“And as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white.
And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem."
Luke 9:29-30
My son David just arrived in town on school break for a week. The official name for the break is ‘Reading Week’ but everyone calls it ‘Ski Week’. He’s not an avid skier but he does like to play tennis, so I expect he and I will be squaring off for some serious tennis this week. He gave me a new tennis racquet for Christmas so I won’t be able to blame my instrument if I lose! We have a bit of a tennis rivalry going on between us. We played in Ontario last summer - I don’t want to boast, but I hold the Canadian tennis crown. We played at the Outer Banks in August, I don’t want to make excuses but it was a scorching hot day - and he holds the North Carolina Crown. Finally we played back here in Newport News and though the crown went back and forth a number of times…I presently I hold the Virginia tennis Crown.
Now, some people compete for money – put a little wager on the game before they play just to make it interesting. Others compete to see who buys drinks or lunch afterwards in the clubhouse. Not David and I – we just play for the glory. Now, glory may not seem like much of a prize but I’m here to tell you it’s more than enough to keep us competitive! The winner gets to bask in the glory of victory and the loser wallows in the despair of defeat. And I for one know how to bask. When I win I do a little victory dance, place a pretend crown on my head and run over to the net to shake his hand and say something like “Hey listen, winning isn’t everything …but losing is nothing!” It’s all in jest of course, and it assures there will be a rematch. But I have to admit, winning feels pretty good. Glory is a good feeling.
And that’s how the world understands and uses glory - as a ‘feel good’. Universities want their student body to feel good about their school and so they spend a lot of money on their football and basketball teams. Some football coach makes more money than the university president! Why? Because glory fetches a good price, and if the coach can bring victory it means glory for the school…and that has great spin-offs - higher student morale, strong financial support and great publicity for the school.
American Idol is big on glory…even those who can’t hold a tune in a basket line up to take a shot at that competition. Why? Because everyone wants their 5 minutes of glory. But the mother load of glory is reserved for the winner of American Idol, isn’t it? Whoever wins it is assured of instant stardom and a singing career. Glory.
Glory feels pretty good. Hollywood knows it – back in 2000 Disney produced a football movie called The Replacements based loosely on events during the 1987 NFL football strike. When the NFL players all sat out, the owners brought in replacement players to keep the season going. The movie is about the Washington Redskin replacements who helped take the team all the way to the Super bowl that year. The replacements players didn’t get paid big salaries, no big NFL contracts, didn’t even get to go to the Super bowl - the NFL players settled and came back for that. The only incentive the replacements got was glory…the glory of the game. And their glory was beating the Dallas Cowboys and assuring the Redskins a place at the Super bowl. It’s a feel good movie and what makes it feel so good is glory.
Well today’s passage in Luke is a story about glory…the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ with his transfiguration on the mountaintop. Earlier in this chapter Jesus has revealed to the disciples that he is the Christ and tells them that the Christ must undergo suffering, rejection, death before being raised on the third day. What’s more, he tells the disciples that if they want to follow after him, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. Not the easiest message to hear, is it? The disciples aren’t looking for a Messiah who is going to suffer and die, they want a Messiah who will enter Jerusalem, take back power from Rome, and rule over Israel like King David. And as his followers, they aren’t looking for self-denial and cross-bearing, they want positions of privilege and power. So it comes as no surprise that the disciples just aren’t listening to Jesus here.
So to get their attention, Jesus takes a little side trip up a mountain before heading off to Jerusalem. He takes with him his three closest disciples - Peter, James and John and together they go up the mountain to pray. Actually, it’s Jesus who does the praying, the disciples all fall asleep. And while Jesus prays his appearance changes and he becomes dazzling white. The disciples awake to see Jesus transfigured with Moses and Elijah beside him, talking to him about his departure in Jerusalem. Peter, sensing the holiness of the moment, asks Jesus if they can erect three booths on the mountain, one for each of them. Just then a cloud overshadows them and a voice from the cloud says to them ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!’ And then the cloud is gone, Moses and Elijah are gone, and Jesus is alone with the three disciples once more. And the story ends with these words: ‘And they kept silence and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.’
