The Transfiguration Yr A Aug 6 2017

The Transfiguration Yr A Aug 6 2017 Audio

When I read the story from Exodus, it’s hard to keep the image of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments out of my head. When I read the story from Luke of Jesus turning dazzling white with Elijah and Moses appearing at his sides speaking with him, it’s hard to keep the image from Star Wars out of my mind, when at the end Obi Wan Kenobi, the transformed Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, and Yoda all appear in some sort of dazzling array of wisdom. There is some dazzling display in this story called the transfiguration, but if that’s all there is, we miss the point. There is glory indeed, but there’s a whole lot more going on as well.

Peter, and James and John go up the mountain with Jesus, and witness a dazzling display that causes Peter to want to capture it in time, and erect some tents and keep it tamely on that mountaintop. Not a bad idea, but also not in the nature of who Jesus is. This story of transfiguration reveals the glory of the Lord, to Peter James and John, and to us. But if we leave this revelation on the mountaintop, if we try to tame it, we loose, or maybe never even gain, the ability to engage in life expecting to see God’s glory in dazzling ways and in ordinary ways. I think this is really a story about what we see, or don’t see, and what we expect to see, and how that changes us.

We can walk through life never seeing God’s glory revealed, or, we can walk through life expecting to see God’s glory revealed.

What happened on this mount of transfiguration is that God shows Godself in no uncertain terms in and through Jesus. If Peter, James and John, or you or me, had any doubts about who Jesus is, doubt no longer. Not only is Jesus’ visage changed, Jesus is also clearly accompanied by Moses and Elijah, the two pre-eminent Jewish prophets. This all calls to mind the other story we read today. Moses comes off the mountaintop and the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. The story of the transfiguration intentionally calls that story to mind, to show us that Jesus is in the line of these prophets, and to tell us that this is God’s son, we are to listen.

This story of transfiguration is bookended by Incarnation in the beginning of the gospel, and by the last supper, later in the gospel. These stories show us what God’s inbreaking kingdom looks like. Luke makes sure we know the glorious event of Jesus’ birth. The angels, and the shepherds announce Jesus’ arrival. The star in the sky even points the way for the wise people. Jesus, God’s son, is now present, pay attention. The transfiguration may be extraordinary, but shepherds, and barn animals, and a messy manger, are really just ordinary things.

And then, the disciples and all who were gathered on that last night before Jesus’ death, witnessed Jesus present in the bread and in the wine, the body and the blood. Truly, the kingdom of God is near. The transfiguration may be extraordinary, but bread and wine, broken and spilled, are really just ordinary things.

I think this is really a story about what we see, or don’t see, and what we expect to see, and how that changes us.

Remember, Peter. Peter wanted to put up the tents and keep Jesus, Elijah, and Moses on that mountaintop, and stay with them. Peter wanted to capture and tame this extraordinary event for all time, and I’m pretty sure Peter would like to have replicated it over and over again if he could. We’re really just like Peter. When we have a mountaintop experience, religious or otherwise, we want to stay with it, stay in it, repeat it. But the reality of life is that we can’t, and not being able to is disappointing. We grow nostalgic for that experience, and soon, everything we do is evaluated in comparison to that mountaintop experience, and everything else pales. And we begin to miss God’s presence in the ordinary, we begin to miss the sacred moments.

Some of you have been to Cursillo, for me it was TEC, Teens Encounter Christ. Remember what that felt like. You were flying so high nothing could bring you down. Until you went back to work or school on Monday morning. That let down was so astounding, that we even spent time at the last part of the retreat weekend talking about it, preparing for it, what it would be like to be with our friends who hadn’t had this experience. And we try to capture it even now. We say things like, remember Cursillo, that was the best of times. Even wonderful worship is that way. I love the services of Holy Week, they are deep and meaningful, and culminate in the Great Vigil. That week exhausts me, and when you come and participate in each of those services you are exhausted too. It’s a good kind of exhaustion, but we can’t do that all the time. We have to come down, and encounter Jesus in the everyday, the ordinary.

