Text used – Mark 9:2-9

• For the last 6 weeks, we’ve been talking about creativity and creation.
  • Began with God’s initial creation in Gen
  • Talked about our involvement with God’s creativity as individuals and when all our gifts come together as the body of Christ
  • Talked about the need for rest in the midst of creativity and how, even when we are exhausted, God’s creative actions continue
  • Talked about how powerful it is to both recognize and create the extraordinary in the ordinary as God created the extraordinariness of the Incarnation in the ordinary humanity of Jesus Christ
  • Culminates today in what I would call one of the most bizarre stories in the New Testament: the Transfiguration
    • Rasche’s description: In an act of ultimate creativity, Jesus’ identity as the Son of God is revealed to us. How do we descend from the mountaintop to share such an experience?[1]
• Before we tackle the creativity aspect in this whole business, let’s talk a little bit about odd and extraordinary Gospel account this morning.
  • Story of the Transfiguration shows up in what we call the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke
    • “Synoptic” refers to the similarities btwn these 3 Gospels
      • Mark = written first (probably around 70 C.E., 35-40 yrs. after Jesus’ death and resurrection)
      • Matthew and Luke
        • Both used Mk as a source → similar structure, wording, and content to Mk and to one another
        • Probably written 15-20 yrs. after Mk (sometime around the late 80s or early 90s C.E.)
    • Contrast with gospel of Jn
      • Probably written around late 90s or early 100s C.E.
      • Some overlapping stories but more different than not
      • Perspective and theology of Jn much more developed
        • Synoptic gospels → mostly about the actions and teachings of Jesus’ life with little theological interpretation or projection about what those actions and teachings would mean for Christianity
        • Jn’s gospel → much more developed language and extrapolations about the theological meaning of the person and work of Jesus
  • Transfiguration story in Synoptic gospels
    • Mt 17[2]
    • Lk 9[3]
    • And today’s passage from Mk 9
    • And while each of these gospels accounts of the Transfiguration include their own little details and nuances, they each tell essentially the same story.
      • Jesus takes 3 disciples – Peter, James, and John – up to the top of a mountain
      • Jesus transforms before the disciples’ very eyes → love the various descriptions of this transformation
        • Mt: [Jesus’] face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.[4]
        • Lk: As [Jesus] was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes flashed white like lightning.[5]
        • Today’s passage: [Jesus] was transformed in front of them, and his clothes were amazingly bright, brighter than if they had been bleached white.[6]
        • Gr. in all these instances = wide variety of words reflecting that idea of brightness, dazzling whiteness
          • One word that all 3 accounts share: leukos = bright, shining, gleaming, white
      • Along with this brilliant transformation comes a holy entourage → Jesus is joined by Elijah and Moses
      • Miraculous, dazzling transformation leaves disciples understandably dumbfounded → Peter offers to build three dwellings/shrines/tabernacles for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses
        • Lk’s version = gives Peter the benefit of the doubt: attributes his peculiar suggestion to his tiredness, saying Peter was barely awake when he spoke
        • Mt just lays Peter’s suggestion out there with no explanation about why he made it
        • Today’s passage attributes Peter’s words to fear: Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good that we’re here. Let’s make three shrines – one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t know how to respond, for the three of them (indicating himself and the other two disciples) were terrified.[7]
        • Now, poor Peter has been teased quite about bit throughout the centuries for his reaction in this moment. But we have to ask ourselves honestly … if we were in Peter’s situation, how sensibly would we respond?
      • Directly following Peter’s suggestion – before anyone even has a chance to address it – a cloud overshadows them all, and God speaks out of the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I dearly love. Listen to him!”[8]
      • Cloud dissipates → Elijah and Moses are gone again → Jesus and the disciples descend the mountain again
        • Both Mt and Mk conclude their tellings of this odd story with Jesus’ admonition to the disciples not to share their story with anyone “until after the Human One had risen from the dead.”[9]
