3rd February Trinity 2016, Coming to Light

February Trinity

(5th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17: 1-13

Transfiguration, by Theophanes the Greek, Wiki Commons

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James and led them together up a high mountain apart from the others.

There his appearance was transformed before them. His face shone bright as the sun, and his garments became white, shining bright as the light. And behold, there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, conversing in the spirit with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be in this place. If you wish, I will build here three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly they heard a voice from the cloud that said, “This is my son, whom I love. In him, I am revealed. Hear him.”

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces to the ground in awe and terror.

And Jesus approached them, and touching them said, “Rise, and do not fear.”

And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them: “Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

And the disciples asked him, “What is meant when the scribes say, ‘First Elijah must come again’?” He answered, “Elijah comes indeed, and prepares everything [restores all things]. But I say to you, Elijah has already come, and the people did not recognize him, but rather have done to him whatever they pleased. In the same way the Son of Man will suffer much at their hands.”

Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

February Trinity

(5th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17: 1-13

Here in the west one can look out over the ocean from the mountains. Later in the day one can gaze out upon a sea of light so white, so piercingly bright that one wonders how one can look at it at all. The living waters shine like the sun.

In our lives, too, there are events and moments that are piercing; they may be moments of happiness or of pain; but they remain in our memories forever. In Jesus’ life this is one of those moments. On the mountaintop, Christ, the great being of the Sun, descends so far into him that his living body becomes ‘shining bright as the light.’

With him are two witness in the spirit, Moses and Elijah. They are conversing with him about his coming death. And the three earthly witnesses, Peter, James and John, perceive this living, light-filled, light-emanating body in awe. And further the Light is deepened into the voice of Love; they hear the voice of the loving Father of All. He claims Christ Jesus as His son, the revelation of the Father’s own being. The Father’s Love reveals itself in the living light form of a divine human being. Christ, ‘the son born in eternity’, reveals the Father’s light and love on earth. The poet says:

Transfiguration, Lewis Bowman

…we hear the great seas traveling

underground,

giving themselves up

with tongue of water

that sing the earth open.

They have journeyed through the graveyards

of our loved ones,

turning in their grave

to carry the stories of life to air.

….

We have stories

as old as the great seas

breaking through the chest,

flying out the mouth,

…

all the oceans we contain

coming to light. *

* Linda Hogan, “To Light”, in Seeing Through the Sun

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