Transfiguration of the Lord | Sunday, February 22, 2009
Offered by Calum I. MacLeod, Executive Associate Pastor

O God of grace and mystery, beyond us,
     out of time as we know it,
     closer to us than our very heartbeat,
we are constantly trying to figure you out—
     in reflection, debate, in reading and philosophy,
     we try to figure you out,
     to smooth out the paradoxes, square the circle,
     get a handle on you that fits the rational,
     the reasoned, the comprehensible;
but you escape our narrowness, our attempts to box you in,
     our need to make you fit our categories.
For you do not belong to us, O God.
     You do not belong to human systems,
          to philosophical concepts, scientific laws.
     You do not belong to us; we belong to you.
          In life and in death we belong to you, our God,
          and in this is our hope and our salvation.
We keep trying to figure you out
     when we should live into the comfort and challenge
     of realizing that it is you who have figured us out.
You have figured out our wants and needs.
     You have figured out our hurt and brokenness.
     You have figured out our potential for wholeness
     and healing and love
and in Jesus you come to us
     with a yoke that is light,
     with a word of friendship,
     with a call to discipleship.
You have figured us out, O God,
     and we pray that you would transfigure us,
          transfigure our being, transfigure our community,
          transform the world you so love.
Let your light shine in the dark places today, O Lord our God,
     that those who know only shadow and loss
     may see the future in brightness.
Let your peace disturb the comfortable ways
     of war, violence, and division that we so easily fall into.
Let your grace invade the gridlock of selfishness that holds people back
     from living lives full of hospitality, inclusion, and welcome.
Let your love abide in our hearts and in our communal living
     that we would be a people striving to live the gospel,
     to imitate Christ, to be open to the movement of the Spirit.

Shield us from trying to figure you out, O God
and transfigure us that we would be the body of Christ,
loving, forgiving, making whole the broken. Amen.

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church