Epiphany, January 6, 2026

Prayer

This week I am including for my prayer before preaching one of my favorite hymns: Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning by Reginald Heber (118 in the 1982 Hymnal).  It was first sung in 1827 and is normally sung to the tune of Star of the East.

1. Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid;
star of the east, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Refrain:
Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid;
star of the east, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

2. Cold on his cradle the dewdrops are shining,
low lies his head with the beasts of the stall;
angels adore him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Savior of all. (Refrain)

3. Shall we then yield him, in costly devotion
odors of Edom, and offerings divine,
gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean,
myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine? (Refrain)

4. Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
vainly with gifts would his favor secure;
richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
dearer to God are the prayers of the poor. (Refrain)

5. Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid;
star of the east, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 2:1-12

"The story of the magi foreshadows later developments in Matthew's narrative. Even in infancy Jesus inspires both worship and hostility, responses that are repeated throughout the story."

Commentary, Matthew 2:1-12, Mark Allan Powell, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

The narrative of Epiphany is the story of these two human communities: Jerusalem, with its great pretensions, and Bethlehem, with its modest promises. We can choose a "return to normalcy" in a triumphalist mode, a life of self-sufficiency that contains within it its own seeds of destruction. Or we can choose an alternative that comes in innocence and a hope that confounds our usual pretensions. We can receive life given in vulnerability. It is amazing -- the true accent of epiphany -- that the wise men do not resist this alternative but go on to the village. Rather than hesitate or resist, they reorganize their wealth and learning and reorient themselves and their lives around a baby with no credentials.

"Off By Nine Miles," Walter Brueggemann, The Christian Century, 2001.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

This week is unique because Epiphany falls on a Sunday and we are able to celebrate and preach on texts which normally stay hidden amongst the twelfth night celebrations. The Feast of the Epiphany has a wonderful history and traditions which are many and varied around the world. You can see some of these in the Wikipedia article on the Feast of the Epiphany - which isn't too bad.   When we lived in Mexico we remembered the feast by placing our shoes outside our door with straw in them.  Then the wise men would leave little gifts as a trade for helping them get on their way.  It has also always been our household tradition (since I was a child) to bring the wise men to the nativity scenes which were scattered around the house, and we would take down our Christmas tree.

My father always loved to ask us questions about the bible at dinner. It was like a little test. Actually he probably only had about 20 different questions but they were always enough to keep us busy thinking and figuring out the answers.  Recently I ran across an article which talked about Brent Landau's book Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem, the first-ever English translation of an ancient manuscript that tells the famous story from the Magi’s perspective. In it he shares five things you didn’t know about the Magi - this is exactly the kind of stuff my dad loved to use to trip us up.  So here are the five things Landau offers:

"1) The Gospel of Matthew doesn’t say how many Magi there were. Three became the most popular answer because of the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But some paintings in Christian catacombs have two or four, the Revelation of the Magi has a list of twelve Magi with names, and other Christian writings imagine an entire army of Magi!

2) Early Christians didn’t agree on where the Magi were from. The most popular answer was Persia (modern Iran), but others thought they were from Babylon or Arabia. In the Revelation of the Magi, they come from a land called Shir, which, because it is located at the eastern edge of the inhabited world, is probably equivalent to China.

3) Nobody knows what the Star of Bethlehem really was. Some early Christians thought it was an angel or the Holy Spirit, and more recent theories include a comet or a supernova. In the Revelation of the Magi, the star is none other than Christ himself in celestial form.

4) Opinions differ about how long it took the Magi to reach Bethlehem. Based on Herod’s asking of Magi when the star appeared, coupled with his subsequent command to kill all male infants under the age of two, many Christians thought it took them two years. Some imagined a much faster journey of twelve days, based on the “twelve days of Christmas” between December 25th and the celebration of Epiphany on January 6th. Their journey is even faster in the Revelation of the Magi, since the star “carries” the Magi to Bethlehem in the blink of an eye.

5) A number of answers were proposed for how the Magi knew that a star signified the birth of the King of the Jews. Many Christians thought that they knew the prophecy of Balaam, a prophet who predicts in Numbers 24:17 that “a star shall come out of Jacob.” In the Revelation of the Magi, the Magi are descendants of Seth, who learned about the prophecy of the star from his father Adam -- since the star used to stand over the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden."

So, let us now turn out attention to the actual text for this Sunday's Gospel.  Not unlike Luke, Matthew gives us a time frame for Jesus' birth. We are told that magi or some kind of astrologer or dream interpreters were paying attention to the night sky and so they understood from their studies that a king had been born.  This, of course, takes us back to both Isaiah 60 and even further back to Numbers 24.  Numbers 24:17-24 prophesies that “... a star shall come out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of Israel”, and that this ruler will conquer surrounding nations.

So we see in this birth a new reign of God is revealed, a new king coming into the world. This king will draw many to him, even wise men and the nations will bow down to him.

This is certainly cause for alarm if you are the local earthly king and so Herod's fears and anxiety are woven into the tapestry of the story.

It foretells the reality that this God-king is not found in high places, or among the royal families of the day, rather he is found in the lowliest of places. He will threaten the mighty not with great armies and power but with peace and love.  It is the lowliest place Bethlehem, it is the poor family, it is the barnyard stall and the poorest of means that reveals the lordship of Christ.

