Today is transfiguration Sunday and we heard in the scripture readings that both Jesus and Moses were changed or transfigured by their experiences on the mountain. So changes, that their faces shone with light – a holy glow that emanated from within their souls and shone out from their faces.
It would makes sense then, that I would reflect on the glow we emanate or reflect, when we are in our own state of grace – whether that be joy at a child’s question; a peaceful cup of tea at the end of a busy day or an epiphany of life changes proportions – but I’m not going to do that…I went down a different path after reading the scriptures, talking to friends and reflecting on what I could possibly share with you on a day that is about change, and big changes at that.
To do that I had to think about what it would be like to have changed so dramatically in such a short period of time. I assume it was a relatively short period of time, there is no scriptural reference to snacks or camping gear – When Jesus went up the mountain with his disciples he was clearly not an ordinary man, but his full glory and purpose had not yet been revealed. When he came down from the mountain it was clear he was something far more than had been imagined.
With 20/20 hindsight and the benefit of centuries of biblical scholarship and Christian practice we can say well “duh” of course he was more than just an ordinary man – we have the benefit of historical knowledge –of looking back – what would it have been like though, looking forward, knowing deep in your heart that your life had a purpose but not knowing how monumental your purpose would be…and why then? What that moment on the mountain?
I could make some smart-aleck comments here about being physically closer to God when you’re on tope of a mountain but that’s being too literal – I think it more to do with timing than location – the purpose of Jesus life was revealed to him on that day – he was, in God’s estimation – ready to know who he was and why he was on earth. To go back to the discussion of glowing light – I’d like to think he glowed for more than one reason, the first as described in the scripture reading, that he had been in the presence of God and the second, not in scripture but perhaps relevant to our times was he was ready to be his true self – something so wonderful that he glowed with light.
I don’t think that experience is limited to the Son of God – the opportunity to find and understand our true selves is not limited to those who would be ultimately divine – The question is how do we know, how does God know, when we are ready to be lit?
Most of us have or will experience dramatic changes in our lives – the death of a loved one can leave us breathless, as if the ground has dropped out from beneath our feet – the birth of a child and the startling realization that no matter what, life will never be the same…but it is the less dramatic, less easily named or defined changes that I would like to examine.
Our piece of age old wisdom is that God never gives you more than you can handle – in the same category as “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”…the thinking behind those two sayings seems to be that we are ready for certain events, usually difficult ones, at certain times in our lives, that we can handle whatever is thrown our way…I think there is a lot of truth to that – - that we can handle what we are given, that is given for a reason, we are ready and need to learn from a particular experience – but think back to the less defining moments in your life – ask yourself as I did with the children this morning – did I wake up on my 30th, 50th, 70th or 80th birthday thinking “wow”, I’m a lot different from last night?” – Maybe, but probably not…many of us probably woke up thinking – “really?” – what we can do though is look back over a lifetime and see change – how we feel and act differently then we would have one year ago, ten or 20 years ago. How our reactions to a similar event provides us with an opportunity to witness our own moments of mountain revelations.
In the highly competitive and acquisition oriented times we live in even our spiritual growth, however you want to define it – in the 70s it was “finding yourself” – can become pressurized (become a commodity) – another area of our lives where we must improve on, succeed, acquire some form of enlightenment, ever striving for improvement. One of my favourite musicians is David Bowie and one my favourite Bowie songs is called Changes, in the first verse he says:
Still don’t know what I was waiting
for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet…
I think he was writing about the pressure we feel to change as well as the desire we have for change and reflecting the cultural attitudes of our times: Cultural attitudes to change seem to fit into at least two categories:
Change is random, lacking determinism
Change is cyclical, and one expect circumstances to reoccur. This concept is often seen in Eastern world views such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
In fact the second of the four noble truths of Buddhism is that Desire and Attachment are the causes of suffering – so if we do not change we will remain unsatisfied and continue to suffer.
Being open to change, hearing the call or recognizing the light is a remarkable challenge in our times – we are used to hearing the outside voices of mass media, repetition of messages on various issues and conflicts, constant bombardment of private details of the lives of the rich and famous, although perhaps not the particularly interesting…all of this serves as a curtain of noise and distraction that hinders our understanding of the remarkableness of our own lives. If we are to survive and embrace change we need to be able to ourselves the time and space to recognize when we are ready, when we can climb up and then down our own metaphorical mountains.