Musings on the Daily Lectionary

Today's gospel reading is Matthew's account of the Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John see Jesus shining like the sun as he talks with Moses and Elijah. Upon seeing this, Peter suggests building a shrine of some sort. "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Peter's suggestion is forgotten when the voice of God speaks, and in Mark's version of this event we learn that Peter makes his suggestion because he's terrified and doesn't know what to say.

I don't want to be too hard on Peter, but he seems to be like a lot of us religious folks, wanting to somehow capture and institutionalize this remarkable experience. Build a shrine. That way they can come back later and commemorate the event as a religious holiday. But when God cuts Peter off, the only command spoken is "Listen to him."

We're fast moving into the Christmas shopping season, and I've already seen a poll on Facebook where people can vote for or against the idea of having a "holiday tree" in the White House as opposed to a Christmas tree. And there will be campaigns directed at retailers demanding that they "put Christ back in Christmas" if their banners announce "Happy Holidays." People, presumably for genuine religious reasons, will get all worked up about this slight against Jesus, will demand that Christmas be an appropriate shrine.

Sometimes I wish that God would show up, terrify us all out of our decorating and singing Christmas carols, and a divine voice boom, "Listen to him!" And I'm pretty sure that what Jesus says won't have much to do with celebrating Christmas, but will have everything to do with caring for the poor, loving enemies, turning the other cheek, and all that other stuff we prefer to ignore.

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