How many of
you did (or do) photography? I don’t mean the stuff we do today with our phones. While
I am not thinkingabout Matthew Brady, glass plates, or "watch the
birdie!", I am remembering the stuff done with film and paper and acetate,
with chemicals and light. I know I am showing my age, but when I learned this
stuff I didn’t know a pixel from little magical creatures with
wings.
But boy it
was a whole lot of fun... what great images that technology produced! I still
look at the work of Ansell Adams, Margaret Bourke-White, Dianne Arbus, not to
mention Nat Geo, Life, Look, and all those great magazines with real
appreciation.
I remember
one January I took an intensive class in photography that involved everything
from snapping the shutter to working in the dark room. After a blizzard, our
professor assigned us to take photographs outdoors…when everything was covered
with snow. I remember standing still, to let my eyes adjust, I saw footsteps in
the snow that covered the steps in front of my college’s library. It was
intriguing, and I tried to photograph that. But everything I shot came out,
well, white! No detail, no subtleties, no gradation. Just white.
Nothing I
tried could bring out anything except stark differences between what was
covered with snow and what was not. I was ready to throw the
negatives out because I was sure I overexposed them.
But my
instructor stopped me and suggested two things: first, use very “slow” film and
shoot with a very small aperture—the smallest possible opening in the camera
lens on the most sensitive film possible. So back I went, this time with a
tripod and I stood there in the cold with my thumb on a cable attached to the
shutter, to let this very small opening allow the light in through this very
small hole for a very long time.
Second, after
I developed the negative in the dark room, she suggested that I also do the
same thing when I used the enlarger to make the print. She said to use the most
sensitive paper possible with the smallest possible opening on the enlarger for
a longer time.
It required a
lot of patience, but it was worth it!
Instead of
the brilliant white blur that came from following the standard settings, less
light for longer time produced all kinds of detail. In fact, more subtlety and detail was
revealed than even my eye noticed before I took the picture!
And there they
were: footsteps in the snow! It was awesome!
When we hear
today’s Gospel story of transfiguration, we tend focus on Jesus on the
mountain. But it’s awe, wonder and
mystery of what the disciples saw that holds my attention.
The thing
that catches my eye is not just that Jesus’ glory is revealed—no small thing,
to be sure— but how the disciples were changed by the experience. In other words, Jesus is transfigured so that
we may become like him and show him off to others.
To appreciate
what God is doing with Jesus and his disciples, and with us in our lives, a
different application of light and time is required.
In today’s
Gospel we see Jesus standing at the boundaries between heaven and earth,
between now and eternity, revealing God’s glory. He is transfigured. He is changed.
His countenance glowed, and his clothes were dazzling white.
The disciples
experienced both awe and fear at the very same time. They were made helpless,
and in their fear and awe they do what people under stress do all the time:
they fell back on what they knew. When we are overwhelmed with stress and fear
and even trauma, it is like a flashbulb has gone off in our brains, objectivity
and rationality are blinded, and we either freeze, flee, or we fall back on
what we know.
Peter, James,
and John fell back on what they knew. When they experienced a dazzlingly bright
Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah, they decided to freeze the moment. They
didn’t have cameras so they did the next best thing: they began to build
booths, or little local shrines, to commemorate the moment.
But their
plan is stopped dead in the water: God gives them instructions as to how they
are to remember the moment. A voice from heaven speaks to them and says: “this
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well please. Listen to Him!”
Again, the
flashbulb effect in the brain; but this time unable to even go through the
motions of the familiar, they just fall to the ground, even more awed, even
more fearful. Jesus comes to them, out
of the vision and raises them up out of their fear and leads them back to the
daily work following and learning from Jesus. In Mark’s Gospel, the writer
wants us to reserve judgment on what glory means until we contemplate the cross
and resurrection. Matthew’s Gospel that we heard today sets out some
interesting parallels between the mountaintop experience of transfiguration and
the crucifixion.
Jesus stops
them from making shrines or even talking about what they’ve witnessed because
as awesome and as fearful as this glorious moment was, what they will witness
in Jerusalem at the cross will be much more fearful and even more awesome.
On the
mountain, Jesus garments shine with glory. On the cross, soldiers will gamble
over his cloak.
