Lent is arriving almost a month later than last year and even those of us who do church for a living are surprised that Ash Wednesday is less than a week away. Maybe we thought Epiphany would go on forever but here we are, Transfiguration Sunday, the end of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent. It makes liturgical sense to let Jesus be transfigured into the light of His beginning (a theological oxymoron) before descending into the darkness of His end (another theological oxymoron) for though we confess he is the Alpha and Omega, He has no beginning and will know no end. But none-the-less this Sunday, maybe more than any other, lifts up how far God is willing to fall for the sake of the fallen. The frightening fire and smoke Mount Sinai shaking presence will die naked on a hill. The Psalm 2 kiss my feet or I will kill you allows those same feet to be nailed to wood and forgives those who did the dirty deed. The God whose intelligence designed the universe calls an illiterate fisherman to be the prophetic messenger for the Beloved Son. And finally and most amazing of all, the God beyond knowing desires to be known and touching fainted souls says, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
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