Matthew 17:1-9; 2 Peter 1:16-21
“While he was
still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a
voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to
him!’”
Chavah: I hope you won’t mind if we talk while I continue with my
bread making—it’s a constant thing, making and baking bread. I never know when
my son-in-law Peter and the band of brothers are going to show up. They tend to
come over after temple, I live practically next door.
I don’t mind: I like working with
my hands and I love the way our little house smells when there’s bread on the
fire. Can you smell it? MMM MMMM, there’s nothing like it! I think they can
smell it across the yard and that’s why they come here every Friday night.
First, I should properly
introduce myself. I am Chavah. My name comes from the Torah and means “living
and breathing.” My name in gentile language would be Eve, you know…THE Eve, the
one in the garden, Eve…. She was made from Adam to be living and breathing—that’s before that incident with the apple, of
course.
I wonder if my parents could have
known what would happen to me when the Lord came to my house and brought me
back from death’s door….but how could they have known that one who was as good
as dead could be made living and breathing again -- but I digress.
My daughter married Peter several
years ago, when he was a fisherman—and making good money at it, I might add! We
were doing well, until the day when the carpenter’s son showed up at the shore
where Peter and Andrew, James and John, were just coming in from the lake and
mending their nets after a good night of fishing.
When poor ol’ Zebedee told me
what happened with his sons, James and John, when Jesus showed up that morning,
I wanted to tear my apron in solidarity with all parents whose children get
some crazy idea in their heads and run off; after all the time, money, and
proper religious upbringing you put into them. Peter and his brother Andrew did
the same thing!
I told my daughter that Peter was
not the brightest fig on the tree and that he would break her heart someday,
but she married him anyway. The strangest thing, when he sent her that note
about finding the Messiah and he was going with him—he didn’t know where and
didn’t know how long he’d be gone, I was furious. She didn’t seem to mind,
though. Kids these days….If my husband—may
his memory be a blessing—had done that to me…ohhh, I digress!
Messiah saw something in Peter
that was special—the way he sees something special in all of us, I believe, and
so he forgives our idiosyncrasies, those annoying personal habits that drive your
family and friends crazy.
I don’t have any of those, and I
am sure none of you does either…but Peter, Peter, his-own-words eater… he was
an impetuous guy—he always opened his mouth before he thought things through—you
don’t know anybody like that do you? I always said my son-in-law had a
foot-shaped mouth. That’s because he was forever putting his foot in it!
Yet…yet….
There was that one day that Peter
told us about…the day he witnessed Jesus, Moses and Elijah shining like the
sun—a blinding light—at the top of Mount Tabor—you see the holy mountain there
on your worship map.
The picture doesn’t do it
justice, I’m afraid. To see the towering Tabor to the southwest of the Sea of
Tiberius, nearer to Nazareth, is to see a mountain rising all by itself above
the surrounding flat plain. The mountain is covered in lush green cover all the
way to the top—660 meters above sea level! O Tabor, the Mountain of the
Transfiguration! A Holy, Holy place, for sure.
This is what Peter told me. In
the month of Elul, that would be your month of August, Jesus took Peter, James
and John up that mountain. When the four got to the top, suddenly the Lord was
transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became a dazzling white.
“There’re just no words to
describe it,” Peter said. “Hamoti! (which means “Mother-in-law,” a term of
respect back then) Moses, the Holy-Law giver, and Elijah our greatest prophet,
they were there, too! And gleaming like the sun as they talked with Jesus!” I
would swear that Peter’s face, too, was shining as he told me of this event.
“Hamoti, it was not just a vision
of my mind; it was real…and it was not all that happened! I got to speak to
them!”
“Oh, no!” I thought, “Peter, you
didn’t…!” but he did.
“Hamoti,” I said, “Lord, it is
good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here; one for
you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
And my heart sank. Only my khah-than. Not only does he interrupt
the Lord Jesus when he is speaking with the greatest men of the Hebrew nation,
but also he suggests building each of them a dwelling—a booth—as a memorial to
that transfiguration to this happening; really?!
As if a dwelling grand enough,
holy enough for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, could be constructed by human hands!
Once again he puts his proverbial foot in his mouth, where it fits so well.
“Hamoti! While I was still
speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed us, and from the cloud the voice
of Majestic Glory, the voice of Yahweh--El
Shaddai--Adonai—a voice like you
have never heard before—we ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while
we were with the Lord on the holy mountain.
He said, “This is my Son, the
Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him! Yet, I couldn’t help it,
none of us could; we were frightened to death, but Jesus, Rabbi, he came to us
and touched us—oh, no one has a hand like he—and he said in the kindest voice,
‘Get up and do not be afraid!’ How can I say this so you could understand….”
Ahhh… my poor khah-than, my dear
Peter, what he witnessed, what he was trying to say…I think I understood it long
before he did…because I remember his touch, his healing touch, when I had been
so sick. He touched me and nothing has ever been the same. I was praying to die
I was so ill, yet when the Lord healed me, all I wanted to do was rise up and
serve them my best bread. Modern people—women—they criticize me for that, but I
digress….
Perhaps you are skeptical of the
Transfiguration of Messiah? I know you modern folk, with your science-based
culture, you find it hard to believe in transfiguration, but perhaps that is
because you want to know “how” it works rather than why it happened, hmmm?
The Transfiguration happened, I
swear, to show us humans the reality of Messiah inside and out. For just a few
moments in all of history, Jesus’ humanity and his divinity were revealed at
the same time. Yeshua, He is divine, his character is spotless, his heart is
pure, he is pure, he is the light of earth and heaven.
Just before Peter’s death in 68,
AD, he wrote a second letter to the Christians in Asia Minor, and he warned
them, and warns us still, that the Trans-figuration was a witnessed prophetic
message for all the children of God.
“You will do well,” Khah-than
wrote, “to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the
day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” [2 Peter 1:19b]
Morning stars together, we humans
who believe, we can only bear so much of God’s glory! Even at your darkest
moment, like when I was so ghastly ill, we have the witness of the saints—even
one with a foot-shaped mouth—to believe in Messiah, who came to save us.
Jesus, I saw the Light in him; I
felt the Light of Love in his touch. I got up that evening and rejoiced that I
could serve my Lord.
And I know that’s what Jesus
meant when he said to Peter and the Zebedee brothers, “Get up and do not be
afraid…it’s time to go down the mountain and serve the people, the hungry, the
thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned, the captives and the sin-sick souls…
It is Messiah whom we serve; it
is his light, the Majestic Glory, who calls us still today to be the Chavah, living and breathing, eyewitnesses to
the Son of God, the Beloved, the one with whom our God is well-pleased. Let us
listen to him!
I see that my bread is done, and
it is time to attend to the table; such a lovely visit we’ve had. Listen now, for our Lord is expecting us as
his guests. May His memory be a blessing! Prepare to greet him with a holy
kiss.” Amen.
March 2, 2014/First Parish Federated
Church of South Berwick, Maine/The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
