St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
9100 Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA 71115
August 6, 2015 - The Transfiguration

I’ve always loved the sunlight. Maybe you’ve had this experience too. When it’s overcast, especially for a long period of time, I feel like I’m wilting. I feel more cheerful and energetic when the sun is out. Sometimes I think of myself as being solar-powered.

On the other hand, I’ve also had the experience, as I’m sure you have, of feeling irritated by the brightness of the sun when it’s shining in my eyes at an inconvenient moment. Or, feeling oppressed by the heat of the sun.

The spiritual reality for us human beings, is that we are solar powered. But the Sun that powers us is the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ. And just like the created sun, Christ the uncreated Sun sometimes shines His light on us in a way that makes us uncomfortable. But even if it’s sometimes uncomfortable, it’s what we need. Because the Light of Christ is our life.

In the Gospel the Lord calls Himself the Light of the World. He is the light by which we see our way in the darkness of this world, and He is the light by which we live. If we were plants, He would be the light by which we would photosynthesize. As it is, we do receive our nourishment and growth from Him.

The Scripture speaks a lot about light and darkness. Isaiah said, in prophecy, the “people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.” St. Matthew quotes this prophecy in his gospel to describe how Jesus was the light that the gentiles longed to see.

The Gospel we just heard tells about how the disciples Peter, James and John follow Christ up onto the mountain (Mt. Tabor) and there they witness what we call the Transfiguration. This is not, of course, a matter of Christ shining with some light that doesn’t belong to Him. Rather, God reveals to the disciples that Christ is in fact the eternal Son of God, and that the “Uncreated Light,” which is the light that comes from God Himself, shines in Him as well, because He is truly God as well as being truly man.

At the same time as Jesus is shining with this light, Moses and Elijah appear, bearing witness that the Law and the Prophets both point to Christ. And the Father’s voice is heard, saying, “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” And the Fathers say that the cloud of glory that comes above Christ is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

So we have this incredible event where everything is pointing to Christ as the savior, the messiah, the Son of God, and the Light of the World. The Kontakion of the feast calls Christ the “effulgence of the Father.” That is, we see Christ the brightness or brilliance of the Father. The Father’s divinity shines forth in the Son, Jesus Christ.

The disciples, as usual, are confused when they see Moses and Elijah, and don’t know what to do or say. So St. Peter suggests that they make 3 booths, or tents to honor the Lord, together with Moses and Elijah.

But the Father’s statement and command, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” shows that Jesus is not on a par with Moses and Elijah, but that He is totally different. Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, pointed the way to the light of the world; Jesus is that light.

In his second epistle, St. Peter speaks of Christ as the true and real savior of the world, and says that we don’t follow any kind of clever myth or fantasy, but that the Gospel is reality. Then he speaks of his own experience of seeing Christ transfigured up on the mountain. He says that he was the eyewitness of that event; He saw with his own eyes the evidence that Jesus is God in the flesh. This was a life-changing event for Peter and the other disciples, and it is a game-changing event for the whole world.

After speaking of this experience as evidence that Jesus Christ has truly come with power to save, Peter says, “You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

St. Bede of England comments on this passage and says that as Christians we now have the light of Christ, and to the rest of the world, it’s as if the Christians are themselves the light. But, he says, compared to what will be in the future, “we are still in darkness and need” the lamp of the prophetic words of Scripture.

For now there is still darkness in the world, but if we have Christ in our hearts we already have the light. And that light will guide us. It will give us power and strength. It will illumine our path.

If we have grown accustomed to darkness, it can also be hard to bear the light. Just as when you’ve been asleep or in a dark place and suddenly the sunlight shines in your eyes, it can be hard to bear. That’s why we must get used to the light now. Otherwise, the future life, when we’ll have the Uncreated Light of God shining brilliantly all around us, will be unbearable.

But that doesn’t have to be the case. Far from it. Rather than loving darkness and being afraid of the light, let’s hate darkness. Let’s be sick of darkness. And let’s love the light of God and let it shine into our hearts, even if it’s sometimes painful.

Christ desires just this: that we love His light, and that we love Him. That we come to Him as to the source of light; that we grow accustomed to His light and that His light would guide us. If we will only allow that to be the case now, we will indeed be light to those in darkness in the world, as Christ’s light shines through us, and we will have something spectacular to look forward to: the last morning of the world, on which the eternal day will dawn, and the morning star will rise in our hearts, and all will be light and glory forever. Amen.

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