Pastor’s Email Devotion
The Week following Transfiguration Sunday
February 15, 2015
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12, NRSV)
Now and not yet … penultimate … a foretaste of the feast to come … both and … soon and very soon … things present and things to come …
At New Day worship today, we talked about the tension inherent in the festival of the Transfiguration of our Lord. The transfigured image of Jesus on the mountaintop is an image of the resurrected Jesus. A picture of what lies beyond the cross of suffering and the empty tomb of Easter morn. It is a picture of risen glory and perfect salvation.
Unfortunately, the disciples (nor we) are not allowed to stay and enjoy it, are they? They are charged to come back down the mountain, and no sooner have their feet landed on level soil, when they find themselves talking about suffering and contempt. Sure, they had a glimpse of the last chapter in the story … for a few moments … but then it back down the hill into the muck.
Now and not yet … penultimate … a foretaste of the feast to come … both and … soon and very soon … things present and things to come …
It is the rhythm of the Christian faith. We experience it in worship. We celebrate it at funerals. We find it expressed in our holy Word. And we are reminded of its truth every day. We live in that tension of which the final verses of 1 Corinthians 13 alert us. It is a characteristic of people who live in hope. It is an encouragement for those who believe that the current brokenness of the world will be made whole someday. It is the lifeblood of the Christian who ties her existence or his very life to the promise that there is more to this world than what we can see with our eyes.
Now and not yet … penultimate … a foretaste of the feast to come … both and … soon and very soon … things present and things to come …
So in your prayer and reflection this week, consider those moments each week – or if you are fortunate, each day – when you are able to see the world through two sets of eyes. One set which acknowledges the sin around us and within us; a sin that yearns for healing and cleansing. And one set of eyes that can also see the glimmer of light beyond that moment of faultiness, and the overlay of regeneration and cleansing that is already emanating from the risen presence of Christ at work. At work in this moment of time, for sure, and also in the time that awaits, assuring you a final perfect cleansing of that sin from this world. Pray fervently for both sets of eyes, so that you might both find joy in this world, even while anticipating the fullness of joy in the world to come. Remember that God is the Lord of both.
Fear Lord, remind me that you are always with me, even when I am not able to feel you in my heart. Surround me with your protecting love, even when I forget you. Listen to my voice reaching out to you, and open a window of sight into the joy of life found in the years before me. For you are the light and the thoughts in my mind, and the sight in my eyes. Amen.
