This week’s Gospel passage is mysterious – not that it uses big or strange words – but because it describes an encounter with God that is foreign to most of our common experience. Jesus climbs up a mountain to pray, which is nothing unusual for Jesus. On this particular occasion he takes three of the ‘senior’ disciples with him, which is slightly more unusual. But while he is praying, some very unusual things happen: Jesus’ appearance becomes dazzling, he speaks with two people that the disciples somehow identify as Moses and Elijah, and a voice speaks from a cloud about Jesus.
Welcome to Transfiguration Sunday, the day when we hear this mysterious and profound story about Jesus and are reminded about its significance, yet often go away scratching our heads and wondering what it’s really all about. This is a story that invites us to pull back the veil that usually prevents us from seeing the spiritual dimension of the world, and asks us to journey with Jesus to a thin place where new insights will be revealed. What will we see? What will we hear? And what difference will it make as a result?