Mark Whittall

“Now about eight days after these sayings, Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain to pray.” Sometimes our Sunday readings just drop us into the middle of a story, totally unprepared. The driver for this amazing mountain-top story of the transfiguration that we just heard is “these sayings”. “Now about eight days after these sayings, Jesus took them up the mountain to pray.” What sayings? Seems like an important detail to know. What happened eight days ago? This h

The temple in Jerusalem was a busy place. Thousands of people gathered there, bustling in and out with their birds and animals, offering sacrifices, praying, singing, catching up on the news. Young parents would bring their newborns for presentation forty days after they were born, and offer the sacrifice that was customary under the law, in the midst of everything else that was going on. Of those thousands of people on that day, most wouldn’t have noticed Mary and Joseph a