In seminary, I learned a wonderful word: Heilsgeschichte. It is a German word that means salvation history.  One of the things I love about Epiphany is the many levels in which the passage from Matthew is working.  The first is the tradition found in Numbers, the Psalm, and Isaiah.  These are the ancient heilsgeschichte prophesies which reveal something to us about the person of Jesus.  Then there is the context of the story in which the signs and symbols are presented and God in Christ Jesus is revealed to the magi by way of a language and imagery which they can understand.  Then there is the first community to hear or read Matthew's good news of salvation. The narrative is reinterpreted again and reveals to them the nature of this new community founded upon the Christ; who will draw to him a varied people.  Then there is our community today.

So, we ask ourselves how does the church present the revelation of the good news of salvation today?  How are we revealing Christ and his work? We are challenged I think to continue the sharing of the story in a contemporary form and through contemporary images.  We are to use contextual narratives to reveal the reign of God.  We are to remember that the kings were not fooled by the aristocratic means of Herod nor his court or majestic realm, but rather the integrity of the message of God's lordship was found in the humblest of places, the poorest of families, and the weakest of citizens - a child.  Our preaching and teaching of the salvation history of God will always be measured by the parallel life of our church's mission in the most marginal of settings with the weakest of people.  AND vice versa, our mission will always be measured by the presentation of salvation history through the unique offering of God in Christ Jesus through the eyes of our own church's tradition.

It is a both-and proposition. We are about the work of revealing this God and the uniqueness of Christ, to do this in word and work, in such a way that both the shepherds and magi of our day may be drawn to him.

Some Thoughts on Ephesians 3:1-12

"The need for unity and equality continues to paralyze both the human family and the Church."Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Israel Kamudzandu, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2019.

"The writing style of the author of Ephesians seems at first glance more sing-able than preach-able. Set it to music and let the organist have at it!"
Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"The great celebration of the Incarnation, according to Paul, flows into the great celebration of the church."
Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Amy L.B. Peeler, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"'Mystery' is the term that runs throughout this passage from Ephesians. It fits the day in the liturgical year because an 'epiphany' is a manifestation of something. And in this case what is revealed has been a mystery."
Radical Gratitude, lectionary-based stewardship, Northwest United Methodist Foundation. (.pdf)
Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Craig R. Koester, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Here is no cringing model of humility before a God who is looking for people on which to put his feet. Rather here is a theology which sees God wanting us to be bold, confident and forthcoming."
"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

A cave painting of Paul found in Ephesus in Turkey.

We find in the letter to the Ephesians that Paul's ministry to the Gentiles and his belief that God had called them into the family of Abraham as equal members of the church has led to his imprisonment.  In our passage, this Sunday Paul is telling the community about his work.  His words tap into the revelation that is also present in the Gospel for Epiphany.  Paul writes, "In former generations, this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."

Like Paul, the community at Ephesus is invited to participate in the sharing of this revelation.  Paul talks about how God was revealed to him.  And, he repeats his conviction that both Jews and Gentiles are to be at work in the saving activity of sharing the good news of salvation; of Christ and his kingdom.  Paul does a little work in translating the salvation history for the church at Ephesus, the heilsgeschichte, he talks to them about the revelation of old and God was at work to draw other nations to him.  The prophets of old and the apostles of his day offer a vision that all are invited to be co-heirs, co-members, and co-partners.  (In Greek each word begins with syn as in synchronous.)

It is here that we find something unique and important to the Gospel in our tradition as Christians who are Episcopalians.  Paul was an unlikely choice, he offers, to be an evangelist of this gospel.  But that is the point.  The good news of salvation is that all are invited into the work of evangelism (sharing the good news in words) and mission (sharing the good news in work).  More importantly, this salvation story has always come to the least likely people, the most unexpected persons, and the ones to whom the powers of the day never expect much of anything - other than remaining in their place.  The newcomers to the family, in this case, the Gentiles, are always to be integral members of the family.  

Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.⁸Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ,⁹ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things;¹⁰so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.¹¹This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,¹²in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

Paul, a Jew, has become an unlikely evangelist to the Gentile.  His work is to share the abundant "riches" of Christ with whoever will listen.  He is to tell the salvation story, that from the beginning God's plan was established, those who are outside of the family of God now have a place as an integral part of the ever-evolving family of God - the new community - the new Israel.  The work of the community, the church at Ephesus, the work of the Christian community today, the work of the Episcopal/Anglican church is to share the good news of salvation (all are welcome and included) and the uniqueness of Christ (he is a light to the world and a challenge to the powers of this world).  

Whenever I read Paul I am constantly challenged to wonder who are the gentiles in our context?  It is not us! We are more like the Abrahamic family, the Jews in Paul's letter.  So, who are the ones who this day stand outside the family of God, who are we being challenged to invite in? Who are we to offer the story of salvation history - a salvation history that includes them?  I think this is the most challenging aspect of our faith. You and I are the most unlikely of evangelists, yet you and I have been given the revelation and offered a vision of God's unveiling salvation history.  As unlikely as we are, we are the ones to carry the banner today and to invite the most unlikely of recipients into the family.  I find that is always good news for them, the "other", and rather challenging news for us.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 60:1-9

"We often call it the 'bridge' We look at the gap, or chasm, between the text and the contemporary situation, while wondering how we can leap from the inspiring words of scripture to the present reality."
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Charles L. Aaron, Jr., Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2019.

