THE POWER AND COMING (Monday, August 6)

“Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming (δύναμιν καὶ παρουσίαν) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed (βεβαιότερον, more sure), which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts…” (2 Pet 1: 15-19)

What is “made known” to us, through the eyewitness-accounts of the Holy Apostles? It’s not “only” the story of the “coming” of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also the “power” of that story. Unlike many other stories we hear every day, in our 24-hour news-cycle, the Good News of Holy Scripture, a foretase of which we already have in “the prophetic word” of the Old Testament, brings us life and light, ever revitalizing and enlightening the oft-“dark place” of our hearts.

This is a kind of “life and light” rather different from our other kinds of “life and light,” I’m thinking this morning, as New-Calendar people celebrate the great feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. As I watch the sun come up in my beautiful city of Vienna, Austria, I’m thinking, – here comes another muggy day of our present heatwave. Unlike the “coming” of the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ, the daily “coming” of sunlight into my morning is not invariably experienced by me as “power,” but sometimes as quite the opposite.

Thank You, Lord, for the daily reminders of You, our ever-invigorating, ever-transfigurating Source of Light, both in the Scriptures handed down to us, and in our natural surroundings. Let me stretch towards You, and walk in Your light, on this sunny Monday.

Sister vassa coffee