Touched by God - Sermon for Transfiguration of Our Lord Year A

Touched by God

Transfiguration A

February 19, 2023

Christ, Preston, MN

Matthew 17.1-9

The Transfiguration text always leaves me wondering and asking questions. For example, why did Jesus take just those three disciples up on the mountain? Was it to balance out the dinner party with Moses and Elijah? And what did the other disciples think about that? Did they feel left out? How did the three disciples know that it was Moses and Elijah? Were they wearing name tags? “Hello, my name is Moses.” And why did Jesus tell them to keep it quiet? And did they, especially big mouth Peter? But I found myself pondering something else, almost a throwaway: Jesus’ gentle touch of the three as they lay cowering on the ground.

As I dwelled on this small, but significant act of Jesus, I remembered an experience from CPE during the summer following my first year of seminary. CPE is Clinical Pastoral Education and it’s just what the name implies. Seminarians learn about giving pastoral care in a chaplaincy setting, usually in a hospital. But because I had little experience with older people, I did my CPE at the Gettysburg Lutheran Home. Part of the learning was the obligatory session on infection control, especially hand washing. During the training, we were admonished to wash our hands before and after every contact. Now, in a hospital, that’s relatively easy, but in a care center it is much more difficult as you would encounter people “on the fly.” This was well before the pandemic and the ubiquitous sanitizing stations. After the session and as a group, we explored the “theology of touch” and how to balance control of infections with the need to touch the residents in a meaningful way.

Jesus touched people a lot, and people strained to touch him a lot, but I wondered how many times Jesus actually touched one or more of his disciples. The only times I could think of were here in today’s text; when he had to pull Peter out of the water and back into the boat; and the most familiar of all, the foot washing at the Last Supper. Here the touch of Jesus takes on great meaning because it counterbalances the otherworldliness of the event. Jesus’ touch grounds the story in the present even as it explores the mystery of his glory. And on a purely human level, it reassures the three disciples that Jesus is with them because in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus is Immanuel, “God with Us.”

Sometime ago, I heard of a study of an orphanage in Russia that was overwhelmed with babies. There was both a high mortality rate and failure of the infants to thrive and researchers wanted to find out why. The researchers discovered that the reason for these devastating events was something simple but profound. Because the orphanage was extremely short-staffed, only half of the babies were held for any length of time. Those that were held survived and thrived while those that weren’t held didn’t. Babies needed a human touch to not only survive but also to thrive.

As a pastor I know, because we are trained, what are good touches and bad touches are. We also know how much people need the reassuring and transforming touch of Jesus.My siblings in Christ, as you come forward for Holy Communion, know that Jesus is touching you in profound way. As you take in the very body and blood of the creator of the universe, hear Jesus’ words: “Get up and do not be afraid.” Amen.

My sermons often preach a little differently than written and you can find the video here.