Transfiguration Sunday
READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
- First reading
- 2 Kings 2:1-12
- Psalm
- Psalm 50:1-6
- Second reading
- 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
- Gospel
- Mark 9:2-9
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library,
Nashville, TN.
http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu
The gospel reading from Mark:
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.
Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Sermon
Pastor Stevensen and the chancel are clothed in white this Transfiguration Sunday. This Sunday comes just before Lent, which has six.. Lent is the journey along which we walk to experience the final journey of Jesus. Below the mountain on which Jesus and three of his disciples stand is darkness, the “valley of the shadow of death” in which Jesus is accused and betrayed and suffers and dies. This Sunday we are shown a glimpse of what comes after that.. Isaiah wrote of those who “walk in the darkness.” This applies to His disciples and to Jesus himself. Transfiguration Sunday illuminates us so that we can continue into the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus’ clothes have become as white as heaven itself. Before Lent the church challenges us to confront mortality. The beginning of the gospel of John is then about John the Baptist who came to witness the light, the true light. We see a glimpse of Easter and sing the words of a hymn, “Thine is the glory, risen con-qu’ring Son. Endless is the vic-t’ry Thou o’er death has won.”