You see, if we stay there, and we yearn to be there, we miss God now. God reveals Godself in this transfiguration, and Jesus finds us in the ordinary. The ordinary stable, the ordinary bread, the ordinary wine. Pay attention, or you’ll miss it. Expect God in the ordinary, expect Jesus in the people you meet, expect Holy Spirit in the wind and the rain. Expect the still small voice. Each day we are transfigured. Change is a constant presence in our everyday life.

And all of those experiences, the extraordinary and the ordinary, inspire us to respond to the needs of God’s beloved people with renewed energy, confidence, and determination. God’s glory, Jesus’ presence really begins to matter when we pay attention to the times and people where we can really make a difference. Instead of erecting tents on the mountaintop, we can carry that glory of Jesus into the neighborhood, and make a difference in ordinary lives, with ordinary things, food, water, shelter.

We have been changed, we are God’s beloved. Jesus’ cross and resurrection reveals just how much God loves us and that this Love wins. We are called, commissioned, and equipped to make a difference in the lives of those around us. Maybe even our church is transfigured by the love of God.

See the glory in the ordinary all around you. Expect to be changed, to be transformed. Be filled with Jesus’ very presence in this place, carry that glory into the world, doing the work that God has given you to do.

7 Pentecost Yr A July 27 2014

Audio 7.27.2014

I am thankful for this season we call Ordinary; these Sundays after Pentecost, these summer Sundays. This is the green and growing time. I am thankful for this season, because when the grass turns brown, and a fire may start at the drop of a spark, I need to be reminded of this ordinary time of green and growth. It is the time when we read a book for the pure pleasure of reading a book. It is the time when we take a walk for the pure pleasure of walking; it is the time when we go to a concert for the pure pleasure of sitting in the park to listen. 

The parables we have before us today from the gospel of Matthew are like this, they are about things that are organic, things that are part and parcel of daily lives. They are also parables of growth. They are stories, albeit very short stories, that begin with “the kingdom of heaven is like”. And they are stories that give us a glimpse and point us to the inbreaking of God’s kingdom. 

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that is the smallest of seeds, but becomes a great tree.

The kingdom of God is like yeast that was mixed in with the flour until all was leavened. 

The kingdom of God is like treasure that is hidden, and when found, increases the finder’s joy. 

The kingdom of God is like a merchant who finds a pearl and sells all that he has to buy it.

The kingdom of God is like a net thrown into the sea and comes back full of fish.

These stories are mostly of ordinary things. Seeds, leaven, a net thrown into the sea. We don’t know much about the treasure or the pearl, just that they must have some value, because they seem to give joy to their owners. Ordinary things, like ordinary time, are occasions for growth; occasions for transformation; occasions for thanksgiving; occasions for blessing, because they point to and give us a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. 

Ordinary things point us to God; ordinary things show us the Kingdom. Kingdom language is rather churchy language. I wonder what you think of when you hear God's Kingdom? When I say God's Kingdom, when I refer to God's Kingdom, I mean that ordinary existence which God makes extraordinary. Because it is not in the extraordinary that God finds us. It is in the ordinary, it is in seeds, it is in bread, it is in fish, and it is in whatever our treasure is. The ordinary is fully capable of showing us the way to God. The ordinary is where you and I live most of the time. God's kingdom is when we, you and me, make the ordinary seeds, and bread, and fish, and treasure, be the extraordinary things that bring healing, and peace, and reconciliation into the real places in which we live. 

And yet, this is a message that runs counter to the message that our culture sends us. There is much pressure to live in the extraordinary, so much pressure to be extraordinary. Rick and I like to watch America's got talent. Sometimes those people really are talented. But I am saddened when someone is interviewed and tell us that if they are sent on to Radio City Music Hall it will change their life, it will make their career, it will make them no longer ordinary, but extraordinary. Somewhere along the line they have not heard and experienced the reality that they are loved by God just the way they are, you are loved just the way you are, that is what makes you extraordinary, you are loved absolutely and abundantly, whether or not you can balance on your head, or sing a song on key. 

