Transfiguration Sunday NL3 John B. Valentine
Luke 9:28-45 March 2, 2025

“CAPTURING THE MOMENT”

It’s Transfiguration Sunday ... folks.

• It’s the last Sunday of the season we call “Epiphany”.

• It’s the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

• It’s the last Sunday before the season of Lent.

• And it’s that Sunday of the church year on which ... annually ... we hear read the story of Jesus’ so-called “transfiguration”.

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Now this whole “transfiguration” thing has always struck me as kind of fascinating.

The Gospel writers Matthew, Mark and Luke ALL recount the story of the Transfiguration in their accounts of the life of Jesus.

But each of them recounts it in a way that makes sense to them ... and helps them to highlight their own answer to the question “Just who IS this Jesus fellow?”

So ... for instance ... as shaped by Luke’s telling ... this whole incident begins as a time for prayer

“Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain .... TO PRAY.”

And it is while Jesus is praying that “the appearance of his face changes, and his clothes become as bright as a flash of lightning” ... that Jesus is somehow “transfigured” before them.

Then ... suddenly ... there appear with Jesus two other figures ... Moses and Elijah ...

The two godliest ... holiest ... the most prophetic ... figures in the whole of the history of Israel.

But now ... if that wasn’t weird enough in itself ... here’s where things really start to get goofy.

First off ... according to Luke’s account ... there’s like this amazing light show going on ... with glory and radiance and lightning and all ...

AND ALL THAT PETER AND JAMES AND JOHN WANT TO DO IS SLEEP!

It’s kind of like how ... four or five years ago now ... there was a wildfire one night up in the hills above our house ...

• And in the middle of the night ... couple of fire trucks raced up the street and set up shop ...

• And then ... apparently ... a police car drove up and down our street ordering us to evacuate ...

• And the whole of the neighborhood drove down the the OSH parking lot to await further instructions ... except Bethany and I ... who slept right through it.

Anyhow ... then ... when Peter and John and James DO wake up and come to their senses ...

Peter comes up with this bizarre suggestion ...

That maybe they should set up three booths or tents or huts ... whatever it is ... “One for you ... one for Moses ... and one for Elijah.”

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Truth be told ... I’ve always been a bit befuddled by Peter’s reaction there.

Why ... Peter ... WHY ... in the face of this Hall-of-Fame line-up ... Moses, Elijah and Jesus ... do you want to go make like a beaver and quick build three booths??

Seriously ... folks ...

For the better part of four decades now ... every time I’ve preached about this story ... I’ve wondered why ... WHY ... Peter has this overwhelming urge to build three booths.

I mean ... who among us ... if we were privileged to have been up on that high mountain with Peter and James and John ... watching all these strange goings-on around Jesus ... would blurt out “Let’s set up some tents!”???

And the only thing I can guess it has to do with is that Peter’s booth-building ... tent-erecting ... is just a typical first-century reaction to a momentous moment as taking a picture might be for us.

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You know how ... nowadays ... if something momentous is happening ... everybody ... or at least “every under the age of fifty” ... takes out their phone and starts shooting a video?

• Ohio State rolls over Texas ... and all the Buckeye fans in attendance at the Sugar Bowl pull out their phones ... to memorialize the moment and prove that they were there.

• The Eagles beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl ... and all the Eagles fans in attendance pull out their phones ... to memorialize the moment and prove that they were there.

• Steph Curry goes off for 56 points the other night in Orlando ... and everybody in the arena ... even all the Magic fans ... are shooting video ... to memorialize the moment and prove that they were there.

Now ... in days now past ... people didn’t have recording devices to memorialize the moment and prove that they were there.

Instead ... they built shrines ... so as to say “This is the place” ... “This is where it happened” ... to memorialize the moment and prove that they were there.

Maybe what’s going on here is that Peter is absolutely awed by what he sees.

And he wants to hang onto it forever ... just the way it is.

• He wants to enshrine Jesus and Elijah and Moses ...

• He wants to keep a little bit of them up on that mountain-top forever ...

• He wants to preserve the moment ... so that he ... and later others ... can experience it again and again and again.

He wants to “capture the moment” ... as the folks at Kodak used to say.

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Be honest ... folks. None of US has ever felt that way ... have we???

Freeze the moment ... capture the feeling ... so that its power and perfection will last forever???

Maybe it was a spiritual high ...

• Like a conversion experience at Bible camp ....

• Or a time when the impact of Jesus’ suffering and the words “given and shed for you” really hit home ...

• Or a flash of faithful insight during a Bible study or a conversation with a friend ...

• Or just a warm and peaceful feeling that felt like a divine reassurance that God had things under control.

Maybe it was a very human thrill ...

• A wedding ...
• A graduation ...
• The birth of a child.

When things like that happen ... wonderful things ... it seems as if everything in the world has fallen into place.

Life is just peachy.

“God’s in his heaven” ... and at least at that moment ... “all seems right with the world.”

And we wish it could stay that way forever and ever.

But it doesn’t.

And it seems like ... so often ... the harder we try, try, try to preserve those wonderful moments ... the faster they slip away.

Sorry, Peter ... no booths are allowed on the mountain-top.

You ... and we ... and the son of God ... must come back down the mountain.

You ... and we ... and the son of God ... must come back down into the valley ... where real life happens most of the time.

Because Jesus didn’t come to earth to be admired ... he came to earth to serve.

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Do you recall that ... at the beginning of this sermon ... I said that Matthew, Mark and Luke ALL recount the story of the Transfiguration in their accounts of the life of Jesus.

And that each of them recounts it in a way that makes sense to them ... and helps them to highlight their own answer to the question "Just who IS this Jesus fellow?"

That being said ... I think it’s pretty important for us to note that every one of them follows up the story of the Transfiguration with the story of the epileptic child who gets healed.

Matthew says: “As they were coming down the mountain ... and came to the crowd” ....

Mark says “As they were coming down the mountain ... they saw a great crowd” ... ,

Luke says “When they came back to the disciples ... they saw a great crowd.”

Point being ... EACH of those gospel writers makes the point that Jesus is immediately thrust back into attending to the needs of hurting people.

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You see ... some days we DO encounter God on the mountain top

Sometimes we may see glimpses of his glory ....

Sometimes we may feel twinges of his power ....

And ... at times like that ... we genuinely feel ourselves to be with him .... on the mountain-top ... and it is wonderful.

But we live our lives down in the valley ... not up on the mountain ... folks.

• We live down in the valley ... where children still suffer from epilepsy and cancer ... and ... sad to say as we’ve been reminded this week ... measles.

• We live down in the valley ... where parents still grieve the loss of their children ... and children still grieve the loss of their parents.

• We live down in the valley ... where rich people manipulate systems so as to take more for themselves and leave less for the needy.

• We live down in the valley ... where politicians betray the public trust again and again and again.

But Jesus is constantly calling us ... reminding us ... inviting us ... to come down from the mountaintop and got into life’s valleys.

And be his hands and his heart and his voice ...

Making real the love of God to hurting children and grieving parents ... and those who have been taken advantage of by rich manipulators and selfish politicians.

You see ... the thing that makes Christianity different from most of the other religious systems of this world is that it’s NOT on the mountaintops that Christians find their closest communion with God.

It’s down in life’s valleys ...

For Jesus was ... and still is .... the DOWN-TO-EARTH GOD.