It's been a few years ago. I should qualify that it's been 30 years ago since I had the opportunity to wander around St. Peter's in Rome. That is the home of that great altar and that gorgeous Holy Spirit window above that altar. But in the, on the south side of the nave, as you come in from the west wing, the very first, um, alcove contains Michelangelo's sculpture, the Pieta or the pity.
It is Mary holding the dead body of Jesus. It is a stunning sculpture. Beautiful. There's another Michelangelo sculpture in, uh, that as St. Peter's. It's in the very next alcove, I think, but it's a depiction of Moses. Moses that we hear about today. He's holding the 10 Commandments under his arm. And Michelangelo's interpretation of Moses is fascinating.
He's...think Charlton Heston, a long beard, kind of longish hair, scantily clad. And, um, he has horns. Isn't that strange? He has horns coming out of his head. I, I remembered seeing that and I had to look it up again just to confirm, right? He does. And here is why Michelangelo gave Moses horns.
The Hebrew word for rays of light is very similar to the Hebrew word for that, which projects out of the head of a goat. So he put goat's horns on Moses' sculpture, they that statue. It's fascinating, but what is particularly fascinating to me is that he was struggling to depict light that was emanating from Moses after his encounter with God.
In the reading, we just heard the first reading, we had this image of a mountain as if devoured by fire, and that when Moses entered that cloud stayed 40 days and 40 nights, which as we know from Noah's story is really an exaggeration for it seemed like forever. Moses came. Went in there, and while we don't have the account in this particular passage we heard today, when he came out, his face was radiant.
His face was almost frightening to those he encountered. So he wore a veil so as not to scare those who whom he would address as he came down with the tablets.
We also hear a story of radiance in the New Testament in this 17th chapter of Matthew when Peter, James and John are invited by Jesus to go up the mountain with him. I had another trip. In addition to the one I took to Rome. I got to go to Israel and I went to the traditional site of the Transfiguration.
It's referred to in contemporary times as Mount Table or or Mount of the Transfiguration. There is a windy road that takes 45 minutes to climb in a car, and when you get to the top, there's this magnificent convent there. And my friend Paul, who worked for the State Department said, I think we can go into the church.
It was completely empty. There was no one else there but us. And it was almost as resonant as St. John's, but many times larger. We sang a chant in that place and then we went and stood where they said Jesus was transfigured next to Elijah and Moses with a backdrop of ancient olive trees. It. You should go.
You should go. It's beautiful. In the Bible, uh, version in Matthew's Gospel, we, we get the, uh, the, the scene of Jesus standing there in a Steven Spielberg like transformation. His, he, the light is coming from within and it is the same with Moses and Elijah. It is spectacular. And Peter's response is quick, where's my camera?
Well, some version of that. He wants to build a monument, doesn't, he wants to memorialize that event out of a cloud that descended. At that point, a voice bellows out and says, this is my son, my beloved. Listen to him. That's what scared him. Not the light, but the voice. They fell to their knees and when they finally raised up and looked, they, it was just Jesus there He was no longer dazzling white.
But Jesus says to them, get up. Don't be afraid. That's the part I like because do not be afraid at the epiphany of our Lord. Do not be a afraid as our colic, we just heard at the beginning of the liturgy said, whose glory was revealed on that Holy mountain? It's enough to make us afraid, but Jesus says, don't be.
I have more in store for you.
That's the message I hear today, that God says, get up. Don't be afraid. I have more in store for you. And in Peter's first letter, he says that the dawn of the mourning will rise in his glory. And it is that sense that we are waiting for the mour to dawn in our own hearts, that we can in fact rise up and not be afraid and carry that light.
I, I don't know if that's what Jonathan Edwards had in mind when he preached about the Transfiguration in the year 1734 at the His Little Congregational church in North Hampton in Massachusetts, but the effect that it had was potent. He exhorted that congregation. A congregation that had been so used to hearing about compliance, a, a, a congregation.
Remember 1734 about, uh, allegiance to the British throne? Um, a congregation that struggled to identify their faith in a new place, a new world, a new country that was struggling. But Jonathan Edwards, a firebrand of a preacher, told them that the light that is revealed on that mountain of glory, on the mountain of transfiguration on Mount Tabor was the same light as revealed to Moses.
