More Than Meets The Eye

Rethinking the Transfiguration with Help from Robot-Cars

Dear Friends,

I heard or read a great thing about the Transfiguration recently – and of course, as we approach that Feast on Sunday, I can’t remember where I heard it. (I said this aloud to my wife and she replied, “Sufjan Stevens,” which is probably not a wrong answer - iykyk). Maybe it was one of the speakers at Forma? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you – but here’s the gist of it:

You can’t stay on the mountain.

Jesus has brought Peter, John, and James up the mountain and Elijah and Moses have appeared to them. Everything is wonderful and strange and mysterious. And so, amazed by all that is happening, Peter offers to build three houses there on the mountain – one each for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses. We can stay here, he is offering, caught up in the wonder of it all – but Jesus says no.

They aren’t meant to stay there.

Right about now, I think we’d all love to find that mountain moment. We want our leaders to stand before us in glory rather than defeat and distress. But we have surely had those moments. We have heard the uplifting speeches and sermons. We have borne witness to the game changers. AND we were never meant to remain in those moments with them. We were meant to take those moments in and let them fuel us for times like these.

Take a moment. What are your Mountain Moments?

Teaching the Transfiguration

Now, on a practical note: how do we teach the Transfiguration? It’s so strange and abstract and yet that is true about a lot of our Bible stories, so why does this one always stand out? I think we’re often tempted to try to concretize the wonder here, but what if we let the Transfiguration stay strange?

What if we were to focus on the solid parts first – the appearance of the great leaders and prophets, of Moses and Elijah. Why are they here? What do we know about them? Why are these the figures who have shown up beside Jesus?

Where are the other disciples? Why are these the followers chosen to witness this moment? And why does Peter want to stay here? Why is this what he would leave it all behind for?

To say that someone has been transfigured is to say that have been changed. Older children might know this language from the Harry Potter series. Or maybe it’s like Transformers – I think of that slogan, “more than meets the eye” (I totally had a Transformers sweatshirt in high school). All of the potential is already under the surface. Everything a Transformer is is already there, just waiting to be revealed. And in the Transfiguration, Jesus is revealed as more in some sense, but he isn’t actually different. It’s all visuals, all illusion and cognitive revelation.

Particularly for Jesus in this moment, the Transfiguration reminds us that our ability to see something at first glance does not determine its actual presence. I invite the wonder: when did someone do something that surprised you? Maybe they had a hidden talent or behaved in a surprising way? How did that change how you saw them?

The Transfiguration is strange, yes, but I don’t know that trying to grasp the strangeness with both hands is our teaching moment. I think our determination to pin down the most abstract piece can be a distraction from the real depth of this event.

Resource Round-Up

Countdown T-1 week to Shrove Tuesday! Let’s see what we’ve got –

• If you’re still looking to fill out some pre-Lent programming, might I suggest a Pancake Pancake read-a-thon! We all know our way around pancake suppers by now, but how many picture books about pancakes can you squeeze in this Tuesday? A few of my favorites include Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola, If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff, Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle, Mama Panya’s Pancakes by Mary & Rich Chamberlin, and Set Sail for Pancakes! by Tim Kleyn.

• Illustrated Ministry has a last minute Transfiguration Sunday resource bundle if you need something to carry you over in this last week before

• Little Way Chapel has a great tiny liturgy for burying (or “burying” if you’re like me and hide it in a big bin somewhere) the Alleluia before Lent.

• I shared about their Kickstarted many months ago, but The Bible for Normal People’s children’s Bible project, “God’s Stories as told by God’s Children” has arrived. I’m hearing great things about the scholarship that grounds this collection, and also that it’s probably more of a children’s Bible for the 6-10 age group, rather than the preschool contingent. If you’ve got a copy, what are you discovering about it?
  

• St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner! Rend Collective has a great new version of The Prayer of St. Patrick out that I’ve been really enjoying.
  

• And, of course, you can’t go wrong with more Tomie dePaola for St. Patrick’s Day - both his traditional Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland but also his simplified St. Patrick board book for younger children. Plus, there’s Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato – less religious but still a delight.

• For those of you who haven’t been here since the beginning, (most of you, really! Hi! I’m glad you’re here!) it may be helpful to note that the origins of Wiggles & Wonder were really in the small church & faith-at-home space, and while it certainly still lands squarely in that space, I think that’s less explicit. Which is why I want to step back and highlight the new season of the Small Churches, Big Impact podcast, which is focused on social justice in small church contexts. As someone who plays in a sort of “midsize for New England” church space but has experienced all shapes and sizes of church, I’m so appreciative of the work this network does.

• Last up, one more song for this moment. I almost taught this yesterday, but ended going with another “in this together” kind of song. MaMuse’s “We Shall Be Known” is one of those personal themes of the moment; “We shall be known by the company keep, by the ones who circle round to tend these fires.”

We are known by and to each other. Keep tending the fire. Someone will be by to chat, to relieve you of the work.

Peace,
Bird