"As we celebrate this festival, affirming the message that God’s presence is fully manifested in Jesus, whom Matthew pictures being born in Bethlehem, and to whom the nations gather bearing gifts, what forms of darkness do we confront?"

"Gathered at the Light," Bob Cornwall, Ponderings on a Faith Journey, 2019.

"Preach it, talk about our hope in God's ability to remake our fractured world, and to reconcile on earth what has already been reconciled in heaven"
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Michael J. Chan, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"Every prophetic oracle is spoken within a historical context. I believe that, as preachers, we must always begin from this simple but poignant realization."
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Dirk G. Lange, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Bleak midwinter seems a fitting stage for this lectionary text that likely dates to the early days of Israel's return from Babylonian captivity. Those days are cast easily in hues of grey..."
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Christine Roy Yoder, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Here are the words from the passage that stands out so clearly to me on this day:

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.

This is just a beautiful and amazing passage of hope. It is a passage that reminds the hearer of God's presence and God's ultimate design of embrace. It is a passage of worship and glorification of God. It is a passage of beauty with a rich woven tapestry of images.

Isaiah is offering an image of the future. It is an image that suggests that once again the people who return from Babylon will have a great city. It may not be a shining city on a hill presently, but it will be in the future. Isaiah is casting an image of a city at the center of trade and power. 

Writing about the same time as Jeremiah was...this part of Isaiah is speaking about the return of the people to a city ravished by war and left with a small population. Isaiah is prophesying in line with Jeremiah, that God will have the last word...not the conquering Babylonians. God imagines Isaiah continues, a great city restored beyond its original glory and so too a people restored.

Walter Brueggeman plays with this image of the great city and the difference of nine miles between Jerusalem and Bethlehem when he writes,

"Matthew is not the first one to imagine three rich wise guys from the East coming to Jerusalem. His storyline and plot come from Isaiah 60, a poem recited to Jews in Jerusalem about 580 b.c.e. These Jews had been in exile in Iraq for a couple of generations and had come back to the bombed-out city of Jerusalem. They were in despair. Who wants to live in a city where the towers are torn down and the economy has failed, and nobody knows what to do about it?"

and..

The narrative of Epiphany is the story of these two human communities: Jerusalem, with its great pretensions, and Bethlehem, with its modest promises. We can choose a “return to normalcy” in a triumphalist mode, a life of self-sufficiency that contains within it its own seeds of destruction. Or we can choose an alternative that comes in innocence and a hope that confounds our usual pretensions. We can receive life given in vulnerability. It is amazing—the true accent of epiphany—that the wise men do not resist this alternative but go on to the village. Rather than hesitate or resist, they reorganize their wealth and learning, and reorient themselves and their lives around a baby with no credentials. 

Bethlehem is nine miles south of Jerusalem. The wise men had a long intellectual history of erudition and a long-term practice of mastery. But they had missed their goal by nine miles. It is mind-boggling to think how the story might have gone had Herod’s interpreters not remembered Micah 5. 

Our task is to let the vulnerability of Micah 5 disrupt the self-congratulation of Isaiah 60. Most of us are looking in the wrong place. We are off by nine miles.(See his article here: Brueggemann, Walter, "Off by Nine Miles," The Christian Century, 2001.)

What is interesting about Matthew's use of the text that it is more than a prophetic link to the past. It is more than a story lifted from one part of scripture into another part. It is more than a simple analogy...the wise men are looking in the wrong place...so too we are looking in the wrong place...

Let me pause to say that Brueggeman is brilliant here. He is tapping into one of the key Gospel paradoxes. The king does not come as a king just as his victory will be defeat and life will come from death! Jerusalem our happy home is not a restoration of a past projection but a complete turning over of the past ideas about the centrality of religion and where God resides. 

But there is more here. Matthew uses this part of Isaiah to point out that Jesus' mission is to the gentiles. This is an expansive move on Matthew's part. (See Richard Hays, Echoes, p175ff.) The Gospel author is setting the stage firmly in these first passages that Jesus has come not only as a messiah for the people of Israel but that Jesus' mission is cosmic in scope and meant for all people.

The Gospel author does this by tying in Isaiah 9:2 and 42:7 with 60. He draws in this story from the servant passage (42:7) and the fulfillment of light for the gentiles (9:2).

The passage is not merely about where we shall find our spiritual home but where the world might find its deliverance. The Gospel is good news for the whole world and it challenges us to see that our transformation is linked to the poor, the lame, and the dying. It is linked to the small town of Bethlehem - the least of outposts. The world's deliverance is linked to the restoration of people who today find themselves enslaved by powers, principalities, and systems. It is linked to children. 

We will often seek to find our light and our deliverance in many places - most of which are connected more to the powers of the world's corrupt machinations. We are challenged not only to look in a different place but that such a different place is itself meant for the whole world. 

Last Epiphany, Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, March 2, 2025

Prayer

O god, whose Son, your Beloved, was transfigured in dazzling light, with reverent awe we enter your holy presence.  Your presence cannot be contained in tents our hands have made but must be sought in your creatures and all that your hands have fashioned.  Lead us from the high mountain to seek you in the lowly of the earth, serving them, after Christ’s example, in peace and sacrificial love.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 9:28-36(37-43)

"God promises us that through Scripture we will meet God, and our identities as individuals and a community of faith will be formed and transformed."

"Transforming Transfiguation," Alyce McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2013.

