Rev. Doug Floyd

Last Sunday of Epiphany
Rev. Doug Floyd
Matthew 17:1-9

Jesus leads Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. The light of God’s glory shines out from his face and clothes. Epiphany begins in light and ends in light. It begins with a star leading the Magi to the child Jesus. This signals the revealing of Christ to the nations. Epiphany ends on the mount of transfiguration. The light of God’s glory is unveiled in Christ with a promise of all creation transfigured in Christ.

The disciples fall down as though dead. The glory of the Lord is overwhelming. For a moment the eyes of the disciples are opened to the unapproachable light of God. This glory-filled encounter is eschatological. It is an unveiling of the hidden glory of God shining through creation. In the great consummation of our age, the fullness of God’s glory in Christ will be unveiled for all eyes to see. As we behold His glory, we will be changed to His likeness.

Paul Evdokimov writes, “The Transfiguration of the Lord was in fact the transfiguration of the apostles; for a moment their eyes were opened, and they could see the Glory of the Lord beyond his kenosis, that is, his form of a servant.” On that mountain, they encounter the glory of the New Jerusalem. ^“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”^[1] We were made to live in the light of the Lord. We were made to dwell in the fullness of the glory of God. Thus St. Augustine can exclaim, “You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is [restless] until it rests in you.”^[2]

To help set up this dramatic unveiling of glory let us back up a few verses in today’s text. In chapter 16:21, we read, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” ^[3] Peter cannot grasp that the Messiah must suffer and be killed.

If that’s not bad enough, Jesus goes on to say that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”^[4] The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. It is the way of pouring out His life as a drink offering to the Father. Following in the way of Jesus is embracing the cross.

After calling His disciples to the way of the cross, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the high mountain, and they behold Him in His transfigured glory. Evdokimov writes, “Like a bolt of lightning, the image of the world to come reaches us like a veritable Feast of Beauty.”[5] A connection is made between the cross and the unveiled glory of God. This connection is made even clearer in John 17 as Jesus prepares to go to the cross. He prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”^[6]

In his death, burial, and resurrection, we behold the self-offering of Jesus to the Father. We behold the fullness of God’s glory. We behold a glimpse of God’s glory that shines out in all things. All creation has been transformed by the cross of Christ.

When we gather in worship on Sunday mornings, we catch of glimpse of this transfigured glory. Our eyes may not grasp this light, and we may not fall to the ground in fear, but we do taste the light of God’s eternal glory. In the reading of Scripture, Christ Himself addresses the community. As we hear the words read, we keep our hearts open for the word of the Lord delivered to us as a community and us as individuals.

When we pray the prayers of the people, we as the community of God stand before the throne of God and intercede on behalf of the world. When we partake of the Lord’s meal, we participate in the great communion that encompasses all creation. John Zizioulas writes, “In the Eucharist we can find all the dimensions of communion: God communicates himself to us, we enter into communion with him, the participants of the sacrament enter into communion with one another, and creation as a whole enters through man into communion with God. All this takes place in Christ and the Spirit, who brings the last days into history and offers to the world a foretaste of the Kingdom.”[7]

Let me read that one more time. “In the Eucharist we can find all the dimensions of communion: God communicates himself to us, we enter into communion with him, the participants of the sacrament enter into communion with one another, and creation as a whole enters through man into communion with God. All this takes place in Christ and the Spirit, who brings the last days into history and offers to the world a foretaste of the Kingdom.”[8]

We receive the Body and Blood of Christ as God’s gift to us. The Lord welcomes us to His table, and we are changed. Even as He welcomes us, He forms as a people, a community. Now we as a community of God in Christ are sent out from here for the life of the world. Our lives becoming a living witness of the hope of God for all people and all creation.

We have tended to think of eschatology as a series of predicted events at the end of time. It might be more helpful to think of eschatology as the promise of God’s kingdom breaking into this world even now. It is the hope of a world transfigured in the light of God’s glory. When we gather, we are the eschatological community. That is we are a glimpse of the hope of God’s glory to be fully revealed. As the Celts would say, “We are an outpost of heaven.”

We are a people of the cross. It is the self-offering of Jesus Christ that redeems us, forms us, raises us up. Paul exhorts us to follow in the way of the cross by becoming a self-offering to one another and to the world. He writes, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”^[9]

This leads us into the resurrection life of Christ. In our second lesson today, we heard the Lord address us in the writing of Paul. Paul writes, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.^[10]

May we as a congregation be an offering to God in life, death and resurrection.

O God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of the faithful: Sanctify
this Congregation by your abiding presence. Bless those who minister in holy things. Enlighten the minds of your people more and more with the light of the everlasting Gospel. Bring erring souls to the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ; and those who are walking in the way of life, keep steadfast to the end. Give patience to the sick and afflicted, and renew them
in body and soul. Guard those who are strong and prosperous from forgetting you. Increase in us your many gifts of grace, and make us all fruitful in good works. This we ask, O blessed Spirit, whom with the Father and the Son we worship and glorify, one God, world without end. Amen.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 21:23.

^[2] Saint Augustine, The Confessions, Part I, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Maria Boulding, Second Edition, vol. 1, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2012), 39.

^[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 16:21–23.

^[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 16:24–25.

[5] Evdokimov, Paul. The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty, illustrated . Oakwood Publications. Kindle Edition.

^[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 17:1–2.

[7] John D. Zizioulas (Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church)

[8] John D. Zizioulas (Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church)

^[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Php 2:5–8.

^[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Php 3:7–11.