Transfiguration of the Lord

 

 

1Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Matthew 17:1-9

 

Transfiguration of Christ

TITIAN (Tiziano Vecellio)

1560

Oil on canvas

Church of San Salvador

Venice

Italy

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Titian_Transfiguration_c1560_SanSalvador.jpg

 

Artists sometimes depict themselves as an extraneous figure, often in the foreground and not part of the written story on which the image is based. In the painting by Titian of The Transfiguration all but one of the figures surrounding Christ are part of the Biblical story of the Transfiguration. Only the boy (wearing red) is not.

 

Who is the boy? The boy’s hand, lit from the front unlike the others, appears as though it is placed on the flat surface of the image itself.



This is even more evident in the original painting where the boy’s hand clearly casts a shadow on the surface beneath it. Thus, once again, as in Ghirlandaio’s Portrait of an Old Man and Boy, the child personifies the “artist” making the art. Here the boy’s hand and shoulder are so large that it is not even clear whether they are firmly behind the apostle’s head below his elbow as they should be (if he were part of the scene) or in front of it.

 

https://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/titians

 

 

 

 

 

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity,

but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined

by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder,

the source of which is beyond all reason.

~ Dag Hammarskjold

 

 

 

 

Goodness is the only investment

that never fails.

~ Henry David Thoreau

 

 

 

 

 

Painted Toes at Foothills Art Center

 

 

Friday Cafe

Christ the King Church

Evergreen, Colorado

Anna Marie Nelson, Mercedes Smith, and Fran Banbury

 

 

 

 

Kindness is more important than wisdom,

and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

~ Theodore Rubin

 

 

 

 

 

February 19, 2023 Seventh and Last Sunday after the Epiphany - Year A

          Transfiguration of the Lord

 

Previous OPQs may be found at: 

     http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

 

 

16For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

19So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

2 Peter 1:16-21

 Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Lyrics by

Julia Ward Howe

1861

 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

 

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

 

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:

His day is marching on.

 

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His day is marching on.

 

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,

Since God is marching on."

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Since God is marching on.

 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

 

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

While God is marching on.

 

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,

Our God is marching on.

 

(Chorus)

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

 

 

Howe's "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was first published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly of February 1862.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_Hymn_of_the_Republic

 

 

color_white_1.jpg

 

 

Exodus 24:12–18 

Psalm 2 or Psalm 99 

2 Peter 1:16–21 

Matthew 17:1–9

 

THE WORD:

On this Sunday before the beginning of Lent, we hear Matthew’s account of the extraordinary transformation of Jesus that Peter, James and John witness on Mount Tabor.

Matthew’s account of the “transfiguration” (which takes place six days after his first prediction of his passion and his first instructions on the call to discipleship) is filled with images from the First Testament: the voice which repeats Isaiah’s “Servant” proclamation, the appearance of Moses and Elijah, the dazzling white garments of Jesus.  Matthew’s primary interest is the disciples’ reaction to the event: their awe at this spectacular vision will soon wither into fear at the deeper meaning of the transfiguration -- a meaning that they do not yet grasp.  As the disciples will later understand, the transfiguration is a powerful sign that the events ahead of them in Jerusalem are indeed the Father's will.

The use of the Greek word “transfiguration” indicates that what the disciples saw in Jesus on Mount Tabor was a divinity that shone from within him.  This coming Lenten season (which begins on Wednesday) is a time for each of us to experience such a “transfiguration” within ourselves – that the life of God within us may shine forth in lives dedicated to compassion, justice and reconciliation.

Peter's reaction to the Christ of the Transfiguration contrasts sharply with his reaction to the Christ of Good Friday:  While totally taken with the transfigured Christ in today’s Gospel, Peter is afraid to even acknowledge knowing the condemned Christ.  Lent calls us to descend Mount Tabor with Jesus and journey with him to Jerusalem and take up our cross with him, so that the divinity we see in the transfigured Jesus may become in us the Easter life of the Risen Christ.

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#feb19b

 

 

First Reading Exodus 24:12-18

12The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”

15Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

Psalm 2

1   Why do the nations conspire, 
          and the peoples plot in vain? 
2   The kings of the earth set themselves, 
          and the rulers take counsel together, 
          against the LORD and his anointed, saying, 
3   “Let us burst their bonds asunder, 
          and cast their cords from us.”

4   He who sits in the heavens laughs; 
          the LORD has them in derision. 
5   Then he will speak to them in his wrath, 
          and terrify them in his fury, saying, 
6   “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

7   I will tell of the decree of the LORD: 
     He said to me, “You are my son; 
          today I have begotten you. 
8   Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, 
          and the ends of the earth your possession. 
9   You shall break them with a rod of iron, 
          and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”

10  Now therefore, O kings, be wise; 
          be warned, O rulers of the earth. 
11  Serve the LORD with fear, 
          with trembling 12 kiss his feet, 
     or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way; 
          for his wrath is quickly kindled. 

     Happy are all who take refuge in him.

Or alternate Psalm Psalm 99

1   The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! 
          He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! 
2   The LORD is great in Zion; 
          he is exalted over all the peoples. 
3   Let them praise your great and awesome name. 
          Holy is he! 
4   Mighty King, lover of justice, 
          you have established equity; 
     you have executed justice 
          and righteousness in Jacob. 
5   Extol the LORD our God; 
          worship at his footstool. 
          Holy is he!

6   Moses and Aaron were among his priests, 
          Samuel also was among those who called on his name. 
          They cried to the LORD, and he answered them. 
7   He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; 
          they kept his decrees, 
          and the statutes that he gave them.

8   O LORD our God, you answered them; 
          you were a forgiving God to them, 
          but an avenger of their wrongdoings. 
9   Extol the LORD our God, 
          and worship at his holy mountain; 
          for the LORD our God is holy.

Second Reading 2 Peter 1:16-21

16For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

19So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Gospel Matthew 17:1-9

1Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”