God: Hidden and Revealed

Devotional Reflection, Friday, February 7, 2025

Friday of the fourth week after the Epiphany

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:

2 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, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 6He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ 8Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 946)

AM Psalm 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; PM Psalm 73

Isa. 56:1-8; Gal. 5:16-24; Mark 9:2-13

David's Reflections

In Isaiah 45:15, we read the strange-sounding, counterintuitive words, "You are the God who hides yourself."  What could the prophet have meant by that? I've heard since childhood that God reveals Godself, that God wants to know us and be known, to relate personally.  After all, God walked in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve.  They were the ones who hid after they ate of the tree.  Moses saw a manifestation of God in the burning bush and hid his face.  How often have you heard it said that Jesus came to reveal God?

On the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples saw something revealed about Jesus' nature that had previously been hidden, a revelation of his future glory as risen Messiah and Son of God.  His identity had not been so obviously made known before.  Moses and Elijah appeared with him, Moses representing the Law and Elijah, the prophets.  Jesus, as Son of God and Messiah, fulfills the hopes of Law and Prophets for the Coming One.

That note of hiddenness gets underlined as they leave the mountain, when Jesus orders the three disciples to remain silent about this until after the resurrection.  The entire event puzzled the disciples, including the reference to the resurrection.

God's hiddenness--how do we understand that today?  Perhaps God hides in the sense that we only are shown just so much light about God at any given moment.  Too much disclosure might overwhelm.  Also, perhaps God hides because of our efforts to control and manipulate God through our expectations of what God should be doing.  That does not mean that God withdraws completely.  Rather, as Jesus continued to address the religious leaders of his day and his own followers, God continues to seek us, to bring us to commitment and faith.  But, it does mean that our stubbornness and willful blindness deprives us of a fuller experience of God.

Today, join me in celebrating God’s wisdom in not overwhelming us with too much light, allowing us to see, wanting us to experience Godself more fully, but lovingly revealing as we are capable of receiving.  Thanks be to God that God does not overwhelm us with a radiant display of divine majesty and compel us into some sort of compliance apart from faith. Rather, God seeks to tease us toward faith with partial disclosure modulated to our capacity to receive. And, we can be glad that God does not reinforce our efforts to control and manipulate.  Actually, don't all human relationships work in a similar way?  We do not disclose ourselves in ways that overwhelm others and we do not respond with openness when others manipulate or attempt to control us.

It occurs to me that when I do get a discernible glimpse and grasp a bit more of the light, it probably has not been the first outshining.  How many previous times has God shined that same of light only to have me miss it? I feel challenged to stand on tiptoe and keep alert. A poem Machado, the Spanish poet penned, comes to mind.

  Is my soul asleep?

Have those beehives that labor

at night stopped?  And the water

wheel of thought,

is it dry, the cups empty,

wheeling, carrying only shadows?

   No my soul is not asleep.

It is awake, wide awake.

It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches,

its clear eyes open,

far-off things, and listens

at the shores of the great silence.+

+Times Alone:  Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, trans. Robert Bly (Middletown, CN:  Wesleyan UP, 1983), pp. 43-45. 

Collect of the Day, Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 216)

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 97)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, creator of the changes of day and night, giving rest to the weary, renewing the strength of those who are spent, bestowing upon us occasions of song in the evening. As you have protected us in the day that is past, so be with us in the coming night; keep us from every sin, every evil, and every fear; for you are our light and salvation, and the strength of

our life. To you be glory for endless ages. Amen.  (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Mission

O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the multitudes who have been created in your image but have not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, they may be brought to know and worship you as you have been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 257)

Daily Office Gospel, Mark 9:2-13

2 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, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 6He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ 8Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. 11Then they asked him, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ 12He said to them, ‘Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt? 13But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him.’

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer