Transfiguration 2021
"This is my Son the Beloved.
Listen to him!"
Mark 9:7
Showing posts with label transfiguration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transfiguration. Show all posts
Saturday, February 13, 2021
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
winter • february • 2018 • ventures
This summary features the month of February and the meteorological season of Winter—here are my chronicles for December and January. It's time to link up again with Emily P. Freeman's What I Learned in...
Today is Wednesday, so it's Porch Stories. Kristin Hill Taylor's blogging about winter learnings, too.
Railroad tracks around the corner from where I've been staying form the background for my February graphic; my February story includes still learning patience, still learning to wait, still discerning future moves during this meantime. February has meant acknowledging my marginal level of everyday functioning that's nothing to worry about, but serves as a signal a lot's not okay with my current situation. Having explained that, one of the best February surprises has been newly emerged monarch butterflies in the milkweed planters at church. As caterpillars they got very greedy, munching all the milkweed down to bare stalks!
Sunday 04 February
Sunday 11 February – Transfiguration
Sunday 18 February –Lent 1
The Green Faith Team met again in Glendale during late February mostly to finish planning for the 22 March World Water Day event we're hosting down by the LA River riverside {watch this space!}. I created a scrapbook page to collage my photos; for some reason it's been a long while since kids in the on-campus school displayed their art in the windows, but their bulletin board displays were like scrapbook pages within my scrapbook page.
February is Black History Month. On the last Sunday of February I attended a fabulous Young. Gifted. Black. A Fundraiser Showcasing our Talent Allowing our Young Voice to be Heard to benefit urban kids who'll be traveling to Houston to participate in their denomination's This Changes Everything youth gathering. They insisted, "we are current black history." It was so wonderful words can't describe it; I captured quite a few excellent photos, but don't have permission to use them, so the event program's my only illustration.
# # #
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Sunday, March 02, 2014
transfiguration 2014
It's been close to forever since I've blogged much in the way of theological reflections, but I liked my own notes in response to an online friend's transfiguration Sunday sermon, so here's a very slightly edited version of them along with a few additional considerations.
Matthew 17:1-9
My friend ran with that all too common biblical and contemporary experience of fear, which I do not perceive as at all central in the texts. My response included:
Fear... we all (most of us, anyway) have too much of it, and need lots of reminders not to fear. But I believe beginning a T-Fig sermon with fear misses the point of the event and obscures the wisdom of the lectionary compilers' placing this event right before we begin lent, before the church zooms in on the journey to Jerusalem, to the cross, to the empty tomb.
The gospel-writer records this mountaintop happening as "six days later" than Jesus' telling his disciples to follow him means to take up *their* cross, lose their lives... and Jesus then will model the ultimate example of gaining new life for the whole world by giving up his own earthly life.
The words of this passage demonstrate God's historical faithfulness in speaking via both law and prophets; Elijah's presence harkens back to a related trinitarian theophany we experienced once again this year only a few weeks ago at the baptism of Jesus by John—remember, Elijah had to return, but as Jesus tells us, for him, John was Elijah!
Probably most important, a few days prior to Ash Wednesday, Jesus tells us he will be raised from the dead.
I don't know if you regularly read the first (typically Hebrew bible) lection during worship, but Exodus 24:12-18 is Moses, God, [Mount] Sinai covenant, 40 days and 40 nights, all of which tie in perfectly with this T-Fig narrative and the forty days of Lent the church is about to enter. Also, in 2 Peter 1:16-21, we find no hint of fear, but rather divine self-revelation in vision, word, and spirit.
I told my friend I loved her next-to-last paragraph reminding us about down to earth Jesus using touch and speech to calm us down. As she observed in her final paragraph, God never leaves us or forsakes us, and we need that reminder. However, I added how I believe retaining "fear does not have the last word," (as true as it is), obscures the focus on the world-transforming (and transfiguring!) crucifixion and resurrection events to come.
In other words, despite Peter's typical not-getting-it again here, fear simply is not central, but rather, so peripheral I probably would mention it only in passing, if at all.
