Whose Transfiguration?

Luke 9:28-36

Humans memorialize great moments, mystical experiences, by building structures such as the church at the site of the Transfiguration. We don’t want to lose the experience of a Divine encounter.

The institutional structure of the Church, the New Testament, and Holy Communion, are efforts to preserve and pass down what originally were mystical experiences with the Divine.

But when the ritual becomes more important than the Living God which they are intended to convey, they can become roadblocks rather than passages to God.

Peter’s intention to outwardly memorialize the Transfiguration by building structures missed the point. In the living God we live, and move and have our being—not in any structure, building, bible, or liturgy.

Buildings, bibles, traditions, music, liturgies, can become objects of worship rather than the living God.

As C.S. Lewis observed, “The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.  If they are not doing that. all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself are simply a waste of time.  God became Man for no other purpose.”

Jesus’ transfiguration must become our transfiguration. We must remember today’s Gospel and its lessons as our congregation discerns what is next after Fr. Mark retires.

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.