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Transfiguration Sunday

Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VIII, Cycle B
Revised Common
2 Kings 2:1-12
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9

Roman Catholic
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
2 Peter 1:16-19
Mark 9:2-9

Episcopal
1 Kings 19:9-18
2 Peter 1:16-19 (20-21)
Mark 9:2-9


Theme For The Day
Let us be alert for the rare, visionary experiences when God allows us to glimpse something of glory -- experiences which can sustain us through darker days.

Old Testament Lesson
2 Kings 2:1-12
Elijah Is Conveyed Into Heaven

Using his rolled-up mantle, Elijah strikes the waters of the Jordan, parting them. He and Elisha cross over, and shortly afterward Elisha asks for a double share of his mentor's spirit. Elijah says it will soon become clear whether or not his successor will be blessed with such a gift. Then, a chariot of fire with flaming horses appears and Elijah is taken directly up to heaven in a whirlwind.

New Testament Lesson
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
To See Christ Glorified Is A Divine Gift

"... if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ ..." (vv. 3-4a). God, says Paul, is the giver of light, and it is only by inward illumination that we are able to perceive "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (v. 6).

The Gospel
Mark 9:2-9
The Transfiguration

Peter, James, and John, on a mountaintop with Jesus, see him "transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them" (vv. 2b-3). Moses and Elijah appear also, and the awestruck Peter suggests that he and his fellow disciples construct temporary dwellings for all three of these mystical figures. A cloud "overshadows" them, and they hear a heavenly voice speaking a blessing similar to the one conferred upon Jesus at his baptism: "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" (v. 7). With that, the vision ends, and Jesus is restored to his normal state.

Preaching Possibilities

Today we end the season some call Epiphany, and others call Ordinary Time. This Wednesday, Lent begins. This season opened with the baptism of Jesus, with a voice from the clouds saying, "This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased." Now, it ends with that same voice, spoken from the mysterious cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration: "This is my beloved son; listen to him."

Both events, baptism and transfiguration, are epiphanies. The word "epiphany" means "appearance" -- a sign of power emerging out of darkness, unexpectedly. Yet even with its glorious imagery, the Transfiguration Of Our Lord is one of the most difficult Sundays of the Christian year for preachers. First, its subject matter is baffling -- a mystical experience, difficult to describe in words. Because the group of witnesses (Peter, James, and John) is so small, the story of the Transfiguration is very close to a personal spiritual experience, that has been made public only through the telling of it. Second, the Gospel Lesson is more or less identical each year -- meaning that no matter what cycle of the lectionary the preacher may be working with, he or she is presented with essentially the same text. (There is a parallel, less-detailed recollection of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter 1:16-18, but it's not much help.)

Even so, there is something universal about the Transfiguration imagery. A figure glowing with light, as Jesus is here portrayed, has an iconic resonance in the hearts of worshipers. Hollywood has long known this: numerous science-fiction and fantasy films -- from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Ghost to Lord of the Rings -- have portrayed characters who are visually transfigured in one way or another. When the good wizard Gandalf the Grey reveals himself to his companions as Gandalf the White in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, his computer-generated special-effects aura is a more-than-obvious allusion to the biblical imagery. It is precisely the light-and-darkness interplay that makes the Transfiguration imagery resonate in believers' hearts.

Peter, James, and John have just heard Jesus tell them of things to come: "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again" (8:31). The disciples have never heard Jesus talk this way -- so intense, so passionate, and at the same time, so weighed down with care. He sounds like a herald of doom. Even more ominous are the words he goes on to utter: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (8:34).

For the past eight days, Peter and his friends have felt surrounded by gloom. Their holy quest, begun so cheerfully in the bright Galilean sun, has become overshadowed by ominous clouds. Each night, as the disciples lie down to rest, sleep eludes them. They stare into the night, until exhaustion overwhelms them.

This night on the mountain is different. As Peter and his companions look over to their master, still engaged in prayer, they see him change before their very eyes. Praise to God for sustaining visions of goodness and light, that sustain us through dark times!

Prayer For The Day

Lord, you created the light. Into the dark, swirling chaos you spoke the word of creation: and darkness retreated. There are times in life when we fear that darkness will have its victory. May we never forget that, in the gift of your Son Jesus, you have given us light not only by which to see, but through which we may triumph. Amen.

