Transfiguration

This Sunday, February 19, is Transfiguration Sunday on the church calendar. This is the Sunday we focus our study and worship on the transfiguration of Jesus.

The Lectionary text comes from Mark 9:2-9...

"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."

According to the World English Dictionary - "transfigure" means to "change appearance of somebody: to transform the appearance of somebody or something, revealing great beauty, spirituality, or magnificence."

God has a habit of transfiguring...

circumstance;

habits;

occurrences;

ideas;

plans;

thoughts;

actions;

lives

At times this transfiguration is obvious and fantastic like the Transfiguration of Christ in the passage above. More often, the transfiguration happens slowly and is difficult to witness while it is taking place. But the transfiguration is happening all the same.

To the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote these words,

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

God has a habit of transfiguring.

You and I are being transfigured more and more into the likeness of the Christ day by day.

Celebrate your transfiguration as God works in and through you revealing great beauty, spirituality, and magnificence.

transfiguration

tragedy to triumph…

anxiety to peace…

trial to joy…

sorrow to serenity…

doubt to assurance…

sin to righteousness…

anger to forgiveness…

blindness to sight…

prejudice to love…

chains to freedom…

death to life…

from one degree of glory

to another