022220 – Matthew 17. 1-9

Sometimes, I scare MYSELF.  And most of the time, I laugh at myself…and how my head works…

I thought … “THAT was a COSTUME CHANGE that would make even CHER be Jealous!”

Remember CHER with those HUGE Head- dresses or Head pieces?

From there my mind went racing…to the “Goddess of Pop-Herself!”

You remember, now 73-year-old-CHER!

“Love her” or “hate her” YOU DO… REMEMBER her…

She’s hard to forget…

With songs LIKE: “I got you, Babe!”  “Believe,” “If I could turn back time,” “Strong Enough,” “Gypsy’s-Tramps and Thieves,” “Half-Breed” and “Just like Jesse James…”

You know – there was a BROADWAY PLAY – entitled, “The Cher Show.”  It was at 250 West 52nd Street at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York City.

They had a TRIO of Cher’s. And had 683 different costumes, 400 QUICK CHANGES and one VERY FAST wardrobe team all during one show.

They used lots of body suits. 

The fastest change took place in 7 seconds. 

There was more than 3500 costume pieces…with 6,500,000 feathers.  I wonder who had to count them all!

Over 2,000 magnets were used, because they were more efficient than snaps, zippers or velcro.

There was a TEAM of DRESSERS, 2 fulltime STITCHERS, 2 fulltime BEADERS, 19 maintenance people and 1 fulltime laundry person who worked 12- hour days-7 days a week.

All of this for a Broadway Show!

And yet, with all those Bob Mackie costume designer outfits and all that glitz and all that glamour and all those sequences and all those feathers and all those lights…it was NOTHING…absolutely NOTHING compared to the show, that Jesus put on – on the MOUNT of Transfiguration.

His was OVER-the-TOP!

And it was all accomplished with none of those things…

IT was amazing.

AN EVENT for sure, that would have even made CHER jealous!

For the disciples:

It was just another “ordinary day” for the them “until such time” as Jesus takes with him Peter, James and John and they GO UP a mountain by themselves.

THERE, SUDDENLY, Jesus’ face SHINES like the SUN and his clothes become BRILLIANTLY WHITE!

It was AMAZING and SCARY and FRIGHTENING all at the same time.  It was “the kind of thing” – where you WANTED to LOOK AWAY but couldn’t!

And to top it off – if even that were possible, MOSHE and ELIJAH appear next to JESUS like it is NO BIG DEAL, or something!

As if, somehow, all of this was NORMAL…like it happens all the time.

And they are conversing, chatting up a storm, those THREE.

It was amazing, I tell you!

So CAPTIVATED, so ENTRALLED, so ENTRANCED and almost HYPNOTIZED were they, that you could not look away, even if you felt like you had to!

Talk about your “WOW” factor!  Mouths open, hanging ajar, agape…

Talk about being a voyeur!

Naturally, Peter was the first to open “his trap,” so “stoked” was he, that he wants to have some kind of “Chill-fest” or “Woodstock-type-event” right-there-on-the-spot. 

Let’s put up three tents, he says!

Let’s take a selfie!

Let’s freeze-frame this whole event for all time!

AND THEN…

The unthinkable, the unexpected (as if, any of this could be EXPECTED anyway) – A CLOUD drifts in.

A MEGA CLOUD.  A SHINNING CLOUD.  A HUGE-BRIGHT-BRILLIANT-GLEAMING-SPARKLING-BLINDING cloud…just appears – seemingly out of nowhere!

And then, there is this VOICE.  THAT VOICE.  This deep, resonant, resounding and reverberating VOICE…that SPLITS the airwaves and THUNDERS, “This is my beloved SON, listen to him.”

And in the very next instant of time, no cloud, no voice, no Moshe, no Elijah, “JUST JESUS” standing in front of us – like normal, as usual. 

The Teacher, the Rabbi, the Prophet, the healer, the MESSIAH…and it is like “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?  What just happened?

Amazing I tell you!

Unbelievable!

I tell you – it was a costume change that would have made even CHER, jealous!

 

Amen.