The ideas are taken from a reflection in Culpepper’s treatment of The Transfiguration in the Gospel of Luke [The Gospel of Luke, 207-208]. He makes the point that over the course of the history of Christianity, mystics and saints have lived lives of disciplined piety in hopes of experiencing such a beatific vision of Jesus such as the three apostles experienced on the mountain top. But many of us have had moments we are unable to explain when we felt the presence of God, not on the mountain top, but in the ordinary of the day. Or perhaps in an extraordinary moment of life – a retreat, a graveside – moments when the nature of God is somehow just a little more clear even as it remains transcendent.

This coming Sunday the gospel reading is Luke’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus. 

³² Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³³ As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying. 

As before, Peter again responds, again without a full understanding.  Consider Peter’s proposal to make three tents (skēnḗ; also “booth” or “tabernacle”). What did he intend? It has been variously understood as traveler’s hut, the “tent of meeting” where God spoke with Moses outside the camp (Exod 33:7), a more formal tent used in the Festival of Booths (cf. Lev 23:42–43; Zech 14:16ff), and even as the Jerusalem Temple tabernacle.  It is this last image that Luke may have in mind as background – notwithstanding Peter’s intention.  It is the Temple tabernacle where the Shekinah, the fiery cloud that symbolized the continuing presence of God among the people, dwelt over the ark of the covenant.  The response to Peter’s proposal is three-fold (Boring, 364)