Transfiguration SundayThis coming Sunday (March 6, 2011) is known as Transfiguration Sunday.
Each of the synoptic gospels, Matthew (17:1-9) Mark 9:2-8) and Luke (9:28-36) tell the story of Jesus leading Peter, James and John up a high mountain.
While they are there, Jesus is transfigured. His face shines like the sun. His clothes become dazzling white. Suddenly Moses and Elijah appear. Peter, never one to hold his tongue or be still immediately offers to build a dwelling place for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.
Suddenly a bright cloud appears and from the cloud a voice cuts Peter off and says: “This is my Son, the beloved, with him I am well pleased; Listen to him!” “Give it a rest, Peter. Listen!
Overcome with fear, the disciples fall to the ground. Jesus touches each of them and tells them: “Get up and do not be afraid”
Martin Luther recommended that we bring four questions to any biblical text:
1. What is the teaching/meaning in the text?
2. What prayer of thanksgiving does the text prompt?
3. What confession or lament does the text evoke?
4. What prayer petition does the text prompt?
As we read through the text, particular words or phrases will stand out for each of us. The text speaks to each one of us in a unique way. So do not let what I say cut off any insights you may have. As I read through the passage, using Luther’s four questions the following occurred to me.
What does this story mean or have to teach us?
This story invites me to allow my “imagination” to come to the fore; to step outside comfort zone of time and space; to see the world in a new way; to see Moses and Elijah in conversation with Jesus; to Jesus face and cloths transfigured.
Standing on the top of a mountain, on the top of a ski hill, the world comes alive in a new way for me. Words never seem to adequately describe what I see or what feel. I can say the same things about being present for the birth of a child or the death of a loved one. The glory of God’s artistry is beyond the capacity of human being to describe, much less comprehend at times.
So this story invites us into to treasure those “thin” places; those “moments where the veil is lifted between the world we can see and touch and the world which we cannot see and touch.
Quite a number of years ago, I remember standing with my Aunt Etta at the funeral her brother my Uncle Bill. As the final prayers were being said over the Uncle Bill’s casket, she leaned over to me and said: “They are all here you know. I can see Moody, Robert, Bill, Laura, (her brothers and sister who had died), Dad and Mom”.
Now some of those who over heard her comment, thought she was loosing it! I tend to believe that it was the rest of us who were so lost in the moment, lost in our grief that we were unable to see the “assembled communion of saints” who were gathered with us as we commitment Uncle Bill into God’s care and keeping.
What moments of transfiguration have your experienced?
What prayer of thanksgiving does this passage prompt?
This passage prompts me to give thanks for those special unplanned moment which come in life. A few weeks ago, it was the pleasure of being with our grandson Luke during one of his father’s hockey game at the Civic Centre in Port Hawkesbury. As I walked with Luke, I remembered my grandfather holding my hand and walking with me. I give thanks for moments where past and present merge, where the “veil of life” is lifted so that what is ordinary, everyday takes on “extraordinary” meaning.
What prayer of thanksgiving does this story prompt in you?
What prayer of confession does this passage prompt?
I confess that like Peter, I get so caught up in doing things, rushing from one project to the next, I do not take the time to stop and “listen”.
As a church, we need to confess we do take the time to stop and listen to the teachings of Jesus; to see them in the context of the teachings of Moses who delivered a slave people from bondage or the Prophets who called the people of Israel to do justice, love kindly and walk humbly with God. I fear that too often our eyes are blind to God’s presence and too often we are deaf to God’s call reaching out to us in the people who inhabit our community and world.
What prayer of confession or lament does this story prompt in you?
What prayer of petition does this passage prompt?
In all three gospels the story of transfiguration immediately follows Jesus foretelling his death and resurrection and the need for those who would be his disciples to be willing to pick up their cross and follow him.
I pray that we will not be overcome by fear as we move to pick up the cross that is ours and follow Jesus. I pray that we will learn to trust that death is not the end but holds the possibility of resurrection. I pray that Jesus will reach out and touch us and raise his church to new life and help us be a healing presence in our world.
What prayer of petition does this passage prompt for you?
