Last Sunday after the Epiphany (A), 19 Feb. 2023. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Exodus 24:12-18. Come up to me on the mountain.
- 2 Peter 1:16-21. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place…until the morning star rises in your hearts.
- Matthew 17:1-9. Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
O God of majesty, mercy and mystery, [1] grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
Today is an auspicious day, the last Sunday after the Epiphany, the Sunday we tell the story of the Transfiguration, the story of Jesus and his friends and their majestic, merciful, and mystical mountaintop experience. But if you heard the Gospel lesson last week, you (like me) might still be stuck in the weeds of a different mountain, pondering Jesus’ hard teachings, even after our seminarian Lisa’s marvelous sermon. Last week, we heard Jesus teaching things like: it’s not only murder that violates God’s law (or Love’s rule), it’s being angry with another or insulting another that will make one liable to the flaming trash heap called Gehenna, also known as hell. It’s not only adultery that violates God’s law (or Love’s rule), it’s looking at another person with lust in one’s heart. It’s not just swearing falsely; it’s swearing at all. Although we didn’t hear it last week, what follows is about turning the other cheek, giving away one’s extra cloak, going the second mile, giving to everyone who begs from us, and loving our enemies.
These are all rendered as examples of Jesus’ assertion to his followers that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, not one iota. Sometimes I think it’s a wonder that Jesus had any followers left by the time he got to the Mount of the Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John.
Here’s what I think about those hard lessons, which are sometimes referred to as the antitheses – but they really should be called the intensifications. The method of teaching that Jesus was using here is a rabbinic one: “You have read [this]…but the meaning is [this].” The whole rabbinical point of this method is to get at the deeper, more intense meaning of the teaching. The meaning that Jesus was making was to remind his hearers about the underlying value, the rationale of the Torah teachings. That foundational, grounding value of all of the law and the prophets is fully embodied, whole-hearted Love. The rabbis taught in the Talmud, “It matters not whether you do much or little, so long as your heart is directed to the Holy One.” [2] Or, also in the Talmud, “Better is a sin which is done with the right intention than a commandment (a mitzvah) which is not done with the right intention.” [3] The teachings are clear that Torah is grounded in the love of God and enacted with loving-kindness (in Hebrew, ḩesed). [4] It seems to me that the point of Jesus’ teaching was to urge his hearers to stretch, to go much deeper, whole-heartedly, all-in, to the majesty, mercy, and mystery of the Holy One.
And speaking of the Torah, there are some remarkable verses just before our reading from Exodus picks up for today. Chapter 24, Verses 9-11 tell that Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu (Aaron’s oldest sons), and seventy of the elders of Israel went up the mountain, where they saw the God of Israel. Under God’s feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness or purity. (It wasn’t pavement, but it was like pavement; it wasn’t heaven, but it was like heaven!) God did not raise a hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they gazed upon God; and they ate and drank together. This is the only time in the Bible that the Holy One of Israel is seen face to face.
When I was reading commentary about this passage, I was delighted to come across a quote from theologian and one-time Emmanuelite, Samuel Terrien, who poignantly juxtaposed what he called the “ethical ear” and the “contemplative eye,” in his study of the presence of the Divine in the Hebrew Bible.[5] The ethical ear is the ear through which we are called to hear, to listen deeply, and the contemplative eye, the eye through which we are called gaze in wonder and love. Then, with our hearing and vision fully engaged, we, like all of God’s children, are called to eat and drink, sharing in a covenant meal.
The Book of Exodus tells us that after sharing a covenant meal with God, Moses and Joshua get called upon to go further up the mountain, without their leadership team, for a very long time, which is what forty days and forty nights means. I think that Matthew’s audience knew this Exodus story well. They also knew that Moses’ face radiated whenever he came back from talking with the Holy One. They knew that high mountains were where the realm of earth and the realm of heaven kissed each other.
Peter, James, and John went with Jesus into the mountain, six days after Peter’s confession that he understood Jesus to be the Christ of the living God; six days after Jesus had scolded Peter for wanting to keep him safe from harm; six days after Jesus admonished his followers that they would find their lives by losing them for the love of God. Jesus was telling his learners that once we die to the idea that our lives are in our own hands and understand that they are in God’s hands, then we really begin to live. Then we are truly free to love, for Love.
