Let it Shine! – Transfiguration Sunday (2 Corinthians 3: 12- 4:2)

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Which is the last Sunday in the season of the church calendar that we call Epiphany, which occurs between Christmas and Lent, so it is also the last Sunday before the start of Lent. Transfiguration Sunday gets its name from the Gospel story in which Jesus goes with three of his disciples to the top of a mountain. What the disciples, including Peter and James and John, see when they get there is Jesus surrounded by a great light and standing in the presence of the great prophets Moses and Elijah. Jesus face glows and his clothes turn white. They are in awe of this and even hear a voice from a cloud that declares “This is my Son, my chosen. Listen to him.” This story affirms Jesus as the fulfilment of ancient Jewish law and prophecy. It’s a powerful story, an engaging story, with a unique hook that brings you in and illustrates the theme. So, having such a fantastic story that ties into this Sunday on the church calendar, this week, I found that I was regularly saying to myself, “There is such a great story in the Gospel reading this week, so why on Earth did I decide to preach about Paul?”

Well, for one thing, the lectionary offered this epistle as an alternate reading for today. But, aside from that, lets dig a bit deeper into why this was an appropriate reading for Transfiguration Sunday. First, there is another person, this time in the Book of Acts, who will also encounter Jesus in the form of a great shining light. His name was Saul, and he was on the road to Damascus to further carry out the persecution of followers of Jesus, when suddenly a light blinded him, and he heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him. After this experience Saul would become Paul, and instead of persecuting Christ followers his life became dedicated to sharing Christ’s message throughout the Roman territories. Of course, he wrote many letters, including this one we read today to the church in Corinth. And in what we heard today from chapter three, Paul is debating the interpretation of yet another story from scripture that involves an experience of the divine through heavenly light.

This scripture reading comes to us from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth. One of the reasons he has been motivated to write this letter is because of something called a “super apostle.” A super apostle is not an apostle that can fly or shoot lasers from their eyes. No. They are just regular people, but they make some bold claims. They claim to be able to receive visions from God, and that these visions allow them to experience glory, or an immediate assurance of divine presence. They tell the church that Paul is not able to provide this experience. They use a story from Exodus 34: 29-34 when Moses is coming down the mountain with the stone tablets. His face is shining bright because he has been with the Lord. Realizing this makes it difficult for people to look at him, because no one can look upon the Lord directly, he puts a veil over his face. For the super apostles, Paul has put a veil over his face, while they are shining fully in the light of God. So, part of Paul’s letter becomes a debate over the interpretation of the Moses story.

Apart from that, one of the biggest differences in Paul’s theology and ministry, and that of the super apostles, is that Paul puts emphasis on the amount of struggle that will be necessary as this world transforms into the realm of God. Paul’s eschatology -his belief in how things will end- is that the realm of God is at hand. The end times are imminent, he believes he will experience them in his lifetime. This belief leads to a certain amount of urgency in Paul’s ministry. He must bring as many people as possible into the church to prepare them for the second coming of Christ and the new world that will usher in. So, when he sees one of his churches being persuaded by the glitz and the promises of these super apostles, he believes it is extremely important, and time sensitive, to bring them back into the fold.

The people in Corinth, however, were growing impatient. Paul had left, the end times had not come. Jesus had not yet come again. Life in the Roman Empire was still difficult. As they wrestled with all that confusion and disappointment, here came the super apostles with a new message. Super apostles offered an immediate experience of glory. They claim to have visions from God. Like Paul they believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection were a turning point for the world, but they tended to ignore the suffering on the cross, which was central to Paul’s understanding of Jesus and the coming realm of God. So, Paul writes to remind his followers that things may be difficult, but they are still being transformed for the realm of God. After all, we humans are a work in progress. Christianity, especially as it comes to us from Paul, is a path that recognizes that fact and believes in a God that will always call us to growth and improvement.

