Transfiguration: Heaven and Earth Meet.

A Sermon Delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on February 14, 2010 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Ex. 34: 29-35,I cor 12;27-13:13and Luke 9:28-36.

On April 12, 1961, Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history by becoming the first man to orbit the earth. A couple of days after his return to earth, someone asked him about God and space. He is quoted as saying, "I looked and looked but I didn't see God."

...To which a wag in Moscow replied, " If you could not see him on earth, how could you see him in space?"

If Yuri Gagarin had read our passages today, he would have realized that you have to go up on a mountain to see God...

Moses went up Mt. Sinai 7,497 feet, and Jesus most likely went up Mount Hermon, which rises 9,166 feet above the plain of Galilee. That's pretty high... Maybe Gagarin was right to look for God in space...

Most of us would immediately agree with the Moscow wag, that Gagarin made the fundamental mistake of looking for God - a spirit- in a physical place - 'up there' in space.

We've read the Sermon on the Mount, where it says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:7). We know from this that seeing God is something spiritual - a faculty of the True Imagination, if you will. One should not look for a spirit in a physical place. It just won't work.

But in spite of our spiritual knowledge and insight, we as Christians often go on to make a similar mistake in our day to day lives. We live as if there were no connection between what we see around us and the God we say we believe in. We become defacto Deists, who believe that God is 'up in heaven' and we are 'down' here - and never the twain shall meet. God must have just wound up the universe in the beginning, like the proverbial watchmaker, and let the whole thing run on its own, completely divorced from our current reality. How else can we explain why things on earth are so rotten and broken? Why else does God not come 'down' and put things right?

Following this line of reasoning causes us to think about the purpose of Jesus' life and death as providing us a way of escape from this crummy ol' world. We see Christ's ministry as opening a way for us to 'go to heaven' when we die - to give us eternal respite from the cares of this world and to help us retire to a beatific garden-like setting 'in the sweet by and by'.

A lot of people, Christians included, look at this brochure-like vision of heaven and think to themselves, 'That sounds really boring.' I can't imagine just hangin' out on a cloud for eternity playing a harp and chillin' out - even if it's a very beautiful place. There's got to be something more.

They're right - because: God did not send Jesus to die for us so that we could go to Heaven when we die!

What the Transfiguration of Jesus and the shining face of Moses tell us is that God and Heaven aren't 'up there', far away, in outer space, or on the other side of the grave, but are close by, 'very present' as the Psalmist (46) would say, and that God's dimension, what we call 'heaven' is a whole lot more interesting and present than we think.

In Luke chapter 9, verse 27, Jesus tells his disciples, "But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Peter and James and John are the ones Jesus was talking about. These were the guys who, in the very next verse, go with Jesus up the mountain and see The Kingdom of God arrive as Jesus was transfigured! This is another way of saying they went into God's dimension - Heaven - and saw Jesus for what he really was - God incarnate.

They saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, representatives of the Law and the Prophets - men who themselves had had unusual home-going experiences. The disciples, of course, misinterpreted the event and wanted to create a theme park on the spot. They didn't realize they were seeing what hundreds of generations had longed to see - the revelation of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. They had no idea that they were watching the beginning of the fulfillment of God's purpose on the earth - 'the renewal of the entire cosmos, of heaven and earth together', as NT. Wright says (Simply Christian. pg. 85.)

Foreshadowing
Now the story of Moses and the Exodus is a foreshadowing of God's ultimate purpose. God leads the people of Israel out of Egypt, the land of bondage - and towards the promised land of Canaan - a land flowing with milk and honey - a place where things are as they should be - where life on earth is restored to a semblance of the original balance God intended.

The Exodus of Israel anticipates the exodus of Jesus. During his conversation with Moses and Elijah, Jesus talks with them about his 'departure'. The Greek word for this is - surprise - 'Exodus'. As Jesus departs this earthly life through death he will lead the human race out of the bondage of sin and into the New Life of the Kingdom of God. And just as Moses' face shone after receiving the Old Covenant from God, Jesus shone as this New Covenant was being discussed.
And as he did so, he illustrated that Heaven is not far from us, not up there, but near, just on the other side of this visible reality. He showed us that the division between God's dimension - Heaven - and ours is thin, that it can be breached rather easily, at will, by God. Heaven overlaps and interlocks with Earth.

