“The Beloved Transformed”
2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 3 February, 2008
Transfiguration Sunday
 This past week I watched the premier of the new television show “Eli Stone.” It’s not a great show and I don’t think I’ll continue watching it, but it does have an interesting premise. The protagonist, Eli Stone, is a faithless lawyer at a big firm in San Francisco. He doesn’t seem like a particularly bad guy, but he’s not a particularly good guy either. Then something happens. He begins experiencing hallucinations, first seeing and hearing George Michael sing his hit song “Faith” in the middle of his living room. This leads him to a forgotten memory, that the plaintiff in his current case is, in fact, someone he knew briefly. He switches sides in the middle of the case and begins representing the woman, who is suing a major pharmaceutical company over the illness of her son. He realizes her son’s fate is more important than the bottom line.
More hallucinations follow, and Eli continues his journey of self-discovery. He seeks medical attention, realizing that these hallucinations are not “normal,” and he learns that a brain aneurysm is the probable cause of his visions. Despite the fact that the visions are the result of a medical condition, he likes the changes he is beginning to make in his life and the reconciliations he is beginning to find with his past. His acupuncturist, a wise man, tells him that most religions of the world revere certain people and that “sometimes, they call them prophets.” Such a notion is strange to Eli, who still doesn’t believe in God, but he does feel that something is leading him to make a difference in the world. Brain aneurysm or not, he is willing to take on this new role.
Our reading from 2 Peter speaks of prophecy and “the goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love” with which the prophet is to uphold him- or herself. Whereas Eli Stone had been “short-sighted and blind, and forgetful of the cleansing of past sins,” he came to embrace a life of self-control and goodness.
With his lack of belief, Eli makes an unlikely prophet, but those of us who do believe in God can recognize that this young man has been transformed. We can conclude, too, that his transformation from self-absorbed to selfless is nothing short of holy. I don’t know if, in later episodes, Eli will begin to embrace faith, but I can easily make the connection that Eli is being called. He is being called to lead those around him to a better life, and to reach out to the downtrodden in love. He is, in other words, becoming the sort of prophet of whom we Christians can be proud. He has been transformed.
Today marks Transfiguration Sunday, when we recall Jesus’ trip up the mountain and his transfiguration before Peter, James, and John, Moses and Elijah. “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. […] Suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’”
The beloved of God was transformed before their very eyes! While Peter, James, and John watched in amazement, the great prophets of old, Moses and Elijah, appeared. A great cloud overcame them. Jesus shone like the sun. It was a magical, life-altering experience. ...Not quite George Michael in your living room, but even more spectacular than that! Although Jesus implores them not to share what they have just seen, the three men have clearly been transformed. Again, the beloved transformed. Surely followers of Jesus -- ourselves included -- are not children of God in the same sense that Jesus is God’s Son, but we, too, are God’s beloved. Peter, James, and John could never have been the same after their encounter with Jesus and the prophets on that mountain. These three men had been chosen to witness Jesus’ transfiguration -- they had been called, as the beloved of God, into their own transformation.
Of course, holy transformation, and the call of God, are rarely so obvious (they’re not even usually that obvious for Biblical characters). It took TV character Eli Stone some time and a great deal of difficulty to discern the spiritual/emotional reasons he was experiencing his particular hallucinations. If we believe that his transformation was, indeed, at the hand of God, we can perhaps relate more closely to the circuitous way in which he was called, than to the mountaintop experience of Peter, James, and John. While the call from God is always magical, it rarely comes with a thundering voice in the midst of a cloud: “This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him!”
Since we do not have the luxury of being hit in the head by a two by four by God, we don’t always recognize that God is calling us. But even if it comes in more subtle ways, there are surely times in our lives when we have all been transformed and called. Can you think of times in which God may have been speaking to you, asking you to make changes to your life? While I do not believe that God makes us sick for the sole purpose of getting our attention, it is true that illness can be a wake-up call, and God may be speaking to us through the unfortunate event of our illness. We don’t have to experience fantastic visions of George Michael in our living room or a San Francisco trolley in the middle of our office building (another fun scene in the show) in order to hear God speaking to us.
Hard times in our lives can do one of two things. They can make us bitter, heartless, and cause us to lose our faith in God and all that is good. It is understandable when we feel this way after a terrible trauma in our lives, and I believe that God understands if we respond in anger and disbelief in God for a time. But after the initial shock, after the initial grief, we can begin to move in the other direction. Eli Stone moved far too quickly, in my opinion, from shock at the fact that he could die at any moment, to the full embracing of his new chance at life, but his transformation is instructive. While we may spend days, months, or even years grieving a personal loss -- the death or departure of someone we love, our own health problems, or some other struggle -- it is never to late to turn around and make something good of it. What can the experience teach us? Are we, too, being called by God? Perhaps, like Eli, God is calling us to be an advocate for those in need. Perhaps God is calling us to change our outlook on life and to begin to lead a more holy existence. Perhaps God is calling us, in fact, to be prophetic -- the raise our voices in the name of God.
Whether it is a time of personal difficulty, or one of the happiest moments of your lives, I encourage you to listen for God’s voice in the midst of it. You, too, are beloved by God. Will you let God transform you? Will you embrace “the goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love” of which Peter speaks?
Open your hearts and your minds and your ears to the call and the transformation. Now let us pray.
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