On the
mountain, Jesus is met by Moses and Elijah. On the cross, Jesus is crucified
with two criminals.
On the
mountain, God declares Jesus is God’s son. On the cross, passerby and witnesses
will mock and taunt him with these very words.
On the
mountain, there are three witnesses: Peter, James and John. On the cross, there
are also three witnesses: Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, and Salome, the
mother of James and John.
This is why
Jesus tells the disciples to hold on to their experience, to keep it to
themselves because they won’t get it until after they know the cross and
the resurrection. They are to tone down the light and give their exposure more
time.
The same is
true for us. If we are to understand how we are to know God’s glory, we can’t
just focus on the mountain top. There is too much light and not enough time to
work it through. We are tempted to look only at or seek only the peak experiences
that we forget to look for the holy in the everyday. The transfiguration points us to the cross
and passion of Jesus, yes, but also the everyday, walk on the road, eat with
his friends, teaching the stories Jesus.
Our glory,
our stepping across threshold from earth to heaven, comes as we contemplate the
incarnation, cross and resurrection, and in how we reflect Christ’s glory to
the world.
So… how do we
reflect Christ’s glory to the world?
There’s a lot
of buzz in the Christian (and some secular) media about an ad campaign called
“He Gets Us.” Apparently there were two ads put together by group of
evangelical Christian churches and business leaders talking about how Jesus
“gets us” in all of life’s travails. I missed the ads when they aired during
the Super Bowl but took a look on-line. On the whole, I have no particular
quibble with them either theologically or stylistically. Yeah, I wish that the
folks who funded this weren’t so fervently homophobic—denying the obvious and strong
faith of so many LGBT Christians—and also so committed to the rather modern
(which is to say inherently unbiblical) concept of complementarianism (you know
that male-female relationships are not equal but complimentary… which is a
drastic over-simplification, I know, but we don’t have all day….!) So… alright,
I don’t agree with some of their theological premises and their ethical
implications. So, what else is new? The basic truth in the ads is still right,
as far as I can tell.
But the Incarnation
and the Transfiguration of Jesus reminds us it’s no longer a one-way street. The
basic truth of Jesus’ incarnation is the fullness of God and the fullness of
humanity is found undiminished in the person Jesus. The formula that the Church
has always understood is that 100% human + 100% divine = 100% Jesus. He is the
fullness of God and the fullness of humanity in one person, undiluted. All so
we could access God and so that we know that in Christ, God knows the fullness
of what it is to be human. In short, “he gets us” so that we may “get” (really
“get” in our hearts, minds, and souls) the love of God.
And that’s
what we celebrate today. All through Epiphany, we’ve been hearing about and
celebrating how Jesus reveals himself as God Incarnate, the Messiah, our Savior
and Redeemer. And today, we get a glimpse of the glory that will be revealed
again in the cross and resurrection.
So what does
show off Christ’s glory? Our compassion shows off Christ’s glory. Our service
shows off Christ’s glory. Our worship shows off Christ’s glory. How we are with
one another, especially when times are tough, shows off Christ’s glory.
Remaining faithful even when don’t have all the answers shows off Christ’s
glory. How we work and serve and pray with others, especially when they differ from us, shows off Christ’s glory. How
we give of ourselves so that others might be healed, fed, educated, and helped through
life’s difficulties, shows off Christ’s glory.
The
remarkable thing is that when faithfulness becomes an ordinary part of who we
are; when simplicity becomes a normal part of how we live and what we do then
Christ’s glory becomes the most apparent. Christ shines through us very often
when we are looking the other way. When we look at another, and see nothing but
a person that Jesus cares about, then that is when that person is most likely
to see the face of Christ and his glory.
When we meet
Christ not just on the mountain but at the foot of the cross, we are changed.
But how we are changed often shows itself in little ways that we overlook and
cannot force. The glory of God is revealed in us but in ways that often
surprise us.
It’s just like that darkroom lesson of years ago: The temptation will be to turn up the light, and so overexpose and then wash out the beautiful detail. But a little less brilliance and a little more time will reveal the rich detail and hidden beauty of living as a follower of Christ in ways that we never knew was possible before.
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