Dazzling darkness of transfiguration

Clouds and Glory: Sermon on Luke 9.28-36

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen;listen to him!’ When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen

Transfiguration

We glance at the story of the Transfiguration as the final chapter in the season of Epiphany. As you know epiphany means the manifestation of God. Throughout the weeks of epiphany, we are gradually transformed until we reach our full illumination with Christ in the Transfiguration. Imagine that the season of Epiphany is like a dimmer switch which gradually increases the light in a room from a dim ambiance to full wattage brightness. For Eastern Christians, the feast day of the Transfiguration, is significant. The emphasis on Christian practice in the Eastern Orthodox tradition culminates in the idea of theopoiesis, which means made into God, or divinised or transfigured. The story of Christ’s transfiguration is for all of us, we are also changed into dazzling light. The usual date for Feast of Transfiguration is the 6th of August. The 6th of August is significant for another reason too, it was the day the Americans chose to drop the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. Today’s reading of the Transfiguration coincides with another moment in history, Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. Putin issued many threats in his declaration of war, the most unsettling was for the west. Putin said: “Anyone who tries to get in our way, let alone tries to threaten us and our people, should know that Russia’s answer will be immediate, and it will lead to consequences of the sort that you have not faced ever in your history.”  (Time magazine, 24 February 2022, https://time.com/6150787/putin-us-risk-ukraine-war/). I felt fearful when I heard Putin’s threat and wonder if you did too. I highlight here how history’s timeline records that humanity’s deadliest decisions occur in a liturgical time that honours human potential to be totally transformed by love and light.  Humankind makes decisions for death and destruction on a feast day that celebrates light, transcendence and transformation. How on earth do we hold these two opposites together?

Clouds and glory

It seems that the Scriptures may be ahead of me on this one, the glory and transfiguration of Christ is intricately linked with death, crucifixion, and the mechanics of empire. Cloud and glory go together. The heights of human transformation in the transfiguration are closely associated with the clouds of utter human failure. That clouds and glory go together is evident in three ways. First, failure follows the mountain top experience of transfiguration. We would have thought that having seen the goal of human evolution the disciples might have been better equipped to respond to the world. No, they fail in faith, fail in prayer, and fail in healing. Second, the story of transfiguration is utterly linked not only to the baptism but also to crucifixion of Jesus. The words “This is my Beloved Son” connect the baptism, transfiguration, and transfiguration of Jesus. These three stories are three pivots around which the gospel moves. Third, it turns out that God dwells not in the dazzling clouds of light but in the clouds of darkness. 

Perhaps if we step vividly into the story, it’s resonance may also vibrate within us. 

28 About eight days after Jesus said this, 

The 8 days may refer to the Feast of Booths which celebrates how God looked after the Hebrew people in the wilderness when they escaped Pharoah’s Egypt. The Feast of Booths is a joyful celebration where families live in tents and lean-tos made of palm branches. 

he took Peter, John, and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray Finding peace on the Mountain to pray makes sense to us. There is a primal instinct in us humans about mountains being sacred. Spiritual leaders ascend a mountain to commune with the Divine; Moses ascended Mt Sinai and Elijah nestled in Mt Horeb. Jesus is about to non-violently challenge the mechanics of empire and so withdraws to the mountain to gain strength. The mountain top is an obvious illusion to Exodus and Mt Sinai when God married the Hebrew people in a covenant (see Exodus 19.16). “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud,” God says to Moses, “in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after” (19:9). As the Hebrew slaves people gathered at the foot of Mt Sinai God enclosed them in a thick cloud, with the sound of trumpets, thunder, and lightening. 

As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 

Like Moses on Mt Sinai, and like the burning bush Moses encountered while caring for sheep in the desert, it is as if Jesus becomes all flame.  Peter, James, and John witness something other worldly; not only is Jesus all flame but he is joined in the light by Moses and Elijah. In case we missed that this transfiguration is a new Exodus, Luke makes it plain: “They spoke about his Exodus which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem.”

32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him

On the night of Jesus’ arrest Jesus will ask Peter, James, and John to pray with him, they will fall asleep. Similarly, at this key moment in the life of Jesus the three disciples are sleepy too. Just as Peter attempts to grasp the moment a dark cloud descends and covers them. They can see nothing but hear the words that are said also at Jesus’ baptism and the crucifixion: this is my beloved, my son, listen. One moment there was dazzling light that blinds and the next moment there was dazzling darkness that blinds even more.

A dazzling dark cloud of unknowing

It is this dark cloud of unknowing that blinds you, terrifies you and leaves you speechless that is the important symbol for us. Notice that the three disciples worked out for themselves that they had to shut up, previously Jesus had to keep saying, “Be quiet; tell no one.” It is from this cloud of unknowing that God speaks. God is encountered in the dazzling darkness of the cloud that swallows them up. The Gospel is that God Dwells in the Darkness. 

The cloud of dazzling darkness reminds me of a time when I walked Table Mountain. Table Mountain is an iconic feature of South Africa, as is the Tablecloth of cloud that covers it in Spring. When that tablecloth cloud descends, you can see nothing. The signposts are hidden, and other senses are heightened as you walk slower, much slower, for who knows where the edge is. The tourist map you were given is useless and you are left to find your own way when you can hardly see your hand in front of you. Walking within that cloud of unknowing is invigorating though; probably because your senses are so focused on your breathing and taking one slow step after another. You are too caught up in the moment to worry about distractions such as taking selfies and landscape photos. It is this experience that I think of when disciples, saints, mystics, and ordinary people who love Jesus find themselves in the dark cloud of unknowing. The dark cloud is an inevitable event if you follow Christ. 

According to those who have devoted their entire lives to prayer, the dark cloud is where God takes us a part and remakes us, where we die and are resurrected in love. Holy Darkness, Blessed Night is what St John of the Cross will teach us from his dark cloud. Within this dark cloud of unknowing, everything is swallowed up.  All the second-hand faith that has lovingly been given to us by parents, preachers and Sunday School teachers fails us, they are like the useless tourist maps when walking on Table Mountain when the cloud has descended. The usual rules of religion do not work. The means of grace that once sustained us, leave us empty. 

Here is the thing, while I might be surprised at human destruction on the feast day of human transfiguration, the Scriptures anticipate this. The words said at the transfiguration are the same words said at the crucifixion, forever binding the two into a sacred dance. According to our scriptures, cloud and glory go together. 

The dark cloud of unknowing is not a test or something we have to get through. No. In the Hebrew Scriptures and in the Gospel, the dark cloud is where God dwells. To be invited into the cloud is a privilege. Those who come out may not have many words, we may even doubt their sanity, and they may be forever changed. Their message is similar – they would never choose the experience, but now that it has happened, they would never give it back. 

“Today you have heard a story you can take with you when you go. It tells you that no one has to go up the mountain alone. It tells you that sometimes things get scary before they get holy. Above all, it tells you that there is someone standing in the centre of the cloud with you, shining so brightly that you may never be able to wrap your mind around him, but who is worth listening to all the same--because he is God's beloved, and you are his, and whatever comes next, you are up to it.” Barbara Brown Taylor. March 02, 2014. Day One