"The Transfiguration is an apt Preface to Lent and Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, because what lies ahead is both a confrontation between the non-violent justice of the Kingdom of God and the violent injustice of the Roman Empire; as well as the non-violent way of the Beloved versus the hoped-for victory by the Messiah."


Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Luke 9:28-36, (37-43), David Ewart, 2013.


Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Transfiguration and the Vision of the Other: Seeing and Being Seen in Christ

We conclude Epiphany with the Transfiguration and from time to time the Feast of the Transfiguration falls on a Sunday.  As Luke Timothy Johnson calls the passage “Recognizing Jesus,” we are not surprised that this season of revelation and light ends on the mountaintop.

 
If you are interested in how the other texts tell the story of the transfiguration, you can find the parallels for today’s Gospel reading here:

Luke	Matthew	Mark
vv. 28-36	17:1-8	9:2-8
vv. 37-43a	17:14-21	9:14-29

One of the things I want to draw our attention to as we begin to survey this Gospel reading is that the lectionary has divided it in an odd place. I very much prefer the passage to be read as Luke 9:18-36. Here we have an ongoing disagreement between the New Testament scholar and the liturgist—one concerned with textual integrity, the other with the rhythm of worship. Overlooking that, we see plainly as we open our Bibles that Luke intends for this moment to transition us from the miracle of loaves and fishes into a private time of prayer between the teacher and his disciples.

In the previous passage, the miracle of multiplication and abundance concludes as the ochlos—the crowd—becomes something new, transformed into the laos, the people of God. The inbreaking of the reign of God into the world is immediately followed by Jesus drawing apart for prayer. And in that moment of solitude, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks the question upon which the entire Gospel hinges: Who am I? Peter responds with a revelation: You are the Messiah of God. This is no ordinary confession; it is an unveiling, an eschatological vision breaking into the present moment. But the confession comes with a charge: If you would follow me, deny yourselves, take up your cross, and die daily. To see the Messiah is to be drawn into his way of being in the world—to live, suffer, and serve as he does.

From Revelation to Transfiguration

This brings us to the mountaintop. How have the disciples done with their charge? Have they understood? Are they ready?

Luke tells us, as he was praying, the transfiguration occurs. That phrase is significant. The change in Christ’s appearance, his dazzling raiment, the descent of Moses and Elijah—all of it unfolds in the midst of prayer. The vision does not come as an event external to Christ but as something that arises from within his communion with the Father. This is not the first time Luke ties divine revelation to prayer. Jesus’ baptism, his calling of the disciples, his moment of recognition as God’s beloved—all of these happen in prayer. Here, again, prayer is not merely preparation for revelation; prayer is the means by which one sees.

And what is seen? Jesus, radiant in the uncreated light of God, is revealed in the company of Moses and Elijah. The lawgiver, the prophet, and the Messiah stand together, speaking of his departure—his exodus. The imagery is unmistakable: Jesus is leading his people into a new deliverance, a new crossing over, a new transformation of their very being.

The Vision-Act of the Other

The disciples are overwhelmed. In their drowsiness, their disorientation, Peter fumbles for something familiar: Let us build three tents! This, of course, echoes the Feast of Booths, the memory of Israel’s sojourning in the wilderness. But Peter is mistaken. He sees Jesus as one among three, as if Moses, Elijah, and Christ stand on equal footing. He fails to perceive that Jesus is not simply another prophet, another voice among many. The vision must be clarified.

A cloud descends—the same cloud that led Israel through the desert, the same cloud that filled the Temple, the same cloud in which God speaks at Sinai. And then the voice: This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.

Here, the transfiguration reaches its climax. Jesus alone stands at the center, and the Father makes clear: To see him is to see the fullness of God’s glory. But more than that, to see him is to be seen. The disciples do not merely witness transfiguration—they are themselves drawn into it. This is the vision-act of the Other: in beholding Christ, they themselves are changed. We, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). To see Christ truly is to become like him.

This is the heart of Christian transformation. Transfiguration is not about mere perception, about understanding Christ more fully—it is about being conformed to him, about being seen by God and in that seeing, being changed. It is not merely an event upon the mountaintop; it is the pattern of Christian life.

The Church as the Place of Transfiguration

And here, perhaps, we must ask an uncomfortable question: If the disciples beheld Christ and were changed, do we expect the same in our churches? Do people who come into our worship leave transfigured? Do they, like those on the mountain, see Christ and go forth reflecting his glory? Or have we, like Peter, simply built booths—structures that keep God contained, manageable, institutionalized?

These are not liturgical questions, these are preaching questions.

The danger of Peter’s impulse is not only that he equates Jesus with Moses and Elijah—it is that he attempts to hold on to the moment rather than allowing it to shape him. How often do we do the same? How often do we mistake the form of worship for the substance of transformation? We argue over style—traditional, contemporary, charismatic, postmodern—but we rarely ask the real question: Do we expect to encounter the transfigured Christ? Do we believe, truly, that God is at work in the midst of our worship? Or have we grown tired, going through the motions, content with booths when we are called to bear the weight of glory?

As leaders of worship, we must ask: Are we attuned to the sacred things unfolding in our midst? Or are we simply moving through another Sunday, another liturgy, another sermon, another Eucharist? Are we facilitating an encounter with the Living God, or are we making church palatable, convenient, tame?