Some Caveats
Now this doesn't indicate some sort of pantheistic conception of reality - that EVERYTHING is God or that God is IN everything. But it does indicate that any idea of God being far off or heaven being somewhere you go after you die is simply mistaken and inadequate. The Truth is far more interesting and amazing. The truth is that "in Jesus of Nazareth, heaven and earth have come together once for all." ( Wright, pg. 94).

Not only that but "The whole point of Jesus' work was to bring heaven to earth and join them together forever, to bring God's future into the present and make it stick there." (SC :g. 102)
And here we're talking about the future consummation of all things. Because even though we are asserting that heaven and earth have been joined together in Christ, we also assert that 'Christ will come again' and that he will finally set up his Kingdom on Earth - a new earth, heaven on earth - the place where God and man will dwell together in such a way that we no longer need the Sun by day or the moon by night, but God himself will be our light. (Rev. 21:23) In Jesus's own person, The Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God lie down together, ushering in the Peaceable Kingdom. (Is. 65:25).

Until that time of final consummation, we live in between the times and God calls us to be people who live at the intersection of time and eternity.

I've told the story before about when I was in college at Marshall, taking a philosophy class. We were systematically studying all the major world philosophies and religions. Each system of ideas was accompanied in the text book by a little diagram illustrating the interaction of the Temporal things and the Eternal things. Systems based on materialist thinking were all 'temporal' and no eternal, while religions such as Buddhism or its older cousin Hinduism were all eternal, the temporal things being mere illusions.

Finally when we got to Christianity, the diagram in the book included a cross, bridging the temporal and eternal. The professor explained it by saying that in the cross of Christ, you have a place where time and eternity meet.

Suddenly, a light bulb went on in my head. I could see that all the other world religions and philosophies were imbalanced on one side or the other, but in Christianity, both come together in perfect balance. The Cross was the only way to bridge the gap - for heaven and earth to come together in some sort of dynamic interaction. This provided me the unlikely intellectual basis for becoming a Christian ( I'm pretty sure I'm the only student that ever came to faith through Dr. Slaate's class...)

And this is why I'm excited about what we're discussing today. I'm excited because the coming together of Heaven and Earth in Christ helps me make sense out of Life: Who I am and what I should do.

Who am I? Who are we as people?

We are God's creatures, created in His image for a loving relationship with Him. But we are fallen; the Image of God within us has been marred by Sin. Even so, every person still bears that indelible imprint of the Divine - and God has taken it upon himself to redeem that image by sending His Son Jesus Christ to hang on the Cross between heaven and earth in order to reconcile us to God once for all. Having been redeemed, God has placed His Spirit within us Christians to transfigure us into the Image of Christ, just as surely as Christ was revealed to be God's only begotten son on the Mount of Transfiguration.

One of the lyrics from the Battle Hymn of the Republic says in part,
"In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that ________(transfigures) you and me...."

From 'glory to glory', we are being transformed (transfigured)into the image of Christ through the active work of God's Holy Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17,18, NASB). But unlike Moses who had to put a veil over his face to shield the Israelites from God's reflected Glory, we who turn to Christ have the veil [of unbelief] removed from our faces and are able to behold the glory of the Lord. (vv. 12-18).

The Holy Spirit of God brings heaven and earth together within us so that we now become outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace - and the means of God's grace for others. That is to say, sacramental vessels of God's love to the people of the world.

Here's where our Mission comes in. Because Heaven and Earth have been joined together within us, God has given us the privilege of participating with Him in redeeming this world.
Granted, it's a challenge to see the world as a target of God's redeeming work. Just look at the near daily tragedies around us: Earthquakes in Haiti, Murders on our streets, drug and alcohol addictions everywhere. It's tempting to see the world in Deistic terms - God up in a remote heaven and us down here struggling just to survive.

But this is where we need to look with the eyes of faith and see God at work in the world, joining heaven and earth.

Where do we see this happen?
In other Christians
In our Worship- at the Communion table and the reading of the Word
In our Discipleship and Service

Since this is Valentine's Day, I've got to tell you that the first time I realized that heaven had come down to earth was the day I met Cindy. - and when she kissed me for the first time, I KNEW I was getting a foretaste of heaven on earth!

