A sermon on the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36) preached by Pastor Katecia “Teash” Taylor
Teash is a pastor of the St Kilda Baptist Church
A video recording of the whole liturgy, including this sermon, can be found here.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
2 Comments
Thanks for this excellent sermon, Teash. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to hear it live, but glad I could catch up with it on the recording. I really like the way you identified the tension between our need to “hold on” to our visions of God’s glory and our temptation to try to nail them down or build huts over them to avoid having to move on from them. Great stuff.
Thank you to Katecia for an insightful breaking open of the Gospel story which all of us agree is a most unusual text to engage with. Katecia explained the two key points in language that was convenient to hear and internalise. Katecia’s exposition of the “shiny Jesus” in present glory over against the starkness and darkness of the revelation of a suffering encounter ahead left us in no doubt about the nature of being a follower of Jesus.
Growing up in a Roman catholic tradition, texts such as this were “mined” mainly for their evidentiary aspects – Jesus was Divine – clearly the event portrays Jesus as being well connected biblically. The texts were important as what biblical scholars and their catechetical servants called “proof texts”. This led us away from looking for the teaching and preaching within the texts themselves – we ignored their Jewish character and treated them as Western Style Creeds. They were either historical accounts or nothing at all. There was no thought given to there being a middle ground; there could be no confusion – no complex of story and event – no thought given to maybe there being appreciations of reality that went before and beyond a simple Six O’Clock news report. No questions such as….how did Jesus know that the two characters were Moses and Elijah? There was no Google, no social media to corroborate their identities. No attention was given to the text of Luke that does not use a referent of “transfiguration”…whereas Mark and Matthew do. The outline of the text seems to treat a Voice of God as quite an unambiguous probability. Whether it be the Annunciation; Transfiguration; Ascension; Pilate and Jesus at the Trial; and other occasions – we are never given any detail other than the core teaching material. There is absolutely no additions to the script that might be useful to a Stage Director other than what is relevant to the “proofing” of what is described – without the obvious value of the total improbability of the event to provide colour and fastness to the attraction of the text there is nothing ancillary, nothing of general interest beyond the limits of the singular message – nothing for the voyeur uninterested in proclaiming Jesus as Divine. These texts seem simply to be for the “insider” to corroborate what is already taken for granted – little for the missionary except that Luke clearly has a mission to the Gentile in mind. So the texts must be saying more to the First Century Gentile than a 21st century Western Gentile understands. It is not enough that the event is about a prophetic person suffering …this was already plainly a tenet of so much Old testament history. Even jesus had stated this plainly in Luke Chapter 4 when he was nearly thrown over the cliff in Nazareth for his comments in the synagogue. It is not enough for Jesus to make a Divine revelation to 3 of his inner leadership group and then deter them from spreading the good news of what they saw. Chapter 24 of Luke on the road to Emmaus describes a total unawareness of Jesus destiny to suffer in the minds of Cleophas and companion. Jesus appears and disappears in Luke 24 just as suddenly as Moses and Elijah in Luke 9. Where Luke is more forthcoming is in his message of John the Baptist in the early chapters of his gospel – John has come with a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. This mission statement is repeated almost word perfect in Luke 24 (47) by Jesus. In Luke John Baptist is 100% accurate about what priority One is all about. he is so right that Jesus takes it as his defining mission statement. Yet we do not notice this point – but we do notice the mountain top “shiny Jesus”. As Katecia explained…..things are not what they seem. Just maybe she is correct in ways that she did not have time in her sermon to discuss with us…..watch this space as I am sure she has more to say……….another time, same place…..Thank you Katecia.