Reality Shifters
Dear Friends,
This Sunday, we are given the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration on a mountaintop, the story we always hear the last Sunday in Epiphany before we make the transition into the season of Lent. In the story, Jesus takes his closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, to a high mountain for some time alone. And when they reach the top, Jesus is momentarily “trans-figured,” transformed into his eternal divine image. His face shines like the sun. His clothes become dazzling white, as dazzling as the original light that birthed the cosmos. Time shifts to timeless as Elijah and Moses join them, too. A bright cloud of mystery overshadows them all, and the Voice of God speaks. Jesus' companions drop to the ground in fear and trembling awe. Awareness of their reality shifts.
As I ponder this passage, I think about the “reality shifters” that have been given to me…often at crucial times. Nothing really changes, but the way I see things does change. These experiences are often called “mountaintop experiences,” but they don’t have to take place on a mountain. They can happen anywhere and most recently for me, they have actually happened in church – which is a good thing! Since the beginning of this year, I have experienced unexpected moments of transcendence through the stunning beauty of the music that Curt and the choir are offering us, the tenderness of baptism and the young families who are joining us, the authentic gratitude I saw on your faces as we celebrated the resilience of our community at our Annual Meeting.
These luminous moments are replete with vision and shining awe. And what strikes me as I consider them today is that they aren’t just my singular, personal “reality shifts,” but have communal meaning and purpose. Unknowing and confusion dissolve into clarity about another reality. Divine Presence reveals an inexhaustible dynamism of possibility. And promise. Time and space have unexplored dimensions.
One value of Jesus’ transfiguration is that it was a group experience, a community experience. In fact, it was an eternal community including Moses, Elijah and the Voice. But Jesus’ chosen companions—Peter, James and John—shared the same experience and proclaimed it to the wider community later.
Jesus told them to keep it to themselves until after his resurrection.
Why? Did waiting change their awareness of their experience, the meaning of what they saw?
I believe we all have experiences of transfiguration, of sudden insight divinely given, of seeing possibilities beyond our own imagination. Sometimes we pursue a new sense of vocation, start new ministries, establish new relationships. Sometimes we keep the experience to ourselves. Sometimes we just keep praying for further insight and revelation. Whatever does or does not happen, I invite us all to hold on to our visions and remember what has been given. I think the world depends on it.
In Christ,
Amelie+
