Jesus' glowing goes one better than Moses'. Nor does he have to strain to hear a 'still small voice' like Elijah. Both Moses & Elijah went through running away phases. Jesus comes up the mountain to face up to things. What happens up there is his burning bush. There's no still small voice this time. God speaks for all to hear. It's no wonder Jesus goes on to model much of his ministry on these two. (On Elisha as well, of course.) But anything Moses or Elijah (or Elisha) can do, Jesus can do better. In the nicest possible way.

Traditionally Moses represents the Law, & Elijah the Prophets. Here they 'pass the baton' to One who will take it further than they ever could, beyond both Law & Prophets. True religion's always a matter of moving on. Spend too much time looking back over our shoulder celebrating our past & we may find running into our present a painful experience!

Glory is the reflection of God from inside, not outside. It's not celebrity-itis that the crowd glories in these days. Glory is what happens from inside us when we're prepared to live & suffer for right & love. Jesus is far more likely to be crucified by 'collateral damage', land mines, razor wire, terrorist bombs, police brutality, refugee camps, globalisation, &c, than on a cross these days. Only those too busy looking backwards, or in other wrong directions can't see that. So people are disfigured rather than transfigured! Those who do it, &  those who suffer it.

Don't rubbish today's Peters for wanting to prolong great religious experiences. Good on them. It's worth a try. But some- where along the line we're faced with coming to terms with ourselves as God's tent! And when it's time to move on it's time to move on & pitch ourselves somewhere else. Wearing our tent inside us. (A bit like Bo-Peep's sheep wag their tails, only on the inside!) We are God's glory, God's tent, even the echo of God's voice, still & small or loud & clear.

Malina & Rohrbaugh [Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John p.50, Fortress, '98] talk of 'sky messages' within which ambit the Transfiguration with its mountain top & light & voice comes. Sky messages aren't part of our experience except as we look up & see 'Buy This That The Other' on a blimp, or written in smoke above our heads. Or a flag flying? Isn't that a kind of sky message these days? Where do we find real God messages 'written' today? To go back to the mountain top, if we demythologise theophanies without unravelling the Truth & Glory at the heart of them, we only do more damage to ourselves than to God. How to bring ancient 'sky messages' down to earth today?

The apostles are scared stiff. The 'fear of God' isn't popular these days, but like the demythologising business, go too far in the opposite directiont, & we do away with that basic sense of awe we all need to survive as a truly human being. The Mr Nice Guy kind of god is as much a travesty of the Real God as the angry, proscriptive, punitive one preached by those who can't get their heart round the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They can't get their head round him either; they just are arrogantly sure they have! Holy awe lies between extremes of terror & familiarity as healthy air lies somewhere between oxygen & carbon dioxide.

The Transfiguration confirms Jesus' self-understanding of Who he is, & points the apostles in the same direction, but they're still way behind the eight ball. Faith is not always a matter of being wise before an event!

While we're up there with Jesus & co it's timely to remind ourselves that all genuine religious experiences always point to God. This is one no-fail test. Religious highs that are no more than that & are used to hype us on experiences, not God, can't prepare us for the journey down the mount, nor for the challenges lie at the bottom. For Jesus, apostles, & all of us, the Transfiguration is a rallying call to, & an equipping for the earthed, hard slog of true Messiahship & Servanthood.