2nd Sunday of Lent C

Jesus, Moses and Elijah go up a mountain sounds like the beginning of a great joke but indeed is the story of the Transfiguration.  It is a moment of stunning glory, an affirmation of the highest order of Jesus’ mission.  It is meant to sustain the apostles in hope as they are about to make that fateful and dangerous journey to Jerusalem.  For us, it is a flash of Easter glory in the midst of our Lenten sojourn.  Heaven invaded earth on top of the mountain.

Imagine the shock it must have been for Peter, James and John when they finally woke up.  (They do seem to be a sleepy bunch throughout the Gospels.)  They see Jesus their friend with the two great leaders of their faith.  They crane their necks to hear what they are talking about. It is one topic summarized in one untranslated word.  As Luke relates, they “spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.”

Now exodus can be translated as leaving or departure and sometimes is.  But you don’t translate it when you are talking to Moses.  Of course, Exodus is the title of the second book of the Bible.  It tells the story of Israel’s dramatic escape from slavery in Egypt and its forty year trek in the desert to the land God had promised to Abraham.   In that journey, there would be heroes (Moses foremost among them) and villains, stories of triumph and failures of obedience to God.  It is ultimately a story of liberation, a journey to freedom.  Jesus too would have his own Exodus experience as he led us to a promised land of eternal life that would include the desert moments of rejection, betrayal and death on a cross before the full glory of his mission was revealed.  You don’t get to where you intend without some time desert in your life.

We too know the desert reality on our way to the promised land.  We know of times of wanderings, loss and testing.  In the middle of the desert, far from your destination, you may forget where and why you are headed there.  You may know that you are no longer slaves, but you do not quite feel free.  You may buy into what feels like freedom for a while – money, power and possessions.  But you soon realize they may possess you as much as you possess them and you are merely slaves of another master.  And we wonder, “How can I accomplish my exodus? How will I make it to the promised land?”

I am just finishing a brilliant one volume history of the United States by Jill Lepore, a history more of ideas than politics.  Among those ideas are freedom.  What is it?  Who is entitled to it?  A question we have always struggled with and still do.  How do we finally reach our goals as a nation?  Our Church both possesses the promised land for we have the truth of the Gospel and we are about to receive Christ, yet still we are clearly wandering in the desert. And each of us is in the midst of our exodus for we are baptized into the life of Christ and are destined to share the path he walked.

Back to the mountain.  Suddenly, this brilliant scene is literally overshadowed by a foreboding cloud.  The blissful joy of the apostles turns to fear and trembling.  We too live in the midst of shadows.  This week, we live in the midst of shadows of the tragedy in New Zealand where in the city of Christ Church, a name that slices me like a hot knife, people were killed for simply coming to worship God as we chose to do this morning.  We live in a time where we seem to be much better at counting our enemies than loving them.  And we are familiar with the shadows of our own life – despair and depression, addiction and loss and violence.  But there is a way.  For from that cloud came a voice.  “This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”

We have to listen to him.  We have to believe that we must welcome the stranger, feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty.  We must love and accept everyone as he did.  We must act with compassion and mercy and deny the forces of violence and hate.  We must be aware of our own redemption and the beauty of our brothers and sisters. We must choose forgiveness over vengeance and peace over division.  “Listen to him.”  It is the way to true freedom.  It is the path of liberation.  Can you think of another way to make things better?…neither can I.  Nothing else will change our situation.  Not one of the 128 people running for President will make that kind of difference.  Listen to him.  It is the way to the Promised Land.