Sunday Stretch: Vol. 115 - Transfiguration

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

Believe it or not - we’ve come again to Transfiguration Sunday, the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent.

This is one of my favorite Sundays of the Church Year. Here’s what I wrote to you back in 2023:

I was excited when I read the texts for today, because this is one of my favorite Bible stories. It’s at first glance an improbable or simple story, but for me this Gospel story tells so much about my own experience of the life of faith.

On pastoral internship in Las Vegas, at Community Lutheran Church, I gave one of my favorite sermons ever on a topic related to the Transfiguration. I called it “moments of perfection in a lifetime of imperfection,” and for me it helps express the very real experience of a life of faith, often lived two steps forward and one step back.

I think it’s important to identify your own moments of perfection, or Transfiguration, because it is those very moments that enable us to hold on to faith in the all-too-more common experiences of the Cross. It’s not realistic to think, as Peter hopes, that we can build dwelling places at the site of our moments of Transfiguration, and just stay there in that moment forever. But by acknowledging the minor miracles - the theophanies or God-presence-moments of our lives, we acknowledge that God has never abandoned us. These glimpses into the love and life God intends for creation are what give us strength to carry on. And it is no mistake that this Sunday of Transfiguration comes immediately before Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent.

The life of faith cannot be all repentance and tearing sackcloth and lament, nor can it be all celebration and glorifying ourselves. We need both to follow Jesus and move through this life of faith.

I had my own little moment of transfiguration this morning, when I got to go out for a walk and notice the ice breaking on the lake, and the family of ducks had returned to the little spot where I stand and look out.

As I watched the ducks hungrily gnaw at the melting ice, and surely the tasty bugs within it, I was reminded of the simple survival of the animal world - even as human abuse of the planet threatens our fellow living beings. I was reminded of how simple the real joys of life can be, and how easy it is to miss them.

Let’s get to the texts!

Bible Stories

Exodus 34:29-35

Ex. 34:29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant^a in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. ³³ When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; ³⁴ but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, ³⁵ the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

This story from Exodus, about Moses’ conversation with God and the resulting veil that he had to put over his shining face, provides a template for much of Paul’s later theology about our communion and relationship with God, including the ways in which Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection allows us to see beyond the veil - even as our full understanding of life and of God is still veiled.

This is such rich, important stuff!

It reminds me anew of the power of simple conversation with God, and the theme of this Substack:

I'm Listening

! Prayer is important not just for what we say but (maybe more important) for what we hear. I’m not suggesting this happens every time I pray, but in those moments when you receive God’s response, there is a real shining moment: an experience of grace and love.

Questions to Ponder

How do you think Moses felt when he came down from Mount Sinai?

Look up Mount Sinai. Where is it located on a modern-day map? What about it makes it holy?

Why do you think mountains often serve as a holy place? Have you experienced communion with God in the mountains? Where and when?

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

2Cor. 3:12 Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, ¹³ not like