"IT ALL CAME TOGETHER"

A Sermon Preached at Scarboro United Church

By Judy Chapman

February 22, 2009

Readings: 2 Kings 2:1-12

Mark 9:2-9

Every year on the Sunday before we begin the Lenten journey that ends with Jesus' death on a cross, we celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus. When describing the Transfiguration we often speak of the "mountain top" experience - the holy moment of recognition when a few of Jesus' most intimate friends glimpsed the glory of God shining through him. We remind ourselves that such high holy moments are few and far between but they do feed our faith in the times that seem less spiritual or inspiring.

Today I would like us to suggest that there is something more than a high holy moment going on in this story - something I would call "convergence." This is a story that brings it all together - a story that lets the reader in on the particular significance of Jesus as a historical/religious figure. I am going to go backwards and forwards in time to troll for the significance of this story. And I am going to suggest that the current story of Barack Obama may shed some light on this story too. But let's start first with the story in the Gospel According to Mark.

After Jesus' clothes became shining white, his three disciples saw Elijah and Moses talking to Jesus. A first century Jewish audience hearing this story would have immediately recognized these two figures as representative of the prophets and the law. Moses was representative of the Law and Elijah was representative of the prophets. Placing them at the scene of the revelation of God's glory in Jesus is a way of saying that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. He was in the line of such great prophets; he was a modern day embodiment of them.

The other thing that these two great leaders represent - the thing we often overlook - is the two different kingdoms of the Israelites. Elijah was a hero from the Northern kingdom of Israel and I will say more about him later. Moses was a hero of the Hebrew people long before the nation of Israel was established, long before there was a kingdom of any kind - united or divided. Yet, he was given special significance in the hearts of the people of the southern kingdom. Laws that the priests wrote centuries after Moses' death were attributed to Moses because of his great stature as a leader. Moses, the law giver, was seen as having a special relationship with God. It is even said that after encountering God on Mount Sinai, Moses' face shone with the glory of God. (Exodus 34:29)

Even though Moses himself never set foot in the Promised Land, the Hebrew people remembered how he led them to it. After Joshua led them into the land of Canaan, they lived as a tribal confederacy for many years before deciding that they needed to have a king like other nations. Saul was the first king, followed by David, Solomon and Rehoboam. With each king, the demands on the people for support of the monarchy grew. David built a palace; Solomon built a temple; and Rehoboam planned to wring every ounce of blood, sweat and tears that he could from the people. He planned to rule with an iron fist. To put it mildly, he lost popular support, particularly in the outlying areas and a bloody conflict erupted. The nation was split into two.

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The northern part became the Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria and the southern part became the Kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem. Relationships between the two kingdoms were strained at best and often outright hostile.*

The Two "Books of the Kings" record the history of both kingdoms. Each ruler was judged according to his loyalty to God - and the nation's success or failure was seen as dependant on that loyalty. Because this history was written from the point of view of the southern kingdom, the kings of the northern kingdom were all considered dismal failures, while the record of Judah's kings was mixed.

Elijah was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom. Unlike Moses who was the recognized leader of his community, Elijah and his successor, Elisha whom we read abut this morning, lived on the edge - literally they lived in the hills - away from the centers of power. They professed to speak for God and were often critical of the king so their lives were often in danger. Elijah was the more famous of the two and even though he was a northerner, he won the respect of historians from the south because he was faithful to God and because he strongly criticized those "dreadful" northern kings.

So let's go back now to the mountain top of Mark's gospel. Elijah and Moses both make an appearance there with Jesus, Elijah representing the northern kingdom; Moses representing the southern kingdom; Elijah representing the one who leads from the edges; Moses representing the one who leads from the centre. This is Mark's way of saying that this leader, Jesus, belongs to all of us - those from all over the country; those who are marginalized and those who are at the centre of power. It all comes together, says Mark, in this man Jesus.

Let me explain that a little further:

Of the 4 gospels we have in our Bible, Mark's is the earliest one written. The other two synoptic gospels, or similar gospels, Matthew and Luke, also include this story of the Transfiguration but, just in case their readers don't get the point that Jesus is a leader for all Jews - not just northerners like Jesus himself - they add birth narratives in which Jesus is claimed as a southerner. According to those narratives he is born in Bethlehem in Judaea (in the south) where King David was born - and they describe Jesus' father, Joseph, as a descendent of King David. They want to stress that Jesus is a leader for all the people, in the line of the beloved King David - even if he does come from Nazareth in Galilee - even if he is one of "those" northerners.

Mark, on the other hand, introduces Jesus in his gospel not with a birth narrative and elaborate genealogies, but with these simple words, "Not long [after John appeared in the desert baptizing and preaching] Jesus came from Nazareth in the province of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.'"

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The Transfiguration story eight chapters later echoes this blessing of God - except that this time it is directed not to Jesus but to the others present, as God says, "This is my own dear Son - listen to him!" And God's voice comes from a cloud - which is reminiscent of those stories of Moses where God speaks to him from a cloud.

