Today's Start:Stop - 10 minutes of quiet reflection repeated every 15 minutes between 7.30 - 9.30am on Tuesday mornings at St Stephen Walbrook - focuses on the Prayer of Transfiguration:
Bible reading
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him ... While 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!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As 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)
Meditation
The dictionary definition of transfiguration is: a change in form or appearance or an exalting, glorifying, or spiritual change. Those aspects of transfiguration can be seen in our reading, but the story defines the word best. Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, puts it like this: “There’s glory – the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. There’s the pattern of God’s story in Israel and the church, a story that finds its most poignant moments in the midst of suffering and exile. There’s the loving, tender, presence and heavenly voice of God the Father – a voice that for the only time in their lives, the disciples hear and understand. And there’s the extraordinary realisation that, even though all this could have gone on without them, the disciples have been caught up in the life of the Trinity, the mystery of salvation, the unfolding of God’s heart, the beauty of holiness.”
The way he describes it, transfiguration involves the glory of seeing a person or event in the bigger story of God’s loving purposes for the world. Up until this point, “the disciples know Jesus does plenty of amazing and wonderful things and says many beautiful and true things, but they still assume he’s basically the same as them.” It’s only as they go up the mountain with him that the veil slips and they’re invited in to a whole other world. They’re given a glimpse of glory. “It’s a glory that’s faithful to the story of Israel, a glory that has Jesus at the centre of it, a glory that has God speaking words of love, a glory that has a place for them in it, however stumbling and clumsy they are, and finally a glory in which Jesus touches them tenderly in their fear.“
Sam Wells suggests that this experience, this glimpse of glory, can shape the way we pray by giving our prayers the same extra dimension. Sam writes, “God, in your son’s transfiguration we see a whole reality within and beneath and beyond what we thought we understood; in … times of bewilderment and confusion, show … forth your glory, that [we] may find a deeper truth to … life than [we] ever knew, make firmer friends than [we] ever had, discover reasons for living beyond what [we’d] ever imagined, and be folded into your grace like never before.” “In other words, it is a prayer that, in whatever circumstance, asks God to reshape our reality, to give us a new and right spirit to trust that even in the midst of suffering and hardship, truth can still be experienced and shared.” “On the mountain, the disciples discovered that Christ was part of a conversation with Israel and God and was dwelling in glory in a way that they had no idea of and could hardly grasp and yet it put everything on a different plane.”
So, maybe you’d like to make the prayer of transfiguration your prayer for yourself at this time, “in the midst of whatever it is you’re wrestling with today.” “Not so much, ‘Fix this and take it off my desk!’ Nor even, ‘Be with me and share in my struggle, now and always.’ But something more like, ‘Make this trial and tragedy, this problem and pain, a glimpse of your glory, a window into your world, when I can see your face, sense the mystery in all things, and walk with angels and saints. Bring me closer to you in this crisis than I ever have been in calmer times. Make this a moment of truth, and when I cower in fear and feel alone, touch me, raise me, and make me alive like never before.’”
Prayer
Lord God, shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Show us a glory that’s faithful to the story of Israel, a glory that has Jesus at the centre of it, a glory that has God speaking words of love, a glory that has a place for them in it, however stumbling and clumsy we are, and finally a glory in which Jesus touches us tenderly in our fear.
Shine in our hearts to give us a glimpse of your glory.
We ask that you will reshape our reality to give us a new and right spirit to trust that, even in the midst of suffering and hardship, truth can still be experienced and shared. In times of bewilderment and confusion, show forth your glory, that we may find a deeper truth to life than we ever knew, make firmer friends than we ever had, discover reasons for living beyond what we’d ever imagined, and be folded into your grace like never before.
Shine in our hearts to give us a glimpse of your glory.
Make our trials and tragedies, our problems and pain, a glimpse of your glory, a window into your world, when we can see your face, sense the mystery in all things, and walk with angels and saints. Bring us closer to you in our crises than we ever have been in calmer times. Make them moments of truth, and when we cower in fear and feel alone, touch us, raise us, and make us alive like never before.
Shine in our hearts to give us a glimpse of your glory.
Blessing
God speaking words of love, Jesus touching us tenderly in our fear, a new and right spirit to trust, a deeper truth to life than we ever knew, firmer friends than we ever had, reasons for living beyond what we’d ever imagined, sensing the mystery in all things. May all those blessings of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.
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