Today on the church calendar, the sixth of August, is the Feast of the Transfiguration.  We recall on this day how our Lord Jesus took the apostles Peter, James, and John with Him to a mountain to pray.  The apostles were tired and became “heavy with sleep.”  When they awoke, they saw Jesus transfigured before them.  His clothing was whiter than snow and His entire countenance was radiant like the sun.  The apostles were seeing a glimpse of Christ’s glory - of His Divine nature and His perfect human nature, perfectly united.  There with the transfigured Christ stood two men, Moses and Elijah.  They spoke with our Lord about His death which would take place in Jerusalem. The apostles were then surrounded by a thick cloud, and out of the cloud came a voice proclaiming, “This is my beloved Son. Hear him.”  And then, when the apostles looked again, they saw Jesus only.

St. Peter recalls this blessed event in his second Epistle.  He recalls hearing the Divine voice.  He recalls seeing his transfigured Lord.  He writes, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”  Eyewitnesses!  Imagine!  I suspect that most of us from time to time wish for that sort of experience, for that sort of vision.  Most people at one time or another yearn for a sign, some manifestation of God’s presence and power, some clear and visible indication that God is in charge and that all will be well.  And yet, the Apostles had been witness to many such signs, to many such miracles.  Before the transfiguration, they had seen our Lord perform miracles of healing.  They had seen Him walk on water. They had seen Him calm the raging sea, command the stormy winds to cease. They had seen Him raise the dead on more than one occasion.  They were eyewitnesses to all kinds of signs and wonders.  But, this did not keep them from doubting.  It did not keep them from forsaking Christ Jesus.  Even this transfiguration did not keep them from fleeing from His side on the night of His arrest in Jerusalem, nor did all the signs and wonders and all the manifestations keep St. Peter from denying his Lord.  You see, the purpose of a sign is to direct our faith and instruct our faith, not produce faith.  And, unless we have faith, we might well be witness to signs and wonders and surrounded by miracles but not recognize a single one of them.  On the other hand, when we have faith and live in faith, we begin to see with the poet that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

Standing with our Lord Jesus on that mountain were Moses and Elijah.  Moses was the law giver.  Elijah was the prophet.  Together, they represent the Law and the Prophets.  St. Paul called the law our schoolmaster.  He said that the law showed us the standard to which God calls us, a standard which we cannot reach.  In essence, the law taught us our need for a savior.  The law and the prophets together taught us our need for redemption, our need for forgiveness.  And so, Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the prophet speak with our Lord Jesus about His death in Jerusalem, His sacrificial death upon Calvary’s cross, by which and through which our redemption would be accomplished.  And so, by His cross and death, and by His rising from the dead, our Lord Jesus fulfilled the very purpose of the law and very promise of the prophets.  This is why Moses and Elijah appear with Him, and it is why they vanish and Christ alone remains.  He was and He is their fulfillment.

The law and the prophets were united with Christ on the mountain of His transfiguration.  He is their unity and their fulfillment.  The apostles saw this.  They also saw a glimpse of our Lord’s Divine nature which was perfectly united with his human nature.  Perhaps St. John was reflecting upon this event years later when he wrote in his first Epistle that although we do not know what shall be in the life to come we know that we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as He is.  St. John was writing about our own future glory and the perfection of our own nature.  We shall only be made perfect, and we shall only fulfill all that the law and the prophets require, when we are perfected in Him.  Our own perfection is achieved only in unity with Christ.  For now, we strive in faith to be united with Him.  We seek to be in Him and to have Him in us.  We receive Him in this Holy Sacrament.  We live as members of His body.  As St. Paul says, in Him, in Christ, we live and move and have our being.  And so, we seek that unity with Christ, and we seek that unity with one another which can only be accomplished in Him and through Him – signified here in our shared reception of His Body and Blood.  We do not experience much unity anywhere these days.  We see disunity within the larger church, and we witness a world continually torn asunder by division and strife.  There are wars and rumors of wars.  We might well remember that sixty-one years ago on this day, August sixth, the White House released a statement from President Truman in which the world was told that sixteen hours earlier an American airplane had dropped a bomb on the city of Hiroshima. (It was this event and the bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki which brought about the Japanese surrender and the end of horrible war.)   The Japanese referred to the blast as “the day the sun rose twice.”  President Truman explained, “It is an atomic bomb.  It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.  The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.”  These events transpired at a time when our nation and the world itself were in the midst of war.  We have seen and we continue to witness the terrible devastation, the unthinkable cost, and the horrors of a world divided.  Unity is not merely an idle proposition, the wishful thinking of a dreamy few.  Unity is necessary to our survival.  We should know this about unity because, sadly, we have known and continue to know the consequences of its absence.

 When the apostles were enveloped in the cloud which covered them on the day of our Lord’s transfiguration, they heard the voice of God proclaim, “This is my beloved Son. Hear him.”  At our Lord’s baptism, the same voice declared similar words, only those words were spoken to the Lord himself.  This time, the words were directed to the apostles, and to us.  The words announced that our Lord was and is the Christ, the Son of God.  He was and is the unity of the law and prophets.  He is their unity and their fulfillment.  In Him, Divine nature and human nature are united.  In Him, our own human nature is perfected.  He is the hope of a humanity divided and torn asunder by sin.  We find our unity in Him and our fulfillment.  The church’s mission is ever to worship and adore Him.  Our great and high calling is to be the voice which proclaims Jesus as the well beloved and eternal Son of God and forevermore cry, “Hear him.”