"Listen to him!" Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until The Human One has been raised from the dead." Listen to him—It's about death and resurrection! We charge the baptismal sponsors to "place the scriptures in their hands; bring them to the services of God's house...." so they can "Listen to him!"
Matthew 17:1-9
My friend ran with that all too common biblical and contemporary experience of fear, which I do not perceive as at all central in the texts. My response included:Fear... we all (most of us, anyway) have too much of it, and need lots of reminders not to fear. But I believe beginning a T-Fig sermon with fear misses the point of the event and obscures the wisdom of the lectionary compilers' placing this event right before we begin lent, before the church zooms in on the journey to Jerusalem, to the cross, to the empty tomb.
The gospel-writer records this mountaintop happening as "six days later" than Jesus' telling his disciples to follow him means to take up *their* cross, lose their lives... and Jesus then will model the ultimate example of gaining new life for the whole world by giving up his own earthly life.
The words of this passage demonstrate God's historical faithfulness in speaking via both law and prophets; Elijah's presence harkens back to a related trinitarian theophany we experienced once again this year only a few weeks ago at the baptism of Jesus by John—remember, Elijah had to return, but as Jesus tells us, for him, John was Elijah!
Probably most important, a few days prior to Ash Wednesday, Jesus tells us he will be raised from the dead.
I don't know if you regularly read the first (typically Hebrew bible) lection during worship, but Exodus 24:12-18 is Moses, God, [Mount] Sinai covenant, 40 days and 40 nights, all of which tie in perfectly with this T-Fig narrative and the forty days of Lent the church is about to enter. Also, in 2 Peter 1:16-21, we find no hint of fear, but rather divine self-revelation in vision, word, and spirit.
I told my friend I loved her next-to-last paragraph reminding us about down to earth Jesus using touch and speech to calm us down. As she observed in her final paragraph, God never leaves us or forsakes us, and we need that reminder. However, I added how I believe retaining "fear does not have the last word," (as true as it is), obscures the focus on the world-transforming (and transfiguring!) crucifixion and resurrection events to come.
In other words, despite Peter's typical not-getting-it again here, fear simply is not central, but rather, so peripheral I probably would mention it only in passing, if at all.
"Listen to him!" Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until The Human One has been raised from the dead." Listen to him—It's about death and resurrection! We charge the baptismal sponsors to "place the scriptures in their hands; bring them to the services of God's house...." so they can "Listen to him!"
Friday, February 28, 2014
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Friday, September 30, 2005
BEaCh HoUsE bLoG
Very Dry Day bringing shoreline dreams alive
Santa Ana winds racing somewhat north of here again
Natural Energies, with Beach House taunts arcane
Get your shovels ready and turn up the heat!
Bring along a Vintage willow Cottage Shabby Chic
Couple it with several pairs of Country Bear ice cream Sets
DoUble FaultS, seashore, sunshine over Shiloh gets
Claim NEW 3 NEW claim 5, let's
Listening Garden Rooms four Nautical transform
Black Church's Cadence song preaching up a storm...!
Turn on the AC 'cuz it's gonna be a blizzard?
Only rhyme I know for that is rainbow-painted lizard
Blogging more for Desert Fire, theology, remember?
this list-blog growing longer just by citing one from earlier...
Wondering where I got my quotes, here's twenty-ninth of June
Posted on that day's time not quite yet afternoon
this far by faith's Theology Rap
Coupled with Transfiguration Dawning Day on tap
Streams in the deserts restoring us to life
Impelled by the Spirit reclaiming our strife
Cityside America safari from the past
Tennessee Walkers strolling totally grassed
Cannabis sativa? I believe so not
Simply something different from our usually plot
Bread sent from heaven and fruit of the vine
Community's nurturing right down the line
Shenandoah prairieland's burritos really fine
Charge into the world make another new try
Instead of just settling reaching for the sky
Challenging this planet to listen now and hear
Everything I offer it experience held dear
I'm giving my sorrow and all of my pain
To God the Almighty, Lover not vain
Expecting just mercy and grace in the rain
Falling from heaven embracing the earth
God's glory incarnate declaring our worth
Holy Spirit's Seasons moving forth to Reformation!
Church's Pentecostal witness blazing with elation!
