Sermons Archive

The Thin Places
The Rev. Janice Robinson
February 18, 2007

The stories we have heard retold this morning are not new to us. We have heard them before. Each year on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season, we hear the story of the transfiguration. I think one of the main points of this story is that, to experience relationship with Jesus Christ is to be transfigured, changed. We have heard many stories about the manifestation of the glory of God in Jesus Christ, and about God’s love for us all, shown through the ministry of Jesus.

The transfiguration experiences in scripture are rather spectacular. Moses at the burning bush, and on Mt. Sinai; Israel released from bondage in Egypt, were made a people as they wandered in the desert; through Jesus’ transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, Peter, James and John were left afraid and silent; Paul on the Damascus Road had a blinding experience that changed him form a zealot ready to kill for Judaism, to a zealot ready to withstand all persecution, imprisonment and torture to spread the “good news” in Jesus Christ.

Transfiguration actually means to transform one’s appearance. To be transformed is to be changed markedly; a metamorphosis. It is to be different. Is it possible to experience such a transfiguration? I believe each of us can, and probably have at some time. A community can also be transformed. Each of these change experiences involves a mountain, literally or figuratively. Moses climbs Mt. Sinai, we are told, to talk with God.

Israel traversed a desert, the experience of which probably felt like climbing a great height scrambling over sharp outcroppings, grasping for purchase in order not to fall. The further they traveled, the harder it felt, shortness of breath dogging their every step. Jeremiah climbs a mountain and is lost in a whirlwind, wanting to talk with God. Today, we hear of Jesus’ transfiguring experience, but his was different in that it seems to have been primarily for the benefit of the disciples with him.

Why those three and none of the others? I don’t know, but in the midst of his prayer, Jesus suddenly changes in appearance. It sounds very much like Moses, whose face “shone” in a manner that frightened the people of Israel.

These are all experiences people have had with God. No magic tricks here. These experiences call to mind what the Irish call “the thin places.” Places where the veil between this world and the next is so sheer that it is easy to step through. These are holy places. I suspect that many of the “near death” experiences that have been described are in the “thin places”, where one experiences the presence of God. Is that a necessary experience to know that you are in the presence of God? I don’t know. Perhaps there are experiences that make a person feel as if they have been transported to stand in a “thin place”. Throughout human history there have been places marked as holy where someone experienced standing on a plane outside of this one, in a holy place, in the presence of God, e.g. Jacob wrestling with an angel. He was changed his hip bone was moved out of its socket and he was left with a limp, and given a new name, “Israel.”

In the presence of God, “the veil” is lifted, and we may gather a glimpse of the divine, like Jeremiah who saw the back of God. And like Moses you are left vulnerable and “naked”, without a veil, before the Divine. Moses puts a veil on when he addresses the people if Israel, for they are frightened, and can’t look at him. A cloud descends over the disciples preventing them from seeing Elijah and Moses depart. When the cloud, “the veil” is lifted, they see Jesus standing all alone. Peter wanted to build houses for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, and they could all stay there. That had to have been a very heady experience.

Paul speaks of the “veil” that covered Israel, preventing her from seeing the reflected glory of God. The veil was in place because they had hardened their hearts. Yet, Paul says that when they turned to Jesus Christ “the veil” is lifted from their minds. What has been your mount of transfiguration? Perhaps it was a moment, in a relationship which had been trying, or boring, when a gesture or a word suddenly helped you to see in a new way, as if a “veil” had been lifted from your sight.

Perhaps it was a Damscus Road experience like Paul, when you were totally turned around from hat you had been doing and passionately believed was your calling, to do something so very differently. Maybe it was a sacramental occasion when you received the bread and the wine and there was a “knowing” beyond knowing, that you were in the presence of God.

This past summer while standing in a museum in Soweto, South Africa, looking through a window that showed the very spot where the South African police opened fire on the students gathering to protest new requirement that they be taught in Afrikaans. A young boy, aged seven or eight was the first casualty. He was picked up from the dust by his friend, and carried to his home. The picture of that young by carrying his friend appeared in newspapers around the world as a symbol of the children rising up against apartheid. Looking at, and later standing on that sight gave me the sense of being in a holy place; standing in the presence of a weeping God.

Closer to home, here at Grace, in the midst of serving communion, I have had the strongest sense of the presence of God as I looked at you kneeling/standing at the rail, with your hands outstretched. I became aware of the gift that has been given me to serve God as a priest in this place. I have been humbled by it.

Each of these experiences and ones I am sure you have had leave us with a new perspective, or insight, or empowered, or emboldened to go and to do. In each of the biblical stories about being transformed, the people having such experiences are then sent; Moses, back down the mountain to share God’s commands with the people of Israel; Jeremiah to go back and to share the vision given him by God, Jonah to go to Nineveh; Paul throughout the Mediterranean; Peter to become “the rock” upon which the Church was built.

We would like to remain in the “headiness” of the moment, like Peter, but we are called to return to the now and to minister right where we are. It is tempting to try to stay on the mountain, as Peter wanted to do, but the revelation having been seen, it was time to “carry on”. Perhaps it is the moment when you thought you couldn’t go on, and a new understanding, or a gentle gesture from someone helped you be aware of the presence of God with you, enabling you to continue.

In each of the stories we have heard, a “veil” was lifted from the eyes of the people who were transfigured. Their minds, their vision, and their hearts were made clear, and they were reassured. Standing before God, without a “veil”, totally open, hiding nothing and receiving sight and understanding, that we might believe and in believing do what is asked of us by God. Remember, the day after Jesus comes down from the mountain with his three disciples, he encounters a man who asks for an exorcism for his son? He said he begged his disciples to do this and they couldn’t? Jesus becomes angry with the disciples, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you?” Their own lack of faith prevented them from doing what they could have done, empowered by God.

Each of us and each faith community are called to trust that we can do what is required, because God will enable us to do. We falter or we stop our ministry when our focus is on all of the things that could prevent us from accomplishing our goals, or we don’t see the needed resources in front us so we don’t begin. Perhaps we experience the “thin places”, naked and without a “veil” when, we have nothing, not even a clue of how we will get a task done, but we call upon God for help, and set about trying to figure it out. We are armed only with our faith and our hope in the Word incarnate, to get us through.

Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah, Paul, Jesus, the children of Soweto, and yes we here at Grace, strike out with only our Lord to help and sustain us, and find ourselves able to minister, regardless of the odds.

We now approach the season of Lent, and it provides for us a time of reflection on our experiences in the ”thin places”, and to have the “veil removed from our eyes, and our hearts that we might know and trust in God’s loving presence within and around us. Make the time for such reflections for they will, in Paul’s words, enable us to, “act boldly” for God.

Amen!