The Transfiguration of Jesus – February 15, 2015

This week’s readings open us to the possibility of the mystical and paranormal, themes typically not discussed in “old school” progressive and process theologies. We are about to enter the “twilight zone” once more, and directly encounter the “glory of God.” We are about to be transfigured as we read about the transfiguration of Jesus. The transfiguration of Jesus and the departure of Elijah are irrelevant nonsense in terms of the modern world view. At first glance, they also appear to violate the normal and predictable processes of cause and effect. Still, if we are to read them at all as revelatory of divine wisdom, we need to consider the reality of a deeper naturalism rather than supernatural disruptions of cause and effect relationships. Perhaps a deeper, God-inspired naturalism in which natural events are transparent and revelatory of the divine best describes what happened in the stories described in this week’s lectionary passages.

There is more to life than we can imagine. In Religion in the Making, Alfred North Whitehead suggests that the mystical experiences that gave rise to the great religious traditions can be included in our metaphysical reflections. Though these scripture readings can be read in supernatural ways, a process approach would understand them as “thin places” where God’s vision and human openness intersect. In Celtic spirituality, a “thin place” is a sacramental environment or encounter. It is a moment or place where God’s vision is fully revealed within the limitations of geography and history.

The reading from 2 Kings describes Elijah’s dramatic departure. Rather than physically dying, he “goes to the light,” that is, he enters a divine portal taking him into the fullness of divinity. No one can claim to know what happened or if this event happened as recorded. What we can affirm is that the “theological historians” of the time believed that we live in a world where God’s presence can dramatically shape human events. Some moments more reflect God’s vision than others. This is not merely the result of creatures apprehending God’s abstract and unchanging primordial nature, as some scholastic Whiteheadians suggest; but an interplay of the dynamism of divine experience, integrating possibility and actuality and divine decision-making and human congruence with that divine vision.

Elijah’s departure creates a field of force that awakens new possibilities for his follower Elisha. When asked to declare his deepest desire, Elisha affirms that he wants a double portion of his teacher’s spirit. He too wants to become a “thin place,” transparent to God’s vision. Ironically, becoming a “thin place” also enables him to become what Patricia Adams Farmer, author of The Metaphor Maker and Embracing a Beautiful God, calls a “fat soul,” a large spirit able to embrace life in all its contrasts and diversity.

The transfiguration of Jesus enlightens him and us as well. As the light of the world, Jesus’ cells and spirit become radiant with divine energy. He reveals the light of the creative process, the big bang, and the ongoing evolution of the world. He enlightens his followers who, themselves, transparent to the divine. They want to stay in the spirit, in a changeless mystical experience, but following the light means embracing the hardscrabble world of change and decay. Mysticism is not an end unto itself but the inspiration to transform the world, to enable God’s vision to come to pass “on earth as it is in heaven.”

We can be everyday mystics. We can have heightened spiritual experiences. We can love God in the world of the flesh (W.H.Auden) and discover, as Isaiah 6 proclaims, that the whole world is filled with the glory of God. Seeing God in the changing world makes every place a “thin place” and every encounter a portal to the divine.

Bruce Epperly is Pastor and Teacher at South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ,Centerville, MA, on Cape Cod. He also serves as a professor in the D.Min. program at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of 34 books, including Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God and Finding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job. He may be reached for conversation and engagements at [email protected].