It’s probably that scolding that leads people to think that Peter’s idea of building three dwellings or tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah is a bad idea. But there’s nothing here to indicate that Peter’s idea is bad or wrong; it just gets interrupted, overshadowed, by the arrival of a bright cloud through which a voice says the merciful words, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Merciful because the voice of the Divine is affirming what Peter has already declared.) When Moses and Elijah are gone, Jesus touches the fallen disciples and says, “Time to get up.” It’s like a dream scene, isn’t it? Matthew seems to wants his hearers to know two things and do three things.
Matthew wants us to know that: 1) Jesus, the Wisdom, is in conversation with the Law and the Prophets, and 2) Jesus is the beloved child of God. Matthew wants us to do three things: 1) “Listen to Jesus” – listen to his teachings, listen to his life, and learn his love; 2) to get up (or wake up or rise up) and not be afraid; and 3) tell everyone about the vision of shalom, of the peace and well-being that comes with compassion and justice, of dignity, of freedom from enslavement, about shared resources, healing, and the possibility of new life in community with the Holy One. The admonition to tell no-one until after Jesus’ resurrection is another way of saying tell everyone, because those who are hearing this Gospel story, even for the first time, know that Jesus has been raised from the dead. It’s kind of a wonky grammatical thing, but the verb tense used to describe being raised from the dead here is indicative of repetition. According to Matthew it’s until Jesus keeps on rising from the dead. [6]
Many of you have heard me say that Jesus is reported to have said “Do not be afraid” more than any other thing he said. When I learned that many years ago, I found enormous comfort and assurance to deal with my own fears. I realized that, of course the only reason that Jesus said “Do not be afraid” so often, was that people were so afraid. Parker Palmer, in his book Let Your Life Speak, explains that do not be afraid doesn’t means we cannot have fear. [7] Everyone has fear, and people who embrace the call to follow Jesus often find fear abounding. Instead, the words say we do not need to be afraid, we do not need to be the fear we have.
It seems to me that one good way to tell everyone about the vision of shalom — of the peace and well-being that comes from living a life of compassion and justice, of freedom from enslavement, about shared resources and healing, and the possibility of new life in community with the Holy One – is to remind ourselves that none of us is alone, that all of us need help, and that help is available in all times and in all places. Even when we are by ourselves, there is a great cloud of witnesses ready to assist us. We are reminding ourselves that we stand together for the dignity of every human being, and that we live our lives in the midst of a Love that is stronger than even death. Perhaps that’s what it means to have been to the mountaintop.
I’ll close with this invitation to you all, to Emmanuel Church (and by the way, everyone listening is Emmanuel Church today.) I invite you to think about today as an auspicious day. Listen to this teaching from the Buddha, who lived and taught between the times of Moses and Jesus!
The Buddha said: [8]
Don’t chase the past
Or long for the future.
The past is left behind;
The future is not yet reached.
Right where it is, have insight
Into whatever phenomena is present;
Not faltering and not agitated,
By knowing it one develops the mind.
Ardently do what should be done today –
who knows, death may come tomorrow.
There is no bargaining with Mortality
And his great army.
Whoever dwells thus ardent,
– active day and night –
Is, says the peaceful sage,
One who has an auspicious day.
On this auspicious day, may we go deeper and further into the majesty, the mercy, and the mystery of God.
- Thanks to The Rev. Wil Gafney for this beautiful rendering of the Trinity.
- Talmud, Seder Zeraim, Tractate Berakhot 17a.
- Talmud, Seder Nezikin, Tractate Horayot 10a.
- This argument is laid out succinctly in Ronald Allen & Clark Williamson, Preaching the Gospels without Blaming the Jews: A Lectionary Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), p. 20.
- Walter Brueggemann, “Exodus,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 1 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), p. 882-3.
- Aorist passive subjunctive indicates repetition. Thanks to D. Mark Davis for this! You can find his translations and reflections in Left Behind and Loving It: www.leftbehind.blogspot.com.
- Parker J. Palmer. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000).
- “An Auspicious Day,” translated by Gil Fronsdal, from the Bhaddekaratta Sutta Middle Length Discourse 131, available @ https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/an-auspicious-day/ .