Again and again in the Bible stories, God’s people misunderstand what God is doing, or what the prophets are saying to them. We end up doing the opposite of what God desires for us – and if we listen to the prophets – we often do that when we think we’re obeying God’s will. Remember how the prophets critiqued the religious leadership of their day for observing the outward forms of the faith and at the same time ignored the real commands of God to welcome the outsider, care for the alien and the marginalized – or to stand with the persecuted. Instead they focused on the length of the fringe on their garments, and making sure they were celebrating the right feast or fast on the right day.

Luckily we’d never do that today would we…?

The point of the transfiguration is that many times in our history we have marginalized the very voices that are speaking God’s words to us, and have lifted up people who misunderstand or who mistake God’s will and focus on the wrong things.

The direct link to the sermon video is found here.