Luke 9: 28-36

The inner circle of the apostles: Peter, John and James accompany Jesus up a mountain to pray. Then the ‘ordinary’ of their ministry experience was interrupted by the ‘extraordinary’. Jesus’ face was changed and his clothes became dazzling white. The disciples saw him talking to Moses and Elijah and the gospel writer noted the disciples, though heavy with sleep, “saw his glory”. Peter felt the need to do something, offering to make dwellings for each of them, which seemed a silly response (but churches have been built for stranger reasons!). A voice came from the cloud, presumably God, announced, “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him!” (9:35)

This incident is hard to understand. But over the last two thousand years people have tried. It seems important because it is reported in all three synoptic gospels. Perhaps a historical point is being made. Jesus stood in the OT tradition of Moses with the law and Elijah with the prophets. This adds significance to “Listen to him!” Theologians have tried to make sense of it. Some have argued that it as the meeting place of the human and the divine, or the temporal and the eternal. Perhaps it prefigures the resurrection. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican traditions there is a Feast of the Transfiguration. I am not sure any of this helps it is a gospel passage that remains mysterious and it is hard to see any contemporary relevance.

But one point can be made: Transfiguration invites us to see with different eyes.

This reflection was brought to us by Gordon Ramsay (not the sweary one) on October 31, 2021

Readings

• Job 42:1-7,10-17 
• Psalm 34:1-8,(19-22) 
• Hebrews 7:23-28 
• Mark 10:46-52

Have you noticed that people regularly see patterns in things.
We can be good at seeing images, or shapes, in clouds
or even seeing faces in the frothy milk on our coffee.
Sometimes we see patterns when in reality there probably isn’t really a pattern to see
and at other times we can miss patterns that are quite deliberately built in to things 

The story of Job is a great place to go if you love stories that inspire tough questions, and over the last couple of weeks I’m hoping I’ve opened a few up to you, but, perhaps the toughest lot of questions for me come here at the ending of the story.

Perhaps the response of the friends in Job has frustrated us, maybe because we’ve been in on the bet and know Job is innocent, the friends response is ill informed. Maybe we’ve been frustrated with the friends because we’ve had well-meaning friends offer similar reflections to us when we’ve suffered, or maybe we’ve struggled because the friends remind us of times when we’ve responded to someone else’s suffering in ways that have been unhelpful.

But the most frustrating response, as I reflect on how I first read the story was how I responded as the reader. I came to the end of Job and thought “there’s the happy ending I was hoping for, it all worked out in the end.”

Yet, after a while the story began to haunt me (as many good stories do) and my response became something that made me feel uneasy, and I began to hear in my response the voices of the friends, again assuring that those who are righteous will end up being blessed… that it will always end with a happy ending. 

Readings

• Job 38:1-7, (34-41)
• Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
• Hebrews 5:1-10
• Mark 10:35-45

This week I was reminded by the Working Preacher team of the Triangle of Job, where one point is God is good, another point is that a good God rewards the righteous and punishes the unrighteous and the final point is that Job is righteous. The thing about the triangle is that as we tell the story of Job we’re only ever able to hold two points of the triangle.  

Job and his friends each decide to hold different points of the triangle at the same time. The friends choose to let go of the idea that Job is Righteous while Job lets go of the point where God is Good. I wonder, if you had the chance which points would you choose? I wonder, if you’ve ever suffered, or sat with another who has suffered and made a decision to hold onto two of these points? I wonder if we’re only ever able to hold two points of that triangle… unless something can challenge the idea that we’re only ever given these three options.