Exodus 34:29-352; Peter 1:13-21; Luke 9:28-36 

What is Transfiguration? All three of our readings today highlight a transfiguration event. There is no end of discussion about these passages - like most passages in the Bible. There are those that take the literal route and there are those that take the more metaphorical route. The Episcopal Church, and the tradition residing therein, is one which seeks to encompass both approaches: a place where differences of interpretation can be taken, looked at, studied, argued over and then an agreement can be reached to agree to disagree. This ability to accept nuance and difference is one of the chief wonders of the Episcopal Church that initially attracted me and continues to keep me here. What is transfiguration?

We have Moses in our Exodus reading coming down from the mountain with the skin of his face shining. In the Second letter from Peter, we have that author giving us a first hand account of what he saw and heard on the mountain with Jesus. (Notice this letter was written long after the event it describes.) And we have Luke's version of the Transfiguration, where while Jesus was praying, "the appearance of his face changed" and his clothes became "dazzling white." There is no description of how the appearance of Jesus' face changed. The NRSV didn't do us any favors in the translation of what happened to Jesus' clothes. The Greek word is evxastra,ptwn ("egastrapton") which is an unusual word in the Bible. This word only appears three times: here in Luke, once in Ezekiel and once in Daniel. This word literally means "to flash like lightning". Lightning: it is quick, blindingly bright. Think about lightning, how images are seared on the retina. How images of seemingly ordinary things are made to appear extraordinary, memorable, different. And those images stay with you. They are seared to you somehow.

So we know Jesus was praying and then something happened which was witnessed by Peter, John and James. And after it was over, "they kept silent in those days". What is Transfiguration?

A friend of mine, I'll call him Alex (not his real name) has given me permission to tell this story. Alex was walking his dogs one early Saturday morning. He lives in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Alex is one of those perfectly fit, perfectly coifed, trendily attired individuals that populate so much of Chelsea. Alex is walking east on 20th Street, taking his dogs on their initial morning romp, and Alex is limping. He has had a pain in his leg, running down the calf and into the foot for a few months. Alex has gone to various doctors seeking treatment, but the various anti-inflammatory medications are not helping and no concrete diagnosis given.

Saturday morning in NYC is usually a pretty quiet time: the tourists haven't arrived yet; the shops are just opening; the majority of people living in this particular neighborhood are sleeping off the prior evening's shenanigans. Alex told me that this is one of his favorite times to be out and around: it is quiet, not crowded and the dogs have a bit more freedom to roam. So, Alex is limping east on 20th Street and reaches 7th Avenue South and turns right, hugging the curb, in case the dogs decide they have found that perfect spot. This particular block of 7th Avenue has a few small restaurants, a deli, a hardware store and an Irish pub. As he is walking along the curb, and he reaches midway along the block, he sees in front of him, at the curb, a bedraggled-looking, obviously homeless, seemingly quite old woman, standing right in the trajectory of where his dogs are semi-dragging him. And he inwardly groans. "She's going to ask me for money. Not this morning."