Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
New Westminster BC
Creativity as Liberation
The story is told of a patron of the arts asking Michelangelo how he created the beauty found in his sculptures. Michelangelo is said to have responded by telling the patron that he did not create his sculptures. He liberated them from the marble.
Since seminary I have often talked about the relationship between redemption and sanctification. Every human being has been made in the image of God; it is, so to speak, our existential DNA. Christ redeems us by re-awakening our minds, our souls and our hearts to this truth. But our life-long task is to grow into the likeness of Christ who is the image of the invisible and eternal God. Our strength has to be moulded through the work of the Holy Spirit so that who we are by God’s gift in creation becomes how we live in the times and places of our lives. Becoming who are is an act of liberation from the delusions, illusions and counterfeits that claim our loyalty but seek our enslavement not our freedom as God’s children.
In his transfiguration on the mountain top, Jesus is liberated from the expectations of his followers. Here is it useful to hear what Mark describes as happening just before Jesus, Peter, John and James climb the high mountain of the transfiguration.
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mark 8.27-33 NRSV)
Imagine poor Jesus for a moment. His followers are all over the map in their descriptions of who he is: John the Baptist who died two chapters previously; Elijah who is supposed to be the harbinger of the coming of the Messiah; perhaps the prophet whom Moses foretold God would send. Peter throws into the mix the theological and political hand grenade: You are the Messiah. Is it any wonder Jesus tells them to keep their opinions to themselves?
Then Jesus takes time to explain to his followers exactly what is going to happen to ‘the Son of Man’, Jesus’ own description of who he is. Dear old Peter can’t bear what he’s hearing and dares to take Jesus aside to tell him that this is not helpful in building up the confidence of Jesus’ followers. Who, after all, wants to follow someone who is telling you that he’s going to die and then, marvels of marvels, rise again? It’s as if Peter is telling Jesus to be a good fellow and follow the expectations of the crowd.
Then they go up the mountain. Jesus is liberated from the marble prison Peter, John, James and so many others want him to be safely contained. This liberation frightens Peter, James and John and rightly so. Freedom from the unreasonable or mistaken expectations of others is life-giving, life-renewing, but it is also an invitation to embark on a journey of self-discovery, world-confronting, death-risking, future-hoping.
The Freedom of the Children of God
In baptism the Holy Spirit begins a life-long effort to liberate all the children of God from all that obstructs us from becoming who we truly are and are struggling to become. Lent, the season whose inviting gate lies open before us, is a time when we intensify our own efforts, with the help of the Spirit, the companionship of Christ and the gifts of the Creator, to collaborate in the divine project of transfiguring the entire human race.
We begin through self-examination as we identify our strengths and our growing edges. We acknowledge our failures and pray that we might look at the world through God’s perspective, to see with new eyes the glories of the promised reign of justice and peace. We enter into regular conversation with God and listen for the quiet voice that can lead us into paths untrod. We fast from that which diverts us from wholeness, whether physical or spiritual. We share our resources so that all God’s beloved can live more fully. We study the Scriptures and the tradition to learn more about the paths taken by our ancestors.
Changed Not Ended
We are not alone in this journey of liberating transfiguration. We are accompanied at all times and in all places with those beloved who have gone before us in faith. Although Christians have had different understandings of the communion of saints we affirm in the Apostles’ Creed, we are agreed that the faithful departed and those whose faith is known to God alone continue to be present to us. When I spoke of a life-long process of transfiguration, I mean an eternally life-long process which death does not bring to an end. As Paul writes in his letter to the Christians in Rome:
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8.38-39 NRSV)
Those whom we love but see no longer in this life continue to be liberated from the unreasonable and mistaken expectations placed upon them. With each story we tell about them we have an opportunity to see them in a clearer light so that both their successes and their failures can inform us. Each time we are sensible to their presence in moments when we miss them the most we have an opportunity to listen more carefully so that their wisdom may guide us and their follies forewarn us. Every crossroad in our lives gives us a moment to pause to consider the path our beloved might have chosen or did choose and then ponder whether we shall travel the same road. Together we, the living and those asleep in the Lord, continue to be liberated by God’s transfiguring love to become more truly ourselves.
The Already But Not Yet
Every year as we prepare to begin our Lenten journey towards the celebration of the resurrection, I give thanks that we live in what some Christian teachers have called ‘the already but not yet’ of Christian hope. In the transfiguration of Christ we see who he truly is and who we are called to become. While we can regret and even mourn how short of this identity we have fallen, we have more reason to give thanks that, over the past year, a few more pieces of marble have been chipped away from what encases us. Each time we remember those whom we love who have gone before us, we can see them more clearly and they are freed to be more fully present to us. And all of us, living and asleep, are being freed by the truth we see revealed on the mountain top, Jesus of Nazareth, the glory of God, a human being fully alive.
