Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
February 22, 2004
The Last Sunday of Epiphany

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
The Rt. Rev. Don E. Johnson,
Episcopal Bishop, Diocese of West TN

First Reading: Exodus 34:29-35
Gospel: Luke 9:28-36
(This sermon is also available in audio)

Once upon a time in the desert lived an old monk named John. Because of his faithfulness, people would come to him for spiritual guidance. John said, “No one can build a house from the top down. Rather, you build the foundation first and then build upwards.” The people said to him, “What do you mean by that?” John said, “The foundation means your neighbor whom you must win, and you ought to start from there. For all the commandments of Christ depend on this.” (Adapted from Desert Wisdom – Sayings from the Desert Fathers by Yushi Nomura)

This story reminds me of my Dad who, to a point of my personal exasperation as a child, would inform our family that we had “to build on a solid foundation.” As with many things he told me at that time, as I reflect on them from the perspective of my life and experience today, he was right.

I recall that there was also a time when someone came up to Jesus and asked “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Like so many of us, the person who asked the question thought he already knew the right answer because he was “an expert in the law”, but he just wanted to see if Jesus knew as much as he did. Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Remember this teaching as we turn to today’s gospel story. It takes place one week after Peter makes his public profession of his faith in Jesus by saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Peter is told by Jesus, “This was not revealed to you by flesh and blood sources but by the Spirit of God.”

A week passes (just enough time, according to the Scriptures) for God to make a new creation. In a similar way, God was working in Peter’s life to make of his life’s chaos a new creation as well.

It took place like this: Jesus asked the first two disciples, James and John, who had left their familiar livelihoods as fishermen, to become for the day mountain climbers with him as he went off to pray. He also asked Peter the Confessor to go with them up the mountain.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus is depicted as the “new Moses” who brings the Law to the people of God in a new manner. On this occasion, we see that Jesus, like Moses before him, goes up a mountain to converse with God.

Unlike Moses, however, Jesus brings his followers with him into the holy place. Yet, the disciples didn’t realize it was a holy place, so they, like so many who follow Jesus, focused on how hard the climb up the mountain had been and how tired they were as a result of all their human efforts. It is not surprising that they went to sleep. That left Jesus to do all the praying for them.

While they slept, Jesus responded to his heavenly Father’s Voice, which was revealed to him through what is described as a conversation with Moses (the Law giver) and Elijah (the Prophet). Here we are told that these supernatural visitors to Jesus who represent the voice of “the Law and the Prophets” were informing him of the path way he was to take in the days ahead and of his departure from this life.

Such was the nature, source and content of the prayer in which Jesus was totally engaged, that as a result of his responding to God, his entire being began to radiate with light. It was at this moment that old Peter woke up. As he looked toward the light of Christ, he saw with Jesus both representatives of “the Law and the Prophets”.

Being a sharp kind of fellow, he recognized that something special was happening here. So he did what he thought was a good thing, and offered to set up shelters, shrines, altars or some kind of permanent marker to set in stone this spiritual event.

His response seems reasonable… even faithful… as we can picture ourselves with him in that moment. This is the very kind of Mystery that we would all like to capture in stone. This is one of those Polaroid moments that we would wish to record in all its glory.

But the story tells us that Peter “did not know what he was saying.” How, after all, can you capture in a picture the full grandeur of a sunset? And how much less can we capture in stone the full grandeur of what was occurring before Peter’s eyes as he was drawn into a deeper and transfiguring understanding of this Jesus he had so recently claimed to be “the Son of God”?

In that moment, when Peter thought he had gotten it right--thought he was doing a good thing--he found himself encased in a fog. It was so thick he could not see… and he became afraid. But though his clear vision of what was happening around him was now obscured, his own ability to hear had become greatly enhanced.

Where before he had only been sleeping, or had only been planning to capture in stone the spiritual encounter he was having with Jesus, Peter now, along with the other disciples who were with him on the mountain of God, received with ears opened wide some new information--some life altering information. The Voice of God came to them from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” And when they heard, they found that it was Jesus alone who was there with them.

This is the Last Sunday of Epiphany. It fascinates me that it ends this season that is all about the manifestation of Christ to the world in the same way that it started it on the First Sunday of Epiphany. Those who were looking for salvation had been gathered with John the Baptizer at the River Jordan. Jesus came to be baptized. Coming up out of the water, the voice of God says to Jesus, “You are my Son, whom I love.”

And now on the Last Sunday of Epiphany, it is the same story with one addition of significance for us to carry forward not only into Lent that begins next week but into the entirety of our lives as we move ahead with Christ as the only one on whom our faith journey must rely. Here we hear the words of God to each of us. “This is my Son, whom I have chosen.” And then the addition that we must not ignore when God says, “Listen to him.”

In Scripture as in all of life, we have not really listened unless we act on what we have heard. It is the call of God to the Church through the life and witness of Christ that we are to listen, hear and heed in our everyday living. It is not a matter of putting it down in stone, print, or private piety. It is a matter of becoming a gospel witness through the love we show to God and to our neighbor. This is foundational… and if it means that we must, because it is more readily accessible to our human experience to be able to do so… we can take Jesus’ own statement that while “the first and greatest” commandment is to love God, “the second is like it.”

What this may mean in practical terms is that if you don’t know how to express your love for God, you can certainly begin with confidence to show love for your neighbor in a way that you would love yourself. In doing this you are beginning to express in your life what you and I are called to profess with our lips: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of living God. And dear neighbor, my service to you is my human effort to listen to him with the actions of my life.

This way of relating to our neighbor could be the way we can best begin to make incarnate our diocesan, our parish and our personal mission statement of what it means for us to be Christ’s Church: “I will love my neighbor as myself, and in so doing I will be learning to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and with all my strength.”

On this foundation, on this Summary of the Law, we can cooperate with God to build God’s Church for a new generation. This is true for each of us whether we are life-long Episcopalians or people who are coming today to be confirmed or received into this Church fellowship.

Will you start today, and love someone in Christ’s name who is near at hand? Amen.

Copyright 2004 Calvary Episcopal Church

First Reading: Exodus 34:29-35
29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34 but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him. NRSV

Gospel: (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.NRSV

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