Wellspring UMC; Transfiguration Sunday; February 3, 2008: “Transfigured by God”:

-Exodus 24: 12-18; Exodus 34: 29-35

Have you ever seen someone shine? Ever seen someone beam with light and warmth? (And I don’t mean someone with a sunburn.) Maybe it was the couple who just got married or had a child. Maybe it was your child as they proudly pulled out a report card confirming that all their hard work paid off. Maybe it was your parents as they saw you graduate from high school or college. Maybe you were blessed to look in the mirror and see yourself glow. Maybe, and I’d hope often, we are able to see others or feel for ourselves the light and love that flows through and from us after we’ve been a part of a wonderful worship experience.

In those times when life is working, when things are clicking, and all the stars seem to be lining up, joy can come. A deep, abiding mix of excitement, satisfaction, and happiness can open our eyes and hearts to see the possibilities before us. We glow. We shine. We rejoice and share.

Of course, there are times when life is not working out. We may be in the midst of hard times or living in the mundane. We might be facing hard decisions, frustrations in relationships, or picking up the pieces after the world has done us wrong, yet even in those times, sometimes most especially in those times, we can beam as well. We can shine. We can glow, because despite what life throws our way, we know without a doubt that God has been and is with us. Sometimes beside us, sometimes carrying us, but we can feel God’s presence. God loves us, and we know all will be okay.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. It is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our Lenten journey toward the Cross. The usual scriptures assigned for the day center around the Gospel passages where, just before He fixes His eyes on Jerusalem, Jesus heads up the mountain with Peter, James, and John. There Moses and Elijah appear, and Jesus is transformed. He shines. He glows. He is transfigured by the power of God. He has a discussion with Moses and Elijah, while the three disciples stand aside in awe and wonder. Then as quickly as they came, the transfigured figures are gone, and the disciples are left with evidence of the power of God etched in their memories.

Every year before entering the season of introspection and examination, followers of Christ are reminded of the power of God. We are taken up the mountain to have revealed to us the glory and holiness of the One whose life is our focus during these forty days.

Transfiguration Sunday is a time when we remember and give thanks for such a gift. It is also a means by which our faith is bolstered, just before we leap into an examination of Christ and self and turn toward the stark reality and bold glory of the Cross.

On this Transfiguration Sunday, we remember the story of Christ’s Transfiguration, but we focus on another, older transfiguration story. Moses’ story. If you’ve not studied the book of Exodus in awhile, I invite you to pick it up and read how God changed the world through a man with a stutter who resisted the call. The stories today are most fascinating for they reveal an encounter with a powerful God...the God of the covenant...who loves the people enough to guide them in the ways of true living. They reveal how God spoke to one like us, and changed his life and the course of history.

Most of us have heard it before. Moses goes up Mount Sinai, steps into the cloud, and the glory of God settles on the mountain and the one called to scribe the commands of the Creator. The people remain at the base, overwhelmed by what is happening, but for 40 days and nights, God speaks, and Moses remains in His presence.

Our first reading recounts the first ascent up that mountain, and the second reading recounts what happens upon Moses’ descent from his second trip. He is glowing. Though unaware, he radiated light, so much so that the people ran from him. But once things settled down, they realized that the glow, the shining, came because Moses had been with God. In fact, after coming down off that mountain, Moses would go to God, and through that divine connection, the glow continued. So bright was the power of God in him, that he had to veil it.

There’s an innate skepticism that can arise when we hear stories such as this, and yet vying for the same space is an optimism, a hope, that such an encounter, and encounters like this, really happen. And when we open our hearts, minds, and eyes and let the optimistic side take over, we realize that such encounters do happen, even to us. We’ve seen people shine. We have shone with the light of Christ – individually and collectively, but the radiant love of God will only shine in us and through us when we spend time with the Almighty.

You’ll see on the front cover vs. 12 of chapter 24. “Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here...” Is anyone else moved by these words? Does anyone else recognize the ramifications of such an invitation? God said to Moses, “Come up to me and stay here.” Always God says to us, “Come to me, because I want to be beside you.” It’s as if God pats the sofa cushion beside Him and says, “Come and sit by me. Let’s talk. Let’s be together.” This is God. The Creator. The One who can do all things, looking to us and saying “Come. Stay. I want to be with you.”

Moses received and took the invitation, and look at what God did to Him through the experience. Not only was Moses given the gift of getting to know who God was and what God needed him to do, but when he came away from the encounter, he glowed. He shined. He beamed, so much so that not even a veil could hide the glory of God.

As we begin Lent on Wednesday, we are given the same invitation. We are invited to dwell with God. To look, listen, and feel the presence of the One who created us. To spend time with God in quiet meditation or service in Christ’s name. To allow fasting and prayer to become a focus for living, and if we do...when we do, God’s glory alights on us, and we shine. We, like Christ, Moses, Elijah, and the great and lesser saints whose lives reveal the Holy Way, will radiate God, but the key is to accept the invitation and follow.

I have shared with you before stories of a parishioner of my former congregation named Maria. She was born in Russia, and as a child Maria and her family were forced by Stalin’s regime to camps in Siberia. Rarely would she share such stories, but in an intimate setting she told of how they were so thirsty that they would pick up rocks and suck on them to pull out the water from the stone.

In the midst of such a horrific ordeal that she developed a relationship with Christ, and that relationship, that bond was so powerful that is was visible. Maria literally glowed with the love of God.

Oh, she was humble beyond anything I’ve seen, but always had a word of encouragement to share. She always had a prayer to pray, and when one was with her, it felt as if she was a conduit through which he/she was connected to Christ. I was one of many who felt miniscule next to this five foot tall, 90 pound spiritual giant.

She glowed. She beamed, because early in her days, God said, “Come and stay here,” and she did. And because she accepted the invitation, the love and blessings of God flowed through her.

In a moment we are going to come forward for Holy Communion. Here an invitation is given for us to receive bread for the journey. As you come forward, listen for the voice of God calling, “Come and stay with me...” As you receive, let it be a time of giving yourself fully to the Creator. As you depart from the table, pledge to enter this Lenten season, committed to be with God...focused on being with the One who can make us shine.

Go to be transfigured by God. Go to be changed. Go into this season fully aware and fully alive, prepared to be transformed by God’s glory. Amen.