THE TRANSFIGURATION

(Feast of Title)

Sunday 7 August 2022

Christ Church, Woodbury, N. J.

 

Exodus 34:29-35                         II Peter 1:13-21

Psalm 99:5-9                                Luke 9:28-36

 

All the churches I’ve been associated with in the past have annually celebrated something called a Patronal Festival or Feast of Title. For parishes dedicated to a saint, the Patronal Festival is simply its patron saint’s day in the liturgical calendar. My parish of origin was Saint Stephen’s Church in Norwood, Pennsylvania, so its Patronal Festival was December 26th, the Feast of Stephen, the day after Christmas. On that day, the rector and his wife would open the rectory for a great party to which all the parishioners were invited after the day’s Mass.

 

Some churches don’t have patron saints, however, and are dedicated instead to specific events or mysteries of the faith, so they celebrate not a Patronal Festival but a Feast of Title. When I lived in Dallas, Texas, for one year of my life, I attended a church dedicated to the Holy Cross, so its Feast of Title was September 14th, Holy Cross Day. The first parish I served as Rector was the Church of the Ascension in Staten Island, New York, so its Feast of Title was Ascension Day. In all these cases, the Patronal Festival or Feast of Title was an occasion of great rejoicing, a special day of celebration in the parish community’s life.

 

When I arrived here at Christ Church, however, I inquired as to when the parish’s Feast of Title was, and no-one seemed to know the answer. With a bit of research, I discovered that in practice parishes called Christ Church observe their name day on a variety of occasions: from Christmas Day to the Epiphany to the Feast of Christ the King. But what I take as the most authoritative source, the old Anglo-Catholic reference manual Ritual Notes, confidently asserts that the correct day is the Feast of the Transfiguration, falling annually on August 6th, which was yesterday. So, I decided to take advantage of the Prayer Book rubrics’ permission to transfer the Feast of Title to the nearest Sunday and, well, here we are!

 

Our opportunity this morning, then, is to reflect on what it means to be a parish with this dedication in light of this Feast of Title. In other words, how does Our Lord’s Transfiguration illuminate our identity and mission as Christ Church in Woodbury?

 

Incidentally, in April I was part of a pilgrimage group in the Holy Land that went up to the top of Mount Tabor in Galilee, the mountain traditionally identified as the site of the Transfiguration. It’s a wonderful place, with spectacular scenic views in all directions: well worth a visit if you’re ever in that part of the world. Regardless of whether it’s the Transfiguration’s authentic location—a question to which I don’t think we can ever really know the answer—the story’s different elements nonetheless combine to make a clear statement of who Jesus of Nazareth really is.

 

The first significant feature is the mountain itself, where the Lord takes his three closest disciples Peter, James, and John. Throughout Scripture, mountain summits are archetypal places of encounter with God: from Mount Sinai in Egypt where Moses receives the Law, to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, where King Solomon builds the Temple dedicated to the worship of Israel’s God. As Psalm 99 puts it: “Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God, and worship him upon his holy hill.”

 

A second feature is the light of glory. The word “glory” here translates the Hebrew word shekinah and the Greek word doxa, both of which signify a supernatural light associated with the divine presence. As Jesus is praying, his appearance is altered, and his garments become dazzlingly white.

 

A third feature is the miraculous appearance of Moses and Elijah, respectively representing the Law and Prophets, who also appear in glory and converse with Jesus about what Saint Luke calls his departure or Exodus – that is, his death, Resurrection, and Ascension – which he is to accomplish at Jerusalem.

 

A fourth feature is the cloud that comes and overshadows them all. These two features, the light of divine glory and the overshadowing cloud, are familiar Old Testament signs of God’s immediate presence. 

 

A key example is our reading from Exodus, where Moses ascends Mount Sinai, which is shrouded in clouds of thick darkness and flashes of fire; and when he descends the mountain to rejoin the people his face shines with supernatural light because he’s been in God’s direct presence. But the Old Testament is full of many other examples of this same phenomenon, such as the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night that goes before the Israelites on their forty-year journey from Egypt through the wilderness towards the Promised Land.

 

And finally, a fifth defining feature of this mysterious mountaintop encounter with God is the voice that comes out of the cloud, declaring, “This is my Son, my chosen: listen to him!”

 

Here again, the Old Testament background is crucial to an understanding of what’s being said. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the term “Son of God” is most often applied to the kings of Israel. So those present on the mountaintop with would definitely have understood the voice from heaven as proclaiming Jesus the true King of Israel. Hence Peter writes many years later [in today’s Epistle] that “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” 

 

Moreover, since the kings of Israel typically entered their office by being anointed with oil, they were known as the Lord’s anointed. And the word for “the Anointed One” in Hebrew is Messiah and in Greek Christ. So, in proclaiming that Jesus is God’s beloved Son, the voice from heaven is also declaring him to be God’s Anointed One, the Messiah, or Christ. And that’s the reason why it’s particularly appropriate for a parish with the dedication Christ Church to keep the Transfiguration as its Feast of Title. 

 

So, what does all this imply for our life together here and now? The key command comes in what the voice from the cloud says next: “Listen to him.” Remember, Moses and Elijah are standing right there with Jesus, but the voice from heaven says, “Listen to him.” In other words, Jesus is the one who authoritatively sums up and interprets all that the Law and the Prophets have spoken. He doesn’t contradict them or set them aside, but he does fulfill them. If we want to understand their true meaning, we must listen to him.

 

It follows that when we read, ponder, and seek to implement the words of Jesus in our own lives, we’re following not merely a human teacher, however exalted, but God incarnate. He may lead us down off the mountain into the dark valley, but even there he’ll always be with us, guiding us home towards our final destination. Of all the voices in our lives competing for our attention, his alone is worthy of our ultimate trust and obedience. So, as members of Christ Church, Woodbury, we can do no better than always to remember and heed the voice from the cloud: “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him!”