Last Sunday we read about the transfiguration. The transfiguration is one of the most important stories in the gospels because it tells us who Jesus is and who we are called to be in Christ. In the transfiguration, Jesus' face shines like the sun and his clothes are as white as light. The language describing Jesus echoes the language describing Moses on Sinai in Exodus 33-34 indicating the manifestation of the divine, the appearance of God to Israel. Similar language is used of the tent of the tabernacle in Exod. 40, where the cloud covers the tent and the glory of the Lord enters the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God. For Christians, Jesus is the dwelling place of God, the temple of God, the very presence of God. Jesus manifests the glory of God.

Mark puts the transfiguration right at the center of his gospel, and connects it to two other moments, the baptism of the Lord and the crucifixion. Mark's gospel opens with the baptism of the Lord, in which God says to Jesus, "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased." In the transfiguration we hear God say to the disciples, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Finally, on the cross Jesus breathes his last, the veil of the sanctuary is torn in two, and the centurion (the Roman soldier) says, "Truly this man was the Son of God." The same one who is crucified is the transfigured one. God's glory is manifest not just in the transfigured Christ, but in the crucified Christ.

The transfiguration, however, is not just about Christ. It is also about us. The veil in the sanctuary of the temple is what separated the Jewish people from the tabernacle of God, the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and he only did so once a year. At Jesus' death, the veil is torn in two; that which separated God and humanity is rendered asunder. No more is there a barrier between us - we are united in the person of Christ crucified and risen. In and through our union to Christ, we too are transfigured. We become tabernacles, dwelling places, of the presence of God. We are to manifest the glory of God in the world. The same Spirit that transforms the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ transforms/transfigures US into the body of Christ. We are divinized. Christ became human so that we might become divine. We do not become God, but we become more and more God-like, more and more the image and likeness of God we were created to be.