Tranfiguration

A Brighter Vision

March 2 – Transfiguration      Exodus 24:12-18  and Matthew 17:1-9

One ordinary day in February a few years ago, I had an experience that I will never forget.  I experienced the sacred for 45 minutes.  It was awe inspiring, it was breath taking.  It was incredible.  I didn’t expect it to happen, it was a day just like the one before, I was in full time ministry in Blind River, a full time mom of three active boys, my life was full and busy.  On this particular day, after the boys got home from school, I went out cross country skiing, the trails are five minutes from the town in Blind River.  It was about 4:30 in the afternoon so the sun was just beginning to fade.  My ski started out ordinarily enough, the first hill is always difficult for me as I warm up and figure out whether my wax is right.  It always takes me a good ten minutes of skiing to find my stride and get settled into the rhythm.  That afternoon I was so busy concentrating on my skiing that it wasn’t until I was fully into the trees that I realized that there was something different today.  And when I finally saw what surrounded me in nature, I was completely taken aback.  We had had freezing rain the day before and then a deep freeze.  The beauty that I was surrounded by – the ice, the snow, the trees, glistening ice – drooping branches, making arches to ski under.  And the farther I went into the bush, the more awesome the beauty, the more mystical the experience.  The snow and the ice created for me a sacred silence in the woods.   There was gentle breeze and the ice on the branches creaked and crackled – the trees tinkled with music as they gently swayed into each other.  It was hard to ski and look around at all the beauty at the same time, the farther I went the more the land seemed to be consecrated by God, each different region of the ski trail, the swamp, the pine forests, the fields had its own magnificence, its own eureathial beauty, its own holiness.  And for a short period of time, no more than an hour I lived in numinous time.  And God was there and the world glowed around me.  For 45 minutes my eyes were opened to God in my midst and I was transfigured.

Numinous defines a moment in time that transcends time, the place where the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary, the moments when the veil that separates us from the divine becomes transparent we glimpse the holy and the moment is full of sacredness.  The numinous experience according to Wikipedia, has   the tendency to invoke fear, awe and trembling.  The numinous experience also has a personal quality to it, in that the person feels to be in communion with a wholly other. The numinous experience is a profound moment that is deeply rooted in the divine, and widens our relationship with God.  It is a moment when the veil is lifted and our vision becomes clearer and brighter and the space between us and God is thin.

We witness two numinous moments in this morning’s reading – Moses and Jesus up on a mountain having an encounter with the holy that is profound and life changing and mysterious.  Our first reading tells about Moses – and his ascension up the mountain with a small group of men that quickly shifts to just him as he goes to encounter the holy.  Moses is off to complete a task to which he has been called – to spend time with God – for Moses it is for forty days and forty nights and during this time God and Moses commune -  for it is here, on this mountain that God gives to Moses the gift of the laws – the gift of the commandment – the gift of right relationship with God and with others through the sacred rituals.  The conversation between God and Moses is about taking the ordinary things of life like water and food and stones and using them in extraordinary ways in devotion to God and through that they also become sacred and holy.  Moses is given instruction on how the people will create numinous space so that they can become closer to God, and witness God at work in the world and in their lives and the ordinary becoming extraordinary because God is in play.  And then after the forty days and the forty nights – Moses comes back down the mountain and he is glowing – his is radiating the light of God – 

A few hundred years later -  another group of men go up a mountain – again the purpose of the ascent is to seek the presence of the holy – but unlike the Moses experience – Jesus does not go alone to the top of the mountain – he takes Peter, John and James with him – and while there something mysterious and amazing and awe inspiring happens and Jesus is transfigured before them – he begins to glow – he is radiating the light of God - he begins to dazzle and the disciples witness something in Jesus that they have never witnessed before – something shifted in how they saw Jesus and they too were changed – because once you have witnessed something so profound as a moment such as this – it changes you.  It takes a bit for the impact of the moment to sink in – and we listen as Peter tries to make some sense of things, to hold on to the moment, by asking to make structures to contain the holy, to capture the sacred – to encapsulate the divine – but it is not possible – a numinous moment such as this is in the moment – not something that can be bottled up and brought out to partake at another time and place.  When God comes – God comes and it is not something we can control or manipulate. 

