What do you do with a shiny Jesus?
Luke 9:26-43
February 14, 2010
Steve Hammond
I don’t preach two weeks in a row that often, but since Mary has spent this week recovering from her sinus surgery, here I am again. And it’s the same characters, with some notable additions, in today’s gospel story as last week. Jesus, Peter, James, and John. Moses and Elijah are new. And God gets a speaking part.
Last week we talked about how these three amigos walked away from an epic haul of fish to follow Jesus. We’re only a few chapters beyond where we left off, but lots has happened to the four of them along the way. They are all still together.
It’s crazy enough for the three fishermen to leave all those fish behind and follow Jesus with no real information from Jesus about exactly where he was going. Probably because he wasn’t quite sure himself. But in this story they are standing there watching Jesus shimmer like some kind of ghost as he is chatting up Moses and Elijah. And if that’s not enough, God gets in on the conversation, not with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, but with the disciples.
I can understand Peter’s response that they ought to build some shrines right then and there. What else would you do with a shiny Jesus? This is, indeed, holy ground.
I’ll bet if all of us here were asked to rank our favorite stories in the gospels, nobody would put this one at the top of their list. Am I wrong? Anybody? Are we supposed to take this story literally? We’re the disciples smoking more than fish? Is it an allegory? Is the gospel writer just trying to reassure us that following Jesus isn’t as wacky as it seems since Jesus is buds with Moses and Elijah?
I don’t think we know what to do with a shiny Jesus anymore than the disciples did. And I’m afraid we succumb to the same temptation to build shrines and keep Jesus all holy up on the mountain.
We like to think about how God’s glory is revealed in Jesus when Jesus is all shiny up on the mountain, with Moses and Elijah looking on. But Jesus comes quickly down from this mountain to people who are demon possessed, sick, victims of exploitation, or exploiters themselves. People are trying to kill him and he knowingly walks into their trap. And he ends up on another mount. They call it the Skull, the execution grounds outside the city.
Jesus isn’t all shiny then. But is he any less holy? Is God revealed in Jesus more on the mountain top than when Jesus casts a demon out of that little boy, or when Jesus is between not Moses and Elijah, but two thieves on their crosses?
This is the original mountain top experience story, one of those stories about times we or others have experienced God’s presence in a profound way. The mountain top experiences are the shiny Jesus ones. But it turns out the whole point of the story for the disciples was not to see Jesus all shiny, but to do what God told them to do, “Listen to him.”
And since Jesus didn’t say anything to them on that mountain, we can infer that God is talking about the things Jesus has already said, and will say, most of which they haven’t liked or understood. And now God wants them to listen harder.
That they have problems listening is evidenced pretty quickly in a story a few verses after this one. Jesus and the crew are traveling through Samaria and people there refuse to let them come into their village. The disciples are indignant and ask Jesus if he wants them to call down fire and brimstone on the Samaritans. Jesus offers a much better alternative. “Let’s just go to another village.”
You know who was good at calling down fire and brimstone? Elijah. Paul Nuechterlein on the Girardian Reflection on the Lectionary web site writes this. “Some of the things Elijah thought he heard from God sound like they are from demons, like the story in 2 Kings 1 where Elijah does call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan king. Or when he follows up his victory at Mt. Carmel by having all the prophets of Baal killed (1 Kings 18:40). The disciples have not learned yet to listen to Jesus’ voice above all others. They are still inclined to hear Elijah calling for violence against ones enemies: ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as Elijah did?’ But what does God say on that mountain? “This is my son, listen to him.”
The holy ground is not up on the mountain top, but in the streets where we really need to listen to Jesus. When they come off that mountain, where the people don’t see anything different about Jesus than when he went up, the disciples quickly hear another voice talking about his son. “Please, please teacher take a look at my only child.”
Today is the last Sunday of Epiphany. We’ve been doing Christmas in one way or another for two and a half months. It’s all been about light. And on this last story of the season, Jesus seems to be nothing but a ball of light. But as all the stories keep telling us we are the light, as well. And it doesn’t do much good to be all shiny on the mountain.
On the Process and Faith web site Bruce Epperly writes this; “the church is called to be a laboratory for spiritual experiences, a place where persons expect God to “show up” in their lives in life-changing ways.” He goes on to say, though, that spiritual experiences are found in “every moment and encounter in our lives.” And he finishes with “I choose to focus on God’s global call to transfiguration rather than limiting transfiguration to the experiences of a handful of persons. This is not a denial of the incarnation, or God’s ability to decide to be more active in some places than others, but an affirmation that Jesus’ transfiguration will always remain an “era piece” of little relevance to our lives unless we choose to seek transfiguration in our own lives.”
When the disciples crawled over the boats and fish and nets to follow Jesus, they never expected that they would end up on that mountain with Jesus all shiny like that. But when it happened, they mistook that as the destination. But it was only a part of the much longer journey that was ahead, going well past the cross.
They kept at it, though, and eventually they began to hear, really hear Jesus. That’s when things get holy, when we are listening to him, and discerning his voice above all the other voices. And if Jesus gets all shiny at those times, that’s okay as long as we don’t confuse shininess with holiness.
We are now going from the mountain top church year experience of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany into the valley of Lent. Jesus has been real shiny for us. The shepherds and the angels, the wise men following that bright star. “How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given.” It’s such a special time of the year. It feels so holy. But it doesn’t stay Christmas forever, and holiness is revealed in all kinds of other and less shiny ways.
Jesus came down from the mountain where there is so much need and so much pain. And like the disciples, we don’t know what to do. We don’t know how to cast out those demons.
But we have light to bring with us as we follow that baby, found all shiny in his manger. We follow and bring that light into the streets of this world where there are all kinds of demons, and there is a cross right in the middle of the road. It’s not all shiny, but it’s all holy. And it’s not shrines Jesus is looking for us to build, but a new world. And we can, if we just listen to him.