Clay Jars

Scripture:  2 Kings 2:1-12, 2 Corinthians 4:1-12;  Mark 9:2-9

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, which always falls on the last Sunday before Lent.  On Transfiguration Sunday, we read about Jesus taking Peter, James, and John, who were the inner circle of the twelve disciples, to the top of a high mountain, when they had a vision of Jesus being transfigured.  We’re told that his appearance changed, and his robe became whiter than anyone could bleach it, and he was speaking with Moses and Elijah.  The three disciples hardly knew what to make of what they were seeing, and Peter started babbling about building huts for them to stay in.  A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him.”  Then the vision passed, and they saw Jesus as they’d always seen him.  Jesus cautioned the three not to tell anyone what they’d seen until after he’d been raised from the dead.

Peter and the other two disciples hardly knew what to make of the vision they’d seen, and we may scratch our heads trying to make sense of it as well.  Was Jesus just showing off? 

This vision came shortly after a critical moment in Jesus’ ministry, when Jesus had asked the disciples “Who do you say that I am?”, and Peter responded by saying, “You are the Messiah”.  But when Jesus began to teach that he would be killed, Peter rebuked him – and Jesus in turn rebuked Peter, saying Peter’s mind was set on earthly things, not heavenly things.  The vision of the Transfiguration was granted to Peter, James, and John to give them a clearer picture of who Jesus is, and what it meant that Jesus was the Messiah. 

They saw Jesus on a high mountain, in glory, speaking with Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the prophetic tradition.  Just as Moses was on the mountain when he received the law from God, the three disciples saw Jesus on the mountain in glory.  Jesus is presented as the fulfillment of the work of Moses and Elijah.  The words spoken by the voice to the disciples are the same as those heard by Jesus at his baptism – “This is my Son, the beloved” – with the additional words, “Listen to him.”

So Jesus was not just showing off, but granting his closest disciples, the inner circle among the twelve, a glimpse of who he was and what he was about, underneath the muck and mire of daily life.  The disciples knew Jesus as teacher and healer.  Peter proclaimed Jesus as Messiah, but in so doing, he likely had in mind a political leader who would free Israel from Roman domination.  By granting this vision, Jesus was showing his closest disciples that his mission was of much greater significance than the disciples envisioned, and that the divine power at work within Jesus was far beyond their understanding.  He gave his disciples a glimpse of the power at work within him, that empowered him to teach and heal.

Our reading from 2 Corinthians reminds us that, like Jesus, we too have God’s power at work within us.  Paul writes, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’” – a reference to Genesis, where God said “let there be light” – “who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”  - and this is the glory that Peter, James, and John saw on the Mount of Transfiguration.

But the three disciples only saw this glory on the mountain for an instant, and then they saw Jesus as he had been before.  In the same way, the treasure of the good news of Jesus Christ is in our lives, but contained in clay jars, that is, our fragile human bodies and our limited human understandings.  Of course, Paul’s making a contrast, placing high value on the treasure within; not so much on the container, which is fragile, expendable, disposable – one commentary I read said that, in our culture, Paul might use the metaphor of putting treasure in a paper cup.    In our culture, we obsess over the clay jars, over the paper cups, obsess over our bodies, how attractive they are, how strong they are.  But, ultimately, our bodies let us down; they get sick, they age, ultimately they die.  For Paul, the fact that, despite many hardships and his own bodily limitations, he is able to proclaim the Gospel in the face of persecution, shows that the power of the gospel is God’s, not his own.  As Paul writes, he – and we – are always carrying in the body the dying of Jesus – that is to say, our own bodily sufferings – so that the life of Jesus may also be visible in our bodies.

Usually on Transfiguration Sunday, I focus on the Gospel text, with the momentary image of Jesus in glory.  This year, I’m giving some space to Paul’s metaphor of “treasure in clay jars” because of the passing of one of our longtime members, Linda, from cancer.  Linda was one of our members that we didn’t see at church very often, though I’m very glad to say she was with us this past Easter, and she also sometimes came out to our auctions.  Linda had worked for over 40 years as an emergency room nurse at Frankford Torresdale, now Aria Torresdale, hospital.  She worked weekend shifts so that other staff could get to church.   Linda was a person of faith, praying with and for those she treated in the ER.

Linda had just retired, and was hoping to travel….and then she was diagnosed with cancer that had spread.  Linda started chemo, but it was discovered that the cancer had traveled to her brain.  She was in hospice at Nazareth Hospital, with her family sitting vigil, and so died with her family members surrounding her.

The clay jar that was Linda’s body is broken, but the treasure of faith within Linda lives on.  As Paul wrote, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  Paul further wrote that “We are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight.  Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”  Paul longed to be at home with the Lord, but knew that God needed him to be at home in the body a while longer, to proclaim the good news of the Gospel. Linda completed her mission on earth, and she’s at home with the Lord and with the members of her family who went before her.

For we who remain, remember that, as persons of faith, each of us carry the treasure of God’s grace within the clay jars that are our bodies.  This calls on us to regard one another as vessels of God’s grace, and to treat one another accordingly.  Each of us, no matter how young or old or short or tall, has the treasure of the Gospel within us.  May we treasure our time with one another, for none of us knows how many days in this life  God will grant to us.

I’ll close with these words from Paul:  “So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”  May we not lose heart, but instead give thanks to God, who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.