If the transfiguration teaches us anything, it is that true worship—true seeing—requires risk. It requires vulnerability. It demands that we, like the disciples, be willing to step into the cloud, to tremble at the voice of God, to descend the mountain forever changed. The church is not called to be a museum of past revelations, nor a fortress of rigid tradition, nor a spiritual marketplace offering religious goods. It is called to be the place of transfiguration. A place where Christ is seen, where the Other is encountered, where we are drawn into the ongoing, unfolding glory of God.

This is the hope of transfiguration: that as we behold Christ, we are changed. That as we see him, we are seen. That as we enter into prayer, we are drawn ever more deeply into the life of God.

And so we must ask: Are we prepared for such a vision? Or, like Peter, will we fumble for the familiar, trying to keep God within our grasp? The invitation stands before us: Come up the mountain. Behold the glory. And be transfigured.

Some Thoughts on 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul pictures the church as a community of faces gazing at one another lost in a hall of mirrors in a dizzying transfiguration into the image of Jesus, the Christ, the one who is to come, always deferred.

Commentary, Exodus 34:29-35, David E. Fredrickson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

The epistle reading for today reminds us that the revelation of Jesus’ glory is so spectacular that it initiates the transfiguration of all who are in Christ.

"Commentary, Exodus 34:29-35, Carla Works, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013."

Paul pits his transforming gospel against the one espoused by those who appeal to the biblical authority of laws and commandments and who see Jesus as primarily promoting a new version of Moses.

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Transfiguration, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

When Jesus enters our heart, he brings the renewing image of God. We are reclothed with what Adam and Eve lost. We are reclothed in righteousness and now we understand and love the truth. We can once again judge rightly between the good and the bad when before we were slaves of sin.

"Made in the Image of God," Bill Green, in Kerux: The Online Journal of Biblical Theology (Reformed).

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

In Second Corinthians, Paul weaves a vision of unveiled glory, where the Spirit liberates humanity from veiled understanding into the radiant image of Christ. The veil—symbolic of separation, obscurity, and the limitations of the old covenant—is lifted in Christ, revealing not only the fullness of divine presence but the path of transformation by which humanity is drawn deeper into God’s likeness.

This passage is a deeply embodied articulation of Christian anthropology and eschatology. Paul is not simply speaking of a conceptual enlightenment but of a real, ontological change—one that unfolds in the dynamic relationship between the human person and the Spirit of God. This transformation is neither passive nor instantaneous but occurs from one degree of glory to another, suggesting a participatory movement, an ongoing transfiguration that occurs within the body of Christ. It is the Spirit, the Lord, who enacts this process, calling forth human agency in response.

This unveiling also carries an ethical charge: we do not lose heart. To be conformed to Christ is not merely to behold the truth but to enact it—to renounce deception, to refuse manipulation, and to stand before the world in a posture of integrity. Paul’s contrast between cunning and open truth-telling aligns with a sacramental understanding of reality: just as the veil is removed in Christ, so must we live as those who do not obscure, distort, or commodify the word of God.

Transformed by the Spirit, the church needs to manifest God's revealed glory. The church should not hide the gospel message. The church serves as a reflective surface that displays Christ's light because of divine grace rather than holding it as its own property.

Where the Spirit is, there is freedom. This is not a disembodied, individualistic liberty but a liberation into the fullness of human vocation acted out amid the community of the world: to see and be seen, to behold and be transformed, to be conformed to Christ from one degree of glory to another. It is a vision that is at once deeply eschatological and profoundly present, calling us to live as those whose faces have been unveiled, who see the world anew in the light of the resurrection.

Some Thoughts on Exodus 34:29-35

"Today's Gospel reading dramatizes the ultimate instance of divine-human mediation, as Jesus radiated divine presence while praying, and then as he engaged with the two preeminent Old Testament agents of divine mediation at the Mount of Transfiguration."
Commentary, Exodus 34:29-35, William Yarchin, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"How would our ministry change if we removed the veil between ourselves and God?"
"A Veiled Question," Ruth Everhart, The Hardest Question, 2013.

"The Lukan reading picks up the story of the transfiguration story of Jesus and as Moses was the mediator in the past, it is now Jesus who brings the revelation of God. Both Moses and Elijah are present and speak with him as his face becomes radiant from being in the presence of God."
Exodus 34:29-35, Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in Australia.

"Our lives are full with commitments and activities and pleasurable leisure opportunities. This passage reminds us, however, that life's real thrills for which our souls truly long have their one true source in the spiritual sun of God's glory."
Last Sunday of Epiphany, Year C: Exodus 34:29-35, Biblische Ausbildung, Dr. Stephen L. Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

We have already had the episode of the Golden calf and the people's fear that Moses would not return. Moses after having dealt with their fear and anxiety returned to the mountain. He returns and his face shines because of having stood and taken in God's glory. (An interesting side note from my art history days...the translation for the word "shine" can also mean horns. This why is some depictions of Moses we see him with horns.

What happens in the transfiguration of Moses' face and the conversation between God, Moses and the people is this - God comes close. God is present and close to God's people. There is an intimacy, a relationship, a connection between God and God's people. It is not a relationship that is built upon the freedom from slavery or the people's faithfulness. It is one of actual distance. God has come close.

This idea of closeness plays with the ideas around the transfiguration...in other words...God is not ever been far away. God has always been close. From walking among his creation with his creatures, to traveling with Abraham, to this moment in the reading... and on through the story until we get the transfiguration of Jesus...God's nature is not merely transcendence (though it is that as well). God's nature is also nearness with people and creation.

