{"id":160,"date":"2019-03-03T20:43:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T20:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=160"},"modified":"2019-03-04T01:46:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T01:46:26","slug":"transfiguration-of-our-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/03\/03\/transfiguration-of-our-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Transfiguration of Our Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exodus\n34:29-35, Luke 9:28-36<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve\nheard it said and many times; in fact, I remember it being said to Cathy, when\nshe was expecting Cathy Zoe and then Paul; friends and family would come up to\nher and say that she was glowing. All I saw was Cathy. Actually, there was a\ndifference; I wouldn\u2019t say that she was glowing, but for a lot of the time her\nsmile was a little bit bigger and she was a little bit happier, not always with\nme, but still a little bit happier. Being pregnant is one of those times when\nthere is a visible sign that something special, something good is taking place.\nThere are other times; I often see this kind of look on the faces of brides,\nsometimes also on the faces of grooms. And there are other times; we sometimes\ndescribe people as starstruck; fans and groupies, sometimes, when they meet a\nfamous musician, actor, politician or sports figure get an almost silly grin on\ntheir faces. They sometimes get tongue-tied, but they almost always have a big\nsmile on their faces; they don\u2019t \u201cglow\u201d but they are happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nis being described in today\u2019s readings is a bit different from the glow of a\npregnant woman or the happy expression of a fan. When our reading in Exodus\ndescribed Moses, that the skin on his face shone, they were not talking about a\nbig smile. This was something physically different, like a sunburn maybe, or something\nsimilar to the glow (people joke about) when a person is thought to come into\nclose proximity with radiation. In truth, what our readings talk about, is not\nlike anything that I\u2019ve ever seen; I\u2019m really not sure how I would react to\nseeing someone whose face shone; it kind of shook-up the people of Israel; we\nare told that, at least at first, they were afraid to come near to Moses. The\nreaction was such that Moses began to wear a veil over his face, though it is\nnot clear whether he was concealing the shine from the people or covering up the\nfading of the glow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe story of the Transfiguration, the glow around Jesus, seemed to be different,\nthough maybe related to that of Moses. But, it\u2019s interesting that Peter, James\nand John, who were also in the proximity to the Holy, to God, standing on the\nmountain top with Jesus and with Moses and Elijah, did not themselves pick up\nthe glow or shine. In our Old Testament reading Moses\u2019 glow, it is believed,\ncame about by his being in the presence of God, so why were not Peter, James\nand John similarly effected? We may never know. But again, Jesus\u2019 glow was\ndifferent even from that of Moses; our understanding of Jesus\u2019 glow is not\nnecessarily due to his being in the presence of God; just as the glow seen in a\npregnant woman comes from within, it may have been, that for a time, Jesus\u2019 divine\nnature was shining out from within and so effecting the appearance of his human\nnature. And, unlike with Moses, Jesus\u2019 glow was visible only for the period of\ntime that he was speaking with Moses, Elijah and God and after the cloud came over\nthem there was no more mention of Jesus\u2019 glow; it didn\u2019t seem to stay with him\nas he went down the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis hard for us to know the impact on Peter, James and John, in seeing Jesus\nsuch; since they were instructed not to share the story of these events until\nafter Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection and Peter, James and John, because they were\nso often with Jesus, almost as an inner circle of Jesus\u2019 disciples, they may\nhave had other similar experiences not recorded, and so did not give much\nmeaning to the event. There was an initial awkwardness about the\nTransfiguration of Jesus and the visit of Moses and Elijah; Peter offered to\nbuild for them three houses. Peter apparently wanted to preserve the experience.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making\nsense of Moses and Elijah and Jesus together with God on the mountain top is\nstill a problem; we are still not sure of the meaning of the event. But\nbelieving it to have been important, a special day has been set aside to\nremember the Transfiguration. In the reading from Luke, we were told that Jesus,\nMoses and Elijah were discussing Jesus\u2019 impending death, but what they said is\nnot recorded. We could deduce that it was important for Peter, James and John\nto be there, to hear the discussion and to see Jesus in his glory, so that they\ncould later tell the others, so Jesus in his glory would not be overlooked. The\nimage of Jesus with a halo has become synonymous with our image of Jesus; artists\nhave taken the transfiguration experience of Jesus to heart and have very often\npainted Jesus with a halo around his head. Today we almost don\u2019t notice it, it\nhas become so much a part of the image of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nfor Moses the glow came from being in a close proximity to the Holy, Jesus\u2019\nglow came not<\/strong> from the outside, but\nwas an expression of the Holy that he was. Some Biblical scholars suggest that\nthe Transfiguration was not an event that took place just before his arrest, but\nrather after the resurrection. For us, it could be said, that the timing\ndoesn\u2019t really matter. What is important is that we recognize in Jesus, not the\neffects of being in proximity to the Holy, but rather that he himself is of the\nHoly. Jesus was not just another Messiah; he was not just another prophet sent\nby God; Jesus was God\u2019s Son, divine and human, able to light himself up,\ndisplaying the glory of God that was in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter,\nJames and John, witnessed to this event and shared it with the people to whom\nthey proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ and that witness was shared with\nothers and in time was put to paper (more likely papyrus) and in a later time\nbecame a part of the Gospel of Luke. It has been shared time and again so that\npeople, like you and me, might come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, our\nLord and Savior. Today we are called upon (all of us) to share, not just the\nstory of the Transfiguration, but the whole story of Jesus life, his death for\nus, for our forgiveness and his resurrection, given us so we will all know what\nwill become of us after our earthly lives come to an end. The glory of the Lord\nwas shown for the benefit of the Disciples, through their witness it has shined\non you and me and through our witness it shines into the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exodus 34:29-35, Luke 9:28-36 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I\u2019ve heard it said and many times; in fact, I remember it being said to Cathy, when she was expecting Cathy Zoe and then Paul; friends and family would come up to Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}