Somewhat strained my verses are whatever though they thrive
Off again tomorrow's morning hope will raise us back alive
The End for Now, Amen. Amen. And amen again!
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Transfiguration: Until the Day Dawns
Texts – NKJV
Matthew 17:1-9
1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
… 9 Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead."
2 Peter 1:16-19
16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, ...but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 We also have the more sure prophetic word, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts…
Until the Day Dawns
"Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man – the Human One – is risen from the dead!"
Also in some of Jesus’ words recorded by the gospel-writer Matthew, we hear: [12:40] An evil and perverse generation seeks signs, but no sign will be given it except the Sign of Jonah: for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Human One – the Son of Man – be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth!
In the Good News according to Luke:[11:29] And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, Jesus began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet."
The Sign of Jonah—Death and Resurrection! For two thousand years, theologians and faith communities have struggled to learn and discern what Jesus means to them. We know Jesus as teacher and Jesus as political prophet; doubtless many of us consider Jesus a social activist, too. Jesus as a healer? Probably. But Jesus, the man of Nazareth, who died outside the city on a cross of shame as the Christ of God?
At the very heart of the story of Jesus of Nazareth stands the seven days we call Passion Week: a crucified man – but – then an empty grave, a narrative with no easy answers or clear-cut implications, a series of events so far outside the normally credible many of us would like to dismiss it as legend. But today's lections are not about death and resurrection but about something else altogether—they're about a spectacular manifestation of God's Glory on yet another mountaintop.
"We were eyewitness. We saw...with our own eyes." There on the mountain of the event called Transfiguration were Moses and Elijah and there was that voice...and there were Peter, James and John who saw, who eye-witnessed the meeting of earth and heaven, the holiness of everything created. Within Judaism, clouds, mountains and other expressions of nature were traditional signs of God's presence—you remember the cloud that went before Israel as a sign of God's presence in the Exodus story, and the mountain Moses climbed to receive the law, the Sinai Covenant? In telling about the Transfiguration,
Matthew, the gospel writer and Peter, the author of the epistle describe a meeting between heaven and earth, of the reconciliation of life, spelling God-with-us—of course, then there's the reciprocal of God's presence to us: our presence to God! Heaven comes down to earth countless times throughout the biblical witness, just as heaven and earth meet countless times in this world in which we live.
Jesus cautioned the Mount of Transfiguration Trio – Peter, James and John – to tell no one about the experience with Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, until he, the Son of Man, the Human One, had been raised from death. Tell no one until Easter! "Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish..."
Another Jonah, Simon bar Jonah, son of Jonah – the fisher of men renamed Peter or "Rocky" by Jesus himself – experienced the vision of Jesus transfigured and for Peter, we know the later reality of resurrection could not remain forgotten or untold! Over and over in the book of Acts and then in the later letter called 2 Peter we keep hearing Peter proclaiming the Risen Christ!
Often we recount stories about gutless Peter, almost rejoicing because he and we are similar in too many ways, but after the events of Easter and Pentecost, when preaching Christ even meant risking life itself, Peter could not help but do so.
Because of the stories of Peter's sometimes reluctance during the time he spent ministering alongside Jesus in the years prior to the crucifixion – especially the triple betrayal – I think if Peter had his human preference, he would rather not have stood up before those institutional religious leaders and assorted "others. But the word of the Risen One was not a philosophical theoretical idea out there but rather it was a word within Peter's heart, from his real-life experience walking and living with a friend who unconditionally loved him even in his weakest moments of total failure, that One he had seen crucified...
"We were eyewitnesses...with our eyes." The eye is the most sensitive part of the body; to be an eyewitness suggests vision and perception. On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter saw Jesus, Elijah and Moses; later Peter eyewitnessed Christ crucified; then he saw and experienced Christ Risen! In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter witnessed the love of God, and how could Peter be silent? Everything his teacher and companion Jesus spoke about had happened, everything – including death and resurrection, the fabled Sign of Jonah – and those events birthed hope in Rocky-Peter, so he began believing, living and proclaiming the hope of resurrection to the world.
