Sunday, February 23, 2020

Transfiguration of the Lord

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or 99
Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-21
Gospel Reading: Matthew 17:1-9

The liturgical color for the day is: White

Farley writes, “Multiphrenia is a consciousness structured by a variety of value systems born in conflicting cultural worlds.  Its effects are many.  It means being subject to the demands of a variety of groups, torn between obligations and even between realities.  And with that comes an enduring sense of inadequacy, failure, and high anxiety.  One’s sense of reality, truth, reasonableness is compromised to the degree that these things are splintered among the many worlds that take residence in the consciousness.  Whose voice, which world, what cultural constituency sounds the bell of conscience, the sense of right and wrong.  ‘Reality according to whom.’  ‘What right does he have to…?’  ‘That is your experience, not mine.’  We have become used to these phrases.  It is the discourse of separation, of autonomy, even isolation.  It is a language that lacks a sense of being interhuman, of having a past, of participating in a tradition, or sensing obligation.” ^[1]

I believe one of the realities of our Postmodern world is there is no longer one truth.  It is a plural world of many possibilities.  To a large extent we get to choose the lens through which we will view the world and the scope of our lives.  We pick the perspective from which we understand ourselves, choose our values, and make decisions about our actions.

We get to choose what will get our attention and what we will allow to change us.  What will transfigure our world?  What values system will transform your life?

• Will it be the glory of the Lord shining through you…?
• Will it be your holy moments…?
• Will it be the touch of God in Christ Jesus—reaching out to you, calling out to you: “Get up and do not be afraid”…?
• Will it be the way of the cross?
• Will it be Jesus alive in you?
• Will it be the glory of the Lord shining through you…?

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter & Stated Clerk
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[1] Edward Farley, Deep Symbols: Their Postmodern Effacement and Reclamation (Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1996), 12.