesus’ divinity fleshed in His humanity.
We stand on the precipice of Lent, our wide-angle lens open in its aperture, 6 weeks, 40 days, begins Ash Wednesday, with mini celebrations of resurrection each Sunday, until Maundy Thursday.
Lent (Latin: Quadragesima, 'Fortieth'). It is done in commemoration, in memory, of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness before He begins His public ministry. It signals Jesus’ temptation by Satan, something we can easily recognize in our own daily lives. The vanities the Psalmist writes about in #139.
The purpose of Lent is to prepare for Easter, celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have to be reminded that when we say Easter, we include Good Friday and the horrific death on the cross, Holy, Silent Saturday and then...
The practices include prayer, devotional reading, service, repentance, Some choose to fast—a meal, meat, a day, —and some take on a new or renewed spiritual discipline.
The whole point is to be bounded by God’s demand to pursue faith in the midst of our daily lives. It is not a practice out there, rather, look at your new Lent Devotions. Wash the dishes and remember your baptism. This season is to deepen our fragmented awareness of the Presence of the Glory of Christ. Listen, really listen....