Sunday's Message: A Transfigured Life

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This past Sunday was Transfiguration Sunday. Jesus goes up the mountain with his three closest disciples: Peter, James and John. Jesus is transfigured before their eyes, with his face shining like the sun and his clothes an indescribable white light. We see Moses and Elijah appearing beside Jesus.  We hear Peter asking if they should make three shrines for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. Then we hear the voice of God from the cloud – a voice Jesus heard at his baptism – “This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!”  And they head back down the mountain and Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem.

In the Transfiguration story, we see Divinity shining in Jesus—showing that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, and the Son of God.  The light of the Transfiguration is not ordinary, earthly light, but the light of God’s glory, the light that was before the universe was made, called the “Uncreated Light” in Christian theology.  On the mountaintop, Peter, James, and John see the Lord Jesus Christ as he really and always is: God with us, the Divine Word made flesh dwelling among us. 

If this story were simply about a revelation of who Christ is, we could stop here. We could offer our praise and thanks for this gift of revelation.  And then we could go back into our daily lives, perhaps with a renewed sense of Christ’s presence, but ourselves unaffected. 

But there’s more to this story—and there’s more in store for us—because while the Transfiguration is indeed about who Christ Jesus is, it’s also about who we are to become. God desires that each one of us be transfigured, too. The goal of our life as Christians is transfiguration. To be transfigured literally means to be transformed into something more beautiful and exalted. And for us, this means being transfigured into the light of Christ.

The first generations of Christians pointed to the Transfiguration as a vision of human destiny.  The goal of our lives is to be alight with Christ’s presence.  We are to be like the Burning Bush, illuminated with God’s life and yet not consumed. God as Light gradually takes us over.  Although we remain fully ourselves, we are being made over into our true selves, the way God intended us to be.  We are made Christ-like.  God is Light, and the goal of our lives is to be filled with and transformed by his light, and to shine with his light.

A transfigured life emerges when we work with God’s grace to clear away all that eclipses, obscures, or dims the divine light, so Christ’s very own life can fill us and shine through us.  Our responsibility is to surrender ourselves to the Lord and be taken over by his light.

Ultimately, a life transfigured with the Light of Christ is the only thing of real and lasting value that we have to offer our world.  It must be at the core of our service, our mission and outreach to others, otherwise at best we’re simply trying to be good people, we’re trying to be agents of social change on the surface of things, or we’re implementing programs—rather than manifesting the person of Jesus Christ, who is the one who heals and gives new life according to God’s desires for Creation and humankind.  The most critical and foundational thing we can do is to live in Christ and be partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).  Everything else flows from this union. 

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