Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory

This Transfiguration text by Thomas H. Troeger, b. 1945, is another good addition to Lutheran Service Book (416).  It is set to a fine tune, LOVE'S LIGHT, by LCMS composer, Amanda Husberg, b. 1940.   If you missed using this one last Sunday, make a mental note to use it for Transfiguration 2011.  Troeger's text amplifies the final stanza of the well-known hymn, "'Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here":  'Tis good, Lord, to be here!  Yet we may not remain; But since Thou bidst us leave the mount, Come with us to the plain.  Troeger's text takes us with Peter, James and John down the mountain to the plain and valley, to Jerusalem and the cross.  No disciple is greater that his master; our lives are shaped by the cross as well, as are the lives of all true followers of Jesus.  For such living under the cross, we truly need a daily transfiguration of our perceptions and intentions.

Swiftly pass the clouds of glory,

    Heaven’s voice, the dazzling light;

Moses and Elijah vanish;

    Christ alone commands the height!

Peter, James, and John fall silent,

    Turning from the summit’s rise

Downward toward the shadowed valley

    Where their Lord has fixed His eyes.

Glimpsed and gone the revelation,

    They shall gain and keep its truth,

Not by building on the mountain

    Any shrine or sacred booth,

But by following the Savior

    Through the valley to the cross

And by testing faith’s resilience

    Through betrayal, pain, and loss.

Lord, transfigure our perception

    With the purest light that shines,

And recast our life’s intentions

    To the shape of Your designs,

Till we seek no other glory

    Than what lies past Calv’ry’s hill

And our living and our dying

    And our rising by Your will.