Poem and Reflection for Transfiguration Sunday Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher
The Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Hertford, NC August 6, 2023
Exodus 34:29-35 2 Peter 1:13-21 Luke 9:28-36 Psalm 99:5-9
The event of the Transfiguration was always a story told in the Christian church because it was about God's light shines in the midst of an every day. The blinding light is a surprise to the disciples with Jesus and they want to make the place a “Holy “ place. Peter says: “Hey, why don't we do it like we religious folks have always done is to make a living out of peddling access to God?” Jesus suggests that they are really missing the point; it is not the place that is Holy but the Holy is in every moment in every place but we just don't get around to seeing it unless we stop and open the eyes of faith. Jesus was not peddling a religion, he was pointing to a whole new way of living, dreaming and community.
As the church spread to the different parts of the Empire, The lessons for the Transfiguration was observed in many places at many different times of the year. In the 15th Century with the rise of the Ottoman Turks, their Empire under Mehmed II in 1453 was able to conquer Constantinople. He figured that since Constantine had moved the center of the Roman Empire to Constantinople than the rest of the Western Roman territories were now under his rule. The rulers of the Western Europe begged to differ, so Mehmed thought that they needed to be forced to be under his rule. He invaded Europe to force his rule, but was blocked in 1456 at Belgrade. Western Christian Europe was terrified and Pope Callixtus III sent out a decree that all Christian churches should ring their bells at noon as a way of having a united time to prayer to defend Belgrade. The Battle raged and surprisingly the Ottoman forces were pushed back. On August 6, 1456 the news reached Rome and the Pope called for festivals of celebration for the Victory. A few years later, in joyful Thanksgiving of what he saw as God light breaking forth into everyday life, he sent word that the Christian churches should set aside August the 6th as the Feast of the Transfiguration, God's light made manifest in every day life.
The problem was that naming a day for Transfiguration was not about stopping the wars but about using God's light for political advantage and for continuing slaughter. And the wars raged on unchecked.
August the 6th is also the day in which we remember the huge light of an Atomic weapon of mass destruction on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. In the 1960's, when I was in my Peacenik stage, I would start protesting August 6. My Mother would get furious and tell me that my father who was a Major in the Marine Corps in the Pacific during the war, would probably have been killed in the planned Invasion of Japan. For, her the Atomic Bomb was an answer to her prayers and her beloved husband would be coming home safe. Years later, after when I bought a Japanese car, she disagreed vehemently and said, “Those people tried to kill your father!” I loved my mother, she was a wonderful woman and went to church regularly, but she never understood the point of the Transfiguration. It is about continuing living into a light of a new future, instead of remembering a past event.
When I graduated from Seminary, I got a job in a new diocese. A couple weeks after my first Sunday, I went to a diocesan Cursillo meeting in a near-by city.. One angry little woman came up to me to request that I work to get her son back into the Episcopal Church group of College students at the University in the town in which I would be serving. I was unimpressed with her, but I looked up her son's dorm room and left a message on his door. He did not not respond to my invitation to talk. The mother considered me incompetent. Over the years I had many more times to talk with her and work with her on some things. The anger receded and I saw a care and love she gave in so may aspects of her life. I saw God's light in so many of her actions when she would center herself, there was a beauty in the way she was living and helping others. Six years after I met her, we got married and she helped me day after day in my ministry. Many people put up with me because she loved me. For the next 34 years, while she was far from perfect, she gave daily occasions of my being in Transfiguring light. She died seven weeks ago but the light she so easily shared has not dimmed. She was a little woman and often I would be reminded of the song I learned back in the 60's:
This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.
Let it shine!
Let it shine!
Let it shine!
The task of Holy Trinity in this time when you are in the process of being without a Rector, is to reflect the Transfiguration light to this community and beyond. Make the Candidates for the position really want to join you rather than save you. Let this be your song:
This little light of ours, we're going to let it shine?
This little light of ours, we're going to let it shine?
This little light of ours, we're going to let it shine?
Let it shine!
Let it shine!
Let it shine
Transfiguration 2023:
It is not the unique beauty of a gem
but the way the light shines through,
allowing the depth to speak to you,
about a pure hidden worth in them.
From 15th century, we remember
this day as a Victory in Belgrade
over Turks, as a time to applaud,
be relieved and Thanks tendered.
The chosen Gospel tells when light
breaks in middle of an ordinary day,
Heavenly visions are given as play,
of God breaking into our own sight.
Today, asking for victory not in war
but in everyday life for hope to soar.
No comments:
Post a Comment