Tuesday, February 09, 2016

From Sunday, February 7, 2016 (Transfiguration Sunday)

The introduction to the reading of Luke 9:28-43

The reading is the story in the Gospel of Luke about Jesus’ transfiguration in front of three of his disciples.   

Jesus and all his disciples are on the road to Jerusalem, and his teaching is increasingly focused on the way of the cross.  One day, leaving the rest behind for a while, Jesus and three of the disciples go up a mountainside to pray.  

Mountains are holy places and two of the people’s greatest spiritual heroes had life-changing encounters with God on mountains.   

First, at the very beginning, Moses was called to go up Mount Sinai to speak with God and receive God’s Law for the people, and when he came down his face shone with such heavenly light that the people could not look at him.   

Centuries later Elijah also met God on a mountainside.  The people had become a kingdom and had wandered into idolatry and what today we call secular paganism, and Elijah felt alone and powerless against the tide of his time.  But when he fled to a mountain, and there was able to see God’s back and to hear God’s still, small voice, he was given all the power he needed to speak God’s truth to his age, and eventually be carried to heaven in a shining chariot without suffering death. 

In the Gospel story, the disciples see Jesus in that company Jesus, before they go back down to the valley, to face the realities of life with him.
 
The sermon:
 
 
I have a vision – a bit of imagining I want to share with you, and invite you to share in. 
I am going up the mountain with Jesus, and so are you.  We are going up in any of a number of ways.  We each have our favoured ways – ways maybe that suit who we are and what we’re good at. 
It’s Jesus who invites us to step away from daily life in the valley, and just let it be for a while.  We follow practiced steps and ways of ascent that he shows us.  At times it’s hard work and takes real commitment – even stubbornness, to keep going.  Sometimes we wonder if the journey up the mountain is worth it.   
But we want to be with him, and he leads us to a special place.  When we get there, when we find that mountaintop place with Jesus, we are glad.   
We see him maybe as we have not before. 
We know God with a closeness we can only marvel at.
We see ourselves in new light, standing at the intersection of human and divine and knowing it is our calling and capacity to be vessels of the holy and of God’s good will in our daily life. 
And we also see … others! 
We become aware of another company of pilgrim climbers beside us.  They are wearing yamulkas and some of the men have ringlets of hair.   
“Praise Moses, the friend of God and our saviour” one says.  “Blessed be Elijah, God’s servant and our prophet, now and forever,” another says. 
They are Jews, and they have followed their calling to be here, have traced the steps that are made known to them, and like us are resting gladly in what they see and feel and know beyond themselves on the mountaintop. 
And then we hear, “Praise to Allah and his prophet, Mohammed” and other voices repeating the same, with the same measure of humble gratitude and holy awe that we feel.  Muslims are here, too, guided by their prophet and pathways in their five pillars of faithfulness to Allah. 
We talk together freely and gently.  We realize we have a common father and mother in Abram and Sara.  We realize we climb one mountain by different pathways.  We realize that this mountain is our way and our place of really knowing who we are as human beings, and how we are to live in the valley.  We realize how hard it is for us all at times to sort out the truth and heart of our tradition from its perversions and corruptions.  We also realize our shared place in the world, and shared importance to the life of the world. 
And then as discussion of the world turns our gaze from upward and inward to outward, we see other mountains.  Not just the one mountain we are on with different pathways, but different mountains with their varied pathways all leading upward like ours to touch and be touched by the stratospheric mystery of the Divine that both covers and embraces us all from above invisibly and completely. 
And on those mountains with their pathways, are people like us, climbing to special places to see and know and feel something of that mystery in their own way.  Hindus.  Buddhists.  Confucians.  First Nations.  And many others. 
We see them.  They see us.   
And we look down together at the valley between us.  One valley ringed by all the mountains with pathways upward to help humanity enter the realm of the higher mysteries, and then downward again to lead us to return enlightened and empowered for new life down below.  One valley called Earth where at our best we dwell together in the light of what things we see and feel and know at these heights. 
We come up this particular mountain with Jesus, and we see something that he especially brings to light.  The world needs to know what it is.  If life on Earth is to be made good – if there is to be real peace in the valley for all, the world needs us to bring back to it what we see and learn here from him. 
And what really is it?  What is it that Jesus helps us to see of the Divine mystery that makes life good?
 
The communion prayer:
 
L:        The God of mountaintops be with you.
P:        And also with you.
L:        Come, People of God, to the One who will transfigure your hearts.
P:        We offer them to God, who will make them dazzle with grace.
L:         Let us join in giving praise to our God.
P:        Our voices rejoice in glad thanksgiving to the One who comes to us.
You came down into chaos, Lord our God.
In the beginning, now, and probably to the end of time
both all the world and each one of us
are so often in chaos 
created so good,
so full of potential,
so blessed with enough and more than enough,
so many expressions of your good will
and yet we are so often at odds
with you, with others, and within ourselves
 
You come in so many ways
to show us The Way
the one way of your own heart
the way of forgiving, redeeming, self-giving love
that tames the chaos within and around us
and helps make Earth and our life in it
a good and glorious thing  
We trust that this way, your way of love,
is found at the heart – the truest and deepest heart,
of other faith traditions
We know that Love is what you breathed
between the lines and into the words
of the Law you gave to Moses 
Love is what you spoke and acted out
in the words of the prophets 
Love is what you lived and made come to life
in Jesus, our messiah
the one in whom you came to tame the chaos
to heal the world we are
to lead us into living your way of Love
for our good and the good of all Earth
as we take and live out our place in it
This table is our temple
our special and holy place of transformation
as we remember Jesus
and see in him your way of love 
As we take this bread we remember him
and the way he shared himself with others 
As we take this cup we remember him
and the way he poured out his life and your love for all the world
 
We give you thanks, O God,
and lest we be too hasty and not actually live out
what we celebrate and remember here,
we take time now to pause,
to consider the world and others around us,
and to pray for others:
 
And now we do remember
how Jesus on the very night he was betrayed,
took bread, broke it,
and gave thanks for being able
to share his life with and for others
And how he also took a cup, poured it and shared it,
and gave thanks for being able
to pour out his life and your love for all the world
Do this in remembrance of me, he says. 
This is your way
of living the glory of God into the world.
 
 
 
 

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