Psalm 99: Transformation

 On this Last Sunday of the Season of Epiphany we are confronted with the Glory of the Lord in all the readings. In the reading from Exodus, Moses is called up onto Mount Sinai and into the presence of God which was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. (Exodus 24:17-18)

The Gospel account is the Transfiguration event as told in Matthew 17. In the Second Letter of Peter, we hear the author recount what happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration where He received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:17-18) This rendering of the Transfiguration is by Munir Alawi.

There are two options for the Psalm for this Sunday. Either Psalm 2 or Psalm 99, both of which speak of the glory and power of God. I chose Psalm 99 because I couldn’t get past the imagery from Handel's Messiah where the bass solo sings, “The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers take council together, against the Lord and His anointed.” This is followed by a couple more movements before the grand Hallelujah Chorus. 

Psalm 99 calls us to remember that Yahweh is enthroned above the cherubim…exalted above all the people (as the Legacy Standard Bible puts it). The Psalmist reminds us that the King loves justice, established equity [and] done justice. As we enter Lent in just a few days, we are reminded, God is a forgiving God…yet an avenger of their evil deeds. Exalt Yahweh our God And worship at His holy mountain, For holy is Yahweh our God.

In our preparations for Ash Wednesday and Lent, we do well to consider where we have fallen short of justice, equity, righteousness, and worship. On this Sunday we are reminded of the Transformative Glory of God. We can ponder our response to that Holiness.

Psalm 99 The Lord is King; let the people tremble; * he is enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth shake. The Lord is great in Zion; * he is high above all peoples. Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; * he is the Holy One. “O mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; * you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.” Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God and fall down before his footstool; * he is the Holy One. Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, * they called upon the Lord, and he answered them. He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; *  they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them. “O Lord our God, you answered them indeed; * you were a God who forgave them,  yet punished them for their evil deeds.” Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God and worship him upon his holy hill; * for the Lord our God is the Holy One.                  (Episcopal Book of Common Prayer)

Yahweh reigns, let the peoples tremble; He sits enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth quake! Yahweh is great in Zion, And He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He. The strength of the King loves justice; You have established equity; You have done justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt Yahweh our God And worship at the footstool of His feet; Holy is He. Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called on His name; They would call upon Yahweh and He would answer them. He would speak to them in the pillar of cloud; They kept His testimonies And the statute that He gave them. O Yahweh our God, You answered them; You were a forgiving God to them, And yet an avenger of their evil deeds. Exalt Yahweh our God And worship at His holy mountain, For holy is Yahweh our God. (Legacy Standard Bible)

 

Extraordinary Women: Catherine Winkworth

There are 2 feasts this week. The Feast of the Transfiguration is on August 6, and we remember Catherine Winkworth, a 19^th century poet on the 7^th.

Who was Catherine Winkworth? That was my first question. Perhaps you know are familiar with her, but I wasn’t. The lectionary says she was a poet who died in 1878. In fact, she was more than that. She translated German choral hymns. For that she is recognized by both the Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran Churches. Perhaps more importantly she worked for the right to education for girls and women.

She was born in England in 1827. Her father was a silk merchant in Manchester, England. The family later lived in Clifton, near Bristol. She studied with the Rev. William Gaskell and Dr. James Martineau, both of whom were leaders in British Unitarianism in Manchester.

During a year in Dresden she discovered an interest in German hymns and published translations of some in Lyra Germanica in 1854. This collection of German hymns was followed by a second one. In the 1860’s she coauthored The Chorale Book for England and Christian Singers of Germany. The Harvard University Hymn Book states that Winkworth “did more than any other single individual to make the rich heritage of German hymnody available to the English-speaking world." The Hymnal 1982 uses nine of her translations, including #53, #67, #339.

In her work for education for women and girls she held a prophetic role by pointing out need and working for change. She was secretary of the Clifton Association for Higher Education for Women. She supported the Clifton High School for Girls and Cheltenham Ladies’ College and served as governor of Red Maids' School, Bristol. She published biographies of founders of two sisterhoods: Life of Pastor Fliedner and Life of Amelia Sieveking. Her work helped make people aware of what a woman can do, in a time when women were often overlooked.  

Catherine Winkworth died July 1, 1878 in Monnetier in Savoy, France. The collect for her day picks up on her translation of ‘Comfort ye my people’, (#64) a hymn by Johann Olearius (1611-1684). It says, “Comfort your people, O God of peace, and prepare a way for us in the desert, that, like your poet and translator Catherine Winkworth, we may preserve the spiritual treasures of your saints of former years and sing our thanks to you with hearts and hands and voices, eternal triune God whom earth and heaven adore; for you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.”

