Primal Light

We can always tell it is the end of the Epiphany season

            not just by this Wednesday being Ash Wednesday

            or that on Tuesday we’re having pancakes for supper,

                        but that today’s gospel is the story of the Transfiguration.

This is the ultimate example of the Epiphany theme of Light -- the Transfiguration, 

            this ultimate showing forth of the Light to the world,

            a manifestation of “Uncreated” Light from the Source,

                        from the Creator, from the One whose first Word was Light.

Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him up a high mountain,

            and he is transfigured before them.

Jesus is revealed as Primal Light.

His face shone like the sun, the text says,

            and his clothes became dazzling white.

But it’s not just his face shining, but his whole body.

No amount of clothing will veil this radiance, this Shekinah Glory of God.

            The dazzling white light shines outward from his being

                                                through his garments.

And then, what is this?  Moses and Elijah suddenly appear 

                        and are talking with this light being who is Jesus.

            But aren’t they supposed to be long departed from this world?

There is something of Resurrection about all this,

            something very much like the Resurrection accounts of Jesus.

And in the midst of this revelation of radiant being 

and the presence of Moses and Elijah,

                                                            Peter starts babbling.

What Peter proposes is actually less about Jesus and Moses and Elijah

            and more about Peter, James and John,

            about building three little hermitages 

                        where they can sit and contemplate 

                                                this colossal spiritual experience of radiance,

                                                this “mountaintop experience.”

They want to institutionalize it, encase it, hold it, 

            have some way to control it, keep it from going any further.

They want to preserve – not the radiant revelation – but their experience of it.

Take a lesson from this, brothers and sisters.

Our human attempts to hang onto “mountain top” experiences

            are ludicrous,

for how can we possibly encase such a divine revelation

            that makes cathedrals look puny?

And so a bright cloud comes over all the scene.

            One might think of the cloud over Mount Sinai when the Law was given,

                        or the Cloud that led the Children of Israel through the wilderness,

                        or the Cloud that filled the Temple

            as recorded in the 6^th chapter of Isaiah,

                        where the whole huge temple could barely hold 

                                    just the trailing hem of God’s robe.

The Cloud of God’s Presence.

And from the Cloud comes the voice:  “This is my Son…listen to him!”

Shut up, Peter.  Listen to Jesus.

I have stood on the Mount of the Transfiguration, Mt. Tabor, 

rising out of the Jezreel Valley not far from the Sea of Galilee.

They have built Peter’s three tabernacle there:

            A central domed church with 2 domed side chapels for Moses and Elijah.

Isn’t that just the way!

Turn the revelation into a building, a structure,

            rather than see it immediately present 

                                    in close proximity to ourselves personally.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church 

            there is a fascination with this Transfiguration event,

                        this Uncreated Light that shines through the whole body of Jesus,

                        this Light from the Source.

There is the realization that this radiance of Uncreated Light 

            is the NORMATIVE state for Jesus.

He exudes this Light all the time.

This was not something he took on at that particular moment

                                    to dazzle the eyes of Peter, James and John.

The Eastern Orthodox say that rather at this time

            the eyes of the disciples were released to be able to see

                        what has always been there, the Truth of what Jesus is like.

Jesus opened the spiritual eyes of his disciples

                        so that they could see the Uncreated Light;

            it was a transfiguration of consciousness.

The Radiance of God is all around us             all the time,

            but WE DON’T SEE IT.

Is this not strange?  How can we miss it?  

            Should we not all fall on our faces before the Glory of God?

St. Theophan the Recluse, one of the great saints of the Eastern Church, wrote:

            “As God is Light, so also our spirit is light.

            Having been breathed into us by God,

            it seeks God, knows God, and in Him alone finds rest.”

Thus from the first, from creation, 

the human spirit was clothed in the Uncreated Light.

Yet through sin our primordial parents, the Genesis story tells us,

            lost “the garment of Uncreated Light” in which they were clothed,

            and they became aware that they were naked,

                        and so they took fig leaves and sewed them together

                        to make for themselves substitute garments.

And we have all shared in that sin that leaves us blind to the light

                        which was our first garment.

Each Sunday we recite the confession, 

acknowledging our sinful condition and our spiritual blindness.

John the Baptist came preaching repentance 

and offering a water baptism for cleansing, 

            but he also announced that one would come after him 

                        whose baptism would be far more effective,

                        whose baptism was of fire –

                                    fire like the flames of Pentecost, Uncreated Light.

Picture 120 gathered in the upper room 

            with that uncreated light springing from their heads.

And coming to the Eucharist

            we find here healing for the sin sickness.

When we partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus

            we receive into ourselves his Life energy, his Light energy,

and this continues to cleanse us by holy fire.

And like the fire of the bush that Moses saw on Mount Sinai,

                        the bush enveloped in the fire of Uncreated Light,

            we are not scorched by this Fire we have eaten.

Only sin is burned up within us,

            as the Light invisibly purifies us.

Remember that when we celebrate the Eucharist,

when we partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus

            we receive into ourselves his Life energy.

How many years have you been coming here Sunday by Sunday

            consuming the Body and Blood of Jesus?

You are shot through with this same Light 

                        as the disciples saw in the Transfigured Jesus.

May the Church awake to this great truth of being,

and may we be delivered from our fears about coming into 

                        the brilliant Presence of this Light.

May we not shrink back from realizing ourselves indeed to be

            light to the world.

This should be disturbing if we take it seriously.

How much of our lives do we waist in puniness of perspective

            about who we are and who Jesus is

            and the implications of the Transfiguration event

                        if taken into serious consideration.

May our eyes be opened to see this Transfiguration Light all around us

                                    and in each other,

may our consciousness be transfigured,

may our minds and our hearts be opened.

And may we resist the temptation to encase the Light of God

            within the limitations of our own minds

but without fear respond to the Voice from the cloud:

            “This is my son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased;

            listen to him!”