Transformed by Love

 2-27-22, Transfiguration Sunday

Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

 

Today is a very special day - we will be welcoming many of our young people to the Lord’s table. It’s a bright spot of celebration in what definitely felt like a dark week - especially how we’ve been hearing how children in other parts of this country and world are suffering - through the anti-trans legislation and rhetoric happening in both Texas and Florida, and the children hiding in the subways of Kyiv or boarding buses out of town with only one parent while the other parent stays behind. So much has changed in the last weeks and months.

 

Both inside the church year and outside in our lives, Transfiguration Sunday feels like a transition point, a time of transformation like a chrysalis. We are no longer what we were - in Epiphany the season of light, but we are not quite at the season of Lent yet. Our young people are transitioning through a milestone in their faith. We’ve reached another threshold in the pandemic and we (yet again) don’t know what the figure will hold. Our world has also crossed a threshold of violence that we have not seen for nearly a century. It would be so nice if we could just stay at brunch eating burritos after worship forever, and not have to face whatever Monday brings.

 

I think Peter may have felt something similar up on that mountain with Jesus, when he suggested setting up shop up on that mountain. After all, what a LITERAL mountain top experience! It’s not every day you get to see Jesus transform, hanging out with some of your biggest heroes, and hearing God’s voice!

 

However, Peter may have forgotten that the rest of the disciples were waiting for them down the mountain, and had no idea any of this was going on. They were back in the valley, down in the trenches of ministry, struggling and failing to help this suffering boy and his worried father. 

 

Contrary to Peter’s wishes, Jesus DID come down the mountain, and just in time too. As Jesus approached, the illness cast the poor kid down to the ground yet again. But Jesus got closer, and so his pristine, dazzling white clothes became covered in the dust that got kicked up. And, both still covered in that dust, Jesus healed the child and gave him back to his father, who I’m sure was too overjoyed to notice all the dirt.

 

I’m sure that father was glad Jesus came down the mountain, even though Peter had clearly resisted the idea. Perhaps Peter was afraid that Jesus’s shiny special-ness might wear off if he went down the mountain and hung out with all the “common people” again. But what Peter didn’t know yet is that Jesus is not just for special occasions and for special people, Jesus is for everyday use.  He didn’t know yet that Jesus was serious about getting involved with the messiness of being human, and that meant getting a little dusty, tear stained, even bloodstained. But this is how we know that the love of God is real. Real love will stop and nothing will transform us into who we truly are - beloved children of God. Even if it means getting dirty and used up in the process. 

 

You know the story of the Velveteen rabbit? That stuffed rabbit toy got all threadbare from how much he was loved by the little boy, especially as a comfort during a time this boy was very ill. 

 

But when the boy was better, all his “contaminated” things were packed up to be thrown away, including the rabbit. As the rabbit sat out with the rest of the garbage that night, The Nursery-Magic fairy came to visit him. The rabbit’s scruffy and shabby appearance proved that the boy had loved him very much. The rabbit did not yet realize that Love had already made him real, so the fairy simply completed the process by transforming him into a living, breathing rabbit.

 

Earlier in this story, his friend the Skin Horse says to the velveteen rabbit: “Real isn't how you are made… It's a thing that happens to you…You become.” And that rocking horse is right. Being real is being a little rough around the edges, a little dusty and ordinary. Because that is where we live MOST of the moments of our lives – not up the mountaintops, but down in the valley where we are transformed by our experiences and transformed by God’s love more and more into who we have been created to be. And that can be a very messy process, and takes a lot of time. 

 

A wise friend once said to me, “Jesus is not birthday cake… Jesus is our daily bread.” Jesus is not special and doesn’t have to be put away up on a mountain to be kept safe, only to be used on special occasions. Jesus chooses very “ordinary” things for his work and transforms them: Water and a promise become the way we are called beloved Children of God in our baptisms. Ordinary bread and wine become the way we are welcomed and strengthened by Jesus’s presence. 

 

Jesus is with us every moment, in the breaking of bread, in the dust and in our tears, in our sweat as we work for justice. And when we follow Jesus’ example, WE are likely going to be transformed: becoming dusty, smudged, faded, or even broken, but no less beloved. We won’t have all the answers, and we won’t always know if we’re getting it right. But we will always have Jesus. 

 

We are about to embark on the season of Lent, which begins on Wednesday with a smudge of ash on our foreheads and a reminder that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Next week he’ll be spending 40 days in the dust of a barren wilderness. For now, though, Jesus is both up on the mountain, shiny and savoring the glory of his identity of the Beloved of his Father, before descending into the dust that makes up our daily realities. He is down here where real love gets a bit messy while being revealed in ordinary things, hidden in plain sight - in water, wine, and bread. So whether this is the first time you are experiencing Holy Communion… the fiftieth time… or the five-hundredth time… you are welcome to receive strength for your week in these ordinary things. There is a place for you here, at the Lord’s table. 