That’s a bit odd, don’t you think? When the disciples encounter the glory of God they are rendered speechless - they go away in silence and tell no one anything of what they’ve seen . That’s not the way it works with worldly glory…silence isn’t associated with the glory of winning American Idol, or the Super bowl, or even my Virginia tennis crown. But divine glory renders the disciples speechless - they don’t want to talk about it. Why? Well, for one thing, it’s pretty hard to put it into words, isn’t it? The whole experience is so completely ‘other’ that it defies explanation. How can people possibly understand? So the disciples keep silent so people don’t think they’re nuts, or even worse, fools. In fact it isn’t until after the death and resurrection of Jesus that the story gets told at all. And in the meantime the whole experience is internalized instead of shared, and maybe that’s what God would rather happen.. because then it can begin to bolster the disciples faith and strengthen their resolve. So divine glory tends to be internalized rather than externalized.
I think that’s true for the Apostle Paul too…he experienced the glory of God himself. He didn’t like to talk about it, but the Corinthians were able to coax it out of him so he shares something of the experience with them. He’s reticent – doesn’t want to be considered a fool, or have people accuse him of boasting in himself…so he tells of the experience in the third person: He says You want me to talk like a fool, I talk like a fool…
“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body, I don’t know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise – in the body or out of the body, again I don’t know – God knows, and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.”
I suspect he’s talking about meeting Christ on the road to Damascus, but I don’t know for sure because Paul doesn’t go into detail … but the whole account is just dripping with glory, isn’t it? So much so that Paul refuses to go on. He ends by saying ‘I won’t boast on behalf of this man, because I boast only in my weaknesses, but if I wanted to boast I certainly could and would be speaking the truth .’
Whatever Paul heard and saw remains a secret and this is the only time he ever really speaks of it. But the experience continues to live on inside Paul and fuels his faith for the journey ahead…three journeys actually. Paul has made three journeys across the Roman Empire risking life and limb for the sake of the gospel, and there’s no doubt that this vision of glory helped empower him for that work and ministry.
If you want me to talk like a fool, I’ll talk like a fool. About 30 years ago I was in Aviation and Flight Technology at Seneca College, with the hopes of becoming an airline pilot. I finished the first year of the course but of the 90 of us left after year 1 they only chose 30 people to go on to 2nd year. I wasn’t one of them. I was disappointed but picked myself up and applied through the air force. But by this time I had developed allergies to dust and the air force didn’t want me. So I decided to work for a year, get a bit of money save up and figure out what I would do with the rest of life.
It was during that year I began to feel called into ministry. I didn’t think I fit the mould of a Presbyterian minister so I resisted the idea. But the call persisted. I talked to a friend of mine who was in seminary, I talked to my own pastor about it and they both of them encouraged me onward. But I was really struggling with it and didn’t think it was for me. It was not long after that I was watching Zepherelli’s Jesus of Nazareth on television. In the last scene of that movie, the risen Christ reveals himself to his disciples. And in the final scene, he’s seated on the ground with all the disciples huddled around him and their afraid because he’s going to leave them soon. They say to him ‘Don’t leave us’ And Jesus raises his head, looks straight into the camera, with those piercing eyes of his, and as God is my witness, what he said was spoken directly to me: He said: ‘Don’t be afraid, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.’ And I knew in that moment I was being called into ministry and in that moment knew I would go.
Now I can count on one hand the number of times of ever shared that story with anyone else? For most of my ministry I’ve kept it safely tucked inside my soul because like Paul, I don’t want to sound like I’m boasting or worse, I don’t want to sound like a fool. But that moment has empowered me like none other. While other pastors have struggled with their call, questioned their call and even forsaken their call, I have not had any of that to deal with. I’ve known ever since entering ministry that this is where I am supposed to be - and when the dog bites, the bee stings, when I’m feeling bad…and God knows ministry can do all of that and more, I am not persuaded to pack it in and try something else. Why - this experience of glory
Martin Luther King Jr. must have had a similar experience of God’s glory. How else could he have continued on with that movement knowing it was just a matter of time till he would be taken out?
Some vision of glory is what keeps him going…he hints at it in his very last sermon on April 3 1968 In Memphis, the eve of his assassination. Here’s how he ends that sermon:
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Do you hear it? Glory!
(Woman in the prison camp in Germany in WW2 - each day she survived on the glory of tulips in a window box on the way to and from work each day )
Divine glory sustains the soul for whatever lies ahead. The mountaintop glory that King experienced gave him the courage to move forward with his dream in spite of the death threats. The glory that Paul experienced sustained him through many years of hardship as he preached the gospel and set up new churches. The mountaintop glory the disciples experienced sustained them on the road to Jerusalem and to Golgotha. And if you let the glory of God into your life, it will sustain you too. You will be able weather the storms of this life with the confidence of the psalmist who says ‘Yea though I travel thru the valley of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…’ Have an eye for God’s glory and savour it in your life!
Amen