WEBVTT

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

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of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Quite literally, in

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the light of the Transfiguration, what the Church

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calls its Afterfeast, where the Lord takes Peter,

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James, and John up Mount Tabor to enter into

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the cloud and atmosphere, Of the spirit. That

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they would see Jesus transfigured before them.

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In uncreated light. With Moses and Elijah. And

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hear the voice of God the father speak to them.

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About his divine son. To listen to him. The Lord

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now leads these three disciples. Back down the

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mountain. Into a crowd of people. To encounter

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another father. speaking about another son. According

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to this father, however, this son doesn't need

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to be listened to. Rather, he needs mercy. Lord,

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have mercy on my son. Like the centurion a month

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or so ago, maybe six weeks ago, this man doesn't

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need to experience something like the transfiguration.

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or what the disciples regularly see to address

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Jesus with the divine name of Israel's God. Not

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a title like Master or Despotah, but again, Lord,

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Kirios, the divine name, God. The man's son has

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been possessed by a demonic power, which is trying

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to drown him in water. and trying to burn him

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in fire. Sometimes modern translations render

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the son's condition here as epilepsy, but that's

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not right. The boy isn't suffering from a neurological

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disease. Rather, the son has quite literally

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been moonstruck. Selene, purportedly a Greek

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goddess embodying the moon, or is lunatic, as

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the King James puts it, luna being the Latin

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for moon. And the father, the boy's father, likely

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having heard that Jesus gave power over evil

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spirits to his disciples back in Matthew 10,

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asks the other nine disciples, those not with

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Christ on the mountain, to heal the boy. But

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they can't. Particularly since we've just seen

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the Lord and Moses together on Mount Tabor, here

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the narrative echoes what came before in the

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Old Testament. As Moses was up on Mount Sinai,

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in the cloud, speaking with the Lord what Aaron

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and the Israelites were doing down below, faithlessly

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worshiping demons in the form of the golden calf.

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Here, the other disciples aren't worshiping demons,

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thankfully. Rather, they are trying to cast them

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out. Nevertheless, as he rebukes the demon and

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heals the boy, Christ says the very same things

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about the disciples that he said to Moses all

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the way back in Deuteronomy. You faithless and

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twisted generation getting to the heart of Matthew's

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point. The point of today's gospel isn't about

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what Jesus can do. It's about what his disciples

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should be able to do. Empowered. It's about discipleship

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and faith, the power of faith, or perhaps its

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lack of power here. The question isn't, why can

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Jesus heal the boy, with the answer being, well,

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he is God. The question here is, why can't the

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disciples heal him? Exactly what they asked Christ

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in private. Why could we not cast it out? Because

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of your little faith. That's the Lord's response.

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That's the better rendering. It does say unbelief

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two times in the narrative. But that third time,

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it says, because of your little faith. That's

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technically what it says. That's what the Lord

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says. The character of their faith is little.

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The idea here is that the offering of their faith

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is meager, tiny. It is small. I think a better

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way to put it, maybe, to really kind of viscerally

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feel it, it is stingy. Generous with respect

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to the things of this world, and yet stingy towards

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God. Christ adds that their faith is also twisted.

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and perverse, convoluted with the things of this

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world. It's character. In Matthew's gospel, there

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are different kinds of faith that one can express

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in God, a spectrum of sorts of faith. For example,

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a faith that believes that Jesus is who he says

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he is, the God of Israel and human flesh, even

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the Son of God. That's faith. An intellectual

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ascent. That's faith. And yet, that kind of faith

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alone isn't ultimately what Jesus is looking

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for and trying to cultivate in his disciples.

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Now, because he is kind and patient with us,

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he will accept that kind of faith. Nevertheless,

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if his disciples want to experience the power

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of Mount Tabor, The transfiguration, that same

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uncreated light and energy which pours forth

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out from the depths of God to course into his

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people and animate their faith, to share and

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to benefit in his divine power and life. Even

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now, they must actively set their mind on that

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same life in prayer and in fasting. as Christ

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puts it very plainly, cultivating an active and

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living faith, a faith that believes in God as

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the one who spoke and the world came into being,

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to use an ancient Jewish saying. That's the faith

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that animated Peter last week to walk out onto

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that sea toward Christ until he took his eyes

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off Christ and looked at the wind. And started

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sinking. That's the faith that according to Jesus

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can move the mountains to perform what is humanly

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impossible in our own strength and wisdom. The

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point today is not for me to stand up here and

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say to all of you, just have more faith. Rather,

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it's to ask us, brothers and sisters, is our

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faith rooted in God's power in life? Does our

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faith have an active life? Is there a heartbeat

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in our faith? Does our faith pound like our heart

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pounds when we are strenuously exercising? Or

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is our faith meager? Is it generous towards the

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things of this world? Generous towards the cares

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of this life? but stingy towards God. The fact

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of the matter remains that the Lord loves us

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regardless of our faith. Full stop. But our experience

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of that love will be commensurate with how much

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of ourselves we give away toward God. What I

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mean is how much of God's love we experience.