God is present at the heart of creation. We see that part of what happens in the transfiguration story is not merely a seeing that the past comes forward in Moses and Elijah to bless Jesus in some form or fashion. But that the disciples are actually recognizing in Jesus, at the transfiguring moment, that he is connected with the God who has been close to God's people all along. Jesus, in the transfiguration does not merely shine like Moses. These are not literary motifs. No. Instead what we see here is that the first followers of Jesus along with the gospel authors, see that Jesus himself is the God who has been close to his people, and walked in the garden, this whole time. It is a revelation not of a new something but that Jesus, in his perfect image of the incarnation, is the same as the one God the people knew all along.

Epiphany 5C, Sunday February 9, 2025

Prayer

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Luke 5:1-11

"Tristam (Land of Israel) says of the fish in the Sea of Galilee: "The shoals are marvelous, black masses, many hundred yards long, with their black fins projecting out of the water as thick as they could pack. Any net would break that enclosed such a shoal.""

From The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.

"God often becomes manifest in the ordinary, even seemingly unnecessary events of a person's life ? events which nevertheless are in accord with some purpose that is or is not known."
Commentary, Luke 5:1-11, Arland J. Hultgren, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"Despite signs of legendary development the bearers of the Jesus tradition never divinised Peter. He remained one of them, one of us; leadership by grace. The best traditions let it remain so. They also affirm his role and the continuing role and need for leadership and its accountability in the church. Ultimately Luke is linking that leadership to Jesus? own leadership and mission declared before his home town synagogue. It is a leadership that sets free."
"First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Epiphany 5, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"The reason for the call is not to say to Peter, 'Buck up, little buddy, you're not so bad,' but rather, 'Stop being afraid now. We have work to do.'"
"Regular People as Disciples," Mary Hinkle, Pilgrim Preaching: Keeping Company with Biblical Texts and the People Who Hear and Preach Them.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

[This is taken from my reflections on the text in my book Vocātiō.]

Let us return to the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke’s Gospel tells the story of the calling of the first disciples as a fishing miracle. Jesus came by and taught the people using the boat as a platform. He then invited the disciples to cast out into the sea and to put out their nets. 

Let me pause here for a second. There are several kinds of words used for nets in the New Testament. They are: δίκτυον, ἀμφίβληστρον, σαγήνη.  Scholars point out that the word ἀμφίβληστρον and σαγήνη designate specifically nets for fishing like a casting-net, generally pear-shaped. I want to point out the word used in our lesson today is δίκτυον and it is a seine or dragnet. 

The fishermen doubted as they had been fishing all night with nothing to show for their efforts. They did as Jesus said and a great multitude of fish was brought aboard. Luke tells us that their nets were breaking. They called other boats to come and help. Peter immediately told Jesus he was not worthy to follow. Jesus told Peter, James, and John to join him and he would teach them to fish for people (Luke 5:1–11).

I want to broaden it to fit into a wider discussion of the disciples’ work as peacebuilders, because followers of Jesus are doing work in this world that will remain at the end of the age. Jesus used the dragnet as a metaphor for this peace-making enterprise. The community the disciples build was to be universal and catholic—everyone was included.

Dragnets gather in everything because they dredge the seafloor. They capture wood and plants as well as fish. They capture inedible fish as well as edible fish. The community of peace that Jesus inaugurated in this world has the same characteristic of indiscriminateness. God is making a community that connects, or networks, all kinds of people. While we normally think of this kingdom-net only containing fish, and good fish at that, it truly contains everything: the weeds, the detritus of dysfunctional relationships and human brokenness, the debris of daily life lived in service to the masters of economies and political powermongers. The community of shalom, our dragnet, “touches everything in the world: not just souls, but bodies, and not just people, but all things, animal, vegetable, and mineral.”[i] God in Christ Jesus is in this very world gathering into the community of shalom the whole of creation. As God in Christ was lifted up on the cross, the great crossroads of community was bridged—heaven with earth, humanity with God. All were drawn to God’s self (John 12:32). As the book of Revelation indicates, all of creation is drawn to God in Christ—not just people.

The disciples were called to participate in the transfiguration of the world, which is partly why they were led down from the mountainside after Jesus’s transfiguration. They were to be the transfigured Christ in the world. The work of transfiguring creation only happens down in the village where demons are cast out and people are healed (Matt. 17:1–27). The mystery of the community of shalom is that it includes God and people and must also include the whole of creation. Secular moderns, imprisoned as we are in our immanent frame, want to differentiate between what is worth capturing in the net and what is not, but no such distinction is made in the parables of the kingdom in the Gospels.[ii] The dragnet rejects nothing in the sea; it encompasses all things. The only people missing from God’s dragnet when it is hauled ashore will be those who carve themselves out of the net with their own sickle of judgment. This is what the scriptures imply when they say that the sickle will soon enough come for those who refuse the community of peace and instead choose power, abuse of the poor by neglect, and do violence to others and creation (Matt. 25:31–46; Rev. 14). The sickle comes for those who cannot live with the least, the lost, and the unclean. They have spent their whole life being different from those “other” people. They hold too much judgment in their heart, keeping track of the negative marks against others. It is difficult for people who routinely use their power and authority to keep others down to accept that God has invited everyone into the reign of peace. I pray that it will be very difficult indeed to resist God’s grace, to deny God’s sacrifice is enough even for my enemy, and to reject God’s love when I come face-to-face with God’s eternal peace.[iii]

