Come and worship at Lake Cities UMC this Sunday!
It is Transfiguration Sunday, when we celebrate Jesus’ mountaintop experience with his disciples. Pastor Dyan Dietz will be bringing the message using the account from the Gospel of Luke 9:28-36, 51. The children will also be presenting a drama called, “Wow! What just happened?” At the 8:30 and 11:00 services, the chancel choir will be singing “Many gifts, one spirit” and at the 9:45, our praise band will lead our contemporary worship. This will be the last Sunday before Lent, and will be a great way to prepare for the Holy Season that is upon us.
Transfiguration Sunday is not only the last Sunday before Lent, it is the final and climactic Sunday in the Epiphany season. Since the Epiphany season itself is actually the culmination of the Advent and Christmas seasons, Transfiguration Sunday is actually the culmination of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. It is the ‘mountaintop’ experience of our own liturgical journey that began with a sense of ‘waiting,’ ‘longing,’ and ‘yearning.’
On Transfiguration Sunday, we celebrate Jesus' transfiguration (literally, his metamorphosis) on the mountaintop, where Peter, John, and James watched in shock and awe as the radiant Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah (Mt 17.1-6, Mk 9.1-8, Lk 9.28-36).
As you may remember, the Epiphany season has been defined by its many and varied "epiphanies" of Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship. It began with the Magi's visit, followed by Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, then by Jesus' baptism where God proclaimed “You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased.” This Sunday we will celebrate Christ's transfiguration on the mountaintop, which is the crowning "epiphany" of the season.
In our Gospel readings for this week, Jesus' identity as Son of God is revealed unmistakably when God physically glorifies Jesus and then announces, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!" (Lk 9.35). And so as we commemorate the brilliance and glory of our transfigured Lord, we cannot help but to identify him as "Son of God … Light from Light, True God from True God" (Nicene Creed).
One of the other epiphanies that we celebrate during the Epiphany season is the Baptism of Jesus, which runs parallel to the Transfiguration of Jesus. At Jesus' baptism, God declared, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased!" (Lk 3.22), while at Jesus’ transfiguration, God likewise declares, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!" (Lk 9.35). In each of these epiphanies, God identifies Jesus as the messianic chosen one spoken of by the prophets.
As we compare these two ‘epiphanies,’ we can see that the glory of Jesus' baptism heralds the glory of his transfiguration on the mountaintop. That which we heard and saw quietly and intimately in the story of Jesus' baptism, we now hear and see gloriously in Jesus' transfiguration.
What we cannot forget is that as Jesus moves from glory to glory during the season of Epiphany, he is also moving closer to his death on the cross. His ‘true epiphany,’ and ‘true glory’ can only be seen in his suffering, death and resurrection, which will be the greatest testaments that he is indeed the Son of God.
Transfiguration Sunday, then, is not only the consummation of the Epiphany season, it also points forward both to Good Friday and to Easter. In fact, it points to the glory beyond the resurrection and to Jesus' ascension, to his coming in glory which we await.