Tell the vision to no one until the Human One is risen from the dead. A long time has passed since Jesus, James, John and Peter stood with Moses and Elijah on the Mountain of Transfiguration; a long time has passed since Peter told about seeing with his own eyes the transfigured Man of Nazareth and the glory of the Crucified and Risen Christ. In the centuries since then, far too much other than the boundless and unqualified love of God has been connected with Jesus and laid on the name of Jesus; Peter didn’t need to explain slave ships from Africa, or the Crusades, or the Salem witch trials or the decimation of villages in South America and Central America by unjust church politics; in those days of the nascent church, people hadn't yet suffered under the illegitimate authority of over-formed ecclesiastical clout.
So these days and in our own communities we can hear voices asking why we still proclaim the Crucified and Risen Lord of All!? Still today?! Like Peter? Because we too have witnessed Christ crucified in every life that falls at the hand of hatred, every heart broken by betrayal, every community brutalized by the powerful, every person left for dead; in those situations and far too many like them our eyes have witnessed Christ crucified.
And though many times we may run away like Simon bar Jonah also called "Peter," in the wake of the Day of Crucifixion we have seen and met the Risen One on Resurrection morn! Jesus promises us the Sign of Jonah—death and resurrection; Jesus charges us to "Tell no one until the Human One is risen from the dead!"
Just as the Spirit sent Peter, James and John to the Transfiguration site, the Holy Spirit takes us to places where God meets us, the contemporary people of God; the Spirit send us to places where we witness meetings between heaven and earth and see evidence of God's life-restoring and reconciling presence to us, while the Spirit enables us to be present to God, living in full response to the power of Easter within our once-devastated lives.
Together with Peter, we have been eyewitnesses of Christ's crucifixion but we also know the experience of the paradoxical power of new life born from death; those events birth hope in us—how can we be silent? Now we can believe, live and proclaim the hope of resurrection to the world!
As we prepare to enter the coming weeks of Lent, let us continue living as signs of the meeting of heaven and earth, people ready for Good Friday and eyewitness of Easter Sunday's glorious dawn!
The Word of Life,
Amen!
Matthew 17:1-9
1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
… 9 Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead."
2 Peter 1:16-19
16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, ...but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 19 We also have the more sure prophetic word, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts…
Until the Day Dawns
Son of the Excellent Glory, Whose birth and life among us sanctifies all creation, Creator of the Cosmic Dance and Hope Everlasting: as we celebrate another spectacular vision of your Sonship, may we relentlessly live as signs of the reconciliation of heaven and earth, in service to one another and the world. Amen!
"Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man – the Human One – is risen from the dead!"
Also in some of Jesus’ words recorded by the gospel-writer Matthew, we hear: [12:40] An evil and perverse generation seeks signs, but no sign will be given it except the Sign of Jonah: for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Human One – the Son of Man – be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth!
In the Good News according to Luke:[11:29] And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, Jesus began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet."
The Sign of Jonah—Death and Resurrection! For two thousand years, theologians and faith communities have struggled to learn and discern what Jesus means to them. We know Jesus as teacher and Jesus as political prophet; doubtless many of us consider Jesus a social activist, too. Jesus as a healer? Probably. But Jesus, the man of Nazareth, who died outside the city on a cross of shame as the Christ of God?
At the very heart of the story of Jesus of Nazareth stands the seven days we call Passion Week: a crucified man – but – then an empty grave, a narrative with no easy answers or clear-cut implications, a series of events so far outside the normally credible many of us would like to dismiss it as legend. But today's lections are not about death and resurrection but about something else altogether—they're about a spectacular manifestation of God's Glory on yet another mountaintop.
"We were eyewitness. We saw...with our own eyes." There on the mountain of the event called Transfiguration were Moses and Elijah and there was that voice...and there were Peter, James and John who saw, who eye-witnessed the meeting of earth and heaven, the holiness of everything created. Within Judaism, clouds, mountains and other expressions of nature were traditional signs of God's presence—you remember the cloud that went before Israel as a sign of God's presence in the Exodus story, and the mountain Moses climbed to receive the law, the Sinai Covenant? In telling about the Transfiguration,
Matthew, the gospel writer and Peter, the author of the epistle describe a meeting between heaven and earth, of the reconciliation of life, spelling God-with-us—of course, then there's the reciprocal of God's presence to us: our presence to God! Heaven comes down to earth countless times throughout the biblical witness, just as heaven and earth meet countless times in this world in which we live.
