Pastor’s Corner 2/15/2026
Dear Church Friends,
This Sunday we remember the story of the Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-9), a story of the tangible, audible, visible experience of God’s honor and glory touching humanity. While the issue of honor and glory may seem distant or childish to some, the ancient world took it very seriously. The Romans had a particular word for honor and glory, auctoritas.
The historian Adrian Goldsworthy tells an interesting tale of Pompey (l. 106-48 BCE) in 62 BCE, after an extremely successful military campaign that defeated Mithridates VI of Pontus (l. 135-63 BCE). Before entering the city of Rome, in an effort to dispel the Roman people's fears that he would become a tyrant with his command over so many legions, Pompey laid down his command and demobilized the troops. Pompey was sure that even though he "no longer held formal power or controlled an army," he could "rely on that intangible thing the Romans called auctoritas” (Goldsworthy, Augustus, 45).
A leader like Pompey wielded auctoritas for personal, worldly power. God’s auctoritas (honor and glory) differs from the world’s. Instead of using honor and glory to raise an army, Jesus suggests that God’s auctoritas is to lay down one's life for God's children, that is, everyone (John 10:15). Modern-day expressions of God’s honor and glory could include intervening in cases of abuse or injustice. God's auctoritas, laying down one's life for the children, can also look like giving up one's dreams to care for a loved one, living a different life than one might have expected.
Being a child of God gives us an auctoritas when we love in truth and action (1 John 3:19-22). With true, spiritual love, we can act with boldness. We can only have boldness when nothing in our hearts condemns us. Things in our hearts that condemn us include systemic sin, interpersonal sin, and ultimately inner sin, or misalignment between mission and identity.
The concepts of boldness, honor, glory, and auctoritas are closely related to Peter's description of shining with God's glory (2 Peter 1:16-21). In this Sunday's New Testament reading, Peter refers to the Transfiguration decades later. Peter describes how Christ receives "honor and glory" (2 Peter 1:17) when God declares that Jesus is beloved in his own nature. Peter, James, John, and Jesus experienced something on Mt. Tabor (2 Peter 1:18) that goes beyond a mere story (2 Peter 1:16). When have you experienced God’s glory and honor in your life? Has that inspired boldness, strength, or courage?
Joshua Kingsley (he/el), www.joshuadavidkingsley.net