Seeing Christ

Epiphany Last

February 19, 2023

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Have you ever looked into a clear night sky and noticed how the stars twinkle? Well, that isn’t exactly accurate. It is somewhat of an optical illusion, albeit a very nice one. Stars don’t twinkle. The twinkling we see is due to things like humidity and the shifting pockets of air in the various layers of our atmosphere. And the twinkling wasn’t much of an issue for most of the ways we’ve viewed and even used stars for navigation and whatnot for most of human history. You can make out Orion and tell a story, you can mark time by their apparent progress across the sky or you can navigate. Polaris, the North Star, is there whether or not it’s twinkling.

But when scientists – specifically astrophysicists – are peering deep into interstellar space to look at stars, galaxies and the planets in their courses to learn about the nature and history of our universe, twinkling is a problem. They need precision. So, the best observatories are built high where the air is thin and in low humidity. But that’s really not good enough.

In the spring of 1990 NASA launched the Hubble Space telescope. It isn’t the first or newest or the only space telescope, but it is the best known and has been hard at work ever since, and scientists expect it to be heavily used for at least the rest of this decade. While it examines visible light and images, it is the best ultra-violet telescope and unlikely to be matched in the foreseeable future.

There’s more to that than I understand, of course. But when I look at its pictures and read descriptions of its work that are watered down enough that I can almost understand them, I find myself in a sense of awe and wonder. Peter, James and John experienced awe and wonder when they saw Jesus transfigured.

It is as though the shifting limitations of human perception have been drawn away, or they have moved past them somehow. Matthew, no doubt relying on Peter, James and John’s own testimony is trying to describe the indescribable, using the best words he can. That is as it should be. Encounters with God are always that way, very real and dripping with symbolism.

The parallels with Moses’ encounter with God in our first reading are clear. Moses and Jesus are each on a mountain. God’s presence in each encounter is concealed by a cloud. There is mention of six days, a clear reference to the creation, signaling a new order is coming. Moses is present on one mountain to receive God’s law written by God onto the stone tablets. Moses is present on the other mountain as a witness to Jesus as the embodiment of God’s Word. Recall how John’s Gospel begins.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

Jesus is the living Word of God. God says, “Listen to him!” Moses’ face shone as a reflection of his exposure to God; Jesus’ face shines out of his own radiance.

The Transfiguration of Jesus is really the clarification of Jesus. They have gone beyond the stress of trying to learn, remember, understand and proclaim what he is teaching them. It’s a lot! They have gone beyond the stress of trying to interpret, remember, understand and testify to what he has done. They have gone beyond the many issues and challenges of day to day ministry, dealing with the crowds, finding food, finding shelter. No one talks much about laundry or bathing but of course they had details in life to manage just like we do.

And all that stuff can be very distracting and distorting in our view of life and our place in it. We may tend to think they lived in simpler times. In some respects, yes. But let’s remember the ways life is easier for us. We turn a knob and get clean water. That’s no small thing, which you know if you’ve ever lost it during a hurricane.

When everything else is stripped away, this is what they see. Jesus, fully human and fully divine, radiant in his Father’s glory as the embodiment of truth, the embodiment of love, the embodiment of good and, as they will later see, the embodiment of sacrifice.

The effect of seeing Jesus so very clearly is profound. We heard that from Peter in this morning’s epistle. “We did not follow cleverly devised myths…but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.” We hear it in the first letter of John: (p. 1021 in your pew Bible)  We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. (John 1:1-4)

This is what they want for you and for me. That will make their joy complete, that we might see Jesus as he truly is. Again, our life is easier in many ways. We want light, we flip a switch.  If your only light was a small oil lamp, you’d manage the wick and the oil carefully. Peter advises us to tend to our vision of Jesus that way, awaiting him to arise in our hearts like the morning star.

That begs a question for each of us this morning. How clearly are you seeing Jesus? Let’s face it. You’ve got a lot going on in your life right now. Some of it may be overblown in your mind but much of it is very real. And there are positive issues as well; all those things you could do, that you want to do. And the more clearly we see Jesus, the better we can embody him in our lives as individuals and together so that others can see him.

We are stepping into Lent on Wednesday. This is an excellent time for each of us to take some time to think about what may be clouding or distorting our vision of Christ, so that we can work on those issues as a Lenten discipline. Fasting from chocolate or something else can help us gain clarity. Taking on more prayer and Bible Study can help, too. But think about what may be obscuring your vision of Jesus and pray on that. He’s right there, ready to reveal his glory afresh to you.

AMEN