Transfiguration Sunday - A
So much of what we see in the world is determined by how we are conditioned to see things.
Annie Dillard, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, says this about seeing: "I see what I expect. I once spent a full three minutes looking at a bullfrog that was so unexpectedly large I couldn't see it even though a dozen enthusiastic campers were shouting directions. Finally I asked, 'What color am I looking for?' and a fellow said, 'Green.' When at last I picked out the frog, I saw what painters are up against: the thing wasn't green at all, but the color of wet hickory bark." That's true of everything in human experience: we see the things that our minds tell us to see; our expectations edit the sights received by our eyes.
We can see the ordinary things of nature, of the...
Annie Dillard, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, says this about seeing: "I see what I expect. I once spent a full three minutes looking at a bullfrog that was so unexpectedly large I couldn't see it even though a dozen enthusiastic campers were shouting directions. Finally I asked, 'What color am I looking for?' and a fellow said, 'Green.' When at last I picked out the frog, I saw what painters are up against: the thing wasn't green at all, but the color of wet hickory bark." That's true of everything in human experience: we see the things that our minds tell us to see; our expectations edit the sights received by our eyes.
We can see the ordinary things of nature, of the...
I can't begin to enumerate the number of times I have attended a retreat somewhere off in a secluded spot and heard at the conclusion, "This was a mountaintop experience." Some people regarded the days of retreat as a time of reflection and inspiration and motivation, and as a result they felt nourished by the content and the companionship of the retreat.
The trouble with those mountaintop experiences is that they occur so infrequently. Most of us realize the need for more regular nourishment even as we drive down the country lane, heading back to the trials and tribulations of life and work and even family.
People in biblical times must have had the same longings. They surely experienced the absence of God and the trials of life every bit as much as we do.
...
The trouble with those mountaintop experiences is that they occur so infrequently. Most of us realize the need for more regular nourishment even as we drive down the country lane, heading back to the trials and tribulations of life and work and even family.
People in biblical times must have had the same longings. They surely experienced the absence of God and the trials of life every bit as much as we do.
...
Theophany: a word we do not use today except in specialized classrooms, signals the "-phany" or appearance of God. Before we zero in on biblical revelation, it is important to note that many religions have appearances of gods. Mount Olympus, in ancient Greece, offered a thick Yellow Pages display of all sorts. Wagnerian opera often needs storms or mists on mountains in order to set the stage for gods. Even godless religions have "hierophanies," revelations of the sacred, on mountains. For American Buddhists, Mount Shasta in California is a pilgrimage site. And to Native Americans, mountains like Harned Peak are places where sages like Black Elk get their revelation and inspiration.
Why mountains? If God is "above," mountains are closer to God than are the plains. Second...
Why mountains? If God is "above," mountains are closer to God than are the plains. Second...
Mountains occupy a strong place in our imaginations.
Throughout human history, mountains have been strategic locations. They are impervious to floods, they provide an important view of the surrounding area. And mountain strongholds are traditionally recognized as very difficult to attack and conquer.
Mountains also connote strength and permanence. To suggest that a mountain will be shaken or moved is to suggest that all bets are off -- anything can happen. After all, the grandest statement of a person's abilities is to claim that he or she can "move mountains."
Because of their overwhelming size and permanence, mountains have also come to symbolize our most immense obstacles. And the person with a rare sense of adventure and appetite for...
Throughout human history, mountains have been strategic locations. They are impervious to floods, they provide an important view of the surrounding area. And mountain strongholds are traditionally recognized as very difficult to attack and conquer.
Mountains also connote strength and permanence. To suggest that a mountain will be shaken or moved is to suggest that all bets are off -- anything can happen. After all, the grandest statement of a person's abilities is to claim that he or she can "move mountains."
Because of their overwhelming size and permanence, mountains have also come to symbolize our most immense obstacles. And the person with a rare sense of adventure and appetite for...
