Transfiguration is the culmination of Epiphany, that Season of “AHA!” This season is to present the holiness of Jesus in the many ways in which he revealed himself to his disciples. Only when we’ve gone to the extremes of the Mountaintop are we ready to embark on Lent, a traditional time of turning our lives around by seeing where we’ve made mis-steps. Stories to be told this weekend deal with the radiance of faces that are glorified in the presence of God.
EXODUS 34:29-35 is the story about Moses’s shining face when he had been with God. His people still in the desert couldn’t take being that close to God, so they made Moses veil his face–not realizing that they too could have shining faces if they just got near the Divine Presence. Proximity to God causes our faces to shine and gives us the aura of friends and creatures of God’s love. With that aura, we can go about our world Doing Good and walking humbly with our God.
Paul, in II CORINTHIANS 3:12-18, tells us that Old Testament folks still have a veil when they hear the Good News of Christ. Those who read only The Law (Moses) will be veiled until they turn to Christ. And he says that those who perceive the glory of the Lord are being “transformed into the same image”! Thus he urges the Corinthians (and us) to welcome those moments of glory, to let our faces be changed. Callista S. Isabelle reminds us that “as we acknowledge our spiritual blindness and turn toward God, Paul assures us that God is present in this very turning.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:450)
LUKE, in 9:28-36, tells the familiar (?) story of Jesus taking Peter, James & John up a mountain, where they saw Jesus’ face and garments changed into glory. They also saw Moses & Elijah–the Law and the Prophets–talking with Jesus, presumably about the end of his earthly ministry & sojourn. Here is God, again & again, STILL trying to redeem God’s world, coming to provide greater & greater moments of revelation. Have our congregations celebrated ways however small in which God has brought glory into tired lives? Where have you seen God today?
Meister Eckhart is reported to have said, “We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works that sanctify us, but [The One] who sanctifies our works.” (As quoted op. cit.) I’ll try not to veil my shining!
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
Join us every Tuesday as we examine (and are examined by) scripture lessons assigned to the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com
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