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N.B. This sermon consists of poetry by published authors, most of it at present under copyright. Since CCC posts sermons on our web site, it is probably not a good idea to post these poems without permission. Therefore, I am including only the titles and authors. Some can be found by simply going to Google.com. At Christmas I received a wonderful new poetry anthology that I highly recommend: American Religious Poems, edited by Harold Bloom. You will find all the poems I read included in that volume. Jim

P.S. As a bonus I have included some commentary I decided not to read in the interest of time.

The story from Luke’s Gospel this morning is called “The Transfiguration.” It is quite mysterious – like a dream or a vision. So how should it be interpreted? Its themes include awakening and sleeping, light and wonder, everyday reality and a kind of luminous, deeper reality. The story’s characters include Jesus, and his disciples Peter, James, and John. But there also appear Moses and the Prophet Elijah. And there is the cloud from which the voice of God speaks.

How shall we look together at this amazing story? The Persian poet Rumi wrote: “Stay together friends. Don’t Scatter and sleep. Our friendship is made of being awake.” The Buddha said,  “Awake and rejoice in watchfulness. Understand the wisdom of the enlightened.” The Buddha taught that perfect wisdom is beyond thinking. Why? He said: “It is because all its points of reference cannot be thought about but can be apprehended. One is the disappearance of the self-conscious person into pure presence. Another is the simple awakening to reality. Another is the knowing of the essenceless essence of all things in the world. And another is luminous knowledge that knows without a knower. None of these points can sustain ordinary thought because they are not objects or subjects. They can’t be imagined or touched or approached in any way by any ordinary mode of consciousness, therefore they are beyond thinking.”

To explore wonder, we must go beyond thinking, or at least conventional thinking. For me, this is what poetry does. So I would like to be a little unconventional this morning, and ask you to experience the themes and characters of the Transfiguration story by sharing some poetry I've selected – poetry that doesn't necessarily teach or explain anything, but instead invites us into mystery. This poem by e.e. commings celebrates the simple awakening to the wonder of reality.

i thank You God for this amazing day         By e. e. cummings

Those who are not awake are asleep. They miss reality. And they are blind to luminous knowledge and the essenceless essence of all things in the world. This poem by Elizabeth Bishop is inspired by a line from Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. In that book, he describes the unbeliever as someone who sleeps on top of a mast.

The Unbeliever         By  Elizabeth Bishop

To be asleep is to be in the dark. But yet if we face our darkness, we can begin to discern the light. Or perhaps at first the light is a dark light. Theodore Roethke calls this poem:

In a Dark Time         By  Theodore Roethke

Clouds somehow hide God from us, like a veil before our eyes. But clouds also bear the presence of God, like the cloud on Mt. Sinai or the cloud on the mountain of transfiguration. A fourteenth century Christian mystic said we meet God in a Cloud of Unknowing.

Cloud of Unknowing         By Chase Twichell            
           
Ultimately meeting God is about entering into the light: a light that is transforming and healing. A light that is blessed.

Blessed is the Light         By Grace Schulman

But is encountering God always a blazing flash of light? Like a bolt of lightening that knocked St. Paul off his horse, leaving no doubt in his mind at all? Or can meeting God be far less dramatic, but still powerful - like hearing God in the still small voice.

Knowledge of God         By John Frederick Nims

The final poem is by Mark Jarman, and is entitled “Transfiguration.” It asks the question, “What is it that Jesus and Moses and Elijah were talking about?

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