Feast of the Transfiguration
By Emily Hylden
A Reading from the Gospel of John 12:27-36a
27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say: ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 Jesus said to them, “The light is in you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”
Meditation
He was transfigured before them (Matt. 17:2). Have you ever seen something new about someone you already knew rather well? Has it ever hit you in an instant how someone has changed or grown or been gradually becoming who they are now, and you just hadn’t noticed the slow progression until some point down the road, and it smacked you on the side of the head?
Sometimes I think I know God awfully well. Bits of Scripture fly through my head; I start a reading and I immediately recall where it’s going; analogies to Bible stories pop up in everyday situations. Is this familiarity perhaps blinding me? If I know what to expect, am I willing and able to see something new? How might God in Jesus Christ hope to be transfigured before me, when I’m stuck seeing the usual things that make me comfortable?
I wonder if the Transfiguration was like that for the disciples. It wasn’t so much that Jesus became someone different before them, but that they suddenly comprehended more of the One they’d been with all this time. I wonder what God in Jesus Christ might want to reveal about himself to each one of us.
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The Rev. Emily R. Hylden resides with her priest husband and three sons in Lafayette, Louisiana. Find her podcasting at Emily Rose Meditations.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Mbamili – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, San Diego, Calif.
