This Proper is always used on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
O God, who before the passion of thy only begotten Son
didst reveal his glory upon the holy mount: Grant unto us
that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may
be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his
likeness from glory to glory; through the same Jesus Christ
our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Preface of the Epiphany
A reading from the book Exodus. Exodus 24:12-18
12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." 13 So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, "Tarry here for us, until we come to you again; and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a cause, let him go to them." 15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
The Word of the Lord.
99 Dominus regnavit page 728
1 The LORD is King;
let the people tremble; *
he is enthroned upon the cherubim;
let the earth shake.
2 The LORD is great in Zion; *
he is high above all peoples.
3 Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; *
he is the Holy One.
4 "O mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established equity; *
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."
5 Proclaim the greatness of the LORD our God
and fall down before his footstool; *
he is the Holy One.
6 Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, *
they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; *
they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them indeed; *
you were a God who forgave them,
yet punished them for their evil deeds.
9 Proclaim the greatness of the LORD our God
and worship him upon his holy hill; *
for the LORD our God is the Holy One.
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians. Philippians 3:7-14
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Word of the Lord.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Matthew 17:1-9
1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." 5 He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. 9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead."
The Gospel of the Lord.
The Last Sunday in Epiphany
Year A
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This past Christmas, I was given a pair of khaki slacks that I really like. Because they are comfortable and fit well, I wanted to make sure that I knew the manufacturer so that I could buy an additional pair. The label inside said, "Faded Glory".
This past week I again looked at the label and found myself wondering why someone would call their company "Faded Glory". It seems sort of negative from a marketing perspective. It brings to mind the term, "Has been", it brings to mind the Vietnam War when the phrase, "Faded Glory" was often applied to our military in relation to how the glory of the fantastic achievements in World War II were being forgotten, and the Vietnam era began to try an vilify the US military. I could find nothing positive about the term.
This past Thursday night, during one of our two weekly Bible studies here at Saint John's, I found myself again faced with the concept of "Faded Glory". This time in one of Paul's letters to the Corinthian Church. There he compared the Glory of God which shown in the face of Moses after he received the Commandments, to the glory of Christ Jesus.
Paul points out that the Law was received with Glory and Splendor. But that Moses veiled his face, not to hide the glory, but to hide its' fading. Moses' face did not continue to shine with the glory of the Lord, but instead, he only had to wear the veil immediately after he was in the presence of the Lord.
The glory of Christ too, was veiled for a time. But not because He did not want us to see that glory fade. Christ's Glory is the Glory of God, because Christ is God. And as were heard in this morning's Gospel, the glory of God, when witnessed by perishable, corruptible, and sinful mortals brings about fear, and it brings about confusion.
Imagine yourself on the mountain top with Christ when his glory is allowed to be seen. His clothes and face do not just become white, they actual give off light. A glowing person would be a fearful thing. But then Moses and Elijah, both who were known to be in Heaven, suddenly appear.
Listen again to the words which indicate Peter's reaction, he says,
"Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
That is not a particularly rational response to what Peter was witnessing, but it was the best he could manage under the circumstances. It is a manifestation of Peter's awe, fear, and confusion. He is reacting to the Glory of God which he witnessed unveiled for the first time, and it simply overloaded his circuits.
This is the same man, who was the first to confess that Jesus, "was the Christ, the Son of the living God," only a week before. Peter knew who Jesus was, but he was not prepared for the beauty, and the splendor, of His Glory.
Now God's Glory does not fade. The Glory of Christ has no beginning and no end. He did not receive His Glory at His Baptism, because He is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, begotten before all worlds. The Glory of Christ did not end because He now sits at the right hand of the Father in Glory everlasting. The Glory of Christ is eternal. But His glory was veiled so that faith would come.
The glory of Christ was veiled so that faith would come. It was necessary for Peter to believe and know that Christ was God before Peter could behold His Glory, because Peter needed to first have faith. And if one has faith, and if one beholds the glory of the Lord, then that Glory begins to become a part of those who were Created in His likeness, because God's glory is something that man is to share.
I must wonder if the faces of Peter, James and John shone with the same radiance as did that of Moses. The Gospels do not mention this, but I wonder.
If they did shine, then it could not have been for long because the other Apostles would have reacted to it. I suspect that the reason the Glory which shown in the face of Moses faded, is because Moses, like the rest of us, sinned. Perhaps a sinful body cannot retain glory. Or as Paul said, the perishable cannot inherit the imperishable.
Not only can we not receive the everlasting glory of God as we are, but we can only rarely glimpse that glory, and only if God chooses to unveil it, that is, reveal it, to us. But what perceptions we have of God as He is, is always but a fleeting moment. Never to be grasped by us fully, and always diluted with our sins, and the distractions of the world.
