People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: Transfiguration ~ Cloudy with a Chance of Reign, The Transfiguration '17 Yr A

For Sunday, August 6, 2017, Transfiguration, Year A, Readings: Exodus 34:29-35, Psalm 99:5-9, 2Peter 1:13-21, Luke 9:28-36

[Moses] came down from Mount Sinai...with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand...Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God...When Moses had finished speaking with [Aaron and the Israelites] he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord...he would take the veil off until he came out. [Exodus 34:29-30, 33]

...they called upon the Lord, and he answered them. He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud. [Psalm 99:6b, 7a]

We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven...So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. [2 Peter 1: 18-19]

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. [Luke 9:28-31]

It was a miracle of God in which Jesus is not the one performing but the one receiving. Jesus took several disciples to the mountain to pray. We don't know if Jesus knew this moment was coming. His three companions were certainly blasted awake from the sleepiness that was about to overtake them as suddenly, at this moment, at the top of the mountain, in a near-blinding all-encompassing cloud, that Human and Divine meet, when Jesus is the immediate conduit between heaven and earth, when the temporal and eternal spark a dazzling display of transcendent, Majestic Glory all in the sight of the chosen disciples who then bear witness to the prophecy confirmed.
Moses and Elijah appear, representing the Law and the Prophets, converse with Jesus about his coming departure at Jerusalem, then they vanish. God speaks again, as at the Baptism of Jesus, to say that Jesus is God’s beloved Son and to tell the chosen disciples (and us!) to listen to him. Luke, in the original Greek, carefully chooses exodus as the word to describe the departure of Jesus. Through this new Exodus, the departure of Jesus in death and resurrection, a new order, that of the Messiah, is established, leading God's people out of the bondage of sin and into the true and eternal promised land of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Transfiguration is a critical piece in the significant events in the life of Jesus. The others are his Baptism, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. It is at this moment that Christ is confirmed by God as His Son, the Chosen, to those present. The mission of the disciples is then fully inaugurated in their own minds and they spend the rest of their lives in Christ's service and spreading the Gospel. It is this moment, in this spectacular cloud, that the Reign of Christ, our King, begins. It is this moment, now, that we must emerge as if from a cloud to listen, to learn, and to chance to live into the Reign of Jesus, by our thoughts, our words, and our actions. God knows we are marked as Christ's own forever. It's time again that we know, too.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ God of Majesty and Glory, upon Your Sacred Mountains you gave Moses the Law for our instruction and transfigured the Being of Your Son, Jesus, as the shining example for our lives. Rise in our hearts as the morning star as we seek to lift the Gospel veil to listen, and then to live according to Your Word.

Beloved Jesus, Face of God

RESPONSE: Transfigure us for Your Service

~ God of Majesty and Glory, transform the hearts, the souls, and the minds of the leaders of this world, this nation, and this community, so that their judgments are unclouded by personal ambition, and they legislate justice with wisdom, tempered with mercy for all. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Beloved Jesus, Face of God