Guest Post: Feast Days and Friend Days and Ice Cream, Oh My!

What a wonderful weekend we have coming up in our life together here at Transfiguration. This weekend, we’ll take a break from John’s “Bread of Life” discourse (you get a one-week break from the carb-loading Fr. Casey promised last week) to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. The term “transfiguration” comes from Matthew and Mark’s account of Jesus taking his inner circle of Peter, James, and John to a high mountain to pray. This year, we’ll read Luke’s account of the story. Luke doesn’t use that term “transfiguration”, but only describes that “the appearance of Jesus’ face changed and his clothes became dazzling white.” To be clear, we still understand this event as the Transfiguration of our Lord, but it’s interesting to me that Luke doesn’t use the word.

It strikes me that Luke may not want us exclusively focused on Jesus’ Transfiguration, but might want us to consider the other transfigurations that take place on the mountain and in the times following that encounter. In my sermon this weekend, we’ll explore these transfigurations and what they might mean for each of us. How are we being called to serve as witnesses of the “power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”, as Peter puts it in our Epistle this week. As we prepare to welcome a Director of Evangelism and Welcoming Ministries and a Director of Youth Ministries, how will we be called – like the disciples atop the mountain – to go where we might not think we’re prepared to God to do the work of God?

This weekend at our 9:00 a.m. service, we’ll baptize three new members into the Body of Christ. We’ll ask them to agree to take this journey with us, and we’ll promise to do everything in our power to support them in their life in Christ. At all our services this weekend, we’ll welcome friends into our midst and celebrate our connection with our neighbors, community, and the wider human family. We’ll top it all off with some cool ice cream, warm handshakes and hugs, and a celebration of the occasion that gives us our name. Come join us for Transfiguration!

-Rebecca+