“Moses and Elijah…appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”An explanation is in order. Going back to the 1st Millennium, the Feast of the Transfiguration has been celebrated on August 6th. And our Book of Common Prayer allows this, and a few other midweek feasts, to be transferred to the closest Sunday. It is fitting to celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord on this special day for Parker and his family. Just as Jesus begins his "departure" to Jerusalem, so it is that today Parker begins a departure of his own.
Today, Mark and Melanie, Nicholas, Russ and Lili, are his companions on this journey. But today Parker picks up another companion, Jesus. And as these few years pass, there will be more and more days when Jesus is his only companion, as he considers the baptismal promises being made for him and whether to make this covenant more fully his own. Be assured that, as our Prayer Book states, the bond established between God and Parker is “indissoluble”: incapable of being dissolved. Trust that wherever Parker is, he will never be alone.
It's even more fitting to celebrate Baptism and Transfiguration together when we consider this "departure" that Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus. A journey? Yes, but much more than a journey. To use the Greek word translated as "departure," we can say that they discussing Jesus's exodus. When we think of the Exodus, we think of those marvelous events by which God liberated the people of Israel from their Egyptian oppressors. But that was only the beginning of their departure or Exodus. In our baptismal prayer, we are reminded that it was through the waters of the Red Sea that the children of Israel were delivered out of bondage in Egypt and set by God on a journey.
So it is with Parker, who will pass through his own little Red Sea, and will begin his departure, his Exodus to a land promised by God. That is God's final promise to his chosen people. The first promise is of God's presence. In the years to come, Parker will hopefully know that divine presence just as the prophet Elijah, when he was alone, heard the still small whisper in his heart. For now, we who receive Parker into the household of God must be that still small whisper. Through our love, Parker will hopefully come to know the love of God, without which none of us would have the strength to love at all. Eventually, we will have to let Parker hear that still small voice himself. But not yet.
What is the destination of this “departure” or exodus? Luke makes very clear where Jesus is departing to. Just a few verses later, he writes that Jesus "set his face toward Jerusalem." And a few chapters later in Luke's Gospel, Jesus will cry out, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!" His baptism is his passion, which he will undergo in Jerusalem. All of us on this exodus are searching for passion, that mix of joy and pain that will seize our hearts and persuade us that this gift of life is truly worth living. Those who were saved on Pentecost heard the truth, of their sin and Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for that sin. But it wasn't just a truth that attracted them and led them to be baptized. It was also an experience of God, a passion for God that made sense of suffering and offered greater joys than they had ever known.
No human institution can program that kind of passion. All we can do is make sure that we open as many doors as we can for that passion to sweep in to the hearts of all God's children, 5 or 75. And if you haven't gotten the hint, passion is not the same thing as happy. And “Cowboy” churches wowing children with real horses and singing, "Happy trails to you," aren't the same thing as passion, or the Exodus. When Parker finds the thing for which he is willing to live and suffer, he will have found his passion, and his departure will be complete. Let all the household of God, by our love for him, open to Parker the door through which he will find the passion of the Risen Christ.
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