The story of scripture also tells us that the separation of judgment will not take place before the transfiguration at the end of the age. There is always time. In this hope we live and work and have our being. Between now and the end of time, the disciples of Jesus can reject nothing, for the dragnet rejects nothing, and the community of peace has no “business setting itself up in the judging business. And, neither, a fortiori, does the church.”[iv] The disciples are to follow Jesus and learn from him, as participants in the great narrative of God’s shalom. We are to learn how this new dragnet of community is to hold all kinds of people. This is how the band of Jesus followers become a “sacrament,” the continuing body of Christ in the world. We will have to “avoid the temptation to act like a sport fishermen who is interested only in speckled trout and hand-tied flies,” says Capon.[v] Disciples are called to be the worst kind of fishers. The only thing we are to discard is the temptation to reject the mess of creation and humanity. Our community of shalom in this world participates in the reign of God at the end of the age if it remains in relationship with all the “old boots, bottles, and beer cans” that a truly random dredging of humanity must be. The Church will be transfigured to the extent that it is one and the same with the mess it intends to drag in.[vi]

To point out how important this work is, Luke follows the call story of the disciples with an encounter with a leper. Lepers were shunned from the religious community of the day. Their illness made intimacy and belonging impossible. Lepers were seen as sinful and unworthy of community membership, but Jesus restored one such leper back to the community by engagement with the God of creation. God’s Living Word made the leper whole, rejecting the status quo. God in Christ Jesus engaged someone who was not to be engaged (Luke 5:12–16). Moreover, Jesus tied his healing of the leper into the story of Moses.

[i]  Robert Farrar Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002), 113.
[ii] Ibid., 115.
[iii] There are multiple theologies of atonement that are accepted within orthodox Christianity. Most people are familiar with the one where God requires Jesus to be a blood sacrificed. If you are interested in the many theologies of the Christian Church. I suggest reading The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2017). This is an excellent text on the subject.
[iv] Capon, Kingdom, 115.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

"The entirety of this chapter is the eloquent center of Paul's primary argument for the Resurrection."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Susan Hedahl, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Whether then it is we or they (and may God make it both), so let us proclaim, that the world might come to believe; that Christ Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he we raised again."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Karl Jacobson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"Affirming that God raised Jesus from the dead (whether with a transformation model or a replacement model) is foundational for reading the story of Jesus as paradigmatic for us all: there is death and there is hope!"
"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Easter Day, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

This passage also appears on Easter Day in year B. 

Paul begins by drawing the readers of his letter back to the good news of God in Christ Jesus that he proclaimed to them...that Jesus died upon the cross for all and to save all people. That all people are reconciled to God through the work of Christ on the cross. What this means is that we are reconciled first to Christ and then to each other.

I have always thought that we reveal our relationship with God and Christ through our relationship with others. In other words, our relationships with others (good, bad, indifferent) are all rooted in our understanding of Christ's work. And, if Christ saves me and I truly have that hope, and it is not in vain, then I must see all others in the same relationship with Christ's saving act. And, in so doing I see the potential hope of our own reconciliation.

Paul then bears witness to how this extra-historical event of great magnitude was literally witnessed by others. He writes,

"Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Paul then writes that he received such grace that he himself became a missionary of this message. The power of Paul's belief, and reception of the good news is what has spurred him on.

I feel that Paul is deeply rooting not only his own mission and ministry in the cross of Christ, but he is reminding anyone who would call themselves a follower that they too are rooted here in this cross. Before we raise our banners high for our Christian sect or our belief that we have it right and others wrong...before we start to claim that the future of the church...this or that...is dependent upon our actions...I feel Paul is reminding us that everything is dependent upon Christ and his cross and resurrection.

I wonder if things in church, our arguments, those things we think are so essential, would be approached in a very different manner if we started out where Paul starts out in this passage.

Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13)

"We are sent to join God in mission because we have encountered God, because we have been brought face to face with God's holiness and our brokenness, and because we have been made whole by God's grace."

"Worship that Sends," Patrick Johnson, Missional Preaching: Equipping for Witness, 2015.

"When we encounter the God who is majestic and merciful, what matters is humility and honesty. When we can have the courage to respond in this way, we find ourselves connected to the source of all life, all love, and all joy. And we find ourselves somehow more connected to ourselves, and to everything and everyone around us."
"Majestic and Merciful," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer.

"Volunteerism, an expression of stewardship, is a major theological theme in this text. The majestic nature of the liturgical drama that unfolds invokes a sense of praise and makes clear the sacredness of God, the moment, and the call to serve."
Lectionary Commentary, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, The African American Lectionary, 2009.

"We must learn to understand this judgment as an opportunity to truly know ourselves as sinners. We must accept this judgment, ultimately, as an expression of God's grace."
5 Epiphany, Year C: Isaiah 6:1-13, Biblische Ausbildung, Dr. Stephen L. Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

John's gospel understands that Isaiah is a witness to the divinity of Christ. Isaiah is the voice crying out in the wilderness (John 1.23). Then again in 53.1 and 6.10, John uses Isaiah again to reveal that Jesus is fulfilling prophesy. (Richard Hays, Echoes of the Scripture in the Gospels, 293.)

