The Dawning Light of Love – Feb 14, 2010 Sermon
February 14, 2010
Scripture: Luke 9:28-36
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
Sermon: The Dawning Light of Love
Rev. Doreen Oughton
So much has happened since the fishermen partners Simon Peter, James and John left their fishing boats to follow Jesus. They have witnessed Jesus perform miracles of healing – leprosy, a paralytic, a withered hand, a woman bleeding for 12 years. They have seen him raise people from the dead – Jairus’ daughter, a centurian’s slave. They were with him when he called 9 other disciples, and they were with him when he argued with Pharisees and when he ate with Pharisees. They have been in vast crowds as he preached; fed thousands of people beginning with only a few fish and loaves of bread. They witnessed Jesus still a storm at sea, and cast a demon out of a man and into a herd of swine. They were sent out by Jesus to do their own preaching and healing, and returned to share their stories. And as Simon Peter affirmed his belief in Jesus as the true Messiah, the son of God, he tells them he will undergo great suffering, will be killed and then raised up.
Today’s gospel reading begins 8 days after this last event. Jesus has invited the initial 3 to join him on a prayer retreat, and up the mountain they go. They are exhausted, and fight sleep when Jesus goes off on his own. And they witness this incredible sight, share a vision of Jesus with intense light radiating right out of him, communing with law-giver Moses and prophet Isaiah. How they knew who they were, I don’t know. It’s not like there were photos. But somehow they knew. And Peter, always eager to join in, tries to contain this vision, to set up tents for everyone. But I think he is also just speaking to try to form some container of understanding for it, trying to get it to align with things he knows and understands. And finally they are, each one, caught up in the mystery of it and can only be silent.
They have had what some would call a “numinous experience.” The veil that separates God’s complete world from our partial world has been briefly pulled back and we get a glimpse of the world as God sees it. There is an encounter with the divine. William James defined 4 characteristics of such an experience. First, it is passive. We cannot make them happen, it just happens. Second, it is transient. The veil closes again and we are left with the memory and with whatever understanding we have of it. Third, it does leave us with a different understanding – the glimpse teaches us something. And fourth, it is very difficult to put into words, to have a container of words or understanding both of the experience, and for what we got from it.
They are known to happen to people of many different faiths, or of no faith. And there are other ways the veil is pulled back. With experiences like that of the disciples, Otherness is encountered. But there are also mystical experiences where the veil is pulled back and there is a sense of oneness, where all otherness falls away, distinctions are transcended and there is a deep sense of interconnectedness.
These experiences are so compelling to me. I am so enraptured when I hear or read about these experiences. I thought I would share today some of the accounts I’ve come across. I personally feel I’ve had a whisper of a glimpse, a millisecond of awareness on two occasions. Both were the mystical, interconnected sense. Both occurred with other people present and spiritual music playing during a spiritual practice. If you are interested in hearing more, feel free to ask me, and I will do my best to put it into words. But I would rather share with you accounts of those who are somewhat more articulate.
Rev. Scotty McLennan wrote a wonderful book called “Finding Your Religion.” In it, he asserts his belief that almost everyone will be blindsided at least once or twice in our lives with a mystical vision or state, and share one of his own. On a break from college he visited Florida and was out walking the beach alone at midnight. The moon was full and bright, but covered by clouds, so the light seemed to be coming through a veil. He stood mesmerized by the rhythmic sound of the waves, the sweet warm breeze. Suddenly the moon burst through the clouds with a single shaft of light, focused directly on him. The air became electrified, and his heart started beating in time to the breaking of the waves. The hole in the clouds widened until the whole beach was bathed in white light. Everything throbbed with connection. He fell to his knees and began rocking, words filling his mind like harmony, fusion, fullness. He had a sense of being fully present to the world, and having the world be fully present to him. He wondered if there was a divine presence also and listened. He became aware of something coming up out of the water, moving slowly toward him, big and round. After several minutes, he realized that it was a huge sea turtle, some 4-5 feet from heat to tail, dragging itself up on the beach with hits four paddle-like flippers. It stopped no more than 10 yards from him and stood in silence there for several minutes. It then began swiping at the sand, all four flippers violently thrashing about digging a hole. When the pit was a few yards across and several feet deep, the turtle turned, lowered its tail and began dropping eggs, dozens and dozens, into the pit. Scotty was very moved and thought, “So this is it. The great cycle of life is being elucidated for me, and only me, on this big wide beach, here and now.” He wondered why, was it random, a coincidence, happenstance? Without answers, he sat in gratitude and awe, watching the turtle lay and then gently cover her eggs with sand and pat it down, before beginning the thrashing and slinging of sand that filled the pit. When everything was level, she turned back to the ocean, made her way to the water and disappeared.
The book also recounts the story of Charlie and how he came to his faith. He’d been in and out of different churches but found himself drifting away in his late 30’s and 40’s. Within a matter of a few weeks, he had 3 chance encounters with people who talked to him about spirit, about spiritual experiences, and conversions. When he told the third person about the 2 previous conversations, this man suggested that something was going on for Charlie, that there is a message he needs to hear. Charlie went home and started reading his bible, the book of Acts. He decided before going to bed to get down on his knees and pray. He had a very dramatic experience of the heavens being opened. He was bathed in light and strongly felt the presence of God. He shared this experience with others, and spent the next 25 years plus involved in prayer groups and ministry to college students.
And then there is Jonathan, a volunteer who gives massages at an AIDS clinic. He talked about working on a man named Robert, a very religious man who had tested positive for HIV. Jonathan says, “Robert turned a lot of his life over to God. I liked him, respected him, and had given him weekly massages over the last year. He was always poised and calm, but when he talked about his relationship to God, he became very excited, eloquent, like a poet.” During one massage, Jonathan moved to the end of the table and crouched to get a better angle to masage Robert’s feet. As he kneaded the inside of the sole of one food, then the other, he found himself emotionally swept up in an illumination. “I was crouched down when it hit me that this man, Robert, was a child of God. I knew it sounded weird. Sometimes I felt reverential doing massages and thought different things, but at that moment all my thoughts left. I was overwhelmed, and felt that I was touching the body of a holy person. I was overcome by the holiness of his body, of the body itself, of his being, the holiness of my connection to him. I truly believed that he was a child of God. I was close to crying.”
And the last story is one of St. John of the Cross recounted in the book Spiritual Literacy. He sat alone in his room in profound prayer and experienced a rapturous vision of Mary, mother of God. At the same moment he heard a beggar rattling at his door for alms. He wrenched himself away and saw to the beggar’s need. When he returned to his room, the vision returned again, saying that at the very moment he had heard the door rattle on its hinges, his soul had hung in perilous balance. Had he not gone to the beggar’s aid, she could never have appeared to him again.
The disciples went on a prayer retreat with Jesus and had a numinous experience. We don’t know what changed for them as a result, what new insight or knowledge they received. In some ways all of us who offer ourselves to Christ are having the veil pulled back. We have experiences that enable us to see depths of reality that we hadn’t previously seen. We do it a little bit at sacraments, baptism and communion, when we acknowledge in these simple acts that there is more going on than meets the eye.
The disciples, after their numinous experience, did not set up tents, they did not stay up in the mountains. They returned down the mountain, carrying the memory of the experience and the meaning they made of it, and continued in their ministry. They continued to follow Jesus and carry on with his message, spreading his love through all nations as he commanded them to. May all our mystical experiences lead us likewise.
