Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, 2023: Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Peter 1:13-21; Luke 9:28-36; Psalm 99 or 99:5-9
Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration, focusing on the moment when Peter, John and James are with Jesus on a mountaintop, where Jesus, as was his wont, had gone to pray. While he was praying, his face is transformed, and his clothes became “dazzling white”. Suddenly they see Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus speaking “of his departure”. As Moses and Elijah “were leaving”, Peter decides they should build three dwellings, for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. At this moment, a cloud descends on them and a voice says, “This is my Son, my Chosen”.
We usually encounter this story on the Sunday before Lent, where it sets us up for Lent and the journey to Jerusalem. Because August 6 falls on a Sunday this year, we encounter it again, and it sits differently in the middle of the parables we have been hearing. There is so much you can say about this story, which appears in the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke. Jesus’ face is transformed in prayer, as was Moses’s as he came down from Mount Sinai: “the skin of his face shone because he had been talking to God”. Can we see when people have had a profound experience of God? Or there is one of my favorite subjects, the marvelous cluelessness of Peter; it always comforts me that in spite of how often he gets it wrong, he is the rock on which Jesus will build his church. Another direction is thinking about those moments which have transfigured us, moments when we have been transformed.
But I am struck in this story by the role of community. Even when Jesus goes off to be “on his own”, he takes some of his disciples. He’s not alone. He prays apart, but has a conversation with God. The disciples, though tired, watch. When the disciples see Jesus with Moses and Elijah, they seem to sense that these three are connected, and they want to make it permanent with three shelters.
Today we often talk about spiritual journeys, or our own spiritual journey. Even those of us who are churchgoers often think about our spiritual lives as individual. And that is important: we each encounter God in our own ways. But thinking about Jesus and his various companions-the disciples who accompany him to the top of the mountain, Moses and Elijah chatting with him about his “departure”-makes me wonder if any of us are ever really journeying on our own. Jesus may have been transfigured, but Peter, John and James had a pretty profound experience as well. These days some of our companions may be virtual, whether in books, videos, or online groups, but they are there.
In reflecting on my own spiritual journey, it is made up of people, from the churches I attended as a child to those I’ve attended as an adult; particular writers who spoke to me in ways I needed at a particular time; study groups with whom I shared my deepest hopes and fears; friends and colleagues who have made a difference in my life.
I know I am not alone in this: my friends will tell me about a church they attended, or a preacher, or a prayer group. And it is not just those of us who are church-y. People follow a particular guru, or find a particular writer helps them focus their lives. Ask someone how they became who they are, and they will tell you: they had guidance from a book or teacher, or an online group that supported them.
It is not just that we grow in community; the community responds to us. When Moses came down the mountain with “the skin of his face shining”, the Israelites “were afraid to come near him”; they only came when he called them. He is bringing back what he gained from one conversation to a community. There’s an exchange. Sometimes we are transformed by others, but it’s also possible that we (often unknowingly) transform others.
As we think about the moments that have transformed us, let us remember those who have been part of those transformations, as catalysts and observers. And it is not only Jesus who is with us. It is the saints who have been or are present in our lives. For them, and for the communities which have sustained us, we give God thanks.