Come to the Mountain of God—Lectionary Reflection for Transfiguration Sunday, Year A (Exodus 24)

Mount Shasta in Lenticular Cloud

Exodus 24:12-18 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹² The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there; I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” ¹³ So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. ¹⁴ To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come back to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”

¹⁵ Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶ The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. ¹⁷ Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the Israelites. ¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

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                Mountain tops tend to be sacred places. The ancients believed that being on a mountaintop put a person closer to God (gods). The Greeks believed that their gods lived on Mount Olympus. The story of the Tower of Babel envisions a people who create their own mountain to gain better access to God. It is on a mountaintop that Moses meets with God and receives the foundation for the covenant God was making with Israel as they wandered in the Sinai desert. The story of that divine encounter between Moses and Yahweh on Mount Sinai provides a framework for the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus, a moment that we observe this final week of the Epiphany season.  

                According to the Synoptic Gospels (the Gospel reading for Transfiguration Sunday is from Matthew 17:1-9) and 2 Peter, on the day of Jesus’ Transfiguration, Jesus went up the mountain with Peter, James, and John. In the words of 2 Peter, it is said of Jesus that “he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased’” (2 Pet 1:16-18). It is there that Jesus is enshrouded by a cloud from which the voice of God claims Jesus has God’s son. It serves as a moment of revelation where God’s purposes are revealed regarding Jesus. A cloud appears here in the first reading for Transfiguration Sunday from Exodus 24. Regarding clouds and God’s presence, Carolyn Helsel writes:

  Seeing clouds as an image for God makes a lot of intuitive sense: God is mysterious, beautiful, confounding, and reassuring. Clouds in the sky can be beautiful and awe inspiring. Dark clouds can elicit fear of bad weather or excitement for coming rain. Clouds on the ground create fog, making it hard for people to navigate their cars or see far ahead of them. When I was a child, growing up in Texas, the clouds that spanned the big endless sky always made me think of God. The display of colors on these clouds—so impossibly pink and deep blue, changing as the sun set—felt like a love letter to me, a reminder that God was in control and cared for me.  [Connections, Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition. Year A, Vol. 1].

                So, with this image of clouds serving as a symbol image of God’s presence, we find ourselves atop Mount Sinai, where Moses and Joshua have ascended at the invitation of God. While on the mountain, Moses will receive the Tablets of the Law that will serve as divine instructions to the people of Israel so they will know how to live before God. It’s important to note here that Moses didn’t decide to do this of his own volition. He climbed the mountain because God asked him to do this. Thus, Moses doesn’t climb the mountain in the guise of a religious seeker. Rather, he goes to the mountaintop as one called by God. As he does this he makes sure that those who stay behind are given instructions as to what Moses wanted them to do while he’s gone. He gives these instructions to trusted leaders, including his brother Aaron.

                It is said in Exodus 24 that when Moses climbed to the top of the mountain “the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai.” Exodus speaks of the “glory of the Lord”—the kābōd of Yahweh—coming upon the mountain in the form of a cloud. According to the text, this glory appeared as if the top of the mountain had caught on fire. At least that’s how the people waiting at the base of the mountain perceived what they saw happening on the mountain. Although Moses took Joshua up on the mountain with him, only Moses entered the Glory of God (the cloud). They waited on the mountain for six days, before God invited Moses to enter God’s glory on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Moses would spend a total of forty days and nights on the mountain with God. While he had left the people in the hands of his brother and another leader (Hur), the people began to get antsy with the delayed return. After they witnessed what looked like fire on the mountain they began to wonder (fear) if something untoward had happened to Moses. In their anxiousness, they turned to Aaron and asked him to provide gods to lead them in Moses’ absence (after all it looked as if God had killed Moses), and Aaron responded to their request by creating the golden calf to serve as a god for the people in Moses’ absence (Exodus 32:1-6).

                Our reading for Transfiguration Sunday doesn’t deal with the people’s concerns about Moses’ absence, but Moses’ time on the mountain. It is during this time on the mountain that Moses finds himself enshrouded by the presence of God, what later Judaism referred to as the Shekinah. This encounter with God’s glory would prove to be life-changing. In a sense, this was Moses’ transfiguration moment. The Greek word for transfiguration is metamorphosis. In that moment of transfiguration (metamorphosis) as he was enveloped by God’s presence (shekinah), his countenance changed, even as Jesus’ countenance did on the day of his transfiguration.

