Summary: Today is the concluding Sunday for the season of Epiphany, a season in which we marvel at God's magnificence being revealed through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Christian year begins with a poignant waiting for the Christ child; and when the child is born, our first response is to stand in awe of God's amazing and abundant love for us and for all of creation. Soon we will do the difficult work of looking at our own soul, discovering what we need to give up or maybe what we need to take on in order to prepare ourselves for Christ's sacrifice and resurrection during the season of Lent and Easter. But today on Transfiguration Sunday, we simply stand in awe of God being God. It can be difficult to figure out what to do with Transfiguration Sunday. Our text today details when Jesus climbed the mountain with Peter, James, and John, transfiguring before them. His appearance becomes a dazzling white, and he stands with Moses and Elijah revealing that in Christ the law and the prophets come together as the genesis of a new creation through the cross and the empty tomb. Like Peter we often find ourselves befuddled and confused relying on what we know rather than allowing ourselves to be stretched and transformed in the mystery of God. Peter said, "It is good for us to be here," maybe to convince himself. He offered to build three dwelling places--one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah--or maybe he was building a dwelling place for James and John and himself in order to offer a tangible expression of the unexplained.