To Illustrate

I can remember, as a boy, hiking the Appalachian Trail with my scout troop. One of the things we used to do, from time to time, was hike at night. Our leaders would take us out, away from the reassuring glow of the campfire, to a place where the only illumination was the moon and stars. Then they would tell us to turn off our flashlights.

Instantly, the group was plunged into darkness. It was a little unsettling, to say the least -- to be suddenly stripped of our hand-held electric power, our ability to push back the darkness with the click of a button. Without flashlights, the night surrounded us, as the sea surrounds a swimmer. For a time, we would stand in silence, startled by each snapped twig and every wind-rustled leaf, until finally we achieved the promised state called "night vision." When the pupils of our eyes had become fully dilated, we would find to our amazement that if we were fully attentive, the light of moon and stars were sufficient to pick out the white-painted blazes on the trees. We could navigate the trail, even by night.

The irony is that, with night vision, you can see much better than with a flashlight. The flashlight brilliantly illuminates a single point, but it dazzles the eyes. If you turn away from that projected circle of light, your eyes have lost all power to pierce the darkness. Night vision is dim vision, to be sure, but it extends 360 degrees around. With just a little help from moon or stars, it is enough.

In the "dark nights of the soul" we all experience, the way of discipleship is to stop trying to pierce the darkness by artificial means. It is to put aside our lanterns and flashlights, and to trust the night. It is to feel the darkness surrounding us like a cloak, and to allow it to do so -- knowing that God, who is Lord of darkness as well as light, will provide us with the light we need to see.

***


Oceanographers tell us that deep-sea divers pass through several worlds of darkness, as they descend into the ocean depths. The first is "the world of fishes," that bright, sun-dappled world near the water's surface, where harlequin fish dance in reflected sunlight.

The deeper the divers descend, the more murky the waters become. The fish become fewer. Light becomes dimmer. The divers pass through a somber, gray-black curtain into "the world of the abyss" -- an undersea void, containing nothing but deep darkness and bone-chilling cold. Only the strongest and most persistent venture into this world, and then only with special equipment. League upon league they descend, penetrating further into the gloom, until they reach another world altogether.

This is a world rarely seen by land-dwellers. It is "the world of luminous darkness." In this world, the sea is just as dark, and colder even than the worlds above, but everywhere there are lights -- phosphorescent fish, glowing, luminous, casting their weird, colored lights into the void. An anonymous diver who has often penetrated this world has written of the experience:

... the diver discovers that the fear has lost its significance. It is possible to see in the darkness, if you are still. At the level of the luminous darkness, you begin to understand what God meant when God first spoke. You hear the sound of the genuine in yourself and in the world.

***


The poet, William Butler Yeats, tells of a visionary experience he had -- and in a very ordinary place indeed, a coffee shop:

My fiftieth year had come and gone.
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table top.

While on the shop and street I gazed
My body for a moment blazed,
And twenty minutes, more or less,
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed, and could bless.
-- "Vacillation, IV"


Another poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, recalls a similar transfiguration -- that of Moses' burning bush -- in these famous lines:

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush aflame with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
-- Aurora Leigh, Book vii

And again, the mystical English poet, William Blake, captures the true visionary's talent for wonder:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
-- Auguries of Innocence

UPCOMING WEEKS
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Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

New & Featured This Week

The Immediate Word

Thomas Willadsen
Nazish Naseem
Dean Feldmeyer
Mary Austin
Katy Stenta
George Reed
For November 2, 2025:

CSSPlus

John Jamison
Object: This message involves roleplay. You will need a chair for Zach to stand on, unless it is ok for him to stand on a front pew. For the best fun, you will also want to have an adult volunteer play the role of Jesus and walk in when it is time. Whether he is in costume is up to you.

* * *
John Jamison
Object: You will need one or more pictures of people recognized as saints. You may find some pictures by Googling “public domain pictures of saints” and printing images from the results.

