Monday prior to Transfiguration

 

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Acts 2:42 - We celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord on the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany. For our verse for today, I have used to describe what we are trying to accomplish here at Zion. Luke gives us a description of the 1^st Century church and this is what is needed as we have entered the 21^st Century. We are to be one in doctrine, fellowship, sacramental living, and in prayer. These are the four legs upon which the table is set. All that we do at Friedheim needs to relate to this verse. God has blessed us greatly these past 183 years. Friday of this week we celebrate the 184^th anniversary of the signing of our charter.  May He continue to bless us mightily in the years to come.

“Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant,” but Christ Jesus “has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses” (Hebrews 3:3, 5). A beloved and well-pleasing Son, faithful even to the point of death, Jesus’ own body was raised up on the third day as the house of God, and He has brought us into that house through the waters of Holy Baptism (Hebrews 3:6).

Thus, it was not Moses the lawgiver, but his successor, Joshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus), who led the people into the promised land (Deuteronomy 34:1–4, 9). Now, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the New Testament Joshua appears in the glory that He is about to manifest by His “departure” (exodus) in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31).

Having entered the waters of the Jordan in His Baptism, He passed through those waters and entered into glory by His Cross and Passion.

What He thereby accomplished in His own flesh and blood, crucified and risen, He reveals and gives to His Body, the Church, by the means of His Word. Therefore, the Father declares from heaven, “Listen to Him!” (Luke 9:35).

Collect for Transfiguration: O God, in the glorious transfiguration of Your beloved Son You confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of Moses and Elijah. In the voice that came from the bright cloud, You wonderfully foreshowed our adoption by grace. Mercifully make us co-heirs with the King in His glory and bring us to fullness of our inheritance in heaven[2].-21 February, 2022

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[1] The Transfiguration of our Lord, woodcut by Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld, a nineteenth-century German artist known especially for his book ‘The Book of Books in Pictures’ ©WELS for personal and congregational use.
[2] Collect for Transfiguration, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis