Razzle Dazzle
Matthew 17:1-9

February 10, 2002

What's in a sermon title? Last week the Baptist minister blinked. Our minister, Kitchen Sink and all, says that the teen agers have noticed the corner to corner face off at Lorne and Victoria. Short sermon titles are in. Two ministers independently, I am assured, come up with different sermon titles from the same set of Bible lessons. Last week "We Fools (for Christ)" out-zinged teh sign board across the corner. It intoned "The Question of Pardon and Presence." So when Dr. Bob entrusted Transfiguration and Communion to Bob Gay, I wanted to keep up our part, and chose the word "dazzle" for the brilliance of the Old Testament and New Testament experiences.

Kobed (k o b e d) is the Old Testament Hebrew word for the shining cloud around Mosess. The New Testament's doxology or glory; Doxa (d o x a) is the Greek word for the light of God's glory transforming Jesus and his nountain top guests.

Razzle has to be the word that goes with dazzle. At coffee break everyone got into the act to make sure we had enough zees or zeds for Knox-Metropolitan's sign to spell it out for all Reginans and especially First Baptists to see.

This is the Sunday called "Epiphany Last." Only a few short weeks ago Christmas glory shone round about "our Bethlehem's shepherds." And they were sore afraid. The scripture today takes us from their hillside back to one mountain top and ahead to another. Here we set our table of remembrance and renewal. So we can move down the mountain with this week's Baptist signboard across the corner into the season of Lent.

The awe, wonder, reverence and fear of Mount Sinai speak of a dazzling encounter with the Holy. God has chosen his people, engineered their escape from Egypt in order to realize their destiny. To reciev Law and Torah, Moses must climb God's desert mountain. Twice.

The story is told symbolically using the six days of creation and the forty days of transfiguration. An impossibly long time for the frightened Exodus refugees to wait. The sotry is told from tow perspectives. To Moses the glory of God was a protective cloud encompassing him on the top of Mount Sinai. To the people below, God's glory was like a "devouring fire" into which Moses, their hope and security, had disappeared. Would he or would he not survive? Within the story the mystery of what happened on that mountain top is almost beyond comprehension or telling.

On another mountain the New Testament tops its series of revelations to the disciples. Like Moses climbing Mount Sinai with Joshua, Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him. Like Moses waiting six days, it is six days after Jesus' conversation about his suffering and death.

"Who do people say the Son of Man is?" Peter would confess, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." When Jesus tells them that the Son of Man will suffer and die, Peter shuts out that possibility. The transfiguration experience is the razzle dazzle needed to get what Jesus is trying to tell them through to Peter and the other disciples.

In this glory cloud on the New Testament mountain Moses and Elijah suddenly appear with Jesus. They represent the Law and the Prophets. It is too much. Overwhelmed, the disciples fall to the ground just as terrified as Bethlehem shepherds. Jesus reaches out and touches them. Their terror and the vision end. They realize that it is Jesus, God's Beloved, to whom they should listen.

Then as now, the mystery of these hilltop and mountaintop experiences stand for the meeting of human and divine. It is not the special effects that matter, but the effect that the meeting has on us.

To reaffirm the glory of Christ the writer of Second Peter lifts up the same gospel experience: "We saw him with our own eyes in majesty." "And there came to him from the sublime Presence a voice which said: 'This is my Son, my Beloved, on whom my favour rests.'" To which he adds: "All this confirms for us the message of the prophets. You will do well to attend, because it is like a lamp shining in a murky place, until the day breaks and the morning star rises to illuminate your minds." Razzle dazzle indeed.

Thank God we can come down from the mmoutain, and with Paul take ordinary things - the gifts of God for the people of God - to break the bread and lift the cup - and remember.

The remembering makes us God's people.

There's a mural painted on the wall of the Marian Centre in Edmonton where the hungry line up to be fed. The artist depicted their daily line in silhouette. And it the stooped head and shoulders of the third man back from teh front of the breadline that is surrounded with a halo of glory. Not the person serving them. But three back, waiting his turn, Christ unawares. In 1971 at the beginning of the Downtown Chaplaincy, for one week I salvaged vegetables and served the Regina Marian Centre stew to the front of that line. The first in line doesn't have to do anything, because the one right behind him will always let him know when it is time for him to step forward.

The mural challenges us this morning. Our two 'communion bread' lines invite us all to come forward and receive the bread broken for us. And like the silent mural, the glory is always two steps behind us. And above us. And all around us. Razzle dazzle. So desperately needed in our dim and hurting world.

In anticipation let all of us say....Amen.

Preached by Bob Gay
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan