sermon030500

(Rutgers, March 5, 2000; Transfiguration of the Lord, Year B;
Gifts of Women Sunday)

II Kings 2:1–12 (OT, p. 369); Mark 9:2–9 (NT, p. 45)

Use is made of Nancy Koester, “Transfiguration of Our Lord,” in New Proclamation,

Year B, 1999–2000, Advent through Holy Week (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999),

pp. 155–156.

This sermon includes a reading of Alice Walker’s short story “The Welcome Table,”

from In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women

(San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1973), pp. 81–87.

Every once in a while, people have an encounter with God

that reveals a dimension of reality not ordinarily open to us.

That’s one of the important points made in the story I just read.

Mark tells us of the transfiguration of Jesus on a mountaintop,

where, in the presence of the disciples Peter, James, and John,

Jesus is transformed into a figure of radiant glory.

He’s clothed in dazzling white apparel and

engaged in conversation by two venerable figures

from the past, Moses and Elijah.

Just before this,

Jesus has had to speak quite straightforwardly to his disciples

about how he must soon suffer many things + be put to death.

And now, in this story, Peter, James, and John are

given a vision that prefigures the resurrection, on Easter,

that future time, on the other side of crucifixion, when

Christ will come to them in the fullness of glory.

The revelation of a dimension of reality not ordinarily open to us

is also at the heart of our First Lesson.

There, it is the prophets Elijah and Elisha and fifty of their

followers who have a dramatic encounter with God

that manifests reality’s transcendent dimension.

Before the very eyes of Elisha and fifty other men,

Elijah is swept off to heaven in a whirlwind by

a chariot of fire drawn upward by horses of fire.

These two stories come to us like bolts of lightning on a dark night,

bursts of God’s glory illumining a narrative landscape of

hard times dominated by conflict and suffering.

These accounts of transfiguration are indeed great stories.

They do indeed communicate a sense of awe and wonder

at God’s glorious presence in situations of impending death—

the impending death of Elijah, and that of Jesus as well.

But on this Sunday that’s not only for celebrating the transfiguration

but also, on our calendar, for celebrating the Gifts of Women,

these texts pose for the preacher a difficult problem.

For, by my reckoning, the tally of characters spoken of

in our two lessons is Men 57, Women 0. That’s right,

the voices and faces of women are totally absent here.

So if the voices and faces of women are to be heard and seen on the

subject of transfiguration, it’s up to the preacher to present them;

for the scripture texts offer us nothing at all, nada, zero.

On page 2 of your order of service, you'll find a quote from

Kathryn Spink, who’s written, among other books,

the authorized biography of Mother Theresa.

Ms. Spink speaks of transfiguration as the “presence of

Christ which takes charge of everything in us and trans-

figures even that which disturbs us about ourselves.”

Well, 1 of the things that’s most disturbing about ourselves—we, this

company of saints who’ve lived from aeons ago to the present—

is the entrenched patriarchal mindset that’s kept us, over the

centuries, from remembering and passing along stories of

women and their experiences of transfiguration.

So we pray today, that the Risen Christ may come to us,

so that this patriarchal mindset of ours may be transformed

by Christ’s presence.

To help give face and voice to women’s experiences of transfiguration,

to help overcome the 0 in the biblical accounts,

I want to share with you this morning:

first, a picture of a 30-something woman

who’s been transfigured to reveal her inner glory,

much as in Mark’s portrait of Jesus;

and also, a story about an old woman who’s transfigured

in her moment of death, much like Elijah of old.

After these experiences, I hope you’ll find the score of the game

considerably less lopsided than 57 to nothing!

First, please look with me at the bulletin cover, where you’ll see

the portrait of Madame Kupka painted by her husband Frantisek

(1897–1957), a Czech-born French pioneer of abstract painting.

Kupka had originally drawn his portrait of Madame Kupka fairly

realistically, but then ten years later he chose to overpaint

that first portrait with vivid verticals, rendering

Madame Kupka in transfigured form, her face peering out

from the dazzling and dramatic abstract verticals that

are intended to represent her inner, transcendent glory.

The face and form of Madame Kupka,

the face and form of a woman transfigured

to show her glory.

So that’s my first offering to you this morning—a woman’s face.

And here’s my other offering —a woman’s voice.

One of the great authors of our time is Alice Walker.

Last Advent I shared with you material from her novel

The Color Purple.

This morning I’ll read for you one of her short stories,

the story of an old woman who’s transfigured

in her moment of death, much like Elijah of old.

Please listen to a woman’s voice telling a story of transfiguration, a

story of how God’s lightning illumines the landscape of hard times,

a story of glory bursting forth in the midst of conflict + suffering,

Alice Walker’s “The Welcome Table”.

As “The Welcome Table” opens,

an unnamed, ancient African-American woman living in the South

& nearing the end of her life, is wandering in search of the holy.

She makes the mistake of approaching and entering

a “whites-only” church, where she is not at all welcome.

Listen to what unfolds, as,

on the other side of her crucifixion,

Christ comes to her in the fullness of glory!

Read Alice Walker, “The Welcome Table,” in

In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women, pp. 81–87.

Let us pray:

O God, we rejoice that the faces and voices of women may be joined to the faces

and voices of men in giving witness to Your transforming power.

Beyond all our conflicts and suffering here on earth, may we glimpse Your glory,

that it may lead and draw us through this vale of tears.

In the name of the transfigured Christ, we pray. Amen.

Return to Sermon Archive