The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
February 18, 2007
Vol. 10 no. 07

Everything But...
           Epiphany begins with the Magi and concludes with three very different wise men - Moses, Elijah and Jesus - chatting it up on a mountain in the Transfiguration. Some people think the visit of the Magi is a strange event. Today’s epiphany is seldom mentioned in Protestant churches - it’s just a little too surreal for our kind of thinking, a little overdone for most.
           We can handle miracles - because we wouldn’t mind a few reversals of nature to grace our circumstances. We aren’t bothered by historical reporting that seems lacking in proper dates and probability - our modern history is no precise science, even last year’s. It’s these mystical visions of dead people reappearing that aren’t equivalent to anything we understand that drive us nuts. When Peter offers to build three booths for the trio, a lot of us must be asking, “Is this ever going to mean anything?”
           The medium is not the message. Some want to insist that we do not have enough or the right kind of faith to be able to see visions like that of the Transfiguration. No, the ability to see holy ghosts does not make us more faithful, and it might make us gullible enough to base our faith on something unreal. Instead, we should insist upon a faith based upon the reality of God, which is never a matter of illusions or delusions.
           The Transfiguration is the turning point at which the disciples realize that this human teacher is more than human. Occupying the same level as the greatest prophets of Israel, Jesus, like Moses and Elijah, is so full of God that God has a habit of spilling over onto every person who comes near to them. Any innocent bystander who overhears them is stuffed so full of their Godly words that he too has spill the divine beans. The reality is that you can never keep the Word to yourself.