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Emphasis Preaching Journal

Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 and Psalm 119:137-144
Walter Elwell in the Shaw Pocket Bible Handbook notes of righteousness that it is, “Right standing, specifically before God. Among the Greeks, righteousness was an ethical virtue. Among the Hebrews it was a legal concept; the righteous man was the one who got the verdict of acceptability when tried at the bar of God’s justice.” God is a righteous God, even when is people are not righteous.
Frank Ramirez
One of the features of Synagogue worship is the Shema. The Hebrew word is “Hear!” and is the opening for Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” God’s people are commanded to “hear” these words. They come from the Lord. And these three scriptures invite us to hear God and each other, something that is lacking in our society today.
Wayne Brouwer
Fred Craddock tells of a vacation encounter in the Smokey Mountains of eastern Tennessee years ago that moved him deeply. He and his wife took supper one evening in a place called the Black Bear Inn. One side of the building was all glass, open to a magnificent mountain view. Glad to be alone, the Craddocks were a bit annoyed when an elderly man ambled over and struck up a nosey conversation: “Are you on vacation?” “Where are you from?” “What do you do?”
Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 and Psalm 149

StoryShare

John E. Sumwalt
Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, but your commandments are my delight. Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live. (vv. 143-144)

When I was an associate pastor in Janesville, Wisconsin one of my responsibilities was to give a lecture on spirituality once a month at a drug treatment facility. The students who attended were persons who had been convicted of drunk driving and were required to attend the class as a condition of their sentence. Attendance was always good.
Frank Ramirez
Call them the good old days. Call it the Golden Age. It’s not unusual for people to look back in their youth, or to the youth of their country, as somehow more perfect, honorable, or simpler. C.S. Lewis was always skeptical about claims that chocolate was better in one’s youth. It wasn’t better. Our taste buds were stronger and more receptive.

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
The Roman Catholic Church's canonisation of Edith Stein some years ago, fuelled considerable controversy. Edith Stein was born and bred into a Jewish family, becoming a Roman Catholic Christian at the age of 31. She was also a leading German intellectual in the early thirties, during the run-up to World War 2, although she gave up that career in order to become a Carmelite nun. But she didn't deny her Jewish roots, for in 1933 she petitioned the Pope, Pious XI to write an encyclical in defence of the Jews.
Janice B. Scott
Call to Worship:

Jesus didn't reject anyone, even those who were liars and cheats. By a simple act of friendship Jesus turned Zaccheus' life around. In our worship today let us consider friendship and all that it means.


Invitation to Confession:

Jesus, there are some people I don't like.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, there are some people I reject.
Christ, have mercy.
Jesus, there are some people I keep out of my circle of friends.
Lord, have mercy.


Reading:

SermonStudio

Carlos Wilton
Theme For The Day
The world offers many blessings, but none of these things will save us: only the blessing of God in Jesus Christ can do that.

Old Testament Lesson
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
Daniel's Apocalyptic Dream
Perry H. Biddle, Jr.
Comments on the Lessons
John W. Clarke
This chapter of Luke brings us ever closer to the end of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus enters Jericho, just fifteen miles or so from the holy city of Jerusalem. It is here that Jesus transforms the life of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. This is one of the few stories that is peculiar to Luke and is a wonderful human-interest story. The fact that Zacchaeus is willing to climb a tree to see Jesus is a clear indication that he really wanted to see and meet the carpenter from Nazareth. His eagerness to see Jesus is rewarded in a very special way.
Scott A. Bryte
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
Mark Ellingson
This is a story written for people who had been or were about to be persecuted, if not enslaved. (The book of Daniel was probably written in the mid-second century B.C. during a period of Seleucid [Syrian] domination in Palestine.) It tells them and us how their ancestors had once faced a similar slavery under the oppression of the Babylonians centuries earlier. The implication was that if these ancestors could endure and overcome such bondage, so could they and so can we.
Gary L. Carver
Ulysses S. Grant fought many significant battles as commander of the Union forces in the War Between the States. He also served as President of the United States where he probably engaged in as many battles as he did while he was a general. Toward the end of his life he fought his toughest battle -- with cancer and death.
Richard E. Gribble, CSC
There is an apocryphal story told that after completing his masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, the famous Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci went to a nearby tavern to celebrate the event with his friends. While in conversation and sipping a little of the local wine, Leonardo noticed that many in the tavern were making sport of an ugly fool who made his living going from tavern to tavern, entertaining patrons for a spare coin or a crust of bread. This man truly was an ugly person; he seemed to be more of a troll than a man. His small beady eyes were not centered in his oversized head.

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