Transfiguration is a cornerstone of the rich spirituality of the Orthodox Churches. Orthodox Christians believe that just as Christ was transfigured on Mt. Tabor, so with the incarnation of Christ into the world, the divine image of God has been restored in humanity, all other creatures, and the world or Earth herself. The Spirit is transforming us even now with divinity or divine light that is breaking through all of us if we can see with the eyes of prayer and faith. In the I the gospel story, the radiance of God’s divinity breaks through in Jesus on the mountain top. For Orthodox Christians, it is through scripture and the recitation of the Jesus prayer numerous times a day allows us to see God’s light in one another or in the world: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Recitation of the prayer remains mechanical as long as we say the prayer with words. I tried this practice for a day, and it was hard to keep reciting this prayer throughout the day. You can repeat the prayer for a time, but it becomes tedious. It is hard to move from reciting the prayer silently in your mind and correlating it with you breathing. I admire those heroic Christians who have been able to do this for long periods of time. The prayer must become a part of us, and that will happen as we come to Christ better through the scriptures and secondly as we let the prayer take over us and let the tensions and anxieties of our lives recede.

I have thought for many years that Mark’s account of Jesus’ Transfiguration is a displaced resurrection appearance account. It is similar to the Orthodox Christian recognition that Christ’s divinity or God’s radiant light shines through him. Matthew and Luke follow Mark in incorporating the story within their gospels as a story of miraculous transformation of Jesus.

Jesus leads Peter, James and John up a mountain where he stands in conversation with Moses and Elijah – a symbol that the ancestors recognize Jesus as the one who has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. Remember in Exodus or in the movie Ten Commandments when Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai, and the Hebrews have constructed the a golden calf to worship. Moses re-ascends Mt. Sinai and brings back another set of the Ten Commandments, but scripture describes “the skin of his face was shining” (Exodus 34:30). He had seen God and was transfigured with God’s light.

What makes me think that this story originally circled in early movement Jesus as a resurrection story is that Jesus’ clothes and face are transformed brilliant white. And then there is God’s revelation that Jesus is God’s beloved child. God has broken into our world. The disciples witnessed Jesus’ risen divinity breaking into their world.

Peter, as impetuous as ever, witnesses the appearance of the prophets Moses and Elijah with Jesus. He quickly says, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tents or tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Peter responds immediately without taking some time to breathe and take a moment to appreciate the beauty and importance of the event. Unlike Peter, the other two disciples remain still, experiencing the transfigured radiance of Christ without any words. They breathe in the experience and remain still and mindful of radiating Christ without trying to grasp it or control it as Peter does. Peter wants to control the experience; in fact, he wants to prolong the experience of transfiguration of Jesus with Moses and Elijah by building three tabernacles. Sometimes in prayer, we desire the enjoyment and want to hold on the experience when God is calling us to a deeper experience.

It takes the manifestation of God to upstage and quiet Peter down. When God intrudes into the scene and affirms that Jesus is as God’s beloved Child with whom God is pleased, then Peter shuts ups and falls down to knees and conceals his face. Sometimes it takes an intervention of God to render us silent and without words when are filling up our prayer space with too much ourselves and not leaving enough room for God.

The disciples fall down facedown to the ground, terrified at the presence of God. And the transfigured Jesus looked upon the three and said, “Get up and do not be afraid.” “Do not be afraid” is a resurrection refrain used by Jesus in resurrection appearances. The disciples faced something we all face in prayer—how do we re-enter in to ordinary space. They came down from the mountain into the ordinary world of poverty, oppression, and the sadness of the human condition.

The challenge for the three and the challenge at those moments of prayer for us is to listen, to know that there are those times when we encounter God’s presence, we’re not in control. We can only listen and trust, perhaps place our heads down. When we pray and experience God, we allow ourselves to see God’s light in ourselves. In her book, A Return to Love,

Marianne Williamson writes,

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

These moments of light are with us throughout our lives, but our self-centeredness, our fears and anxieties blind us to the glimpses of transfigured grace of God in our lives and in our world. We cannot control when these moments of God’s light will shine and break through. We have to make room in our hearts, and be prepared for God for them. We have to be still in our hearts, and let God be God before we respond. Don’t be premature or hasty as Peter. Give God a chance to be God, and listen. God will come to each of us, often when we don’t expect it. We can experience them “anytime, anyplace, or with anybody.” God is in the ordinary world transfiguring the world with God’s gracious light.

