March 6, 2011
Transfiguration Sunday / Last Sunday after Epiphany. A. Year Matthew 17:1-9
Today's readings describe encounters with God gorgeous. What happens? Who is invited to the mountain? What influence the guests at the meeting?
mountain in the stories today, we look at the gatherings of men well known to each other and God in Search of a revelation. The men are Moses and Joshua in Exodus 24, and Jesus, Peter, James and John in Matthew 17. The stories are connected by the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the passage from Matthew.
In Exodus 24:12-18, the story of Mount Sinai, Moses and Joshua are in a cloud for six days, before Moses is called by an unidentified male voice (verse 16), is supposed to belong to God. The mountain is covered by a cloud of divine density (basic meaning of the Hebrew word kabod that the New Revised Version of the Bible translated as "glory"). Keeping the distance, we are told that the appearance "was like a burning fire" as a fiery passionate appointment "at the top of the mountain" (verse 17). We are not told what happened inside the cloud, which begs the question: what is the nature of this divine-human encounter all-male? Many images of worship in ecstasy come to mind including the Genesis story of Jacob's wrestling rolling on the floor with God as a man by the river Jabbok (Genesis 32:22-32).
When we examine the story of Exodus, we also ask: where are the women and children? Maybe together we can assume that the elderly are at the foot of the mountain. The story does not reveal its final. Rather, the lectionary passage ends with a second version of the story, leaving Moses alone with God in the mountains (verse 18). If we stick only to the reading of the lectionary, we are left not knowing whether or not Moses received the tables, we only know of his passionate encounter with God on the mountain.
What you have questions about the meeting on the mountain and the clouds? Imagine what happened and what importance do you give?
Psalm 2 on the tumult of the nations seem to be linked with the history of the Transfiguration. There is a voice from heaven (verse 4) a holy hill (verse 6). However, this psalm is less mystery and confusion. It asks an anonymous king bringing order to all this. Moreover, the story of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter 1:16-21 lacks any sense of mystery, there is no cloud. The author would be short and simply resume. However, much of the importance of the imagery of the cloud in the above story the Exodus comes from the darkness of God's action. This encounter with God in the cloud is a mystery and invites the reader to imagine all the possibilities. Those of us who work in the field LGBT (or any other social issue) we can not expect simply to explain and convince others about our commitments. Rather, we need to invite into the cloud-invite them to the experience of transformation, no matter how frightening it is.
In Matthew 17:1-9 the circle of witnesses is reduced and limited to Peter, James and John to see Jesus face glowing with dazzling dresses. Jesus met with Moses and Elijah and is instructed these ancestors (verse 3). Contemporary readers and preachers, uncomfortable with the intense male-only event, you may want to imagine women in the meeting-Deborah and Esther, Miriam and perhaps (although she may fear being cursed again turned white as snow (see Numbers 12: 10).
follows an epiphany or vision theophanic: God announces the cloud that Jesus is the Beloved (verse 5). The awe of the moment three disciples feared by men who are on the ground. The need to widen the circle is highlighted. However, the narrator does not help, but still not interested in the relationship between Peter and Jesus. So how does the transfiguration transfigured so that we become more inclusive to those who are invited to the "summit"?
We support a more inclusive meeting on the mountain. We are reluctant to limit the number of people and, instead, call an extension of the number of those are included. We maintain the same commitment to meet today in the public and political arena. When it comes to our laws, we must fight for legislation that is inclusive, especially those that impact the lives of LGBT people and oppressed people. You must be in coalition building, although the scriptures do not help us today to see the requirement to do so. An access point, however, may be the need to enlarge the circle and stop looking at the mountains. So beautiful and breathtaking as the view from the mountaintop, it diverts our collective vision of meeting God.
What are the needs and problems in the history of the Transfiguration? What are the needs and problems in the scriptures even comment on this story? What could be telling God you and your community through our thoughts?
The reference to the Holy Spirit 2 Peter 1:21 may be helpful, because at least it reminds us that the Spirit speaks through men and women . (We need to be cautious, however, not whipping the privilege of eyewitnesses.) Through these passages from the lectionary, with them, and beyond them, transformation becomes a requirement to change local and global scale.
With all these texts suggesting that only men go to the top of the mountain, how do we expand our vision transform a community? Our stories will include "Transfiguration different sexes, classes, ethnicities and abilities? How do we experience God differently in the unique vision and a vision transformed inclusive?
inclusive Prayer
very glorious and inclusive God,
help us see your powers of transfiguration,
when you are in inclusive communities .
Help us feel your powers of transfiguration
when calling our ancestors to bear witness to your hopes
for us and for our communities.
Help us to experience your powers of transfiguration,
when we find Jesus resisting the oppressive powers
in his time and ours.
Help us find transfigured before us,
when we join you in bold ministries of inclusion, privacy and fairness.
Transfigure our world.
Amen.
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