Wayne Brouwer
Schuyler Rhodes
One of the cable networks has created a strange hit series. It began as Ice Road Truckers, monitoring the dangerous winter haulage north of Yellowknife on the frozen Canadian tundra. Then, after several years of gaining familiarity with the top tonnage truckers, the network displaced them to northern Alaska and introduced new challenges and new road masters. More recently, several of these rig lords and ladies have been transported to the Himalayan heights of upper India. Here the cameras have panned with toe-tingling shock and awe the dizzying cliffs and switchbacks that paint tiny trails against massive mountains. One wants to look up at splendor but becomes entranced by plummeting rocks and trucks bouncing toward certain annihilation.
Frank Ramirez
Mark Twain once said that his pious, sainted mother never missed a Sunday’s service her whole life long, but that she never once heard a sermon against slavery. The Civil War took place not only on bloody battlefields but also from behind dueling pulpits where, with greater degrees of bravery and cowardice, God and the Bible were quoted for and against human bondage.
Huckleberry Finn, the unreliable narrator of Twain’s classic, is fleeing civilization down the Mississippi River in the company of the runaway slave Jim. Finn has been civilized enough by well-meaning folks to know that what he’s doing, helping Jim escape slavery, is the worst possible sin, but he’s come to realize Jim is more human than anyone he ever met. When the moment comes and Huck miserably...
Huckleberry Finn, the unreliable narrator of Twain’s classic, is fleeing civilization down the Mississippi River in the company of the runaway slave Jim. Finn has been civilized enough by well-meaning folks to know that what he’s doing, helping Jim escape slavery, is the worst possible sin, but he’s come to realize Jim is more human than anyone he ever met. When the moment comes and Huck miserably...
Frank Ramirez
Although I still think a bare stage is the most effective form of theater, there’s no denying that people expect bells and whistles when it comes to both stage and screen. These three texts would be a delight for an expert in special effects. Moses ascends the mountain to once more encounter God. The cloud, the blazing thunder and lightning, the overwhelming weight of glory (In Hebrew the word for glory, khavod, is a weighty word) is reflected off the face of Moses.
In 2 Peter, we have a remembrance of the Transfiguration, the revelation of Jesus as the figure of glory we won’t see so clearly again until Revelation. And of course, the Matthew text is the Transfiguration itself.
Exodus 24:12-18
In 2 Peter, we have a remembrance of the Transfiguration, the revelation of Jesus as the figure of glory we won’t see so clearly again until Revelation. And of course, the Matthew text is the Transfiguration itself.
Exodus 24:12-18
William H. Shepherd
It was the most boring sermon I ever heard, until it became the most interesting.
At first, I did not understand what had come over my student. Up to this point in the class, I thought she had been getting it. She laughed when I quoted Kierkegaard, "Boredom is the root of all evils." She nodded her head when I said that the dullest presentation would not be redeemed by the soundest content. Her critiques of the other students' sermons were right on target.
So why was she droning on about the literary sources of 2 Peter? What a mishmash of scholastic irrelevancies! On and on about pseudepigraphy and source criticism and whether Peter was friends with Paul. I could feel the other students snoring on the inside. It was ten minutes of total exasperation.
At first, I did not understand what had come over my student. Up to this point in the class, I thought she had been getting it. She laughed when I quoted Kierkegaard, "Boredom is the root of all evils." She nodded her head when I said that the dullest presentation would not be redeemed by the soundest content. Her critiques of the other students' sermons were right on target.
So why was she droning on about the literary sources of 2 Peter? What a mishmash of scholastic irrelevancies! On and on about pseudepigraphy and source criticism and whether Peter was friends with Paul. I could feel the other students snoring on the inside. It was ten minutes of total exasperation.
Mark Ellingsen
Transfiguration is a celebration of God’s glory and how that glory is revealed in Christ when he was transfigured. The festival was observed as early as the sixth century in Eastern Christianity, but did not become a festival in the Catholic Church and its Protestant heirs until just 70 years prior to the Reformation. Sermons in line with this festival will aim to focus the flock on coming to appreciate a bigger, more majestic picture of God and Christ than what they brought to church. Assurance will be provided that this majestic God overcomes all evil. All the lessons considered collectively also link Christ and the gospel to the Law (the ten commandments).
Exodus 24:12-18
Exodus 24:12-18
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