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<DIV><FONT size=4>Peter doesn't get the fact that they are seeing Jesus as he
really is. The voice of God identifies Jesus as the Messianic Son of
God. They are overcome with awe and fall to the ground in fear. They
are seeing Jesus with clear spiritual sight and God is present with an
affirmation of Jesus' identity.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.lectionarysermons.com/feb2899.html">http://www.lectionarysermons.com/feb2899.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>John Jewell, 1999</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Transfigurations are big business today. I don't know anybody
who doesn't want one, including me. And many of us work hard and spend a lot of
money to get one -- a new face, a new look, a changed appearance.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4>
<DIV>Larushka Shikne did not like the image he thought his name projected, so he
changed his name to Laurence Harvey.</DIV>
<DIV>Issur Danielovitch Densky did the same thing and became Kirk Douglas.</DIV>
<DIV>In the same way, Frances Gum transfigured herself and her image into Judy
Garland. Archibald Leach became Cary Grant. Aaron Schwalt became Red Buttons.
And would you have paid money to see Marion Morrison in the movies? Maybe, but
Marion didn't take that chance, he became John Wayne.</DIV></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://day1.org/747-transfiguration">http://day1.org/747-transfiguration</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Robert Johnson, 1999</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The story tells us what happened to Christ. He was
transfigured before Peter, James and John, changed by his Father by such
brilliant light that all else would seem dark by comparison. (Somehow this leads
me to think of the chaos of creation, the brooding of the very primal elements,
the turmoil and uncertainty, the foreboding and pain. Out of that chaos comes
God's amazing words, "Let there be light." The world begins; God is in control.
New patterns emerge; the darkness disappears, chaos becomes meaning; random
becomes purpose; the inert becomes lively. Man is born, a child of the
Creator.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/wiedrich_3624.htm">http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/wiedrich_3624.htm</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>William Wiedrich, 1993</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> <FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman">The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus in today's
gospel in one of the stranger stories in any of the Gospels. Evidently Jesus had
a powerful "religious experience" at some point in his public life, an
experience which had a profound effect on him and on the apostles who were with
him. As the story of this experience was related among the early Christians it
took on a heavy overlay of theological symbolism. In the context of St.
Matthew's Gospel it becomes a turning point in Jesus' life, an experience in
which he saw that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die while he was
there</FONT>.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.agreeley.com/hom08/feb17.html">http://www.agreeley.com/hom08/feb17.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Andrew M. Greeley, 1999</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>All lives, the great theologian Karl Rahner once said, are
unfinished symphonies. Jesus surely had other dreams. Undoubtedly he wanted to
persuade his people that God loved them even more than they imagined.<> It
is also perhaps the story of all our unfinished symphonies: We don't always do
what we had wanted to do. But often what we do turns out to be even better.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.agreeley.com/homilies96/mar0396.html">http://www.agreeley.com/homilies96/mar0396.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Andrew M. Greeley, 1996</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>To go "up to a high mountain" -- to which there are eight
major references in the Judeo-Christian scriptures -- is always then to be
seeking a very special relationship with God.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_18_37/ai_71763369/">http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_18_37/ai_71763369/</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Joan Chittister, 2001</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><EM></EM></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=style1><FONT size=4>This familiar text functions for the three
disciples in Jesus' inner circle much like his baptism functioned for Jesus. In
that scene (Matt. 3), Jesus heard the voice from heaven--a voice that linked
themes of Servant and Son. For the rest of his ministry he would be discovering
what it meant that he was the Servant of God and what it meant that he was the
Son of God. But the discovery wasn't Jesus' alone. It also belonged to the
disciples. They had someone in their midst whom <EM>they</EM> needed to
understand, if not fully than at least with enough insight to follow and serve
him intelligently and faithfully. There is no reason to think that <EM>any</EM>
of them had been present when Jesus was baptized;</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><EM></EM></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><EM><A
href="http://www.drbilllong.com/LectionaryIV/Matt17.html">http://www.drbilllong.com/LectionaryIV/Matt17.html</A></EM></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Bill Long</FONT></DIV>
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