The Epistle for the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6) reminds us that we are all, like Catherine Winkworth, prophets and witnesses to the world of God and God’s work. In the Second Letter of Peter, we hear, “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory…For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. 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. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:13-21)

The Holy Spirit moved Catherine Winkworth to speak the truth about the need for education for women. Her hymn translations continue to inspire worshippers. She used her gifts and mind to work for change.

What truth are you called to speak?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Winkworth

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/glossary/winkworth-catherine

Transfiguration

I’ve been thinking a lot about “Transfiguration,” partly because last Monday was the Feast of the Transfiguration. You can find the Gospel account in Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8 and Luke 9:28-36. Instead of focusing on Jesus whose “face shone like the sun and his garments became white as light”, I’ve been thinking about the reactions of Peter, James and John who were with Jesus.

At first, they probably thought it was rather special that they were chosen to go with Jesus to pray while the other disciples stayed behind. Maybe they expected some private training in prayer or being a better disciple. Maybe they thought he was going to explain some of his more cryptic comments recently.

However, what happened on the mountain was outside of their experience entirely. They did not get some private prayer mantra. They did not get private disciple lessons. What Peter, James, and John got was a vision of the Glory of God, previously reserved for Moses and Elijah who, lo and behold, were there too!

Imagine for a minute that you are a Galilean fisherman living in first century Palestine under Roman rule. Not too long ago you met Jesus, an itinerant rabbi. There was something about him that warmed your heart and made you leave everything to go with him. No longer can you say ‘I am a fisherman’ because that’s behind you. You do say, “I am Jesus’ disciple,” but you aren’t completely sure what that means. With Jesus and a few other men you’ve been traveling around Galilee. He’s been healing the sick and feeding thousands with a bit of bread and fish. Jesus also sometimes says some pretty astonishing things, and you wish he’d explain them.

Remember, about a week before the Transfiguration, Peter blurted out, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” but got rebuked for scolding Jesus who started trying to explain to all the disciples that the Kingdom of God comes at a cost—even the cost of a cross. Jesus had said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Your training in the Torah has, of necessity, been a bit skimpy. The best rabbis gather in Jerusalem, not provincial Galilee. The local rabbi is not the greatest scholar and belabors points when he preaches. Being a fisherman means you haven’t really had much time to sit around discussing the finer points of the Law and Prophets, anyway. Trading with the ‘pagan’ merchants who come to the Sea of Galilee to buy fish for their clients across the empire means that you have been exposed, like it or not, to un-Jewish ideas. Sometimes it is even hard to hold onto your identity as Jewish in the face working and trading and making a living.

You do, however, know about Moses and Elijah. They are the pinnacle of what it means to be a Jew. Moses is the great deliverer and giver of the Law, while Elijah stood up for God against Jezebel and all her priests and later was taken up into heaven by the flaming “chariots Israel and its horsemen’ (2 Kings 2:11-12) Now here you are on this mountain with Jesus and there are Moses and Elijah-long dead, but not dead now. It’s a pretty amazing and awe inspiring event! No wonder Peter again blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, “…if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” I like this image of the Transfiguration because it shows the three disciples adoring the vision rather than flattened to the ground by the event.

The next thing that happens is even more astonishing for the trio of former fishermen. They are surrounded by a cloud and hear “a voice from the cloud…’This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.” Probably in that moment they were totally overwhelmed, but later as they thought about it, they would have recognized that it was the same cloud that overshadowed Moses when he received the Law on Mount Sinai and that led the Children of Israel through the wilderness. 

Glimpses of God’s Glory make us want to hang onto the moment so it will last. How often do we attend a retreat that is very moving and inspirational and find that it is very hard to ‘come back to earth’ when we get home and find the laundry piled up and the kids squabbling? (You may recall that the same thing happens to Jesus and the three disciples-see Matthew 17:14f)

We are not told if Peter, James and John were different when they came down from the mountain. Perhaps, like Moses of old, their faces shown for a while, too. I am sure that they were transfigured in their hearts. That didn’t make them perfect. Peter, after all, later denies he knew Jesus. The experience, like any transfiguring change, became part of their hearts and souls and the way they lived, if only for brief moments when the event was remembered.

