The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for February 11, 2024 was preached in response to Mark 9:2-9 based on the notes below.
Monstrance: Question and description
Bowling trophy
39 Articles: The Sacraments are not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them.
One commentator, “The passage communicates in visual and auditory terms a fleeting perception of the eternal splendor”
Peter has named Jesus as the Christ, Messiah, God’s anointed to save Israel – and humanity
Jesus responds by predicting his death and resurrection. A week later they go up the mountain
Moses takes three people up the mountain to receive the Law and is in God’s presence
Law and the Prophets
Christ never stopped being fully God. At the transfiguration, the three disciples finally caught a glimpse of it.
Gregory Palamas, a Byzantine theologian, “Christ was transfigured not by receiving something he did not have before, nor by being changed into something he previously was not, but as manifesting to his disciples what he really was, opening their eyes and from blind men making them see again.”
Pope Leo the Great wrote, “The Transfiguration chiefly occurred for this end – that the scandal of the cross should be taken away from the hearts of the disciples, and so that, since they had been given the revelation of his secret majesty, the abasement of the Passion might not confound their faith.”
Clouds are symbols of hope, hope going in to Lent, hope for all of life because of new life in Christ