The feast of the transfiguration
We are now into the month of August and for many of us the summer holidays are over and it is back to work. For others who have school going children the run up to school starting in September will shortly begin for this year we are on a never ending circle of everything being the same in so many ways but different as time never stays still.
This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the transfiguration. In the Gospel story the disciples went to an out-of-the-way place, a mountaintop. The Apostles are responding to the invitation of Jesus to come apart for a while and mountains were the best place to get away from it all. On that mountain the disciples heard A loud voice from the heavens that told them, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
The Transfiguration was a grace-filled moment of clarity for the disciples. But it was only a moment along the journey of their lives as today the transfiguration is just a moment in the journey of our lives. We don’t have such a spectacular revelation as the disciples had on the mountain side but like them we come apart each Sunday to our place of worship there we hear the voice of God the Father that asks to “Listen to him.” We listen to Jesus In the scriptures proclaimed for us and they tell the story of God’s forgiveness, compassion and unfaltering love for us. The voice we hear on this mountain directs us to listen to Jesus, because in our world there are many competing voices that might lure us to ways of living other than the one Jesus calls us to follow. Worshiping together gives us an opportunity to listen again to the Word of God and what it is saying to us. And the word of God calls us to point out a number of things
The scriptures tell us that we need to point to the presence of God in our lives and recognize how good He has been to each of us. We need to let people know that just as His Love for us has no end it will be the same for them. We do not walk alone. He is with us always, until the end of time. No one wants to join the First Church of the Perpetual Grouch. But people do want to be with people who are happy, We are Happy because we know that God is with us. So let us rejoice in the Lord as we hear the story of the transfiguration and remember that Jesus the Son of God is with us in our lives with all their ups and downs and we should listen to him as he guides us along the right paths.
Fullerton T 