And when he received the 10 Commandments, it is that light that is passed along to the disciples in that passage in Matthew's Gospel. It is the light that. First Peter refers to it is the light that Jonathan Edwards says It is revealed to us in his glory, and we are called to carry it forward.
Apparently Jonathan Edwards sermon was so powerful. It is credited as being the great awakening in of the 18th century in America, religion had been a compliant subtle religion, but it was that preaching that invited people to see themselves as agents of God. It invited people to reconceive how communities were organized.
It invited people to see how they would function as a world that served those in need, but also had a voice in how God ran with, collaborated with them in the world. Some would say that it informed. The American revolutionaries, that sermon, that light, that invitation to carry that light.
And so
I know someone who carried that light. We buried my mother yesterday at the Church of the Ascension. It was a beautiful service, uh, as the efficient of the word I, I was able to say her name and say the prayers and commender to God without losing my composure because I'm excited for her. I'll tell you, when I did lose my composure, it was singing those hymns, darn.
It gets me every time. Praise my soul, the king of heaven. I have sat next to her in the pews and sang those very words. Lord in your mercy, you called me and I can hear her telling me that's the hym I want. 'cause God called me. Each of the hymns were ones she had hinted at and we had to leave out about 20 more of 'em.
As you can imagine, my brother Andrew preached the sermon of having a retired bishop of the church and he talked about how Paul refers to, um, that we now see in a mirror dimly. But then face to face, we hear that at weddings, the greatest of these is love. Mom had macular degeneration, she always saw in a mirror dimly, but her vision was equipped with a spiritual sight.
It did not keep her from clinging fast to the things that were important to her, and that is what I think was the light that she carried forth from her faith. And one that I strive to do and fall way short. And the light that I see in so many of you that calls you for to share and authentic faith, to live an authentic life and to be people who are unafraid to live God's word.
Hospitality was one of those values of her. Darn it all. She didn't raise six children. And when we were all out of the house, she opened a bed and breakfast, what was she thinking? A bed and breakfast where she always ironed the sheets, had fresh flowers in every room, and used not box grits, but stone ground grits.
Always. My mother had values for beauty. She regarded, uh, her flower garden as something to be shared, and she would spend hours and hours in there making it so that those who would drive past on Carter Hill Road at Hazel Hedge could see those gorgeous flowers. And I'm pretty confident there was always something blooming there, but it wasn't because she did it for herself.
In fact, she once told me, what good is a garden in the backyard? No one can see it. She raised flowers in order to share them. My mother had a, a sense of acceptance that I think was remarkable, at least to me. And in that regard, she, um, she, she would allow me to bring a girlfriend home back in high school, even if she didn't like her.
Um, she, uh. When, when she heard an announcement that a, a relative was going through a, um, transition, she wasn't shocked or upset about that. She just said, well, why is, why is her hair blue? Acceptance? She also had a deep sense of service and the light that she carried forth into the world through that was one in which she, it called her forth that in spite of the fact that she was raising six, six kids in the middle of the sixties in Montgomery, she, uh, was the president of the League of Women Voters in the sixties when it was a dangerous time to be an advocate for equality.
I encountered a living room full of folks who I would never have expected to see in our living room, but what a joy it was to see that. I heard that when she received a petition from the com, the neighborhood community asking What race would you want your kids teachers to have? Did I say that right?
Yeah. What, what race would your kids' teachers be? Should be, and she said, the human race.
My mother gave a lot to music. The church, my father's ministry, raising six kids, being there for others, sharing her beauty and her hospitality,
but mostly. She shared a light in the world. And the reason I'm sharing this with you is because I just need to debrief with all of you 'cause it's so recent for me. But I also want you to know that each of us is entrusted with a light. And it is scary at times. There are times when it feels dangerous to extend ourselves to people who may not accept us, who may not agree with us, and yet we are called to be that light.
And what did Jesus say to his disciples? Get up. Don't be afraid. That is the message I think my mother heard. That is the message I pray I live by, and that is the message we all are invited to participate in, to get up, to not be afraid. I am in.