I think we all have had moments like this – when we were in the presence of God, and where overwhelmed by it like Peter and John and James – when God come – or maybe the better language is – when we realize that God is in our midst –sometimes we try to cling to the moment, hold on to it tightly so it won’t slip away - but Jesus reminds  us to live the moment and then move on and trust that God goes with us down that mountain.

We all have experienced and encountered God in ordinary places in ordinary moments, and they became sacred moments.  We encounter God in birthing rooms and death beds, we see God in a magnificent sunrise and awe inspiring autumn colours.  We hear the voice of God in another in the line up at the hockey arena or in a casual conversation in a restaurant.  God meets us in our lives as a presence that supports and keeps us together in a crisis or tragedy.  God is inspiration, as we drive down the highway wondering how we are ever going to tackle our most recent challenge.God’s presence can direct our actions, point us in a clear direction,  God can be a new inspiring idea in our mind that solves a frustrating problem, or as a  longing in deep our hearts or a sacred moment pregnant with possibility.  

Like Peter John and James witnessing Jesus all aglow – hearing the voice of God coming from a cloud, we too can hear God calling to us – often in the ordinary everyday life that we lead. 

·       When we are watching a movie, and something moves us deep within –  

·       or we read a familiar passage of scripture and unexpectedly a verse leaps of the page and a fire burns in our belly. 

·       when you are sharing a quiet moment with a child and you realize the sacredness of that life, and the moment becomes charged with potential. 

·       when you are in the middle of a busy day and all of a sudden you stop, and the beauty of your surroundings take you by surprise and realize that you are smack in the midst of the most beautiful place on earth or

·       when someone reaches over and grabs your hand to let you know that you are supported, loved and cared for…..

numinous moments – God moments – sacred moments.  

This moment, too, right now has the potential to be a God moment – here in this sanctuary in as the sun streams in the windows, as we hear the soft murmur of the children’s voices, or when Alison plays a hymn or the choir sings in a way that grabs at our heart, or there is a profound silence where the voice of God calls your name, or  a word in a prayer that connects you to your creator or you see in the  face of your pew mate a profound beauty that reflects the God light within– this sacred hour has the potential to be numinous time, all moments do.  It’s in the depth and the breadth of each moment that takes our two dimensional understanding of God and gives it substance and meaning.  When we encounter God – in these thin places in numinous time – we are living sacred time.  

A sunset that catchers your breath, the ice covered trees catching the sunlight and sparkling like a thousand diamonds, a tree silhouetted in a sunrise, the northern lights, a bright red cardinal –in a snow covered tree  - the earth has a myriad of ways to shine forth its splendour and to connect us to our creator. 

Numinous time, thin places – where the space between us and God is thin – and we are transfigured.  We are aglow.

Jim Taylor writes:  “what does it means to be transfigured. Is an Ugly Duckling transfigured if it grows into a lovely swan? Is an alcoholic transfigured by giving up the bottle? Are you and I transfigured when we fall in love?
I would suggest that transfiguration doesn’t mean glowing in the dark, but seeing others (and ourselves) in a new way. The three disciples were changed by seeing Jesus in a new way. We are changed when we see a someone we’ve taken for granted, with the eyes of love. The world is changed when we begin to view other religions, other races, other genders, with caring and compassion.
It’s pointless to ask how Jesus’ transfiguration took place – we’ll never know. But we can ask how our own transfiguration will take place – and that transfiguration we can monitor, day by day.
And then, perhaps, we too will seem to glow.”

Numinous times and thin places occur when we live the gospel – when we understand and live the greatest commandment – to love God with all our heart, and mind and soul and our neighbour as ourselves – God is there in that moment when we look truly into the face of another and see beyond all the out–side stuff – see beyond the colour of the skin, their gender, their wrinkles, their weight and all you see in their beautiful eyes is God’s beloved child – and  God is there in that moment in the caring hands of another that are offering a drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry and compassion to the lonely  – and God’s voice is heard when justice prevails, and liberation is realized and one of God’s beloved children hears the words that they are loved and valued and an important part of God’s creation.

These thin places, these sacred moments these numinous times of transfiguration are in the midst of our everyday and come at unexpected times in unexpected places – they are God’s gifts of grace shining forth into our lives.

So, as we move toward Lent, may we keep awake to the wonders in our midst, let ourselves be transformed by them, transfigured and to follow the path they open to us.  Stay alert to the thin places, to the numinous times – God is getting in to our world, and we are transformed.  Shining with possibility.   Thanks be to God.  Amen.