Last Sunday after Epiphany; 19 February 2023; Last Epiphany A (RCL); Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 2; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9.
I’m not sure why I chose Psalm 2 this year. If the leaflets weren’t already printed, I might change to Psalm 99. Psalm 2 is a coronation psalm, and speaks of the victory of the new king over his (God’s?) enemies, who are foolish to try to rebel. The lectionary, of course, assigns it as an option with the Transfiguration because the voice from heaven quotes it — This is my son.
But the sonship of Jesus and the sonship of the king are two very different things. Jesus is enthroned on the cross, to which Pilate has attached the crime for which he is sentenced: The King of the Judeans. Divine power is displayed, not in conquering enemies, but in the resurrection. The paschal event somehow heals the wound of the world, so that there are no more enemies, but only persons for whom Christ became Incarnate, died, and was raised.
Equally interesting to me is Peter’s outburst on the mountain — it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will build three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. The word used for shelter is scene — tent, or booth, or even tabernacle. The Feast of Booths celebrates the giving of the law, which of course happened in the wilderness, and during Moses’ sojourn on the mountain, he also received the instructions for the tabernacle.
After the voice from heaven speaks, Jesus is found alone — no Moses, no Elijah, no tabernacles. Jesus is the new tabernacle, the touch-point between the divine and created orders. And in Matthew’s Gospel, the voice from heaven repeats the words spoken at his baptism. I have always believed that in the ancient church, the newly baptized were to see the connection between Jesus’ baptism and their own — at baptism, they too are adopted as sons and daughters of God.
At baptism, we too shine with the transfiguring glory of the divine. 2 Peter 1:4 even suggests that through baptism we “may come to participate in the divine nature,” a doctrine the ancient church called deification. We, too, become tabernacles of the divine presence in the world, tents of meeting where humanity and the whole created order encounters the divine. This implies that we are moving through the wilderness, and are led by the pillar of cloud and fire, but we are on our journey home.