                Our reading doesn’t go into details as to what Moses experienced, only that he entered the cloud and engaged with God. In the chapters and verses that follow his entrance into the cloud, where he sent these forty days and nights, Moses received God’s instructions that were to be passed on to the people. The instructions would include guidance as to how to create the Tabernacle and its furnishings, as well as instructions for the priesthood and God’s expectations for worship. At the end of this time together, God gives Moses the two tablets of stone. On these two tablets, God has written the covenant stipulations, what we know as the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18).

                When Moses descended from the mountain, he discovered that during his absence the people had rebelled and forced his brother Aaron, the chief priest, to create a golden calf that was to serve as their god, or at least an idol to represent their vision of God. While the lectionary doesn’t invite us to explore the entire story—it only offers us a look at the passage in Exodus that parallels the accounts of Jesus’ Transfiguration—we have enough information to see the similarities between the two events. In both scenes, God calls individuals to present a word from God that is designed to reveal God’s purposes. In Moses’ case, Moses receives the Law (instructions) that help form a people. Though it’s not smooth sailing at points.

                One thing that both stories, that of Moses and Jesus, reveal is the transformative power of spiritual encounters with the Holy. It is often difficult for those of us formed by an Enlightenment/scientific worldview to imagine such an encounter with the divine. We’re often tempted to explain something that defies explanation. Walter Brueggemann puts his finger on this very concern, in writing his reflection on this passage. He writes:

At the core of Christian faith is an overpowering unutterable disclosure that gives access to the awesome holiness and moves in the direction of contemplation, wonderment, and grateful awe. Conventional Protestantism, with its moral passion, has been reluctant to probe or consider these matters, being frightened of anything that smacks of mysticism. No doubt such an accent is just now problematic, given the rage of gnostic spirituality. But neglect of this dimension of faith may be equally hazardous. The vision provides the legitimation and energy for Moses and for all who draw life from this vision. [Brueggemann, “Exodus,” NIB, 1:883].

Interestingly, Moses’ encounter with the living God who speaks to him from within the cloud is contrasted with the people’s embrace of a mute idol, which Aaron created using the gold given by the people. What lesson might this offer us in this age of consumer religion? Will we embrace the God who speaks from the cloud, or will we serve the golden calf made with human hands that remains mute?  

                As we ponder Moses’ encounter with God, or at least the divine energies, along with that of Jesus, we might heed this word from Gary Charles: “The theophanies of Exodus 24:12–18 and Matthew 17:1–9 remind readers that these are holy moments of revelation from God and about God. They are kairos moments that demand careful attention.” [Connections (WJK) Year A, Vol. 1]. In other words, they are moments of mystical encounter. They are moments that provoke within those who experience them, a sense of awe and wonder. Such an encounter is truly life-changing. Gregory Palamas, in a sermon for Transfiguration, writes:

Everything about the blessed divine nature is truly beautiful and desirable, and is visible only to those whose minds have been purified. Anyone who gazes at its brilliant rays and its graces, partakes of it to some extent, as though his own face were touched by dazzling light. That is why Moses’ countenance was glorified when he spoke with God (Exod. 34:29). [Palamas, St. Gregory. The Saving Work of Christ: Sermonsby Saint Gregory Palamas (p. 44). Kindle Edition].

What makes Moses’ experience different from that of Jesus, according to Palamas is that while Moses was transfigured in the course of his divine encounter, he did not bring it about. It happened to him, but with Jesus, he “possessed that radiance in His own right. He did not need prayer to illuminate His body with divine light, but He showed how God’s splendour would come to the saints and how they would appear” [Palamas, The Saving Work of Christ (p. 44)]. For Moses, and us, life-changing divine encounters are gifts of God to the faithful. May our lives be transfigured on this Sunday of Transfiguration, as we, like Moses, heed God’s call to enter the divine presence, that is, the glory of God.