Not Everyone Got to Go
- West Richmond Friends
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Message for worship on the 1st day of the third month at West Richmond Friends Meeting given by Matthew Ciske
Friends, good morning,
In our Scripture today, we went up to the mountains, where Peter, James, and John witnessed Jesus transfigured – that is, changed into another form.
An account of this appears in the three synoptic Gospels and the second letter of Peter. The synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke share many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and with similar wording.
There are three signs in the Transfiguration accounts that point to a theophany, a temporary visible manifestation of God’s permanent presence in the world for God’s own purpose: Jesus’ shining face and garments, the bright cloud, and the appearance of Moses and Elijah.
In Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, we have the written Word, the prophetic Word, and the living Word, respectively, in conversation with one another.
Luke’s version of this event tells us they were discussing the final period of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration alludes to God’s revelation to Moses and to Elijah’s role as a forerunner of John the Baptist.
The Book of Exodus tells us that Moses brought the Israelites, who had left Egypt, to the foot of Mt. Sinai to wait to meet the Lord.
At the appointed time, God descended on the mountain and summoned Moses to the top, where he was instructed to go back down and tell the people not to climb the mountain. The people’s separation from the mountain is an indication of God’s holiness and the caution that it warrants.1
Moses was then to bring Aaron, his older brother, back up with him. Of all the priests present, only Aaron got to go up the mountain, which was enshrouded in a dark cloud. Aaron was a central figure in the Israelites' liberation from Egypt.
When Moses came back down from the mountain, his face radiated with reflected light, a residual sign of God’s holiness.
The Book of Malachi tells us that God sent the prophet Elijah to “turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that [God] will not come and strike the land with a curse.”2
Jesus cements Elijah as the predecessor of John the Baptist in words to his disciples in the verse that follows our reading today.
In the chapter prior to our Scripture this morning, Peter, moved by the Spirit, declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus then ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Chapter seventeen picks up the story six days later, when only three of the disciples got to go up the mountain with Jesus.
Why Jesus only picked Peter, James, and John is not revealed to us in Scripture.
We know that Peter would become the foundation of the Church, James would become the head of the Church in Jerusalem, and John would receive Divine revelation.
In the encounter with God that followed, God affirms that Jesus is God’s Son and must be listened to.
After Peter, James, and John witnessed the theophany, Jesus again orders secrecy; after all, Jesus was sent to earth to be crucified, not crowned.
Have you ever felt like you were an insider who was still on the outside of the inner circle?
One might wonder how the rest of the disciples felt when they realized that Jesus, Peter, James, and John had gone up the mountain and experienced something astonishing and intimate without them.
Being left out is painful at any age, even as it has probably happened to most of us at some time.
Social exclusion and physical injury activate the same neural pathways.3
Being left out can also cause spiritual wounds.
People are relational creatures; just as early Quakers confirmed that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were relational, that “these three are one in being and substance.”4
How then do we cope with exclusion in a spiritual way?
A few chapters later in Matthew’s Gospel, when Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees, he states: “For many are called, but few are chosen.”5
This passage is sometimes used to set up an us-versus-them dynamic between those who will receive God’s grace and those who will not. Between believers and those who do not believe.
I suggest, instead, that this speaks to a different truth: that God calls people to facilitate God’s purpose for a particular reason, and in a particular time and space.
In the Transfiguration account, it is possible that Peter, James, and John were chosen for a specific purpose: to hear God confirm that Jesus is God’s Son, God’s beloved.
Three people could serve as competent witnesses to what was seen.
Perhaps we could flip the apparent exclusion on its head.
When the encounter was over, the four rejoined the disciples who had remained behind.
One might wonder if the rest of the disciples, the outer ring of the inner circle, had an awareness that something had taken place.
Would they believe the story and be jealous of Peter, James, and John?
Or would they fall deep into unbelief?
The more widespread a secret is known, the less of a secret it becomes.
The Israelites were expecting a Messiah in the form of a political actor, one who would be crowned with splendor.
Jesus’ pathway to the Resurrection would be fantastically damaged if he were seen by the mob as a ruler, the same mob that would call for his execution.
It is possible that through exclusion, the remaining disciples took a key role in maintaining the Messianic secret.
This perspective does not mean that the pain of being left out is not real and valid.
It sometimes helps to name and grieve the pain one feels.
It is okay to ask for help and support.
Our first hymn today is a prayer for God to remain by one’s side through difficult and good times; through night and through morning, through death and through life.
It is okay to channel the pain of these wounds into communal healing.
The passages related to experiencing exclusion can be put in conversation with a greater call to foster inclusive communities and to extend grace to others. This form of compassion is foundational to Christian faith.
How then do we signal that we are, or desire to be, an inclusive community?
It comes in the form of awareness of hidden diversity. Job status, income, education, sexual orientation, gender identity, or health status can make people feel different.
It is demonstrated in the language we use to greet newcomers and long-attending members.
It involves a conversation about the unwritten rules or practices around sharing vocal ministry during waiting worship.
It is shown in the communities we seek to engage outside of Sunday worship and in the groups we invite to use our spaces.
For those called to go up the mountain, please do so with a full voice, to proclaim that God is close by. Those who hope in God will not grow weary or lose heart.
But remember that, no matter how glorious the mountaintop experience is, we must come back down the hill to engage the world.
George Fox advised that we “Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you go, so that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.”6
1 The Westminster Study Bible note 19:23
2 Malachi 4:5
4 A Brief Apology In Behalf of the People in Derision Called Quakers, 1702
5 Matthew 22:14
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