Feast of the Transfiguration is upon us. Jesus climbs the mountain and turns on the lights. He converses with Moses and Elijah and his face shone like the sun and his garments become white as light.
The important events of Jesus' life are inwardly connected to the Jewish festival calendar. The gospels reveal this trait. When a public act of worship is celebrated by the Jewish community a particular event in the life of Christ is unfolding, an event that is of great importance.
When Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Lord, Son of God; he does so at the time of the clebration known as Day of Atonement celebration. This is when the priest enters the Holy of Holies and proclaims the name of YHWH (God). This is done only once a year out of reverence for the name God revealed to Moses and the Jewish people.
When Jesus is being crucified, the passion and death of Christ, the Jewish people are celebrating the Passover. This is when the people remember how they were passed over, saved from Death, by the marking of the lamb's blood upon their door post. Here they recall the gift of life and freedom from slavery.
When Jesus is transfigured the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles is occurring. This is when the Jewish people put up little tents or booths and remain there for 7 days remembering their journey in the wilderness for 40 years, a time when they only lived in booths and they were fully depended upon God who led then with a pillar of fire and cloud and nourished then with Manna from Heaven.
So what does all this mean?
It means that in Jesus the liturgical celebrations truly become alive. It means that Life leads to liturgy, public worship, and liturgy, public worship, seeks to become life.
This is the beauty of the transfiguration. Jesus reminds us that as he embraces the passion, life is transfigured; life is transfigured because for Him it is all one act of public worship.
For the Christian, this too is how life is transfigured. This is how the grind of ordinary life becomes exalted and glorified, when it becomes worship, "in all that you do, do it in name of Jesus the Lord."
Elizabeth Browning state that "earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush a fire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes, the rest sit around it and pluck blackberries."
For life to become an act of public worship, at each moment in all that we do, the heavens open up to us and the world is set afire with the divine and brightness shines forth.
So stop picking at the blackberries and start taking off your shoes, worship in all that you do.
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