There is a reason so many of us hold our phones in the air at concerts and vigils. When the music lifts us out of ordinary time, we try to capture it: a few seconds of transcendence, proof that we were there on the mountaintop. Peter does something similar in this week’s Gospel. As Jesus blazes with unearthly light and Moses and Elijah appear beside him, Peter’s first instinct is to build dwellings and make the moment permanent.
In this episode of Between Bread and Stone, we sit with the Transfiguration as the hinge between Epiphany and Lent. Epiphany has given us a season of revelation: stars and rivers, salt and light, glimpses of who Jesus is. Now the story turns toward the valley, where a suffering child waits and the road to Jerusalem begins. Along the way, we look at how empire hijacks “mountaintop” experiences, why intimacy with God can feel like annihilation, and how Jesus answers fear with a hand on the shoulder and some simple words: “Get up and do not be afraid.”
We will also trace this pattern in ordinary lives: trainers who gain weight to understand their clients’ struggle, clinicians who step into communities shaped by addiction and poverty, people who leave safe spaces to accompany those whom our systems abandon. The Transfiguration is not an escape from the world; it is light gathered for the work ahead.
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Gospel text from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