 

When you receive, whether you are accompanied by your own immediate family, or you come alone, know that you are NEVER alone … you are surrounded by your family here, and beyond these walls. After we have received this gift – for the first, fiftieth, or five-thousandth time – we are sent back down the mountain, down into the ordinary, where we find Jesus there yet again. And we are forever transformed by the experience. Thanks be to God, amen.

On the Beach and on the Couch

 Sermon 2-6-22

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Imagine, at that lakeshore, Peter and his fellow fishermen, exhausted, as they ended a long and unproductive night of fishing. Along comes Jesus, who tells them to go into the deep waters and try again. They do, somewhat reluctantly, but then are shocked at the size of their catch – so big, their boat starts to sink from the weight of all that fish!

At this miracle before their very eyes, Peter makes a correct assumption – this man must be from God. When Jesus commands, stuff happens. But this realization terrifies Peter. Peter falls to his knees in awe and blurts out that he is a sinful man. It makes me wonder if that is Peter’s way of expressing his confusion - how is it that this holy person, this man clearly blessed by God, would deign to be among these ordinary people in this ordinary place? More specifically, in an ordinary fishing boat, in the middle of some sweaty men and stinky fish. 

Peter grew up in a religious tradition where there is clear separation between sacred and profane, between holy and ordinary, where God is and where God is not expected to show up. The holy is set apart and protected… and not always necessarily FROM us, but FOR us too. The sacred can be dangerous and unpredictable, and so, for everyone's safety, the boundary between holy and ordinary is crossed only at one’s own risk, as we heard in our Isaiah reading. 

Though we are thousands of miles and thousands of years removed from the worldview of Peter and his people, we still BEHAVE as if this is true. That God can only be found in some places rather than others, and only at certain times, or in certain circumstances. And sometimes this idea gets picked up and amplified by none other than the New York Times.  

Of course I am talking about a recent opinion article shared by the New York Times.  In this article, already limited in its accessibility behind a paywall, a pastor from a small fundamentalist denomination claims to know where God does and does not show up. She writes that with the pandemic being “managed” with masks, distancing, and a milder variant, all churches should cease any and all online options, in order to focus back on physical gatherings and get people “back in the pews.” 

You may have noticed all through the pandemic, social media posts have been passed around the internet with a similar theme: “You can’t REALLY worship from your couch” - as if everyone who has chosen to participate in worship online is by default lazily sipping coffee in their pajamas on their couch, rather than being bothered to get dressed and get in their car to “show up” for worship. 

On this day, however, when we are resuming in-person worship in the hope that the cases of Omicron continue to fall, it’s still important to remember why community is important in ALL the ways that you and your family are able to connect.

Yes, even community from your couch. 

You may not be able to leave your couch if you struggle with a chronic illness… but you can sing and pray while worship is streaming. You CAN experience the power of God’s presence, even if you aren’t able to be with everyone every Sunday … maybe your children are throwing up all over the couch, or your anxiety or depression are keeping you to your couch, or your autistic child is having a hard time and the couch is a safe place for them today. We see you, those of you who are on the other side of the camera, and we value you, and we love you. 

Christians need community, and community comes in many forms. We can contribute cards and share Facebook posts and prayer requests and email encouragement and tithe from literally ANYWHERE now. We can serve, sacrifice, encourage, pray, and do life together both online and in person. And actually, many of us have been doing it for years already. Online options are here to stay, and this is a blessing from God.

We can’t be all things to all people. But our call as communities of faith is to do what Jesus did – meet and love people where they are at, in all the miraculous ways we can be embodied together, however that may look like. 

Isaiah met God in the temple - and God could barely fit  and then God sent him out. 

Jesus met the crowds by the lake on a workday, and not in the synagogue on the sabbath, as he has already done previously. Jesus met Peter and called him to discipleship in the middle of a precarious boat among smelly fish and smellier guys. 

Jesus showed up for the crowds, for Peter, and for us to show us that the holy CAN be found in the ordinary. That God is not ONLY found in the church building - no matter how beautiful the newly redone pews look. The church is not active for only one hour per week. The church is a body of people all the time - it’s on the internet, on your couch, and sometimes even in pajamas, at all hours of the day and night. 

This article that I’ve mentioned is not the only reason that the New York Times currently is making people irate. It also recently acquired the now infamous online word game called “Wordle” - perhaps you’ve heard of it? May I be so bold as to suggest some future answers to the Wordle game.... Words that the New York Times, that pastor who wrote this article, and all of us can benefit from being reminded of, such as: world, agape, boost, links, pivot, and unite.

And maybe you can think of a few words to add as well … but just remember, the word CHURCH - C-H-U-R-C-H - does NOT fit. The Church cannot be contained by those 5 green boxes…  nor can it be contained by the limited imagination of pastors and other church leaders… nor can it be contained within boundaries, temples, boats, expectations, and limitations… nor can it be contained by death itself. Jesus always breaks nets and boxes, and we as the church are called to do the same. Thanks be to God. Amen.