God's Coming Out
Mark 9:2-9
I. Introduction of my self
II. Prayer
III. Sermon
How many of us here have ever had a mountain top experience? One of those moments that have transformed you for the rest of your life, leaving you to see everything in a totally new light! You may not know that anything new is going to happen. And nothing new may occur. But something has happened! These are moments in time when everything seems new, everything seems strange, and everything has a sense of the mysterious about it. Though nothing may have actually changed, you have changed. Your perception of reality has changed. Jesus, Peter, James, and John had such an experience! They were going up the mountain, to find a quiet place to pray—just a normal activity for devout Jews of the day. The mountains would give them the privacy they wanted, so that they could pray and worship in silence. All of the sudden, out of know where, the prophets Moses and Elijah appear—the most prominent religious and political leaders in Jewish history. On top of that, Jesus starts to glow with a bright white light, and then the booming voice of God declares, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” As soon as it happened, everything was back to normal. Or was it? These are moments of transfiguration—moments when we experience the presence of God. Everything is the same as it was before, but it will never be the same again.
What a transfiguration it was that happened in Jesus’ life. This was Jesus being outed! And what a way to be outed! Not only is Jesus dealing with the fact that his disciples now know a hidden truth about him, but it comes out with such dramatic flare! Jesus starts to glow, major prophets of old appear, and the booming voice of God makes the declaration. I can only begin to imagine what this must have been like for Jesus.
Most of us know the experience of being outed, and how it can transform everything. I know that I have been outed many times before I finally came to grips with my sexuality. But there are many more senses of what it means to be outed. Being outed happens when someone else found out, or realized a hidden truth about yourself. Maybe you were outed about a crush you had in Middle School. Maybe you were outed about who you voted for this last election cycle. It could be any piece of information that changes the way you see the other person, and that other person sees you. Fortunately, the various outings I have experienced did not have all the flare surrounding Jesus’. But, I was probably glowing a radiant shade of red, out of shear fear and embarrassment.
What interests me the most about this moment between Jesus, Peter, James, and John has nothing to do with whether Jesus is divine or the Son of God. Rather, I am interested in the reaction they had. “Then Peter said to Jesus, `Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” The apostles experienced terror at this sight. Isn’t it curious that terror would lead a person to constructing these three dwellings?
So, what about these 3 dwellings? Why build them? The disciples had a Jewish celebration to fall back on: Sukkoth—the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. Today, and in the time of Jesus, this celebration remembers the Exodus and Israel’s desert wanderings—a time when the people had little, only what they could carry on their own backs. Their flight from Egypt was a time of deprivation, meager belongings, and not much in the way of creature comfort. When in the desert, they only had crude materials to make crude dwellings—whatever was available in the desert around them. Variously throughout scripture, the dwellings are called booths, tabernacles, and tents.
This celebration not only remembers the desert wanderings, and the various trials the Israelites of old experienced, but it also remembers the might and power of God as she lived among her people in one of those crude tents. Many acts are done by God to preserve the people. The key part of this celebration, like on that mountain top, is God’s presence among the people.
When I read scripture front to back, from the story of creation to the Kindom of God being present on earth, I read the entire Biblical story as a call to transfiguration for us all—a changing of our form—a transition into our full humanity. But how is this transition achieved? It is achieved through relationships. That relationship with the cute person you are sitting next to, the relationship that you and I are in now, the relationship between you and your parents, the relationship between you and your friends. And there is your relationship with God. These relationships are what our lives are made of! These relationships transition us into a new understanding of the world around us, transform us into new people, and change our form into something much grander. Relationships transfigure each and every person.
During the Exodus, during the desert wanderings, God lived in a tent among the people. What a better way to have a relationship with someone than living side by side in tents. There are no walls to keep any one out. When the various flaps are down to prevent the meager rain falls from coming in or to keep the on coming sandstorm from filling up the tent, you can still have a conversation with the person in the next tent over. God was living in tents among the people; they had an active relationship with God. In, from, through, out of that primary relationship, they could have true relationship with each other.