So, the lectionary gives us two distinct readings for today that can help us on that path of growth, improvement – transformation. One of them is a story of ecstatic experience of the divine. Of being blinded by the literal light emanating from Christ. A story of being in immediate contact with the divine and glimpsing the realm of God. The other is a portion of a letter, written by Paul partly to defend himself, his authority, and his style of ministry. It is a dense section of the letter as Paul weaves in and out of his interpretation of an old story. It does not provide an immediate or ecstatic encounter with the divine but makes the case for patience and struggle and suffering as we await the arrival of the God’s new realm. In the content of these two readings, we see the heart of the debate that Paul is having with the Corinthian church; between those who claimed they could offer an immediate experience of God’s glory without the suffering, and Paul’s claims that the realm of God was coming, but would not arrive without suffering, as indicated by Christ on the cross.

This tension echoes throughout history, because Paul believed that while the end times would not happen immediately, they would happen in his lifetime. Yet, here we are, two thousand years on still waiting for the Second Coming as described by Paul, and we are left to try and make sense of it in a world where there has been much suffering and struggle and people still desire those immediate experiences of God. A God who at times feels veiled from us, to borrow the metaphor from Paul and the super apostles. They accused Paul of putting a veil over God the way Moses did, shielding the people from that same encounter with God, while the super apostles wanted to share the unveiled experience. Paul countered by accusing them of putting up a veil through their interpretation of the story from Exodus. He claims that Christ offers a chance to set aside that veil and look at things with new eyes.

As a devout Jew, Paul believes in the covenant that was given to Moses and taught in the Torah. As a Christian -one who has experienced Christ- he believes that these promises have been fulfilled in Jesus, and through Christ those promises will be fulfilled eternally in the realm of God that Jesus is coming to usher in. So, Paul encourages us to remove the veil and let Jesus be transformed and revealed in this life. Do not limit Jesus to ecstatic experiences and esoteric beliefs, because Jesus is also experienced in the suffering of the cross. In this way the super apostles were keeping Jesus confined so that they might keep a hold on Jesus and on their message. We know that Jesus cannot be contained in this way, though. Jesus can be transfigured and revealed to us in glory on the mountaintop. And Jesus can also appear to us and set us on the path to transformation as he suffers, on an old rugged cross on a hill far away. We must be open to both. Let yourself be transformed by the spirit. Do not be confined by your interpretation of the law, or even, your expectations of God.

God’s glory is reflected, as if in a mirror, but not seen directly. This might seem difficult and confusing at times, and might lead us to seek out new, perhaps even easier, answers in our faith. Still, it can also lead to surprises. Having to struggle and have patience does not rule out the possibility of an ecstatic or immediate revelation. It does not mean we cannot connect with God. We may not see God directly as in a vision or some other ecstatic experience, but instead might encounter God in the face of a friend, or someone struggling to get by, or a child in our care, or an aging parent, or a troubled friend, or in prayer and worship.

Now, that all sounds good, doesn’t it? I feel good about that. I read the text, did the study, sat down at the computer and the words came easy enough. I got the Transfiguration sermon on Paul’s letter done. But I still haven’t answered my question to myself. Why did I choose this text instead of just doing the Transfiguration story from the Gospel? It was right there. I’ve even written sermons on the text several times before. Why bother with having to lift the veil? Well, maybe its because I don’t personally feel very ecstatic these days. I look around and see a lot of struggles and suffering the world. I don’t feel like we are on the mountainside, it feels more like we are in a valley. A deep valley, a ravine or gorge even. So, that is where I need to be able to see Jesus. That’s where I need to encounter the divine revelation. It is from this place that the world needs to be transformed. The promise of transfiguration gives hopeful meaning to the suffering of this world. So, I turned to Paul, who teaches and preaches in the midst of empire. Who preaches the process of transforming. Who believed in a savior that suffered and died in a broken world and then rose again. Paul reminds me -reminds us- that by the grace of God there is hope for transformation even in that suffering. There is a promise that from that event God’s world is coming and there will come a day when it shines through clearly.

Amen.