Homily for 2d Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Lent
Feb. 25, 2018
Mark 9: 2-10
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

Is there anyone here who has not sung “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”?  As you know, it was inspired by the goals of the Union cause during the Civil War, viz., the preservation of the United States and the elimination of slavery from our Union.

You may be a little less familiar with the 3d stanza of that stirring hymn that’s at once patriotic and religious.  It came to mind in connection with today’s gospel passage.  That stanza reads:

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

        With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:
        As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
        While God is marching on.

The half line about making men (and women) free, even at the cost of one’s death, is of course a Civil War reference, as is the last line, which associates God with Union troops on the march.

The Transfiguration (Raphael)

But of more interest to us tonite is the reference to transfiguration.  We heard how Jesus was mysteriously transfigured before the eyes of his apostles Peter, James, and John, and in that glorious state conversed with Moses and Elijah, the exemplars of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, that Jesus had come to fulfill.  Then a voice from the overshadowing cloud—a sign of the divine presence—identified Jesus as “my beloved Son” and instructed the 3 overwhelmed apostles, “Listen to him.”

They have been listening to him for quite some time already.  Unlike John’s Gospel, in which Jesus’ ministry is framed around 3 Passovers and thus takes place within just over 2 years (not 3, as we commonly say), Mark offers no hint about the length of Jesus’ public ministry.  His repeated use of the word immediately gives us the impression of a breathless rush from Jesus’ baptism to his crucifixion and resurrection, all in perhaps just a few months.

Anyhow, Peter, James, and John have been listening to Jesus for a while.  In the preceding chapter of Mark, Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah (8:27-29), and then Jesus makes the 1st prediction of his approaching passion, death, and rising (8:31).  The apostles listen, but they don’t understand.  They recognize him as the Messiah, but they don’t understand.  You can be sure that when Peter, James, and John see Jesus with the Old Testament personages who embody the Law and the Prophets, they don’t understand.  And when God speaks from heaven, “This is my beloved Son,” they don’t understand.

Sure enuf, as they descend the mountain, Jesus speaks again of his death and resurrection (9:9), and they don’t understand; “they questioned what rising from the dead meant” (9:10).

In the space of 18 verses, Jesus has been identified as Messiah and beloved Son of God.  To understand, the disciples will have to continue to listen to him.  Jesus has twice spoken of his passion and resurrection.  To understand, they’ll have to listen to him.

Listening, you know, means more than hearing with our ears.  In one ear and out the other isn’t listening, right?  The apostles are going to have to learn the lesson that their teacher has been trying to impart to them.  It will be only thru their experience of his death and resurrection that they’ll finally understand and become effective witnesses that Jesus is Messiah and beloved Son of God.  Only then will they understand that Christ’s glory—his transfiguration—is the outcome of his fulfilling the Scriptures, i.e., fulfilling the plan of our salvation laid out by his Father.  His glory comes out of his perfect obedience to God, even when wicked men hate him on account of that obedience and put him to a horrible death.

But God’s plan can’t be thwarted.  Rather, it transfigures Jesus—not for a transitory moment as on the mountaintop, but forever in the life of the resurrection.

And so we come to Julia Ward Howe’s 3d stanza:  he died to make men and women holy by offering us a share in his own glory, a glory that transfigures us too when we embrace him—embrace his obedience to his Father, embrace our own share in his cross, embrace his teaching as completely as we can.  He is the beloved Son.  Listen to him, and you will be transformed as he’s been, made a beloved son or daughter of God, made holy, destined for resurrection.