Sunday, March 2, 2014

Transfiguration Sunday

O Wondrous type! O vision Fair Lutheran Service Book  #413

 Isaiah 9:2, 6-7; Matthew 4:16
O wondrous type! O vision fair
Of glory that he Church may share,
With Christ upon the mountain shows,
Where brighter than the sun He glows!
Today is the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany. Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Through this season of Epiphany, we have witnessed the glory of God manifested in Jesus, but today God’s full glory is reflected in Jesus. Jesus’ glory is shown by the brightness of His physical appearance, the appearance of Moses and Elijah, and the presence of the Father evidenced by a cloud and a voice.

Since Jesus has come to the full possession of God’s glory, He is prepared to fulfill His mission as the Messiah by going to Jerusalem to the cross. In Lent, we make a pilgrimage with Jesus to suffer and die with Him. Your baptism indicates that the Old Adam in us should be daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.[1] Our journey begins today from the mountain of Transfiguration, through the valley of Lent, to the cross at Mount Calvary and to an open tomb on Easter Sunday. May the pilgrimage begin.  

O God, who on the holy mountain revealed the chosen witnesses Your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in His beauty; who with You, O Father, and You O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. [2]

[1] Luther’s Small Catechism; Baptism, What does such baptizing with water indicate?
[2] For All the Saints; Collect for Transfiguration, © The American Lutheran Publicity  Bureau, Delhi, NY




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