You can listen to this reflection here. The gospel reading for the Feast of the Transfiguration is here.
Tuesday was the Feast of the Transfiguration. It is an odd event to celebrate, with its mystical magnificence and down-to-earth reactions from the three men who witnessed it. It is an event that takes place on a retreat, during prayer: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.
When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai after 40 days in God’s presence, his face shone so brightly people found it blinding. Perhaps there is a physiological effect when a human is in the fullness of God’s presence, as Jesus was in prayer that day. When I feel filled with the Spirit, my face gets hot – is that just a very limited manifestation of the same effect?
August 6 is also the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, where a blinding light heralded not a divine manifestation but the unleashing of unimaginable destructive force, which vaporized some people, burned others alive and killed or sickened a whole populace. Between 90,000 and 146,000 people died as a result of the atomic bombing, (39,000-80,000 in Nagasaki); roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. Some maintain that killing prevented a much greater slaughter had the war continued; we will never know. We must live with what happened, and mourn the children and elderly and families, and survivors who were never again the same.
On the face of it these two events have nothing in common save a date of commemoration. But the power displayed in Jesus on that mountain and the dazzling light have forged a connection of sorts in my mind. The confluence invites us to remember that light does not always signal the presence of God; after all, one name in the bible for the devil is Lucifer, which means “light-bearer.” And though God is the most powerful agent in the universe, there are other powers which humans can access as well. In fact, when a person gives him or herself over wholly to evil, he can become quite powerful and unleash unbelievable and wide-ranging destruction.
Yet even such people can be countered by those who know the true light, the One who said he was the Light of the World. And He has called us to bear this true light, to come against the forces of darkness with the power that is in the Name of Jesus. Wherever we see destruction unleashed today, whether on our borders, or in the tyranny of a drug lord in a broken neighborhood, or a dictator with no regard for the wellbeing of his people, or a corporation with no regard for the future of our planet, we can invoke the greater light we’ve been promised in Christ.
We can speak truth to power, and justice to oppression. We can sit with those in terror for their lives, bearing witness, doing our best to ensure they are treated justly. And how do we do this? By inviting the power of the Spirit to fill us as we pray and as we do ministry. It is God’s work; we are merely the vessels. And God will prevail. Whether or not our faces shine with God’s light, as we serve and proclaim and carry forth the greater light of Jesus Christ, the flashes of evil will be put down under his feet. God will be made known.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Showing posts with label Hiroshima. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hiroshima. Show all posts
8-4-23 - Power and Light
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
I am intrigued by the physics of the Transfiguration. Did Jesus become filled with blinding light, did he reflect the light of God – or did he become light? My pet theory is that in that moment Jesus let slip the veil of human flesh that contained him during his incarnate life in this world, and manifest the light of which he was fashioned. “I am the light of the world,” he said. Physics tells us that light is one form of energy. God, the essential energy of the cosmos, can manifest anywhere along the spectrum – perhaps in that moment the Son of God became pure, blinding light.
The idea of God as pure energy, the source of all energy, helps to make sense of the miraculous, and aligns with much scientific thinking (not that I understand scientific thinking well enough to talk about how it aligns… I only know many physicists think so). If I had my druthers, I would refer to what Jesus called “the kingdom of God” as “the energy field of God” – that seems a more descriptive label.
If all matter is really energy, it makes sense that Jesus invites us to tap into the Energy that launched the universe, in which all things are restored to wholeness. That is what we are doing when we pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are praying ourselves into the energy field of God, and as we become comfortable channeling that energy, we become better conductors of it into the realm of this world.
Of course, energy can be harnessed to destruction as well as growth. The same Sunday when we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6th, is the day that marks the atomic bombings of Hiroshima in 1945. In that blinding light was unleashed enough energy to flatten a city, turn many of its citizens into walking torches, and poison the survivors with radiation that affected generations. Without arguing the factors that brought about that event, we can agree on the tragedy of death and destruction of ordinary people on such a scale. God’s gifts to us can be used to build up or to tear down, to give life or to bring death.
God has made us stewards of the power that generated worlds. Even now, God invites us to dwell in his energy field, to become conductors of Holy Spirit power into broken people and systems, governments and communities. Perhaps this power of God, wielded in faith, can even heal the damage we have done to this earth we call home.
Where are you being called to be a conduit of light and energy? God’s power and light?
Come Sunday, let us grieve the estimated 135,000 or so lives lost 78 years ago, and the human ways of dealing with conflict that brought about such an event. And let us celebrate the power Jesus showed for just a moment on that mountain, so his followers would have a visual image of the Life of God that he demonstrated in every word and miracle, even in his death, and certainly in his resurrection. That power is given to us. It is made perfect in our weakness. Let God wield it through you.
I am intrigued by the physics of the Transfiguration. Did Jesus become filled with blinding light, did he reflect the light of God – or did he become light? My pet theory is that in that moment Jesus let slip the veil of human flesh that contained him during his incarnate life in this world, and manifest the light of which he was fashioned. “I am the light of the world,” he said. Physics tells us that light is one form of energy. God, the essential energy of the cosmos, can manifest anywhere along the spectrum – perhaps in that moment the Son of God became pure, blinding light.
The idea of God as pure energy, the source of all energy, helps to make sense of the miraculous, and aligns with much scientific thinking (not that I understand scientific thinking well enough to talk about how it aligns… I only know many physicists think so). If I had my druthers, I would refer to what Jesus called “the kingdom of God” as “the energy field of God” – that seems a more descriptive label.
If all matter is really energy, it makes sense that Jesus invites us to tap into the Energy that launched the universe, in which all things are restored to wholeness. That is what we are doing when we pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We are praying ourselves into the energy field of God, and as we become comfortable channeling that energy, we become better conductors of it into the realm of this world.
Of course, energy can be harnessed to destruction as well as growth. The same Sunday when we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6th, is the day that marks the atomic bombings of Hiroshima in 1945. In that blinding light was unleashed enough energy to flatten a city, turn many of its citizens into walking torches, and poison the survivors with radiation that affected generations. Without arguing the factors that brought about that event, we can agree on the tragedy of death and destruction of ordinary people on such a scale. God’s gifts to us can be used to build up or to tear down, to give life or to bring death.
God has made us stewards of the power that generated worlds. Even now, God invites us to dwell in his energy field, to become conductors of Holy Spirit power into broken people and systems, governments and communities. Perhaps this power of God, wielded in faith, can even heal the damage we have done to this earth we call home.
Where are you being called to be a conduit of light and energy? God’s power and light?
Come Sunday, let us grieve the estimated 135,000 or so lives lost 78 years ago, and the human ways of dealing with conflict that brought about such an event. And let us celebrate the power Jesus showed for just a moment on that mountain, so his followers would have a visual image of the Life of God that he demonstrated in every word and miracle, even in his death, and certainly in his resurrection. That power is given to us. It is made perfect in our weakness. Let God wield it through you.
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