Sunday Stretch: Vol. 22

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

Happy Transfiguration Sunday! 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.

Icon of the Transfiguration by Theophanes the Greek, 15th Century

Bible Stories

Exodus 24:12-18

Ex. 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.”  ¹³ 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.”

Ex. 24:15   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.

One of the gifts of my time at Luther Seminary was to learn about the Hebrew Bible, the Law and the Prophets, from Dr. Terry Fretheim, who died two years ago. The biggest lesson I learned from Dr. Fretheim, though there were many, was that the 10 Commandments and the Torah were primarily a gift not of Law but of Love. So many Christians functionally believe that the New Testament serves as a corrective to the “mean” Old Testament (which is one of the reasons why I try to use the wording “Hebrew Bible”). But Dr. Fretheim helped us see the gift of the 10 Commandments and how the Torah was sent as one of God’s first efforts to build deeper relationship with God’s people, and for creation to live together in harmony.

Questions to Ponder