I’ve written before about the use of the word “Metamorphosis” in the Gospels and Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Rome. How it’s translated as “transformed,” or “transfigured.” I’ve also written that those words really seem to lack in nuance. Compare the image of transformed, like water when heated transforms into steam, with the image of Metamorphosis, a beautiful butterfly breaking free from its previous form.
This past Sunday the lectionary selections were from the Gospel according to Matthew and 2nd Peter. Both shared the story of Jesus’ transfiguration.
In that story we see Jesus going to the top of a mountain with his three buds, Peter, John, and James. While on the mountain Jesus was transfigured. His face shone brightly and his clothes became radiant. The Light that Is God filled Jesus and He shone as a source of light, not a reflection of it.
Stop here and think about that.
Visualize it in your mind’s eye.
What did that look like?
I’m just thinking, Wow!
As I listened to our parish priest talk about this, suddenly gears began falling into place.
I saw something beyond the exegesis that I shared at our Bible study that morning.
Our priest alluded to what I began to think.
That the Church, AKA the Body of Christ, may be the only Light that many people see. He went on to encourage us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Helping the poor, the outcast, the Other, and leaning into humanity just as God did in Jesus.
I get that.
That’s how we who follow Jesus should not just act, but should BE to the world around us.
I saw something else, though, in these texts.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told his followers, “You are the light of the world.”
Ok, cool. How do we do that? How do we become that Light that Jesus talked about?
Paul wrote to the Church at Rome and told them, “Hey, folks…don’t follow the ways of this world. Don’t let your life be formed in that mold. But, rather, allow your mind to be renewed so that you may Metamorphosize.”
I think that if we who follow Jesus truly desire to walk that path, we too, must experience that Transfiguration that Jesus experienced.
Somehow, our minds are capable of renewal and we are capable of experiencing transformation that will, in fact, make the Church a source of Light in this world.
A beacon of love and hope where all are welcome.
Unlike many who claim to be christian, who choose to remain in larval or pupate form, who eat and eat and eat, and take and take and take, we are asked to grow beyond that narrow life. We are asked to look to a Big God Whose Light may course through us a shine from deep within.
Let us seek God’s renewal.
Let us BE transformed.
Let us BE LIGHT!!!
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