Transfiguration experiences do not have to be as dramatic as seeing Moses and Elijah and hearing a voice from a cloud. Deep insight during a time of prayer, an especially moving worship service, the unexpected beauty of nature, and many other things can all be times when we experience being in the presence of God. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning says, “Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” (Aurora Leigh)

Have you experienced God’s fire or God’s cloud? Have you heard God’s voice? You are blessed. God’s glory is all around. Let’s look for it, instead of just picking blackberries.

God in Man made Manifest VI

This week we'll look at the end of Hymn 135 (Episcopal Hymnal 1980). The final verse in Christopher Wordsworth’s hymn is actually written by F. Bland Tucker. We, literally, reach the summit of “God in man made manifest.” We have journeyed from the infant worshipped by the ‘sages from afar’ in ‘Thy birth at Bethlehem,’ to the One who started his ministry by ‘changing water into wine’ and ‘making whole palsied limbs and fainting souls.’ The verses from the Lutheran hymn version reminded us of the time when ‘Stars shall fall, the heavens shall flee, Christ will then like lightning shine.’ Because of that we are to ‘see Thee, Lord, mirrored in Thy holy Word;’ and ‘we imitate Thee now.’ This last verse gives me chills because it sums up the season of Lent that we’ll be entering in just a couple of weeks.

Manifest on mountain height,

shining in resplendent light

where disciples filled with awe

Thy transfigured glory saw.

When from there thou leddest them

Steadfast to Jerusalem.

Cross and Easter Day attest

God in man made manifest.

With the Peter, James, and John we stand with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. The scene is recorded in 3 of the 4 Gospels, so it was obviously very important to the Church. (Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36) In all three Gospels, this happens six days after Jesus asks his disciples “who do men say I am” and more importantly “who do you say I am?” Peter’s response, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” was an important turning point for the disciples because Jesus immediately starts to explain that “he will suffer many things from the elders and chief priests…and be killed, and on the third day rise.”

Despite Peter’s immediate, heated response, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you” and Jesus’ rebuke, Peter is one of the three who accompany their Master onto the mountain. There they see him “transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light.” Not only that, “Moses and Elijah [were] talking with him.” The figures from the Old Testament that represent the Law and Prophets come to Jesus to “talk about his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

Peter’s impetuous response to seeing this wonder and glory is to suggest building “booths…one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Instead of a building project, the trio is “overshadowed by a cloud, then a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.’” They fall to their faces and find themselves alone with Jesus who “commanded them, ‘Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead.’”

Peter, James, and John had a special experience. You would think that would change them permanently and make them confident, holy, and brave. We know though, that when push came to shove, all the disciples ran away and Peter denied he knew the Lord. That should be heartening to us who struggle daily to be ‘good Christians,’ but fall short.

Jesus knew the road he must travel and led the disciples “steadfast to Jerusalem.” In the Holy City, Jesus knew he would confront the nation’s religious and secular rulers. He knew that they would reject his message and that he would die. However, the ultimate triumph would be the Resurrection. Jesus tells Peter, James, and John to “tell no one…until the Son of man is raised from the dead.” They were probably confused about that statement. In the Gospel of Mark, “they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.” (Mark 9:10) It was not until they saw the empty tomb that Peter and John began to understand that “God in man [was] made manifest.”

Sometimes we have ‘mountaintop experiences.’ A special service at church, a blessed time with family and friends, the return to health after a heart attack or other sickness, can all be times we feel we have encountered God very closely. Like Peter we want to stay in that special place, but we have to return to the day-to-day living. Even though for a while we are changed, we usually slip back into the old routines. How can we maintain the new sense of the closeness of God? It can help to establish a routine of prayer time to draw close, again, to the Holy One who calls us Beloved. Journaling, meditation, music are other ways to maintain a relationship with God. You probably have your own.

March 9 is the beginning of Lent. It’s not too early to start thinking about what your Lenten discipline will be. On this blog, I’ll be sharing thoughts from the Walk Through Lent Study I’m presenting at my church this year. There are also many online Lenten devotions, some of which will come daily to your inbox. One is Episcopal Relief and Development . A quick web search will help you connect with other resources, too.

Next week, I will have a special book review to share. I recently read Grasp, Making Sense of Science and Spirituality by Fr. Jim Trainor. He looks at how science and religion really are not at odds with one another from his unique perspective as a physicist and ordained priest. The study guide in Trainor’s book might just be another option for a Lenten study.