THE PATH TO TRANSFIGURATION

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON AUGUST 6, 2006

Luke: 9:34 "This is my Son, my chosen; listen to Him."

2 Peter 1:17 "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

The Transfiguration is fantastic - it is so fantastic that many people would say you can't possible believe that sort of story! Jesus transfigured in white, his face shining, a cloud, a voice, Moses and Elijah. It is recorded in three gospels, and also in our second reading today where St. Peter writes about his experience.

Think for a moment of the opening line eight days after. Eight days before the transfiguration was when Jesus said to the apostles: "who do men say that I am?" Then he said: "who do you say that I am?" It was St. Peter who said "You are the Christ, the Son of God."

A week later Peter is taken by Jesus, along with James and John, to the mountain to experience what he had declared: "You are the Christ." A week later Jesus showed him that it was true by this amazing experience.

The Transfiguration is a wonderful day to have a baptism. There is something about the Transfiguration that is supremely significant and appropriate for baptism. Firstly the words they heard: "This is my beloved Son, my chosen one in whom I delight." These words were the same words that were said when Jesus was baptized - when he himself received baptism from the hand of John the Baptist. God the Father said those same words: "This is my Son, my beloved."

On both these occasions - Jesus' baptism and Jesus' Transfiguration - God the supreme creator of everything reveals Jesus of Nazareth as his own Son.

Reveals that he is more than just a man.

That somehow he is both God and man.

Our readings at Mass the last few weeks have had a progression of revelation: Jesus walking on the water, Jesus feeding the 5,000, and now the Transfiguration They all pose the question: "What think ye of Christ?" And today it is revealed. He is none other than the Son of God.

The baptism of Jesus poses problems for some people. Some say that on the occasion of his baptism it proved that he was just a man - otherwise he wouldn't have to be baptized. All that happened was that he received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, just as Sophie will shortly, in the Sacrament of Baptism.

To the people standing on the banks of the Jordan that day the words they heard indicated that Jesus was just more that just a man - he was the promised one, the Messiah.

Like many people those people on the river bank thought that the Messiah would be a wonderful man who would lead them to freedom, casting off the Roman yoke. They did not think that the Messiah would be God himself taking human flesh and living amongst us, and ultimately like us die - but rise again because he was to be the Savior. And throughout Jesus’ ministry even the apostles saw him as not much more than a radical teacher and leader.

And so it was on this day that Jesus took with him Peter and James and John up Mt. Tabor to reveal his glory, and to teach them about his true nature - that he was both God and man.

The second connection between the Transfiguration and the Sacrament of Baptism is what Peter, James and John saw. They didn't just see the glory of Jesus. They saw mankind as we are meant to be. They saw in Jesus man united in love through God. Man living with the life of God. They saw God's glory displayed in a man. And shortly this will happen to Sophie, because that is what happens in baptism.

All of us who are already baptized have been given the potential to live in the love of God, to live in the life of God, and to display God's glory. Unfortunately, being human beings, we are not very good at it. So we have the other sacraments, like the Eucharist and confession, to assist us to live out the promise and the reality of happened when we were baptized.

In the Book of Common Prayer the Episcopal Church teaches us that in baptism we are made a member of Christ, The child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven. That is what all of us who are baptized are already. We are already the children of God. We are already members of Christ. We are already inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is what Sophie will be shortly through the pouring of water in the name of the Trinity. She will be the child of God - as if she were the only child of God. Just as God the Father said at Jesus' baptism and at his Transfiguration: "This is my beloved Son." - so he said it to us at our baptism. And so he says it to Sophie today: "This is my beloved daughter." Sinners we may be - but the fact of our baptism has set us on the path to glory. The glory He revealed on the holy mount.

The third connection between the Transfiguration and baptism is the discussion between Moses and Elijah and Jesus. In our gospel translation it says they were talking about his departure - meaning his death and resurrection in Jerusalem. But in the older version of the scripture it says they were talking about his "Exodus". What a word Exodus is! It recalls the exodus from Egypt when the Jews escaped from slavery through the waters of the Red Sea. And the Sacrament of Baptism is understood in the same way. Through the waters of baptism we escape from slavery to sin, and we receive the promise of eternal life, which is our promised land.

So today Sophie experiences exodus. At the Transfiguration Moses and Elijah were talking about Jesus' real exodus in Jerusalem through his death and resurrection. The Exodus of the Old Testament is associated with what happened with Jesus in Jerusalem. It was an image and preview of what Jesus was to do. In that wonderful service on that Saturday night of Easter, the Easter vigil, we hear about the Exodus, and the water of the font is blessed, and we are sprinkled with it, and reminded that the Exodus of old is fulfilled in the Resurrection of Christ.

In his epistles St. Paul says "don't you know that when you were baptized you died with Christ, went into the tomb with him? So that just as Jesus died and rose again we too might live a new life in him." So baptism becomes the means whereby Jesus' death and resurrection are made real for us personally.

The wonderful thing about the baptism of a baby is that it reminds us that it is not what we do - it is what God does. God is taking all the initiative. When an adult is baptized they make the promises themselves, but the point of infant baptism is that God is doing this.

All the benefits that Jesus won for us are given to us from God freely as a permanent gift. That is what Sophie receives today.

Baptism is the primary sacrament. It incorporates us into the church, Christ’s body, and starts us out on our road to transfiguration.

Baptism is the first step in our life's pilgrimage with Jesus. It reaches our goal for us in that moment at the end of our lives when the promises of baptism are fulfilled, and we see Christ face to face, and hear God's words - the words of our creator:

You are my son

You are my daughter

You are my chosen one, my beloved