by Marcia Mount Shoop
2 Peter 1:16-21
“This is the kind of stuff that the author of 2 Peter was worried about–the co-optation of Jesus’ identity and Jesus ministry and Jesus’ divinity to justify the very harmful and dehumanizing systems and structures and practices that Jesus had come to disrupt. The author of 2 Peter was onto something–and unfortunately, the author’s writing was co-opted by Empire when scripture was canonized and became a tool of Empire, conquest, colonization, and oppression.
If we can stretch our imaginations enough to read this text not as a text about orthodoxy, but as a text about Jesus’ non-conformity to the values of Empire, then we can start to feel the urgency that this author felt about making sure people paid attention to Jesus and the fact that he will come again–so seeing Jesus clearly matters–and Jesus is coming back to check on how we’re doing with that assignment. The transfiguration is the historical basis of the second coming.”
Watch the full GCPC service on 2/19/23 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 43:42)