Radiators
Based on Exodus 34:32-35, 2Corinthians 3:17 – 4:2, Luke 9:28-36
I suspect that most if not all of us have at one time or another lived somewhere that was heated by a steam or hot water radiator. A majority of homes and commercial buildings were equipped with this kind of heater between the late 1800s and the 1930s; however, according to national statistics, less than 1% of all homes in the U.S. are built with radiators today. Our cottage in Mystic, Connecticut, still has baseboard radiator heaters that are fed by a hot water boiler in the basement. It is a good and efficient form of heat, and you can always tell when it kicks on because there is a tapping sound that emanates from the units as the metal heats and expands.
Radiators work because the heat they produce warms up the air around the units and that air then circulates – the air that was warmed transfers heat to the cooler air around it. In other words, the heat radiates out from one place in the room to affect a much larger space. Radiation is not just confined to radiators in older buildings, it is a part of our everyday life. According to the internet site “How Stuff Works”, “Radiation is the emission and transmission of energy in the form of electromagnetic waves or particles. Radiation can be ionizing or nonionizing radiation, and only ionizing radiation has enough energy to potentially cause damage to cells and DNA. Sources of radiation include natural phenomena like cosmic rays and radioactive elements, as well as human-produced sources such as X-ray machines and nuclear power plants…Our bodies are exposed to natural radiation every day - from soil and underground gases to cosmic radiation from the sun and outer space. We are also exposed to radiation from our own inventions, medical procedures, televisions, cellphones and microwave ovens….”
According to the School of Engineering at MIT, human bodies produce small amounts of radiation – not enough to be harmful, but enough to be measured. Thus, humans can be considered sources of radiation – that is, we are all radiators. That gets us to our focus for today’s reflection on this Transfiguration Sunday - how we as humans are created to have the love of God so transform us that we become radiators of that love back out into our world. This is what happened to Moses as he spent more and more time with God. Moses’ face became “radiant” through the transformative power of God’s love, and the Israelites were awed by the transformation that they witnessed, and more than a little afraid. They knew by the glow from Moses’ face that he was made holy, and they became afraid to be near him. After Moses had come down from the mountain with the Ten Commandment tablets, he veiled his face whenever he spoke to the Israelites but uncovered his face when he spoke with God.
Paul’s second letter to the believers in Corinth tells them that through Jesus the veil that separated the Jews from God has been removed. We can all be like Moses and enter God’s presence with our faces unveiled – knowing that we “are being transformed into the image of God in Christ [his] with ever increasing glory” which comes to us as grace from God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to a mountain to pray. It had been a busy time for Jesus as he had just completed many healings and had miraculously fed more than 5000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread. He needed to connect with God in prayer in a place that was uncrowded and quiet. While the four of them were engaged in prayer on the mountain, Jesus’ appearance changed so that the disciples could see who he really was in God. Both Moses and Elijah also appeared “in glorious splendor” and spoke to Jesus. Peter told Jesus that it would be good to stay up on the mountain and commune with God and with Moses and Elijah, but Jesus knew he had to bring God’s love down from the mountain and radiate it to all God’s children.
I mentioned earlier that all humans give off a small amount of radiation, that we are by definition, radiators. The question for us all to reflect upon today is what kind of energy do we radiate to others? In our current times, humans are radiating a lot of negative energy in the forms of hate, divisive language, marginalizing talk and actions, angry and confrontative interactions, seeking the good of the few over the needs of the many. This is a very harmful type of radiation, much like being exposed to ionizing radiation which harms our bodies. The negative energy that many are radiating is destroying relationships and communal bonds – transforming others’ faces so that people are afraid to look at them and be around them.
The Bible and the teachings of Jesus speak to us about how to be radiators of a different kind of energy. This is the energy of God’s transformative love that heals, that creates community, that unifies and builds others up. This is the energy that we receive from God every moment of every day. The loving energy that God makes available to us through the ever-present power of God the Holy Spirit who transforms the bread and the juice into the body and blood of the Christ, which we share without restriction. God performs this transformation so that we can energize the world as the Body of Christ that has been redeemed by Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the Cross.
Unlike the metal radiators that provided us all with heat – we have a choice of what kind of energy we radiate to the world. We can choose the teachings of Jesus that speak to us about living the more excellent way of being radiators of God’s grace. When we radiate unconditional love instead of hate for those we label as enemies, then we begin to heal the wounds between us and them. When we treat others as we would want them to treat us, then we radiate compassion and a shared vision for what community can and should be. When we radiate God’s love and do all the good that we can to all the people we can, in all the ways that we can, for as long as we can, then the world will be transformed – little act of love by little act of love – into God’s kingdom. We will also be transformed, little act of love by little act of love – into a new creation that is radiating out the mind and heart of Jesus. When we so choose, then we will be radiators of God’s salvation into our broken and needy world.
What kind of radiator will you choose to be? It is clear from my reading of the Bible what kind of radiators God hopes for us to become. We can’t do it from inside our church buildings – we must be radiators who are in the world but not of the world. Let us join together to be radiators of God’s love into our world. May God’s transfiguring love make it so, amen!