Lent starts this Wednesday where we place ashes on your forehead to remind you from earth we came and the earth we return. It calls us once again to renew our spirituality, to be re-charged, to change our lives from our ordinary activities, and be mindful of our God. But I ask you to be prepared for God anywhere, anytime even when it is inconvenient, or in anyone even a stranger. This means we need to be mindful of the present moment.

For the disciples on the mountain, there were risks in their experience of the transfiguration of Jesus. There was the risk of spending too much time on the mountain, and there was danger of returning to their boats and fishing on the Lake of Galilee not letting themselves sufficiently transformed. The challenge that faced them was to go up to the mountain to experience God and return to the world changed and bring that experience of light within themselves back into the world.

Climbing up the mountain to experience God and the return down into the world is a metaphor for the prayer journey. I do this actually every time I walk the labyrinth path towards the center, letting go of ego—all roles I play in life—pastor, teacher, husband, friend, activist, and so on—are let go. I walk the stepping stones to the center of the labyrinth or the symbolic mountain top and bathe in the presence of God as a child of God. There when I let go of all the distractions of my life, I find that space is created within me where God’s light may shine into my heart and the depths of my spirit. God’s light shines into my heart because I have made room for God to enter and dwell. I bathe in that light for a while before I journey back to the ordinary world. I discover not only connection with God and Christ, but I become interconnected to the congregation and many folks in my life, and to the Earth. This divine image of being a child of God, Christ within me, radiates within my body and my heart and through all the interconnections with life. The challenge that I face and the three disciples confronted as well is how to bring that practice of divine transfiguration into the world of ordinary life and challenges. How do I share that practice of transfigured light with others? I have to walk back from the center of the labyrinth to re-enter ordinary consciousness—the world we live in.

Now I do not need an actual mountain top or the labyrinth to find God, they are useful props to remind me to let go and encounter the risen Christ. I can do the same thing by walking into our garden and sitting in our garden for a period of time with my dog Friskie or alone for a short period of time. Be still, and listening silently I can find time when God’s divine light and grace shines through, and I experience my interrelatedness with life. It is never forced time with the risen Christ. In fact, you relax into the moment, and let the presence of God to reveal itself in us. Encountering Christ is actually a “come and go” psychic experience. We climb the mountain to experience, and then we go back into the world. Practicing transfiguration is a come and go experience where we carve out time for God to be with God this Lent. By taking time for God, we practice a grateful generosity to God who is generous to us—bestowing life and love upon us. We experience our generous who invites us into intimate relationship. God becomes present to us, and we are transfigured. Being transfigured is a process of God changing us. This can happen also at our Sunday worship: we come to worship and we go to serve the world.

There are three stages to this transfigured awareness:

First is the awareness of God shining in us and telling us that we are God’s children and that God is pleased with us. We are meant to shine as children shine. We are destined to let God’s light shine within us. But discovering that light, we also find that light includes God, people, other life, and the Earth. God’s light is within all and links as kinship community.

Second stage as we re-enter the world around us we find out that it is not just some of us are God’s children; it is in everyone and other creatures and the Earth herself. We are all God’s children. We honor and show the goodness to fellow children of God as God shows us.

Third, stage is that the change. If we let the light shine through us, then we live God’s love and compassion. We live compassionate action in the world because God’s compassionate light for us is already in us. And we want to share the light of the love respectfully with and for others. As we let God’s light shine through, our light has contagious impact on others—allowing others to experience the same.

This week when I saw the Dalai Lama, there was a quote on the screen: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” If we implement this practice, we implement what we Christians understand as grace. We practice light of being a child of God and realizing the divine light of God’s image to manifest itself in us.

These three stages is what Lent about. Discover your light as beloved children of God, enter each day into your ordinary aspects of your lives and realize that there are other transfigured children of God around us. Finally, share the light in compassionate action—forgiveness, peace-making, love, and gratitude. By sharing God’s light within yourselves. God will continue to spread that gracious light to others. And we now start to enter the depth of God on the cross, resurrected Light of Easter, and the creation of the mission of living that light in the world. Love is what God made you for, and love is what the transfigured light you are.