This is all very important because what Christian biblical theologians argue is that Isaiah has this vision (the one from today's lesson) he is not simply seeing God on the throne, but he is seeing the incarnation, the Christ, on the throne. Hays argues that this is John's view too and this is why it is so important for him to enlist Isaiah as a witness to God in Christ Jesus. (Hays, 289.) This is a witness to the triadic nature of God and the eternal presence of the incarnation. (Hays would say Jesus...but I think that is theologically incorrect.)

This is an important reading of scripture because it is both triune and it begins to reveal how the first evangelists and followers of Jesus understood who Jesus was without a New Testament.

One of the real issues on Trinity Sunday is not so much the Trinity, but our lack of good theological and scriptural underpinning.

What I am saying here is quite important, at least to my theology and understanding of the creation. People often suggest that the Trinity is a mere mystery planted into theology because of early Christian infighting over the idea of who Jesus was and the deep desire to not appear anything other than monotheist. Secondly, we err on the side of believing that the incarnation begins with Jesus' birth - which it decidedly does not...if you are a true Trinitarian that is. And, lastly, we make the mistake of believing that the only reason that Jesus comes into the world is because of sin. That is hogwash too. You see most people get a good understanding of Augustine's trinitarian doctrine and don't go any further. Without doing so what we get is the heresy of modalism... another words...as Augustine says himself: the trinity is really about describing three somethings. (Augustine, De Trinitate 7.9 (CCSL, 50A:259).

The Trinity's work is part of the very creation of the cosmos. It is present before the birth of Jesus and after. The 1 in 3 and 3 in 1 God is fully active prior to our imagining and will be long after our ingathering. There is one will causing all actions and one substance.

I think that Robert Farrar Capon puts a fun and quite theologically brilliant spin on all of this as he reminds us of the contribution of the early Scotists and Franciscan theologians - good Trinitarians all. I offer you this quote from his book The Third Peacock...well worth the read. Enjoy:

In the Christian scheme of things, the ultimate act by which God runs and rescues creation is the Incarnation. Sent by the Father and conceived by the Spirit, the eternal Word is born of the Virgin Mary and, in the mystery of the indwelling, lives, dies, rises, and reigns. Unfortunately, however, we tend to look on the mystery mechanically. We view it as a fairly straight piece of repairwork which became necessary because of sin. Synopsis: The world gets out of whack; perverse and foolish oft it strays until there is none good, no, not one. Enter therefore God with incarnational tool kit. He fixes up a new Adam in Jesus and then proposes, through the mystery of baptism, to pick up all the fallen members of the old Adam and graft them into Christ. Real twister of an ending: As a result of sin, man ends up higher by redemption than he would have by creation alone.

However venerable that interpretation is, though, it is not the only one. As long ago as the Middle Ages, the Scotist school of Franciscan theologians suggested another. They raised the question of whether the Incarnation would have occurred apart from sen; and they answered it, Yes. In other words, they saw the action of God in Christ, not as an incidental patching of the fabric of creation, but as part of its very texture. For our purposes—in this context of a world run by desire for God—that opens up the possibility that the Word in Jesus was not so much doing bits of busy work to jimmy things into line as he was being his own fetching self right there in the midst of creation.
And there you have the bridge from a mechanical to a personal analogy to the divine help. When we say that a friend “helped” us, two meanings are possible. In the case where our need was for a Band-Aid, a gallon of gas or a push on a cold morning, we have in mind mechanical help; help for times when help was at least possible. But when nothing can be helped, when the dead are irretrievably dead and the beloved lost for good, what do we mean by telling Harry how much help he was to us in our need? He did nothing; he rescued no one from the pit, he brought no one back from the ends of the earth. Still, we are glad of him; we protest that without him we would never have made it. Yet we know perfectly well we could have gotten through it just by breathing in and out. That means, therefore, that what we thank him for is precisely personal help. It was his presence, not the things that he did, that made the difference.

So with God, perhaps. Might not Incarnation be his response, not to the incidental irregularity of sin, but to the unhelpable presence of badness in creation? Perhaps in a world where, for admittedly inscrutable reasons, victimization is the reverse of the coin of being, his help consists of his presence in all victims. At any rate, when he finally does show up in Jesus, that is how it seems to work. His much-heralded coming to put all things to rights ends badly. When the invisible hand that holds the stars finally does its triumphant restoring thing, it does nothing at all but hang there and bleed. That may well be help; but it is not the Band-Aid creation expected on the basis of mechanical analogies. The only way it makes any sense is when it is seen as personal: When we are helpless, there he is. He doesn’t start your stalled car for you; he comes and sits with you in the snowbank. You can object that he should have made a world in which cars don’t stall; but you can’t complain he doesn’t stick by his customers.

So, back to Isaiah. Now, did Isaiah catch a glimpse of God in Christ, the Incarnation, sitting upon the throne? A man with arms and legs? A pre-Jesus. I doubt it but I do not know. But I believe that Isaiah understood clearly that the God who gave him the sight of such a vision was the God who had created the cosmos and would in the end gather us in. It is God, the Lord, who is present at our coming in and our going out. It is this God who, in the wreck of Israel and the end of King Uzziah's rule, is present. Everything can be in the dumps but the Lord sits upon his throne and sits by our side. 

And, it is this certainty of presence that Isaiah bears witness to, that the first disciples experienced both before and after the resurrection, and it is this certainty of presence that John the evangelist records in his Gospel.