The Television and Movie fare of which we may partake are filled with images of extraordinary. I like them probably more than most, Doctor Who, or Star Wars, but the portrayal of “kingdom coming” in stories like these are just that, fantasies’, they are nothing like what God has for us now or at the final kingdom come. 

God finds us in the ordinary. Ordinary points us to God. And sometimes God makes the ordinary extraordinary. Every time we gather together for common prayer, when we gather to hear God’s word, and when we gather to eat our meal together, God makes the ordinary extraordinary. We bring our ordinary broken and blessed lives to this table. We bring some ordinary bread made from ordinary wheat made into ordinary flour, which has been combined with yeast and kneaded by loving hands. We bring some ordinary wine made from ordinary grapes. 

And God makes all that ordinary into extraordinary. God takes our broken and blessed lives and fills us with love and compassion. God makes the bread and the wine into a new reality. God shows us that right here in our midst we are loved extraordinarily.

Ordinary may be common, but ordinary is not static. God changes the ordinary bread and wine into the extraordinary body and blood of Jesus, and God changes our ordinary lives into lives transformed by extraordinary love. 

Ordinary time is a time of growth even when it seems like growth is impossible. We know that growth comes only with care and pruning. Rick has been working hard in the garden this summer, aided by the wonderfully wet weather, the roses are growing, after having been pruned within an inch of their lives and then having been left on their own last summer. Oh, but we’ve had such glorious roses. The Kingdom is like roses that must be pruned before they show forth new life. 

The Kingdom of God is God breaking into our ordinary lives, making our lives extraordinary. We pray everyday for “your kingdom come.” I could be wrong, put what I am praying for is growth and change, what I pray is that in the ordinary of my life, God finds a place to build the kingdom. 

My life is pretty ordinary, a lot like yours. I rise in the morning, and greet my husband. I get some exercise by walking in Canyon Lake Park; I greet the others who are there regularly at that time of the day. At the same time I’m walking, I say my morning prayers. When I return home I get on with my day, eat breakfast, get washed and dressed, sometimes read the paper, and head off to work. 

My work is particularly meaningful to me. At the end of my work day, I go home, greet my husband, relax for a little while, make dinner, do dishes, read a little, maybe watch some television, go to bed, and repeat. It’s a good life, I’m a very lucky girl, like most of you. 

I do believe that I am about the business of kingdom building. I do believe that in the ordinariness of my life, God’s work is being done. I do believe in the conversations I have with others, those at the park in the morning, those with whom I have the privilege of spending my day, God’s kingdom is being built. 

I have a role in kingdom building. I participate in the work that God does each day, each moment. How do you participate in kingdom building? How do you bring God's justice, love, mercy, and compassion into your ordinary life?

The ordinary is made extraordinary. God breaks into our world by making bread into love, wine into compassion. The kingdom is built by you and by me, with God’s help. The kingdom of God is like taking a walk, washing dishes, hugging a friend and finding the treasure right there in front of you.

Thanks be to God. 

3rd Sunday after the Epiphany yr A Jan 26 2014

Audio 1.26.2014

Amber and I spent this last week in Alexandria VA at the Episcopal Christian Educators conference. It was a great conference, and I thank you for allowing us to go. I also was at a meeting of the Council for Life-long Faith Formation, a committee of the Church Center on which I serve. You all know I ordinarily go outside in the morning for a bit of a walk, and I wasn't prepared for the record cold in Virginia, so I ended up using the treadmill in the exercise room. The only thing that makes that bearable for me is watching TV while I walk, so I did. I saw many times an advertisement for a book, "Lean In," by Sheryl Sandberg. The author asked me right there on the TV, what fear gets in the way of you doing something extraordinary? What fear gets in the way of me doing something extraordinary? 

