Identifying Transfiguration

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 -- Week of Proper 13
The Transfiguration of our Lord

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER the readings for Wednesday, Proper 13 (p. 979)
Psalms 119:97-120 (morning) 81, 82 (evening)
Judges 7:19 - 8:12
Acts 3:12-26
John 1:29-42

OR the readings for The Transfiguration (p. 998)
Morning: Psalms 2, 24; Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
Evening: Psalm 72; Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; John 12:27-36a

(I chose the readings for The Transfiguration)

Deep within the human heart is our desire to follow a right course -- to give ourselves to that which is dependable, meaningful and truthful. We want to trust and to give ourselves to something greater than ourselves.

I think that is the attraction of sports and of patriotism. We identify with our team, our county -- something greater than our selves. We endow our side with virtue. We dream of glory and triumph and honor. If the opportunity comes, we will sacrifice for the greater whole. Religious organizations and political parties can fill the same role; sometimes businesses and corporations can as well. I know those who give themselves to their art or to their family. All of us long to strive for something meaningful and worthwhile, to give ourselves to something good, to something enduring.

Daniel has a heavenly vision. It begins with a conventional image of God enthroned as "an Ancient One" in a divine royal court. "I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed." That's what we want. We want to be on the side of triumph and right.

Flash forward to John's gospel. Jesus is in agony. His soul is troubled. He has begun to understand that for him to follow the right course, for him to give himself to God and to do that which is true and meaningful, will mean for him to die. His horrible death -- a criminal execution by public torture -- will be his glorification. That's not what anyone had in mind. The crowd points to the conventional expectations enshrined in the scriptures: "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever." John's Jesus never gives a straight answer. He says enigmatically, "walk in the light when you can."

Christians say that this is the "something greater than ourselves." This is the goodness and truth that is worth giving ourselves to. They point to a cross. A man who is a helpless victim, dying painfully, condemned by politics and religion. This, we say, is God fully present with us.

Can you put the two pictures together? The one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven being presented to God and being given dominion and glory and kingship... And the one like a human being nailed physically to the cross being presented to all humanity in his suffering and helplessness and death. The pictures go together, we say. They are the same thing.

Someone passed along a book that would be hard to categorize, except you might call it "new age." It was an imaginary account of our world as a training ground for immortal souls who commute back a forth between heaven and earth to learn certain truths or to experience certain realities. One image stood out for me. The author looked at a man who lived on the streets, his legs crippled and curled under him. Unkempt and unclean, he begged pitifully, making his living from the pity and horror of passing pedestrians. The author said that it was given for her to see the beggar's true identity. In actuality, she said, this crippled beggar was one of the great archangels of heaven, a commander of legions of angels, who was mighty and powerful among the spiritual hosts. In order to learn something about weakness and humility, he had willingly accepted the role of a crippled beggar for this lifetime as a human. He would learn and experience things that he couldn't otherwise know. His journey was a glorious and honorable trial, witnessed with profound interest from heaven.

I can't say that the mythology was convincing, but the sentiment was. Part of what the story of Jesus tells us is that every part of creation and every form of humanity is filled with divine life. An executed capital criminal is the enthroned Son of God.

Transfiguration is the light of our glimpse into the deeper realities. To be able to see the glory behind the ordinary, the light underneath the darkness, is to see the Transfiguration of all things into divine life. This is the vision God invites us to give ourselves to -- a meaning and truth that is greater than we are. God invites us to trust that God is present and working within all things for something good, something enduring.

God invites our participation in that glory. The path of our participation is pretty simple. It is always love. Love characterized by compassion. It includes suffering and generosity; it is enabled primarily by the poor and the weak rather than the wealthy and powerful. Too often the wealthy and powerful simply multiply the crosses. The path is pretty simple; not easy.

It's easier to give yourself to something less -- to entertainments or patriotism or self-interest or family. All of these can be good. Everything can be a mediator of the light. But only God is ultimate. And these other things will ask eventually for your ultimate loyalty. They will all try to crucify something else.

St. Bernard offered a perspective on these loves, an ascending order of the four degrees of love. First, we love ourselves for our own sake. The second degree is when we love God for what God can do for us. Gradually we begin to love God, not for our own sake, but for who God is in God's own self. The fourth degree is when, in our love for God, we can love ourselves and all others, for God's sake. Maybe that is when we see the archangel in the beggar, the Messiah in the executed.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas