Transfiguration blues

Looking ahead to Sundays gospel - The Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9)

We don’t do well with the unexplainable.
We’d rather be able to cram everything into boxes,
labelled and categorised, neatly packaged.
We’re discombobulated by events that refuse to fit
into our systems and theories.
It’s been like that since the beginning,
since Adam and Eve
tried to cover their nakedness
or Noah asked for a drawing
or Sarah laughed out loud
or Lot’s wife wanted one last look
or Isaac wanted a ram
or Moses wanted a speech
or Gideon wanted a sign
or David wanted a harem
or Ruth wanted a husband
or Job wanted a break
or Jeremiah wanted a pair of clean shorts
or Amos wanted a simple basket of fruit
But all of these simple requests and actions
turned into multi-faceted messages about the reign of God.
And so the disciples
on the mountain top with Jesus
want everything pegged down:
tents for the prophets,
something to do,
anything,
to keep them from feeling
so out of their depth
at Jesus throwing them
yet another curve ball,
catching them off balance
with dazzling appearances
and voices from heaven,
too preoccupied with the desire
to “normalise” this event
that they tuned out the echoes of baptism
and didn’t catch the subtlety
of the beginning mirrored
in the beginning of the end.
A mountain top experience
that didn’t quite compute
when they were back on lower ground.


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