So Mark is bringing together all the elements of credibility that he can muster for Jesus - the personal blessing of God, the stamp of approval from Moses and Elijah - representing the Law and the Prophets, the south and the north, the centre and the margins of power. They all come together in this man, Jesus. He has it all. He is the one everyone has been waiting for. He's the one!

It is easy to see some parallels when we think about the story of Barack Obama. When he was running for office he stressed his mixed race background. He was the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Iowa. Not only was he able to represent both black and white folk, but he also came to be able to represent all "people of colour" - a much broader and more inclusive segment of the American population. If those two things didn't register for you, if they didn't happen to include you, he included other details about his background. He stressed that he was raised by a single mother and he had loving, supportive grandparents. He didn't have a lot of money growing up but he managed to get a good education and, in fact, is highly educated. Although he is a Democrat, he pledged to work together with Republicans for the good of the country. He was respectful of his opponents and spoke of building bridges.

Did he miss anybody? Did he miss you? Or did he manage to convey that he was a leader for all people? That the hopes and dreams of all people could be met in him?

Obviously he did manage to convey that because he won a landslide victory in an historic election that made him the first Black American President of the United States.

On his visit to Canada this past week he was greeted like a rock star. One man who commented on National TV said, "The whole world is behind him. He is like a political messiah." In other words, he is the political leader that the whole world has been waiting for - the one who signals change in the way we run the world. He has given much hope for the future. He has made us believe that - together - we can change the things that plague our world.

Jesus inspired the same kind of hope in his day. Of course, he wasn't running for political office since he didn't live in a democracy. In fact, he had no status as a political or religious leader within in his own society. He was much closer to the kind of leader that Elijah was - tuned in to the voice of God but having to lead from the margins. Like Elijah, he was able to do amazing feats because of his oneness with God. Unlike Elijah, he was compassionate toward his enemies and detractors.

Jesus may not have started out as a "bridge-builder" but he became one. He also became a symbol of hope for ordinary folk who lived very difficult lives. Those high hopes and for some - clamoring expectations - that Jesus would lead them in throwing off the yolk of oppression most certainly contributed to his death. Jesus was a healer not a fighter, and his idea of changing the world did not include violence. He resisted the pressure to lead with the sword.

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The "secret" that Jesus asks his disciples to keep as they leave the mountain top is a bit of a mystery that runs through Mark's gospel. Is Mark trying to explain why the Disciples didn't quite "get" the special significance of Jesus at the time? Is he suggesting that the community only came to see his significance as a messiah in hindsight - after Jesus' death and resurrection? Or was it just too dangerous to speak of Jesus' unique mandate to lead? If it were to fan the flames of violent revolution, the Romans would have quickly acted to squelch any threat of rebellion.

The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus suggests that he was blessed by God, and by the great leaders of his tradition. We know that he lifted the hopes of ordinary folk. He inspired their hope that the kingdom of God was at hand. Yet, no matter how glorious the leader, how uplifting the moment, Jesus knew that the work of bringing about change must be done not on the mountain top, not on the crest of emotion of those high holy moments that are few and far between, but in the fields and streets, the office towers and homes, the mills and factories, the schools and churches, where folk ordinarily hang out.

No matter how great and glorious and inspiring the leader, no matter how it all comes together, one person can't bring about the realm of God alone. Ordinary folk in ordinary places must do the work. That's true whether we are talking about our neighborhood or our church; our city, province or nation. It takes all of us working together to make the changes that we would want.

Sometimes we lose sight of that. We have high expectations of our leaders. Sometimes we like what they are doing - and sometimes we don't. We can feel disappointed or let down when they don't do what we would have preferred them to do; or when they don't turn out to be as exciting or smart or talented as we first glimpsed them to be. Wrestling with our disappointment is difficult. It is difficult for leaders, too, who can only be what they can be and do what they can do.

David Swan and Kent Hehr as political leaders surely know this - that despite other people's expectations, they can only be who they are and do what they can do. Likewise, Paul and I know that we can only be who we are and do what we can do.

When we think about our own church community, we are confronted by the reality that if the realm of God is to be glimpsed in our midst, it will be because we have let God's light shine through all of us. It will be because we as a community have committed to practicing the radical hospitality that Jesus practiced, making no distinction between those who are considered "lovely" and those who were considered "unlovely" in the eyes of the world. As we learn more about Emerging Spirit in the months ahead and what it might mean to "live the welcome, to live the hope" we will be challenged to practice that radical hospitality that will mark us as a Christian community. My prayer is that we will be able to meet that challenge!

Amen

* The animosity between the two regions of the country was reflected in Jesus' time by

the dislike that the Jews, whose roots were in the former southern kingdom, had for the

"Samaritans," whose roots were in the former northern kingdom