Transfiguring It Out

A prophet, a lawgiver, and the Messiah are transfigured on a mountain. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it's more about the identity of the Jewish people in Jesus' construction of the faith. It's about the discples' response and not knowing how to respond.Faith isn't about morality or being a good person, but the lifelong pursuit of seeking the eternal in order to better understand ourselves. Faith is an exercise in identity. The transfiguration is about the identity of people who follow Jesus or seek faith two thousand years later in a moment when so many of us are wondering whether there's any way that we can share a national identity again.And in a world that declares the best use of religion is to produce good people and good citizens, what Jesus brings is just as surprising as it was in the First Century – it's not about being good, but through learning to love faithfully, we learn to become human.Support the show