There’s something kind of violent about transforming someone
by Rev. Mike Baughman
Gospel Reading: Mark 9:2-9
For Sunday, February, 19th: Year B—Transfiguration Sunday
Transfiguration—apart from Harry Potter conversations, I never use this word. I can’t put it in a sentence with anything other than Jesus’ Clorox bleach commercial. Online dictionaries are inconsistent and mostly define the word with itself.
Transfiguration…I don’t know that word.
With all that confusion, I did what anybody with one semester of pass/fail biblical Greek under his belt would do—I got out my Greek dictionary and Greek Bible. I remember roughly five Greek words so I was incredibly shocked that I didn’t need the dictionary! I didn’t even have to struggle to figure out which Greek word corresponded to the English text.
Metamorpho…I know that word!
I know the word metamorpho, but not because I went to seminary. I know it because I took 7th grade science (thank you, Mr. Rahter!). When I wasn’t lighting the gas jets with those cool flint things, I picked up on the fact that caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies, maggots into flies and tadpoles to toads.
Harry Potter wasn’t the only one who learned how to change one thing into another at school. I did too, but it took me a lot longer than him. What I learned in 7th grade science sounds similar to what Harry learned in Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall can turn a rat into a tea cup and a hat into flowers. But is that what happened to Jesus?
This is where Things get Squirrely
For most, the notion of Jesus changing is pretty uncomfortable. Even if you’re a process theologian, the notion that Jesus transforms from one thing into another raises all sorts of theological questions.
If transfiguration means to transform or change, then what was Jesus before? What was Jesus after Mark 9? If we go down that rabbit trail, we’re about two questions away from poking Cyril of Alexandria and all of his Nicean homeboys in the eye with our middle fingers.
But what if J.K. Rowling is Wrong?
(Yes, it’s hard for me to put those words together.)
It seems, that metamorphosed things turn from one thing to another. Harry Potter’s tea cup looks nothing like the rat that it once was, just as a butterfly looks nothing like the caterpillar it once was.
Perhaps they’re more alike than we think. Sure, they look radically different but the frog and the tadpole share the same DNA, the same memories and the same story. It’s still the same creature. The inside is still the same, but the full purpose of the tadpole has been revealed in the frog.
What if transfiguration is the revelation of the full glory of God that is within and not the essential shift from one thing to another?
Transforming or Transfiguring Lives?
We talk a lot about transforming lives and not very much about transfiguring them. This may just be semantics, but when churches talk about transforming lives, they generally want to get rid of something or everything that a person was and have them take on a completely new life! The goal is to change and inject some Jesus into them.
We treat new Christians, teenagers and ordination candidates (among others) like cancer patients who need to have unhealthy tumors removed and medicine injected. What if we sought to transfigure them instead? What if we were confident enough to assume that the full glory of God was already buried inside everyone? What if we believed that it isn’t our job to inject Jesus into them, but to draw Jesus out of them?
The Hardest Question
I found another place that metamorpho shows up in the Bible. Paul uses it in Romans 12:2—not to refer to Jesus, but to us. “Be metamorphosed by the renewing of your mind.” What if we actually believed that the full glory of God could shine through us? What if we believed that we can be transfigured like Jesus?
The Rev. Mike Baughman is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He is the co-author of one book and has contributed to a long list of books, curricula, resources and research. He also trains and consults with churches non-profits and small businesses on social media and how it can be used to help their work and ministry. He lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife (also a pastor) and four kids. You can learn more about him at www.mikebaughman.com , follow him on twitter @ireverant and read his blog, ireverant.wordpress.com
I like the Harry Potter reference, though with my congregation of elderly folks, I don’t think I’d connect with that one. And it is one thing to think the full glory of God could shine through Jesus, but through me? I don’t think so. At least, anyway, not without some help. John Wesley included glorification in his order of salvation; that it, in the end we are given the grace to be like Christ; glorification as completion. I wonder if we can move from entire sanctification to entire glorification?
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Thanks for this thoughtful trip through the transfiguration.
Hey, Robin. Thanks for the response!
What if it is enough to believe that the full glory of God is within us? That’s not all that far from the imago dei is it? And if I believe that the full glory of God is inside of that kid in the youth group who drives me nuts, then I think that gets me somewhere.
I think you’re totally right when you say that it cannot come out without help. That was certainly a part of Wesley’s understanding as well. Sanctification and glorification only come through grace. As a Methodist, I believe that it is possible to be perfect in love so it’s easy for me to make the leap to believing that in those moments the full glory of God might shine through. (it’s probably worth noting that when I say ‘full glory of God’ I’m not really saying the FULL GLORY–eternal, age to age, alpha omega kind of FULL GLORY I’m more referring to ‘the fullness of what God would intend for me if I were without sin’)
Thinking about it from a reformed perspective (I’m not sure what trip you hail from, but I think posting this might get some conversation going):I know that y’all are really into the utter depravity of humanity, but isn’t it limiting God to say that I’m so broken that I could stop the full glory of God from shining through? Doesn’t that make me more powerful than God?
Speaking as one from the reformed perspective, I would say that even if the full glory of God were to shine through me, I would find a way sooner or later to mess it up (just like Noah celebrates finally being able to get on land by getting dead drunk).
Your going back to the Greek really helped open up a passage I find very difficult to understand and relate to. One of the difficulties I think we have with the idea of being transfigured is that we are so willing to relinquish control of ourselves, even to God. And another difficulty is that we might find ourselves like Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s Metamorphosis: transfigured into a cockroach.
Mike,
I really appreciated the layout of transformation/transfiguration. So often, the focus on this text has been Peter’s foolishness for wanting to set up shop and have a party, or reminding us that we can’t live our life “on the mountaintops.” Thank you for bypassing those points and digging a bit deeper… I grew up Lutheran and went to a Reformed college to study theology–and I agree with your statement on “Limiting God.”
I have often thought if we believe in the sovereignty of God–than no matter what my human flesh does, God will overpower it.
However, turning the tables again–the full glory of God is already inside of us, because we are reflecting the image of God–this means God can push through my cracks, that my own trip back down the mountain matters, because light is still shining from me.
I like the message of light first, light from within. This is the message more people are yearning to hear. It is not the job of the church to “inject” anything–Jesus, Communion Wine, or the Word/Image of God–into anyone else, teenager, “new christian” etc. Jesus himself said, “Come and See…” Thanks for your thoughts.
Being Methodist, myself, I appreciate Wesley’s optimism about the power of God’s grace to heal the human spirit, to recreate, to transform. I hear that optimism in your reflection and appreciate it. Wesley’s optimism, and yours, challenges something gloomy in me when I think about the ability for people (or institutions) to change. I’d like to buy it, but I just can’t quite get there. I’m trying, though.
Reading the “Feasting on the Word” commentary, I’m struck by what Marilyn McCord Adams writes in the Theological Perspective for today’s reading: “What Mark’s Gospel works to drive home is how–for Jesus’ first disciples–resurrection glory proved more of a scandal than crucifixion.” What a curious thing to say. She goes on to explain what she means, how Jesus’ outclassing glory shows how provisional all of our human constructs are, compared to the real REAL of Kingdom of God coming near. It humbles a person. Perhaps I mistake the provisional for the permanent. I am scandalized by the Transfiguration more than I know.
George, Kelsey and Robin…really well-said comments. It’s great to get to share in dreaming about the transfiguration together.
Your thinking Mike resonates with a conclusion I have arrived at some years ago that Jesus besides being the beloved Son is the representative of all that is good in the world. And as I recall Jesus said there is none good but God alone.