Practicing Transfiguration

Last updated on: March 1, 2011 at 3:12 pm by Carl Gregg

2 Comments

Practicing Transfiguration 2011-03-01T15:12:41+00:00 Carl Gregg

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What can we do beyond merely admiring Jesus’ Transfiguration? Said differently, what could it mean to practice Transfiguration? I owe my title to a 2010 sermon of the same name by one of my mentors, Dr. Bruce Epperly. His angle of approach reminds me of Wendell Berry’s injunction to “practice Resurrection” from one of my favorite poems “The Mad Farmer’s Liberation Front” — although I could also credit Harry Potter for an entirely different meaning of practicing transfiguration!

Before proceeding to the implications of practicing Transfiguration, it is important to note that the Hebrew Bible includes a number of important antecedents for the Gospel lesson. Beyond the Hebrew Scripture lesson assigned for this Sunday, consider the vision described in Daniel 10:5-6. Daniel says,

I looked up and saw a man clothed in linen, with a belt of gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl [which is a mineral], his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the roar of a multitude.

These verses from Daniel sound like Matthew’s Transfiguration in which Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” Perhaps even more strikingly, in Daniel 10:11 the blazing figure says to Daniel, “greatly beloved, pay attention to the words that I am going to speak to you.” These word choices echo in Matthew when a voice says to the transfigured Jesus, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”” There is a common thread both in the use of the word beloved as well as in the command to listen or pay attention to what is said.

Another important allusion to the Hebrew Bible is in the explicit appearance of Moses and Elijah in Jesus’ Transfiguration. At the broadest level of comparison, both Moses and Elijah transformatively experience God’s presence on a mountaintop. Also, in Exodus, after the Golden Calf incident when Moses breaks the Ten Commandments tablets, Moses must re-ascend the mountain. When Moses comes back down after his mountaintop experience with God, “the skin of his face was shining” (Exodus 34:30) — just as Jesus’ face shone after the Transfiguration.

When you lay the full context of the Hebrew Bible and Gospel lessons side by side, it quickly becomes obvious that the basic template from the Moses story in Exodus was recapitulated in Transfiguration accounts. Both mention “six days,” have three named companions in addition to the central figure, both happen on a mountaintop, both result in shining figures, and both have God speaking from a cloud.

To begin to reflect on what practicing Transfiguration could mean and look like today, the quote that immediately comes to mind is from Marianne Williamson’s book A Return to Love. Williamson writes (the bold is my emphasis):

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

One of my central convictions is that following the way of Jesus is more important than admiring Jesus, and I believe Williamson’s words illuminate a way not only of being awe-struck by a mountaintop experience 2,000 years ago, but also of potentially following Jesus — along with Moses and Elijah and Daniel before him — in a practice of transfiguration: the practice of allowing the light of God’s love to shine through us.

I do not think it is a coincidence that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all experienced God on a mountaintop. As with Daniel’s private vision of a transfigured person, our highest, most profound, most enlightening experiences often happen when we are alone or with a small, intimate group of close friends. So we pray and meditate, go on retreat, and gather together to worship. All of these acts, I invite you to consider, are ways of practicing transfiguration. These contemplative practices are ways of gently letting go of our ego, the masks we wear, our busyness, and our distractions. These practices of prayer, presence, and worship, open us from our isolation to connect us to God and to one another. We each reflect different aspects of the image of God, and practicing transfiguration allows God’s image to shine more brilliantly through us in all our uniqueness and diversity.

However, an experience of Transfiguration is no guarantee that our troubles will stay away. Just as Moses had to go back down the mountain to continue wandering in the wilderness, Jesus’ — after the mountaintop Transfiguration — still had to turn his face toward Jerusalem, where his Civil Disobedience at Passover against the powers that be — what perhaps better could be called “Holy Obedience” — led to his tragic martyrdom at the hands of the Roman Empire.

In my own practice, I seek to ascend the mountain about twice a day. In the early morning and in the early evening, I try to set aside about 45 minutes to pray and to journal. I try to spend at least half of that time in silence — not a rigid, blank, stiff, bored silence; but a contemplative, soft, gentle openness to the present moment. In my experience, this contemplative openness is what practicing transfiguration looks like: regularly carving out some time and space in our busy lives to simply be with God and to allow God to be present to us however God chooses.

For Further Study

The Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition has perhaps the most robust conception of what it may mean to practice transfiguration. They call this practice “theosis” or “divinization.” See, for example, Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions.

A good introduction to contemplative practices is Daniel Wolpert’s book Creating a Life with God: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices.

The Rev. J. Carl Gregg (B.A., M.Div.) is a New York Times-reading, vegetarian-eating, progressive Christian, who also loves Centering Prayer, reading theology, and praying-by-biking-to-work. After serving 7 years as the Associate Pastor at Northminster Church in Monroe, Louisiana, Carl recently moved and is now Pastor at Broadview Church in Calvert County, Maryland. Visit his Patheos blog here.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 28, 2011

Saving Christian Bookstores

Next Post

March 2, 2011 Piecing a Quilt: Preparing for Lent

Recent Comments

2 Comments | Leave a Comment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Author Interviews Battle Over the Body and Blood of Christ Bearing Beauty Book Reviews Christian Education christian spirituallity christianity Christmas Church Church Leadership Contemplation Creation Care Death and Dying Death Penalty Disruptive Change Disruptors Series Easter Education Evolution and Faith Future of Progressive Christianity Gun Violence Health & Wellness Holy Week Interfaith Israel-Palestine Leading Differently Lent LGBTQ Living with Cancer Meditations on the Cross Mental Illness millennials Mimetic Mondays Monday Meditations Movie Reviews New Monasticism Pando Populus Parenting Patheos 10+1 Q&A Series PC(USA) Politics Pop Culture Practical Theology Series Prayer progressive christian Race Relations Reformation religion Religion and Politics Religion in America Rethink Church Social Justice Spirituality Spirituality of the Body Stump a Scholar Technology and Faith Thanksgiving Theodicy Trust Me Church Uncategorized Why I'm Still Christian Youth Ministry

Select a Month December 2025 April 2025 January 2025 September 2023 September 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 November 2021 October 2021 May 2021 February 2021 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 June 2019 March 2019 January 2019 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What instrument did Miriam play?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Harp Trumpet Tambourine Lyre