Last Sunday after the Epiphany - February 15

Face to Face with the Glory of God:  It Happens
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9

For the last two Sundays we’ve heard stories in Mark’s Gospel from very early in Jesus’ earthly ministry. This is the year in our liturgical calendar that we focus on the gospel of Mark. Today, on this last Sunday after the Epiphany, the last Sunday before we begin the Lenten journey, we’ve jumped ahead in Mark’s Gospel to an event that occurs towards the culmination of Jesus’ ministry. On this Sunday, we always read and hear one of the stories of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, witnessed by Peter, James and John. We’ve just heard Mark’s account of Jesus' transfiguration.

The focus of this season after the Epiphany is summarized in words from today’s epistle: when our hearts are illuminated with the “knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Epiphany is about the light that enlightens in us the knowledge of the glory of God recognized in the face of Jesus Christ. You’ll hear those words from the epistle this morning in the proper preface for this season of Epiphany.

Epiphany is about recognizing the glory of God in Christ. Recognizing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The transfiguration was the ultimate epiphany experience. There wasn’t any doubt for Peter, James and John on that mountaintop that they were in the presence of the glory of God.

The disciples came face to face with the glory of God.

It happens.

Peter, James and John came face to face with the glory of God. Close enough to touch. It happens.

We don’t know what mountain it was. It could have been any mountain. According to Mark, they were somewhere on the road between Cesarea Philippi and Capernaum. Somewhere between Cesarea Philippi and Capernaum Peter, James and John came face to face with the glory of God. It happens.

We don’t know how it affected them long term. But I think we can be pretty sure they never forgot the experience of coming face to face with the glory of God in the midst of their lives.

It happened in the midst of their lives, before their deaths, obviously. Unexpectedly, on no particular day. Peter, James and John came face to face with the glory of God.

Today’s collect reminds us that it also happened before Jesus’ passion and death. This is a part of life, human life, encountering the presence of the glory of God. Luke’s Gospel states that after the transfiguration, Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem. After the transfiguration, he was clearly on his final journey. But in all three synoptic Gospels, Jesus is clearly in his final journey at the time of the transfiguration... The difficult journey towards betrayal and death.

Although we hear this story before Lent, we might better hear it actually during Lent. On some random Monday in the midst of Lent’s bare struggle, to be reminded that it is the midst of that journey that people like us come face to face with the glory of God.

It happens!

For Peter it happened between his confession of Jesus as Messiah and his later betrayal. Between wonder and fear. Between certainty and doubt. Between revelation and darkness. In that in-between place where we all live. The experience of the transfiguration certainly didn’t depend upon the status of Peter’s faith. Still he saw God’s glory face to face.

It happens

For James and John… According to Mark, they had recently experienced the feeding of the four thousand, after the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus’ teaching and healing took place before and after the transfiguration. But they are still confused. They don’t know who Jesus is, or what he is doing. But in the midst of their confusion, they come face to face with the glory of God.

It happens.

In the midst of human lives, it happens. Somewhere in between certainty and doubt. Between wonder and skepticism. Between clarity and confusion.

We come face to face with the glory of God.

Somewhere in between the happy routine of taking the kids to soccer and the bombshell of a scary medical diagnosis.

In between breakfast and lunch.

Somewhere in between Chicago and Milwaukee (although there aren’t many mountaintops on that road); somewhere between Markham and Homewood.

It happens. We come face to face with the glory of God.

In the middle of Lent’s penitence, or in the midst of Christmas Eve’s hope. Somewhere in the midst of our ordinary human lives.

It happens.

We come face to face with the glory of God. With us. In our lives.

It happens anywhere, anytime. Without any qualifications on who we are or the quality of our faith.

But there does seem to be one qualification… These experiences of coming face to face with the glory of God seem to happen more often on mountaintops. Just a brief moment when we get above it all… When we pause just long enough to look up… When we focus long enough on Jesus to follow him just a few steps off the beaten path, away from the daily grind, up the mountainside. And in that moment, when we pause to look up, when we rise above it all, when we step aside to follow Jesus…

...we come face to face with the glory of God. It happens.