Last Sunday of Epiphany 2012

Last Sunday of Epiphany (Mark 9:2-9)
“This is my Son, The Beloved. Listen to Him.”

It is a very rare occurrence in human history when God the Father speaks audibly to people.

God the Father’s audible word to Peter, James and John on the mount of Transfiguration is identical to the audible word He spoke when the last of the prophets baptized Jesus. And, it is a word very literally placed within the context and framework of the word God the Father spoke to Moses and the Prophets.
The word is Jesus. The word describes Jesus as The Beloved.

Many people in our time complain that God doesn’t speak. They say that if only God would speak clearly and unambiguously then they would believe. The record of scripture is that God does speak.

God spoke to Moses and the prophets. God spoke to the apostles and the disciple. The problem is not that God has not spoken. The problem is that when God does speak human beings refuse to listen.

Peter, James and John had both experiences. They heard God speak. And, they found it difficult to listen. In the real presence of divine glory the three apostles, the future leadership team of the Church, fell asleep. The experience of the Divine manifesting in this world was too much for them to accept.

The context of the Transfiguration is in the failure of the apostles to hear the word of God and to believe the word of God. The transfiguration takes place six days after Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah and then immediately rejected our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation in the Messiah.

Jesus took Peter, James and John to the mountain of Transfiguration to give them one more opportunity to hear the word of God and to believe the word of God.

This opportunity was unlike any other they had experienced. At the Transfiguration the one God reveals the fullness of the blessed and eternal Trinity. He recapitulates thousands of years of salvation history in the personal appearance of Moses, who represents the Law, and Elijah, who represents the prophets.

On the mountain of Transfiguration the Holy Spirit manifests as a resplendent luminescent cloud. God the Son radiates the dazzling white beauty of holiness. God the Father speaks audibly to reveal the Plan of Salvation.

The plan of salvation comes forth in the context of the Law and the prophets. But, the Plan of salvation is not limited to the Law and the prophets. The Plan of Salvation is Jesus.

Jesus is God the Father’s only begotten Son. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved of the Eternal Father. The Beloved has no beginning and has no end. There never was a time when the Son did not exist.

The Plan of Salvation is nothing more and nothing less than reunification with the infinite and eternal love of God manifesting in the particularity of human experience.

This is the Plan Moses and the Prophets proclaimed. It is not the plan most people in Jesus’ day wanted. It is not the Plan most people in our time want.
One thing the people of Jesus’ day did understand was that the Plan of Salvation is not about a distant future. It is about life here and now. Jesus’s followers and enemies expected him to produce immediate and identifiable results.

They expected Jesus to seize power in Jerusalem, raise an army, impose one rigid and inflexible religious law on Israel, then use his divine power to destroy Rome and enslave the nations. They expected Jesus to make Jerusalem the capital of a new world empire that would impose a new world order. They expected wealth and power as their reward for supporting Jesus.

They missed the reality of Jesus’ teaching that righteousness means right relationship. The missed the reality that the healing miracles express divine love. They missed the truth that Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh.

Moses understood this. The prophets understood this. They issued the call to worship to the people and the people rejected the call. They rejected the call because they believed that the problem confronting humanity is a lack of power and a lack of law. Moses and Elijah both experienced in their own ministries how the people they served rejected God.

People reject the authentic prophetic voice for the same reason they rejected and killed Jesus. They don’t want who God is. They don’t want the steadfast, holy, unconditional, sacrificial and transforming love that is God, They, we, want the power.

The Transfiguration of Jesus just before his final journey to Jerusalem set the framework for the apostles to understand why the Plan of Salvation is the Way of the Cross.

They missed it. They fell asleep. They muttered inane references to religious practice. But, God accomplished his purpose. For they remembered.

They remembered the moment of Transfiguration so that after the resurrection they could look back and say: so that is what He meant. That is why Moses and Elijah was there. That is Jesus is both man and God. That is how the one God is three persons.
It can take a while to appreciate what God reveals to us in His word. There is an immediate and identifiable result in our individual lives as we come to Jesus by grace through faith.

The immediate and identifiable result is ours to claim. It is also ours to disdain. The result is the transformation of the way we think, feel and choose. The result is the transformation of fear into faith, of pride into hope, of self will into love.
Make no mistake. Many people want something very different from Jesus. They want Jesus to reward them with the temporary things of this world. They want the money, power, pleasure and prestige that at best is only temporary. Sadly, they want those temporal benefits to continue in the next life.

Moses and Elijah are very clear. Jesus is very clear. We become who we worship. We become how we worship.

Heaven is not only a transcendent reality it is a real presence that we can experience here and now. The Kingdom of Heaven is a relationship with Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God the Father, The Beloved of God the Father.

The Kingdom of Heaven is the transforming real presence of The Beloved in our daily lives. The Holy Spirit is speaking to us and working with us so we can become who we are called to worship and how we are called to worship.

In the call to worship, our Heavenly Father calls us to be the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved. Eternal life starts now or it never starts. The treasure of heaven is a gift God pours out to us now.

Jesus continues to pour Himself out to us in the blessed sacrament of the altar so that we can live and move and have our being free from fear, free from anxiety, free from frustration, free from the corrosive effects of sin.

On the mount of Transfiguration our Heavenly Father spoke audibly to Peter, James and John. He told them: this is my Son, The Beloved. Listen to Him.

The apostles heard the words but they did not heed the words. They did not believe until after the resurrection. They remembered the words. They wrote then down. And now we hear them. Across the centuries God the Father speaks audibly to us from the words recorded in holy scripture.

Are we listening? Do we believe? Will we act on that belief?
Jesus is God the Father’s Son. Jesus is the co-eternal Beloved. Listen to him.