This is the final sermon in the series on women in the biblical texts. I stayed with the lectionary passage for Transfiguration Sunday and decided to ask the question: where are the women's voices in this story. When Jesus takes three of the disciples up on a mountaintop and they encounter Elijah, Moses and the voice of God, how do women hear that text?
To help me with that endeavor, I asked several women (most of whom are ministers) how they handle the seeming exclusion of women in the text. I received some fascinating answers ranging from women who hear disciple and assume it includes them, so they see themselves present in the disciples on the mountaintop to the suggestion that the silence of the women (who are not present) is better than the talking the disciples do that seems to take away from the glory of God to a Greek lesson that notes that the word "overshadow" used in the Transfiguration story is only found in one other place in the NT when the Holy Spirit invites Mary to bear God's son. Interesting stuff.
Another thought I had is that the women who did not make it up the mountaintop are like those of us who follow Christ without having actually seen him. Unlike the disciples who saw God's glory manifested on the mountaintop, saw Elijah and Moses, and saw Jesus transfigured, we have to take their word for it and believe that Christ the Son of God.
I can also see how that ties into the idea of listening, instead of speaking, to discover God's glory.
Since this text from one of the Gospels comes up each year on the Sunday before Lent, I have found it exciting to ponder it from a different perspective this year.
What do you think?
peace,
richard
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