Rear View Mirror

 

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
February 14, 2021

Last Epiphany B 

          My Facebook feed is currently filled with posts from one year ago.  Friends are posting photos of the last time they ate out, the last vacation they took, the last visit with loved ones, or what they did last Valentine’s Day, all unmasked and definitely not physically distant!  For those who are not on Facebook, the social media platform allows users to share or post photos, thoughts, recipes, articles, and other such things with their friends.  Personally, I am there for the baby pictures, both the ones I post and the ones my friends post!  But right now, as we approach the one-year anniversary of Covid quarantine, many of the posts are a longing look in the rear-view mirror at the last things we did before Covid took over our lives.

          This Sunday, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday, is one of my favorite Sundays of the whole year.  Normally, we sing the great Alleluia hymns loudly and with gusto.  At the end of the service, we bury colorful alleluias in a tomb in front of the altar where they will rest until Easter.  We create a little liturgical mountain top experience to sustain us through the upcoming season of Lent, until the joy and wonder of Easter morning.  Because this year is the same but different, we have changed things up a bit. We have thrown in a little Mardi Gras and have the wonderful music of Jenny Walvoord and Drew Le this morning.  But the idea is the same-we create a mini-mountain top experience to sustain us through the Lenten wilderness ahead.

          In a time when many Covid restrictions are still in place, the challenge of obtaining a vaccine is almost overwhelming for those who are actually eligible, and we’re hitting a wall with quarantine, Lent, a season of denial and self-discipline, may be the last thing we want to think about.  We long for moments of human connection and we look at the past with a fondness we never realized we had until now.  What wisdom and nourishment for the Lenten journey can we find in the story of Jesus’ transfiguration?

          This morning, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, apart, by themselves, where Jesus is transfigured before the disciples’ very eyes and Jesus is joined by Moses and Elijah.  The disciples are terrified, yet at the same time, they want to stay on the mountain top.   In the midst of their terror, they hear a voice, the same voice that spoke at Jesus’ baptism, say “This is my Son, the Beloved.  Listen to him.”

          “Listen to him.”  What are the disciples supposed to hear? The last thing Jesus said in Mark’s gospel, before taking Peter, James, and John up the mountain, was that “that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Then Jesus went on to say to the disciples “‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”   The disciples follow Jesus down the mountain and meet up with the rest of the disciples to continue Jesus’ work of teaching and healing and ushering in the Kingdom of God, which eventually leads them to Jerusalem, the crucifixion, and the resurrection just as Jesus told them.

          “Listen to him.”  What are we to hear?  What Jesus says with his words and with his actions is that following Jesus is about following Jesus, who goes first and leads us through, not around obstacles.  Following Jesus means following Jesus, pointing to the Kingdom of God in our midst with our words and actions, rather than pointing to ourselves, and living for the sake of the gospel.  Or as Paul says in the reading from 2 Corinthians this morning “For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”   Jesus’ promise is that wherever we follow him, whether into the wilderness of Covid or into wilderness of Lent, or anywhere else, he goes first to show us the way and to help us see the Kingdom of God growing in our midst.  But in order to follow Jesus, we have to watch where he goes, listen to what he says, and go where he goes.

          On the mountain top, Peter, James and John experienced the glory of God in Jesus.  As they followed Jesus down the mountain and into all that the future held for them, I am sure the three disciples checked the rear-view mirror from time to time, looking back wistfully to that amazing experience, trying to figure out just what happened and perhaps even how to make it happen again.  But that mountain top experience was not intended to call them backwards to repeat former experiences, but to help them see God’s glory in the present, whatever the present held. 

          The story of Jesus’ transfiguration shows us the glory of God, not so that we can look backwards, but so that we know what we are looking for when we look forward.  Jesus leads the disciples down from the mountain to do the work of ushering in the Kingdom of God, pointing to the glory of God at work as Jesus goes about teaching and healing, and finally in the crucifixion and resurrection.  We follow Jesus into the wilderness of Lent, and any other wilderness in which we find ourselves, not with our breath held until Easter, but with our eyes wide open, knowing that if we follow Jesus, we will see God.  Rather than feeling like we’re looking at the mountain top through the rear view mirror these days, metaphorically and literally, the transfiguration of Jesus calls us down the mountain to see where in the wilderness the Kingdom of God is blooming and to experience the glory of God in our midst. 

                                                                             Amen.