Transfiguration 2013 (Luke 9:28-36)

 “This is my son, my Chosen, listen to him.”

Only God can reveal God.

Jesus is God’s revelation of Himself.

Prophets, priests, theologians and teachers offer speculative insights about God. Each individual human being claims the right to define God. God chooses to reveal Himself to us in Jesus Christ.

Does this make sense to you?

If God is real, if God is the infinite and eternal transcendent reality, does it make sense that it is God Himself who chooses to reveal his reality to us? Is it reasonable that only God can reveal God?

Certainly, it came to make sense to Moses and the prophets. Most assuredly, it took a while for Moses and the prophets to come to this conclusion. By Moses’ own account it took him eighty years of life experience to recognize the simple truth that only God can reveal God.

Moses spent his first forty years learning that there are many deities for many occasions and purposes. He learned that man creates these deities in wood, and stone and metal. He spent another forty years unlearning the teachings of his youth. It wasn’t until he was eighty years old that he could accept the truth. God is. God is simply and powerfully the One who declares: I am.

Elijah experienced God in a similar way. During a time of religious syncretism, Elijah proclaimed: The Lord is my God. There is only one God. God is. He is the One who declares: I Am. God spoke to Elijah, as God speaks to all people everywhere. Elijah made a real to let God be God. In that choice Elijah laid the foundation of faith that opened his eyes and ears to the reality of God.

Certainly, most of the prophets heard the word of God and saw the reality of God at an early age. Some experienced God as children. Some experienced God as teens. Although the prophets came from different backgrounds and social classes, all made a choice to let God be God. All made a choice to see the world as it is rather that as they might want it to be.

The universal pattern of revelation is present in the Transfiguration of Jesus. Certainly, Peter, James and John had some serious misconceptions about who God is and what God is accomplishing.

The pattern is simple, direct, reasonable and experiential.

First: God invites the three apostles to take a journey. They walk up the side of a mountain. They experience the reality of nature. God’s revelation to human beings is grounded in the creation, in nature. Nature is not the revelation. It is the literal ground of revelation for human beings. Be wary of any claim to revelation that is ethereal or relies on occult knowledge.

Second: God sets the parameters for the revelation in the context of what He has already declared. The context of revelation is Moses and the Prophets. Be wary of any claim to revelation that rejects the Old Testament.

Third: The reality of revelation is God himself. The principle of revelation is that only God can reveal God. Jesus is God who reveals God. In the Transfiguration Jesus reveals that the One God who declares: I am is three persons. The cloud is the divine glory of the Holy Spirit. The voice is the voice of the Father. The Father declares that Jesus is the Chosen, the Beloved, The Revelation of God on earth. Jesus is the standard of revelation and the test of revelation. Be wary of people who claim the prophetic office and speak the prophetic voice but reject God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God revealing God.

Fourth: Jesus is found alone. At the completion of the Transfiguration there is only Jesus. Jesus is the Chosen means by which the One God in Three Persons has chosen to reveal himself to us. Jesus is the Chosen. There is no other.

Only God can reveal God. Nature is the ground of this revelation. Moses and the prophets provide the framework. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the reality of revelation. Jesus is God in human flesh. The eternal Father declares for all people for all time: “This is My Son, My Chosen, listen to Him!”