I don’t like starting another sermon before finishing the first, but as I’m trying to take a few days off next week I’ve begun work on the February 3, 2008 lectionary texts.

We had such a great discussion with the Christmas Eve text, I thought I’d try some Transfiguration and see what you folks shine the light on (get it…horrible churchy pun).

With just brief study, I’ve got the following ideas flowing.

1) There’s the “mountaintop experience” option. Here’s article that touches on this, calling the mountains “memory sites.” What are some memory sites in your faith lives? Is preaching on warm fuzzy places faithful to Matthew’s intent? Hmm.

2) There’s the “can’t bottle up God” option. I love how Peter tries to set up tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah to, perhaps, try to make the good times last. But he learns one can’t bottle up God. As a wise man once said, “God just may be doing a new thing, and God’s new things knock our socks off.”

3) Revelation. In these texts God both seems incredibly close, easy to believe and understand, while also unclear in many ways, still distant and impersonal–so they get it, Jesus is God’s son, but they can’t tell anyone? I’d need to go much deeper into the text, but Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Revelation” always comes to mind when considering these moments.

Ok, those options all seem way simple, quick, and a bit to topic-driven rather than text-driven, but I may just be functioning with unrealistic seminarian idealism. Oh, and the context of the sermon will be two small country churches I’m covering for the day–small congregations, village communities, guest preacher (which I both love and hate).

Comment away!

Exodus 24:12-18

24:12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for 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 people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

Matthew 17:1-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

I like how friend Rachel puts it, “every time you comment, an angel gets its wings.”
    Photo by Nina Briski.