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it corresponds to how much we love God, to how

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much we give of ourselves away from our own pursuits,

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from our own comforts, from our own pleasures,

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from our own desires, from our own cares. And

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we give ourselves to God in love for Him. We

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empty ourselves. Of the things of this world.

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In order that we might be filled by his light

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and life and spirit. And that he might animate

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us. So that we might experience the love of God.

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Coursing and pounding in our heart. On fire for

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him. And so we have to ask. Because the text

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very plainly forces us to. Do we pray? Do we

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situate ourselves in the life of the church?

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Do we look at our lives and what we do in our

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bodies with our time, with our resources, with

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our talents, with our abilities, with our inabilities?

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If we are younger, with our youthful energy,

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if we are retired, with our retirement and availability,

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do we look at these things as an offering toward

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God? The very things that we come and set before

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him at the Lord's table. Do we fast? I mean,

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we are literally in the Dormition fast, of which

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we started by processing around and celebrating

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the cross and its power to heal, its power to

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give life, its power to take away evil and disease.

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and of which on the sixth day we beheld the uncreated

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light of the transfiguration, what can give us

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the life and energy to empty ourselves up as

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tabernacles, to clean out the gunk and make room

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for Christ, and depend not on our own power and

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obsession with the cares and comforts of this

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world, but the power to become partakers of the

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divine life. as we depend less on food, ourselves,

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and American comforts, and feel weaker, but depend

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more on Christ to act through us, with the hope

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that we might actually become Christians, and

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not simply call ourselves that, to use St. John

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Chrysostom's line. That we might become like

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the mother of God who we're preparing to celebrate.

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Who tabernacles, that we might become like her,

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like tabernacles that house Christ in our bodies,

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in our hearts, in us. So that what is corruptible

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in us, what is perishing, what is dying in us,

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might become incorruptible and be swallowed up

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with divine glory, light, and life. That's exactly

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what St. Paul gets at today in our epistle reading.

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The apostles have become a spectacle to the world.

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Humanity is looking in. Even the angels are looking.

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They have become a theater to all. A laughing

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stock as men condemned to death. Fools. Idiots

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for Christ's sake. Weak dishonor. Inglourious,

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hungry, starving, thirsty, poorly clothed, beaten

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to a pulp, homeless, laboring with their hands,

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when reviled, yet they are blessed, persecuted,

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yet enduring, slandered, spoken behind their

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backs, said false things about them, made to

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be filth, treated as the dregs of society, the

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scum of this world. I could use a worse word

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than that. the refuse of all things. Or like

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St. Herman, who we commemorate and we remember

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today, who I won't say much about since I spoke

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about him last night, but who left a celebrated

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monastic life in Russia to give himself away

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to oppressed people in Alaska, in the middle

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of nowhere, who came with nine other guys, who

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all died. and left him by himself, so that those

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people there in Alaska, that they might know

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God. To use Paul's words, the apostle doesn't

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say these things to shame us. No, but rather

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to warn us, to shake us up. Notice, he calls

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us to imitate his way of life. Follow me, or

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more literally, imitate me. as I imitate Christ,

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which of course is the Apostle's way of manifesting

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the cross of Christ in our life. The cross that

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has the power to save, the power to animate faith,

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the power to enliven and heal, the power to move

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mountains, certainly the power to help us pray

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fast and become less dependent and focused on

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our earthly comfort. It is the same power that

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courses from the cross that addresses the very

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boy's sufferings. The same word is used by his

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father to describe what the Lord will undergo

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at the cross. Pascha. Sufferings. The cross destroys

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the power of evil. In a season of fasting, where

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we ought, we should be more introspective, we

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might ask ourselves, if the apostles hung out

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with us and sort of tailed us around, followed

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us around, which they and the saints actually

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do, believe it or not, would they see in our

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life anything that resembles their own sacrifice

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and faith? To be fair, to be fair, I genuinely

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hope, and that isn't wishful thinking, I genuinely

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hope that they would see something. But that

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said, we all know here, all of us know, that

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there would be massive blind spots, and perhaps

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some spots not so blind, that they and the Lord

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would call, that they would put their finger

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on, and they would call faithless, stingy. and

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twisted. It's those things in our faith that

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we need to pinpoint, that we need to feel the

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Lord's finger pressing on our heart, and with

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Christ's mercy, with Christ's compassion, with

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his help, with the power of his cross, repent,

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let go of, confess, and then actually change

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our lives. actually turn our lives towards Christ

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without wasting the season of this past, but

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letting it work on us without shame and bring

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into His light the light of Mount Tabor and transfigure

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so that our faith might have renewed vitality,

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power, and life. May God help us and have mercy

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on us. Amen.