Reflection for Transfiguration Sunday

“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.”

This Sunday we mark the feast of the Transfiguration. It’s the last Sunday before Lent, and the Sunday on which we hear about Jesus being transformed before three of his disciples. We hear this story every year, and each year it marks the change from the season of Epiphany to the season of Lent.

Transfiguration stands between. Aside from marking Jesus’ transformational experience on the mountaintop, by standing between Epiphany and Lent, this Sunday reminds us of all the transformational, in-between moments of our lives.

We often stand between one event and the next. Sometimes these moments are brief, and sometimes they are long and drawn out. It’s the moment between calling 911, and the ambulance arriving. The moment between tests and diagnosis, between announcing a pregnancy, and giving birth.

These moments are familiar to us, and yet we often do not like them. We don’t like to wait. We want to arrive, to be at the next moment, to already be transformed.

And yet, Transfiguration Sunday reminds us that Christ is found in those very in-between moments. God shows up in the most unlikely of places, the moments when we are not yet prepared because we are still preparing. God meets us in those moments, and works alongside us.

On the mountaintop, Peter and James and John saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. In a sense, these three were in their between moment as well, though they didn’t realize it. Their whole journey with Christ was the transformation between their lives before meeting him, and their lives after the crucifixion and resurrection. It was a long transformation, and certainly some parts were more painful than others.

What transformation is being worked in your life in these days? What work is God doing through you and in you? After all, God is the one who transformed. Peter and James and John didn’t transform Jesus, nor did they have the power to transform themselves. They were changed by simply knowing Jesus, through Christ’s work in their lives, without having to do anything themselves.

God works wonders in our lives.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.