I was taught during my confirmation classed that we are always to genuflect if we cross before the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood--except under two circumstances. The first is important only if you are an acolyte, and that is you merely bow deeply if you are carrying a torch. This is a practical consideration, but the other circumstance in which you would not genuflect before the Sacrament is not so much practical as it is spiritual.
Fr. J.J. Niles told me that when you return to the pew after receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord, you bow to the Altar, but do not genuflect to the Sacrament because you are carrying the Sacrament within you at that time. But there is another form of piety that I have noticed some in this parish follow, and that is to genuflect even when you are carrying the Sacrament within you from the Altar Rail. I asked a priest several years ago why some did this, and he asked me a question by way of response. He said, "How long does the Consecrated Bread and Wine remain in your body?"
I said, I don't know, but it was certainly still there by the time I got back to my pew. He asked another question, he said, "What happens to the effect of the Body of our Lord when we sin while it is still in it?". To this I answered that I thought it probably was as if we had rejected Christ at that moment and the effect was diminished, but not power of Christ within the Sacrament. He then asked me one more question, he said, "How far can you go from the Altar Rail before you have thought of something other than God, or sinned in your mind, or had an uncharitable, or unholy thought?" And I answered, I am pretty sure I have never made it back to my pew before that happened. He then said, "That is why some genuflect right after they received, to indicate that they recognize that the undiminished glory always remains only in the pure presence of Christ."
I have genuflected after receiving the Sacrament ever since. It is a way of confessing that I have no glory of my own, and that which Christ gives me, fades because of my lack of holiness.
But while I attempt to recognize my own sinfulness, and thus, my own dependance upon God's Grace, I do not wallow in self-pity, nor do I loose hope that one day, God's glory will be in me, and nothing will be able to cause it to fade, nor diminish. Paul tells us by his example in our Lesson this morning that we are to 'forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead.' And that we are to "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
That prize of the upward call is the prize of an imperishable body that lives forever without sin, and that upward call is to His Glory which never fades, but rather is everlasting by our being made one body with Him, that he may dwell in us, and we in Him. It is to that day, that we all must press on. Not that we have already attained it, but yet we press on to make it our own, as Christ Jesus has already made us His own. We press on to the glory which never fades--we press on to Christ's Glory.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Last Sunday after the Epiphany
This Proper is always used on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.
O God, who before the passion of thy only begotten Son
didst reveal his glory upon the holy mount: Grant unto us
that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may
be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his
likeness from glory to glory; through the same Jesus Christ
our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Preface of the Epiphany
A reading from the book Exodus. Exodus 24:12-18
12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." 13 So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 And he said to the elders, "Tarry here for us, until we come to you again; and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a cause, let him go to them." 15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
The Word of the Lord.
99 Dominus regnavit page 728
1 The LORD is King;
let the people tremble; *
he is enthroned upon the cherubim;
let the earth shake.
2 The LORD is great in Zion; *
he is high above all peoples.
3 Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; *
he is the Holy One.
4 "O mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established equity; *
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."
5 Proclaim the greatness of the LORD our God
and fall down before his footstool; *
he is the Holy One.
6 Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, *
they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; *
they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them indeed; *
you were a God who forgave them,
yet punished them for their evil deeds.
9 Proclaim the greatness of the LORD our God
and worship him upon his holy hill; *
for the LORD our God is the Holy One.
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians. Philippians 3:7-14
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Word of the Lord.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Matthew 17:1-9
1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." 5 He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. 9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead."
The Gospel of the Lord.
The Last Sunday in Epiphany
Year A
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This past Christmas, I was given a pair of khaki slacks that I really like. Because they are comfortable and fit well, I wanted to make sure that I knew the manufacturer so that I could buy an additional pair. The label inside said, "Faded Glory".
This past week I again looked at the label and found myself wondering why someone would call their company "Faded Glory". It seems sort of negative from a marketing perspective. It brings to mind the term, "Has been", it brings to mind the Vietnam War when the phrase, "Faded Glory" was often applied to our military in relation to how the glory of the fantastic achievements in World War II were being forgotten, and the Vietnam era began to try an vilify the US military. I could find nothing positive about the term.
This past Thursday night, during one of our two weekly Bible studies here at Saint John's, I found myself again faced with the concept of "Faded Glory". This time in one of Paul's letters to the Corinthian Church. There he compared the Glory of God which shown in the face of Moses after he received the Commandments, to the glory of Christ Jesus.
Paul points out that the Law was received with Glory and Splendor. But that Moses veiled his face, not to hide the glory, but to hide its' fading. Moses' face did not continue to shine with the glory of the Lord, but instead, he only had to wear the veil immediately after he was in the presence of the Lord.