Jesus cautioned the Mount of Transfiguration Trio – Peter, James and John – to tell no one about the experience with Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, until he, the Son of Man, the Human One, had been raised from death. Tell no one until Easter! "Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish..."
Another Jonah, Simon bar Jonah, son of Jonah – the fisher of men renamed Peter or "Rocky" by Jesus himself – experienced the vision of Jesus transfigured and for Peter, we know the later reality of resurrection could not remain forgotten or untold! Over and over in the book of Acts and then in the later letter called 2 Peter we keep hearing Peter proclaiming the Risen Christ!
Often we recount stories about gutless Peter, almost rejoicing because he and we are similar in too many ways, but after the events of Easter and Pentecost, when preaching Christ even meant risking life itself, Peter could not help but do so.
Because of the stories of Peter's sometimes reluctance during the time he spent ministering alongside Jesus in the years prior to the crucifixion – especially the triple betrayal – I think if Peter had his human preference, he would rather not have stood up before those institutional religious leaders and assorted "others. But the word of the Risen One was not a philosophical theoretical idea out there but rather it was a word within Peter's heart, from his real-life experience walking and living with a friend who unconditionally loved him even in his weakest moments of total failure, that One he had seen crucified...
"We were eyewitnesses...with our eyes." The eye is the most sensitive part of the body; to be an eyewitness suggests vision and perception. On the Mount of Transfiguration Peter saw Jesus, Elijah and Moses; later Peter eyewitnessed Christ crucified; then he saw and experienced Christ Risen! In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter witnessed the love of God, and how could Peter be silent? Everything his teacher and companion Jesus spoke about had happened, everything – including death and resurrection, the fabled Sign of Jonah – and those events birthed hope in Rocky-Peter, so he began believing, living and proclaiming the hope of resurrection to the world.
Tell the vision to no one until the Human One is risen from the dead. A long time has passed since Jesus, James, John and Peter stood with Moses and Elijah on the Mountain of Transfiguration; a long time has passed since Peter told about seeing with his own eyes the transfigured Man of Nazareth and the glory of the Crucified and Risen Christ. In the centuries since then, far too much other than the boundless and unqualified love of God has been connected with Jesus and laid on the name of Jesus; Peter didn’t need to explain slave ships from Africa, or the Crusades, or the Salem witch trials or the decimation of villages in South America and Central America by unjust church politics; in those days of the nascent church, people hadn't yet suffered under the illegitimate authority of over-formed ecclesiastical clout.
So these days and in our own communities we can hear voices asking why we still proclaim the Crucified and Risen Lord of All!? Still today?! Like Peter? Because we too have witnessed Christ crucified in every life that falls at the hand of hatred, every heart broken by betrayal, every community brutalized by the powerful, every person left for dead; in those situations and far too many like them our eyes have witnessed Christ crucified.
And though many times we may run away like Simon bar Jonah also called "Peter," in the wake of the Day of Crucifixion we have seen and met the Risen One on Resurrection morn! Jesus promises us the Sign of Jonah—death and resurrection; Jesus charges us to "Tell no one until the Human One is risen from the dead!"
Just as the Spirit sent Peter, James and John to the Transfiguration site, the Holy Spirit takes us to places where God meets us, the contemporary people of God; the Spirit send us to places where we witness meetings between heaven and earth and see evidence of God's life-restoring and reconciling presence to us, while the Spirit enables us to be present to God, living in full response to the power of Easter within our once-devastated lives.
Together with Peter, we have been eyewitnesses of Christ's crucifixion but we also know the experience of the paradoxical power of new life born from death; those events birth hope in us—how can we be silent? Now we can believe, live and proclaim the hope of resurrection to the world!
As we prepare to enter the coming weeks of Lent, let us continue living as signs of the meeting of heaven and earth, people ready for Good Friday and eyewitness of Easter Sunday's glorious dawn!
The Word of Life,
Amen!
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