That's a lot. And yet we seem to be like the disciples after the Transfiguration, who kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. Yet this is very real. God is real, and God sometimes makes that quite clear. So today I want to say just a few things about religious experiences, about experiences of the presence and reality of God, whatever those may be like-however quiet or loud, however big or little, however rare or frequent.
Today is a good day for that kind of discussion.
Every seven years or so August 6 comes on Sunday, and we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration twice-because this story is always read the last Sunday after Epiphany. And when it comes to religious experiences, this one was a beauty. I want to look at some of that story in the light of how it can help us understand our own experiences of the presence of God. The first thing to notice is that not everybody went up on the mountain. In fact, Jesus asked only three of the twelve to be with him.