Imagine the relationships we could have today if it were not for the artificial walls we put up! How would the relationship with your neighbor be if you took down the fences in your yard? How would the relationship among the world community be if we did not rely on national, cultural, religious, and language borders? How would the relationships among all people be if we removed words about gender and sexuality that act to divide us?
These artificial boundaries act as closets! All of us here know what the closet is good for. It is a place that the rest of society forces us to be—out of sight, of mind. In the closet, they do not have to deal with us any more. In that closet, they can control who we are. Various authorities through the history of Israel thought that they forced God into the closet of the temple, into the Holy of Holies, a room no bigger than half this chancel, for 1000 years. Or so the authorities thought. Today, various authorities in government, religious circles, and popular elements in the broader culture think they have us in the closet. Is the closet designed with ill intent toward us, and toward God? Maybe not overtly all the time— but we are taking that power back! By being here this morning, we are claiming our power, we are shedding another closet! What new and wonderful things can we learn about God, about each other, about ourselves—what transfiguration will occur?
Why were the apostles terrified? Why is the majority of society terrified of us? Peter, and the other apostles, were all raised in a culture where God had been in the closet of the temple. We have been raised in a society that has us in the closet of public opinion most of the time. Throughout scripture, whenever the presence of God suddenly comes, or when prophets appear from no where, or heavenly messengers proclaim a word from God, people tend to be filled with terror. But this is a reverential terror that demands action by the person experiencing it. This leaves one with a few choices of how to act. You may bow down in worship of God. You may hide your face. Too often, both in the Biblical narrative as a whole and our society today, when confronted by God, we turn our backs, walk away, use derogatory names, and in the worst of cases, cast stones. But maybe the terror that other people experience toward us is not directed necessarily at who we are. But rather, I wonder if it is directed at the fact that they are seeing God in us, revealing that all bodies are holy, and all sexuality is a sacred communion.
Where closets exist, how can we have a relationship with God? How can we have relationships with each other, our neighbor, and our world community when the walls of closets surround us?
Often times, we are told that the dwellings proposed by Peter were to hide God’s revelation, to keep it from the people—to keep it from us. I see it a different way. Peter, James, and John were raised to know what it meant to be followers of God. They knew the law. They knew their peoples history. They were raised to know God was hidden away in that temple. However, it was that history, the life giving water, of the Exodus and the desert wanderings that they drew upon.
What history do we as a community have to draw upon? We have the Stonewall Riots. We have women’s liberation. We have marriage rights in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Guess what that history taught the disciples, what our history is teaching us today? GOD IS OUT OF THE CLOSET! What is more, God was never confined to that closet—no matter what any authority said then or now. No longer will God be put out of sight, out of mind; nor will God be controlled by arbitrary borders of the closet! No longer do we have to be in the various closets constructed by society, or the closets we construct for ourselves. There are many closets out there: drug addiction, failed relationships, an uncertain economy, hate, etc… The authorities of Jesus’ day were not just confronted by people demanding their, our, rights as human beings, or as children of God, or as citizens—they were confronted by God herself! I would be filled with terror as well. Now, God is with us. God is in our presence. In that presence of God, we are being transfigured, transformed, having our form changed into something new!
When I look out over this Beloved Community, and see the various relationships, and who is among us, I cannot help but be transfigured! We are not just L, G, B, and T people here. I see a good number of straight allies, visitors, and people who recognize the presence of God in this place. We are a transfigured community.
As observant Jews, the apostles were right to be filled with terror, ready for action. They could not miss the meaning of this event. It was only a fitting response for Peter to want to pitch a tent!
What is today’s Good News? God is among her people! What does this mean? When the walls that separate us are torn down, we all will be transfigured—a changing of our form—into our full humanity. God will be at our side as we tear them down. Like Jesus and his disciples, we too will be transfigured by God into a new relationship with each other—experiencing the fullness of our humanity. Now as we move on toward Easter, Lent is a time for us to fully participate in the being, and presence of God.
Amen!