Although this is corny, it is still true that we glimpse the Divine in other people, especially Christians, and especially our spouses. Marital love was invented so that we could understand what God's love for us is like. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:30-32 that, "we are members of his [Christ's] body. 31“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

As wonderful as romantic love is, it is temporary and will eventually be replaced by the fulfillment of total union with God in the Resurrected state. Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:30: "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." Married love is a glimpse, a foretaste of heaven on earth.

Our Worship
This foretaste is also seen during our Worship, in which we eat the bread of heaven and drink from wine of the Marriage feast of the Lamb, joining together with all the saints who have ever lived, anticipating that great Day in the future.

Heaven touches us as we read and listen to God's Word - the Logos, Jesus Christ. The eternal Word, the Old and New Covenant speaks to us now if we will but listen. And as we listen to the Covenant proclaimed, God renews us and causes that Word to grow up within us, changing our mind and hearts into conformity with His will.

Greensboro
When we were in Greensboro for Winter Conference, we got to see a very dramatic example of this in two ways. On Wednesday evening the conference began with a grand Eucharist, complete with a vast congregation, scores of vested clergy, exuberant praise music, a colorful procession. Archbishop Kolini preached and Moses Tay of Singapore celebrated. It was really a high point of Anglican worship in all its grandeur.

But on Sunday morning, about 150 of us who were stranded by the snow, gathered in a small theater there at the hotel and we experienced another wonderful expression of Anglican worship: stripped down, bare, Bp. Sandy Greene was the celebrant, in collar, but also dressed in street clothes, with only a stole for vestment, a bare table with a cup and a plate for the communion, One guitar player - with no amplification, no programs, no song lyrics and NO Worship Booklets!

Bishop Doc Loomis preached a simple, but moving sermon, while Archbishops Kolini and Tay sat on either side of the theater, and world-renowned theologian J.I. Packer listened from his seat near the back, giants of the faith listening unobtrusively, just like the rest of us - who were joining together in a style of worship that had formed us into a family, despite our very different backgrounds from all over the world. Contemplating this sight moved me profoundly. I felt that I was experiencing a little bit of heaven on earth.

We also see heaven meet earth as we follow Christ.

Jesus told his disciples that were some standing before him who would not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Lk. 9:27) But this was just after he told them that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Lk. 9:23,24)
To be a disciple of Jesus and to see the Kingdom of God is also to be a person who is willing to suffer for the Gospel. Seeing Heaven on Earth doesn't come cheaply.

Finally, we see heaven and earth come together in our service for Him.

N.T. Wright says, 'If Jesus has been raised, that means that God's new world, God's kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do. (Simply Christian, pg. 115.) Our job is to be the hands and feet of Christ - the manifest presence of God to our world.

We are to learn to participate with God in the task of reclaiming this fallen world through the power of God's Spirit, - who is Himself the down-payment or foretaste (Grk Arrabon) of our inheritance - and to set to right things that are wrong. We are to be the instruments by which God transfigures the world.

The Good News is that Jesus Christ is Lord, " that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up , and that we are to help make it happen." (Wright, pg. 124)
As God's church, we are now the new Temple, the living stone built together (1 Pet. 2:5), the place where heaven and earth meet. When Paul says that we are 'the body of Christ and individually members of it',(1 Cor 12;27), this indicates that we are to participate in God's plan. We are to be his hands and feet in implementing His plan. Our mission is to live in the intersection between heaven and earth - the thin place that the Celts were so enamored of.

Hope House is such a thin place - a place that was subjected to the futility of sin and death, but is now being reclaimed for the Kingdom, a place where Heaven and earth will meet in the Tabernacle we have helped God create. It is an anticipation, a foretaste, Arrabon, of a world set right - a proclamation of the love and power of God acting in the world here and now.
And, of course, not only Hope House, but everything we do in the power of God's Spirit to advance the Kingdom is just such an Arrabon.

As often as we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, 'Thy Kingdom Come on earth as it is in heaven...
Our task is to be God's hands and feet, helping this prayer to become a reality. May God, in His infinite mercy, assist us to see the new Kingdom reality of heaven on earth with the eyes of our hearts, and join Him in the work of bringing in His kingdom here and now. AMEN.