

Of course these sorts of questions aren’t unique to this particular passage. Jesus shone! What are we supposed to make of that? How did He do it? Why would Jesus want to do it? Was it all just a part of some strange dream of the disciples, and if it wasn’t a dream what point was Jesus trying to make, if any? “And as was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.” And Will Willimon’s key strategy in preaching, which has become the basis for so much of my own pulpiteering (if that’s a word) can be summed up in four words that he is fond of quoting, namely: ‘stick with the weird’.Īnd if you haven’t heard me mention this before many of you will no doubt nonetheless discern how this principle operates in my treatment of Biblical passages – that my approach to the Biblical narrative is generally not to avoid the difficult bits, but rather to focus in on those aspects of a passage that do not seem to fit easily, that are uncomfortable, or that are just downright weird.Īnd then you come across a passage like today’s reading – the story of the transfiguration – where the whole thing is just completely weird, and it is hard to know what to do with it!

#Pdf visions of glory how to
I have only met him in person once, but I have spent a relatively enormous amount of time reading his preaching guides and listening to his lectures on how to preach. Those of you who have been listening to me preach for some time will have heard me mention Will Willimon – a man who has very much been my preaching mentor. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.” “Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