• Particularly love one scholar’s description of why the Transfiguration is such a powerful story: The boundary zones between the human and the divine are both disorienting and revelatory. Between heaven and earth, the everyday cues and perspectives that tell us who we are and how the world works no longer operate, but we may glimpse a new view of reality that transforms our understanding and refashions our world. The transfiguration of Jesus confuses and terrifies his disciples, but the heavenly voice that speaks from a cloud confirms that Jesus is not only the Christ, as Peter has [previously confessed], but God’s own Beloved Son and affirms that his word of the cross is true. Everything in this episode – Jesus’ transformation, the appearance of Elijah and Moses, Peter’s babbling attempt to be useful – leads up to the moment when God speaks from the cloud that suddenly overshadows them, naming Jesus and commanding the disciples to “Listen to him!”[10] → I love that this particular scholar describes that mountaintop of the Transfiguration as a “thin place” – one of those places in geography and in time where the space between heaven and earth grows thin and it becomes easier to encounter to Sacred … to meet God.
  • Places and moments of bursting creativity are often described as thin places by many of those doing the creating → places and moments where, in the midst of the frenzy and brilliance and outpouring of their creative medium – be it painting, writing, singing, dancing, sculpting, crafting, woodworking, or whatever else … places and moments in the midst of creating when they are wholly overwhelmed by the creation itself … places and moments when the realization hits: there is more at work here than just me … there is more at work here that his bigger, greater, deeper and wider, holier than me
    • Moments are often also described as “mountaintop experiences” → And while those mountaintop experience can give us incredibly inspiration and drive – while they can renew and reinvigorate us in ways we struggle to put into words – they are also not moments we can live in all the time.
      • Rasche beautifully addresses why we can’t live forever in those moments … on those mountaintops: Mountaintop experiences are also places of creation and relationship. It is the place for mere humans to experience just a part of God’s fullness of presence. It was at the top of Mount Sinai that God came to Moses with the guidance of right relationship with God and with one another. It was at the top of a mount where Elijah went to mourn and lament, but heard the still, small voice of God in the whirlwind to keep on where God’s call would take him. It is the place that brings clarity in the midst of chaos. It is the place where we can see fully what lies before us. It is also a place we cannot seem to stay forever; there is only so much space at the top of a mountain. Also, how would we know of such wondrous experiences if people did not make the descent to report on what had happened to them?[11] → Indeed, the beauty and the responsibility of mountaintop moments are inextricably linked. The beauty that we find in those moments – the tenderness of God’s love, the wholeness of God’s grace, the depth of God’s mercy, the inspiration of God’s beautiful creation – are moments meant for us … but not only for us. They are moments we are called to share through our own creative acts.
        • Mountaintop moments change us → creative endeavors change us
          • God’s creative endeavors change us
          • Our own creative endeavors change us
          • Encounters with other people’s creative endeavors change us
          • And in its essence, that’s the story of the Transfiguration – how truly transformational the continuing work of God can be.
        • After 1^st sermon of this series back in early Jan., one of Todd and Melissa’s guests shared one of her favorite quotes with me à wrote it down because I knew it would be perfect for this series – quote from late American author and motivational speaker Leo Buscaglia: Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. → Let me read that again. [REPEAT] We are gifted these mountaintop moments by a God who knows our gifts, our talents, the source and expression of our own creative sparks so intimately and affectionately because it was this same God who gifted them to us. But the giving of those very same talents and gifts and creative outlets are also a calling from God: “Go. Do. Be. And Tell of my goodness … my hope … my forgiveness … my grace … and above all, my love in that unique and beautiful way that only you can because someone needs to see it and hear it and experience it in your unique and beautiful way. I created you. Now you create with me and for me.”
          • Leave you with the words of a YCW colleague of mine – poem called “Selah! Transfigured by God” by Rev. Katy Stenta[12] (found on her Substack “Katy and the Word”) Amen.

[1] Tuhina Verma Rasche. “Epiphany Series: Created Anew” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 89.

[2] Mt 17:1-13.

[3] Lk 9:28-36.

[4] Mt. 17:2b.

[5] Lk 9:29.

[6] Mk 9:2b-3.

[7] Mk 9:5-6 (with my own insertion for clarification).

[8] Mk 9:7.

[9] Mk 9:9.

[10] Stanley P. Saunders. “Last Sunday after the Epiphany (Transfiguration Sunday) – Mark 9:2-9 – Exegetical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 453.

[11] Rasche, 97.

[12] https://open.substack.com/pub/katystenta/p/selah?r=3g8b6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web.