In today’s mountain stories, we explore the encounters of well-known men between each other and God in search of a revelation.  The men are Moses and Joshua in Exodus 24, and Jesus, Peter, James and John in Matthew 17. The stories are connected by the appearance of Moses and Elijah in the passage from Matthew.

In Exodus 24:12-18, the story at Mount Sinai, Moses and Joshua find themselves in a cloud for six days before Moses is called by an unidentified male voice (verse 14), assumed to belong to God. The mountain is covered by a cloud or divine heaviness (the basic meaning of the Hebrew word kabod, which the New Revised Version of the Bible translates as “glory”).  From afar, we are told the encounter appeared as a consuming fire — a fiery passionate engagement on the mountain top. We are not told what happens hidden in the cloud, leading us to ask: what is the nature of this human-divine, all-male, encounter? Many images of divine ecstatic reverence come to mind including the Genesis story of Jacob wrestling/rolling around on the ground with God as a man by the river Jabbok (Genesis 32:22-32).  

When exploring the Exodus story, we also ask: where are the women and children? Perhaps we can assume they are parked with the elders at the bottom of the mountain. The story does not reveal its ending. Rather, the lectionary passage ends with a second version of the story, leaving Moses by himself with God on the mountain (verse 18). If we rely solely on the lectionary reading, we are left not knowing whether or not Moses receives the tablets, only of his passionate encounter with God on the mountain.

	What questions do you have about the encounter on the mountain and in the clouds?  What do you imagine happened and what do you make of its significance?

Psalm 2 about the nations in an uproar appears to link with the Transfiguration story.  There is a voice from heaven (verse 4) and a holy hill (verse 6).  However this psalm has less mystery and more mess. The anonymous king is asked to bring order to it all. On the other hand, the retelling of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter 1:16-21 lacks any sense of mystery – there is no cloud at all.  The writer wants to be succinct and simply summarizes.  Yet much of the significance of the cloud imagery in the earlier Exodus account derives from the obscurity of God in action.  This encounter with God in the cloud is the mystery and it invites the reader to imagine all possibilities. Those of us who work on LGBT (or any other issues of justice) cannot expect to simply explain and convince others of our commitments.  Rather we need to invite them into the cloud — invite them to experience transformation – no matter how scary.

In Matthew 17:1-9, the circle of witnesses gets smaller and is limited to Peter, James and John seeing Jesus with a glowing face and dazzling clothes. Jesus then encounters Moses and Elijah, and is instructed by these ancestors (verse 3).  Contemporary readers and preachers uncomfortable with this intense all male rendezvous may want to imagine women in the encounter – Deborah and Esther and perhaps even Miriam (though she might have been scared that she would be cursed again turning white as snow. See Numbers 12:10).

A divine manifestation or theophanic vision follows: God announces from the cloud that Jesus is the Beloved (verse 5). The awe of the moment strikes fear into the three male disciples who find themselves on the ground. The need for widening the circles becomes clear.  Yet, the narrator doesn’t help, but remains uninterested in the relationships between Peter and Jesus. So how do we transfigure the transfiguration so that we become more inclusive in those who are invited to "summit"?

We favor a more inclusive encounter on the mountain.  We resist limiting the numbers of people and instead call for broadening the numbers of those included.  We hold these same commitments in encountering the public and political arena today.  When it comes to our laws, we have to fight for legislation that is inclusive, especially as they impact the lives of LGBT people and oppressed people. There needs to be coalition building, and although today’s Bible readings do not help us to see the imperative to do so. A point of entry, however, can be the need to make the circles bigger and to stop looking at mountains. As beautiful and dazzling as the view from the mountain top is, it skews our vision away from the collective encounter of God.

	What do you find compelling and troubling about the story of the Transfiguration?  What do you find compelling and troubling about the Out In Scripture conversation about the story?  What might God be saying to you and your community through your own reflections?