So I'm reading this story about Jesus, who shows up right in the middle of Andrew and Peter, James and John's ordinary lives, and calls them to do extraordinary things. Jesus calls ordinary people, right in the middle of their ordinary lives to do extraordinary things … and Jesus still does.  Jesus calls you right in the middle of your ordinary life to do extraordinary things. It says it right here in our bible, and I just don't think we believe it. We do believe Jesus calls other people, people who are good enough, or holy, or spiritual, or special, or something, but it's so much harder to believe that Jesus calls us ordinary people to do extraordinary things. But friends, the truth is right in front of us. And I believe that the reason we stay in our boat instead of getting up and out and follow Jesus, is that we are afraid, and that keeps us from doing something extraordinary. I do believe that Andrew and Peter, James and John are just like us, I think they were afraid as well, they wouldn't be humans just like us if they were not, but they followed Jesus anyway. What did they see in Jesus? What did they experience in Jesus?

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people." Ordinary people called to do extraordinary things. What is the extraordinary thing to which we are called? I believe that extraordinary thing to which we are called begins with the epic adventure of life with Jesus Christ, accompanied by this fellowship who has also said yes to this adventure. 

What other story is worth the life of the one who is God in the flesh, whose love for us is so complete that this creator is willing to join us in the adventure, to walk the journey with us, and to lay down his very life for us. What other story is worth our own lives? I believe there is no other story worth our lives, and indeed, this adventure calls for our very lives. 

There are stories we tell that follow this same arc of love, stories that are epic, stories that teach us about the Love that wins, stories that invite us into the knowing who this God may be. For example, the story many of us have read or watched of Harry Potter, which begins with the Love of parents that was so true and good that they laid down their lives for the hope that Love would win. That story continues in struggle against the dementors, struggle with pride, struggle with justice and prejudice. For Love to win in the Harry Potter story, one must conjure up a memory of goodness or rightness or family, a memory of strength in vulnerability, and that is the power that overcomes the dark forces. But as good as the Harry Potter story may be, as good as any epic story of our past or present, the story of Jesus is the story we give our lives to. 

The extraordinary thing to which we are called is this epic adventure, this epic adventure of love and loss, pain and heartache, death and life. And on this epic adventure we are asked to be courageous. And courage rises up out of adversity. Courage is the willingness to show up and be seen in our lives. That is why this story that we tell about God, creator of all that is seen and unseen, Jesus, the one who pours out his life for us and collects our humanity in his, is our story. Each one of us has had our hearts broken, each one of us has been betrayed, each one of us has lost the ones we love, each one of us has failed. Jesus, God with us, shows us that the story of our lives has meaning. Jesus, God with us, shows us that no matter what we think about the story of our lives, God loves us, and Love wins.  

And adversity opens up hope. And hope is born. The epic adventure requires adversity, courage, and hope. You and I are equipped for this adventure. 

And what fear do we need to release in order to respond to the call to do extraordinary things, to embark on this epic adventure? Fear runs roughshod over our families when we try to be perfect, or when we try to do it all. Fear hardens our hearts when we try to protect ourselves from any more loss. Fear causes us to do nothing because we don't want to fail. We begin to protect what we have when we are afraid, fear creates exclusivity. Do not be afraid, the angels tell us. Let go of the fear.

The epic adventure begins in love, but as in all adventures, there is loss, and heartache. But what makes it possible to continue, despite the adversity, what makes it possible to see the arc all the way to courage and hope, is God and each other. We need to find courage and hope in each other, and in the others who will join with us on the epic adventure. It is courage that makes us fishers of people. 

So what is the extraordinary thing you are called to? What is the extraordinary thing we are called to? Because, friends, I believe we, right in this moment, right at this time, are being called to continue this epic adventure to something extraordinary. I believe that the pain and loss that we are experiencing is to break us open to see the new thing, the extraordinary thing that we are to be. I don't know what it is yet, but I believe that we have the courage to do something great. I believe in Love, and that Love wins.

Find it, do it, talk about it. What is the extraordinary thing that God calls us ordinary people to? The seeds of it are here already. We are a loving community of faith, we welcome all who wish to worship with us. Can we see it, feel it, name it? We are fishers of people, what does that mean for us? We are courageous participants on this epic adventure of love. We have been pulled together to do this extraordinary thing God is calling us to. Now is the time for courage, now is the time for Love. Amen.