The glory of Christ too, was veiled for a time. But not because He did not want us to see that glory fade. Christ's Glory is the Glory of God, because Christ is God. And as were heard in this morning's Gospel, the glory of God, when witnessed by perishable, corruptible, and sinful mortals brings about fear, and it brings about confusion.
Imagine yourself on the mountain top with Christ when his glory is allowed to be seen. His clothes and face do not just become white, they actual give off light. A glowing person would be a fearful thing. But then Moses and Elijah, both who were known to be in Heaven, suddenly appear.
Listen again to the words which indicate Peter's reaction, he says,
"Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
That is not a particularly rational response to what Peter was witnessing, but it was the best he could manage under the circumstances. It is a manifestation of Peter's awe, fear, and confusion. He is reacting to the Glory of God which he witnessed unveiled for the first time, and it simply overloaded his circuits.
This is the same man, who was the first to confess that Jesus, "was the Christ, the Son of the living God," only a week before. Peter knew who Jesus was, but he was not prepared for the beauty, and the splendor, of His Glory.
Now God's Glory does not fade. The Glory of Christ has no beginning and no end. He did not receive His Glory at His Baptism, because He is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, begotten before all worlds. The Glory of Christ did not end because He now sits at the right hand of the Father in Glory everlasting. The Glory of Christ is eternal. But His glory was veiled so that faith would come.
The glory of Christ was veiled so that faith would come. It was necessary for Peter to believe and know that Christ was God before Peter could behold His Glory, because Peter needed to first have faith. And if one has faith, and if one beholds the glory of the Lord, then that Glory begins to become a part of those who were Created in His likeness, because God's glory is something that man is to share.
I must wonder if the faces of Peter, James and John shone with the same radiance as did that of Moses. The Gospels do not mention this, but I wonder.
If they did shine, then it could not have been for long because the other Apostles would have reacted to it. I suspect that the reason the Glory which shown in the face of Moses faded, is because Moses, like the rest of us, sinned. Perhaps a sinful body cannot retain glory. Or as Paul said, the perishable cannot inherit the imperishable.
Not only can we not receive the everlasting glory of God as we are, but we can only rarely glimpse that glory, and only if God chooses to unveil it, that is, reveal it, to us. But what perceptions we have of God as He is, is always but a fleeting moment. Never to be grasped by us fully, and always diluted with our sins, and the distractions of the world.
I was taught during my confirmation classed that we are always to genuflect if we cross before the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood--except under two circumstances. The first is important only if you are an acolyte, and that is you merely bow deeply if you are carrying a torch. This is a practical consideration, but the other circumstance in which you would not genuflect before the Sacrament is not so much practical as it is spiritual.
Fr. J.J. Niles told me that when you return to the pew after receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord, you bow to the Altar, but do not genuflect to the Sacrament because you are carrying the Sacrament within you at that time. But there is another form of piety that I have noticed some in this parish follow, and that is to genuflect even when you are carrying the Sacrament within you from the Altar Rail. I asked a priest several years ago why some did this, and he asked me a question by way of response. He said, "How long does the Consecrated Bread and Wine remain in your body?"
I said, I don't know, but it was certainly still there by the time I got back to my pew. He asked another question, he said, "What happens to the effect of the Body of our Lord when we sin while it is still in it?". To this I answered that I thought it probably was as if we had rejected Christ at that moment and the effect was diminished, but not power of Christ within the Sacrament. He then asked me one more question, he said, "How far can you go from the Altar Rail before you have thought of something other than God, or sinned in your mind, or had an uncharitable, or unholy thought?" And I answered, I am pretty sure I have never made it back to my pew before that happened. He then said, "That is why some genuflect right after they received, to indicate that they recognize that the undiminished glory always remains only in the pure presence of Christ."
I have genuflected after receiving the Sacrament ever since. It is a way of confessing that I have no glory of my own, and that which Christ gives me, fades because of my lack of holiness.
But while I attempt to recognize my own sinfulness, and thus, my own dependance upon God's Grace, I do not wallow in self-pity, nor do I loose hope that one day, God's glory will be in me, and nothing will be able to cause it to fade, nor diminish. Paul tells us by his example in our Lesson this morning that we are to 'forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead.' And that we are to "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
That prize of the upward call is the prize of an imperishable body that lives forever without sin, and that upward call is to His Glory which never fades, but rather is everlasting by our being made one body with Him, that he may dwell in us, and we in Him. It is to that day, that we all must press on. Not that we have already attained it, but yet we press on to make it our own, as Christ Jesus has already made us His own. We press on to the glory which never fades--we press on to Christ's Glory.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Copyright © 1996 W. Crews Giles
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