Church of the Ascension, Knoxville, held their monthly Celtic Service on Sunday, February 15. Jan Neece, a member of the parish, offered the reflection that evening. It was particularly poignant and well done. We hope you enjoy reading it as much we did.
Celtic Service Reflection
Feb 15, 2026
Jan Neece
My mother was a wonderful listener. She had no advanced degree, no special certification, no sophisticated training. She was simply someone who knew the power of being present and often staying quiet. Lord knows she listened well to me for over 60 years! She heard my childhood delights and complaints, my teen victories and dramas, my young adult work and relationship joys and woes, the fear and thrill of finding my husband and having babies, the contentment and worries of parenthood. She listened to me talk over and over about the plusses and minuses of every college and graduate school decision, every job change, every move. She listened and cried with me when I received a cancer diagnosis. She didn’t always say much more than “hmm” or “really?” or “oh, my.” She usually kept her opinions to herself until I asked for her advice.
She wasn’t just good at listening to me and my sister and her friends. She was also good at listening to Jesus. Which surely helped her be so gracious to all who knew her.
When I was very young and overwhelmed by something, she would often take me in her lap, rock me in her arms, and soothe me by simply saying …. Shhhh …. Shhhh …. It’s all right. When I first encountered the quote of Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well; and all shall be well; and all manner of things shall be well,” I thought, “That sounds like Mom.”
In the Scripture passage we heard read tonight, there are so many mysteries. For example, why did Jesus just take Peter, James, and John, and not the whole crew? What did it mean for Moses and Elijah to have appeared with Jesus? How did Peter, James, and John even know that’s who they were? What’s the theological significance of all that? And what exactly is a “transfiguration” anyway?
Whatever it was that Peter, James, and John were seeing, it must have been overwhelming. I can just picture James and John standing there, dumbfounded, slack-jawed. At least Peter found words!
I can identify with Peter’s desire to contain and control, interpret and explain. I think he was trying to use his words to make sense of the mystery he was seeing. If he had had even more time to talk, maybe he would have debated pros and cons or considered opportunities and obstacles or just explored all his feelings. Can you relate?
I make my living through words, my own and those of the children, teens, and parents I work with as a psychologist. I believe in the power of words to contain big emotions and illuminate experiences. So I can definitely relate to Peter. In a way, he was trying to develop a treatment plan!
Peter, James, and John were on a mountaintop. They thought they were at the HIGH point in Jesus’s ministry, a peak and paramount experience! And maybe Peter was just trying to find words and actions to do justice to this. Maybe if he could find the correct words and the right actions, he could KEEP it perfect for Jesus, perfect for all of them.
But then God spoke! Those words literally put the fear of God into the three disciples!
The same words that God spoke at Jesus’s baptism – at the beginning of his ministry – those very same words were spoken again: “This is my Son whom I love; with Him I am well-pleased.”
But this time, God adds three more words, “LISTEN TO HIM.”
And those were the words
That was the experience
That made those guys fall on their faces to the ground
That made even dear, relatable Peter ….. HUSH
Then – the part most meaningful to me – maybe because it reminds me of my experience with my mother – while they were still on the ground, Jesus came – and touched them – and said, “RISE” and also “Don’t be scared.” And Jesus didn’t look “transfigured” anymore. He just looked like their friend. And Moses and Elijah were not there anymore, only Jesus, their teacher, was there with them.
“Rise. Don’t be scared.”
What a remarkable, amazing thing for Jesus to say at this pivot point, this axis for him! Because, unlike for Peter, James, and John, this wasn’t just a HIGH point for Jesus. It was a HINGE point for him! This was the moment of division between the BEFORE and the AFTER. Three years of an incredible ministry, all those people he impacted, all the renown he had garnered! He was on a mountaintop. But he couldn’t stay. He knew even before he walked up that mountain – (because he had already told his disciples before this event) – he knew he would walk back down that mountain toward incredible suffering. Calvary – Golgotha – lay ahead. And it would come quickly. Yet, somehow, he could still say to his beloved John, James, and Peter –
“Rise. Don’t be scared.”
When I did get a cancer diagnosis in 2020 – at the start of the pandemic – I experienced my own hinge point. There was before, and there has been after. And even though I rang that bell just over 5 years ago, I STILL know that diagnosis was a call to see that my own end is closer than my beginning. Perhaps you have your own hinge experience.
As we draw close to this coming Wednesday – Ash Wednesday – when we will be reminded of our mortality, may we also keep Jesus’s words following his transfiguration in our hearts. May we LISTEN to him say to us:
Rise. Don’t be scared.
AMEN
Photo by Karsten Klemme on Unsplash