...but others will benefit by your being here.

Brad Sullivan

3^rd Sunday of Lent, Year A

Sunday, March 23, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95

Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42

I don’t know how many times I ask myself what Jesus would teach me in this or that situation, how would I follow in Jesus’ way, but it’s a lot…and quite honestly not enough, truth be told.  How often do I find myself spiritually and emotionally parched, hurting with thirst, and then I turn back to Jesus and find the living water that he gives.  Jesus’ teachings, his life, Jesus himself is living water to give strength to the weary, to give growth to our souls, to satisfy our thirst, and to carry us safely along our way. 

Jesus met a woman at a well, and offered her the living water for her thirsty soul.  I love that Jesus simply ignores the customs and hatred of his people, that he spoke to this Samaritan woman in the first place.  It’s almost as if in his divinity, Jesus was saying, “you silly people, you’re all my children, Jew and Samaritan alike, and I’m not going to play your games of hatred toward each other; I’m going to share myself with you; come and have living water.”  Forget the customs of his time, Jesus was reaching out and offering living water to a woman in need.  For us too, it doesn’t matter who we are or from where we come, Jesus offers us himself, the living water welling up inside us to springs of life that never ends.

Notice also, that Jesus was near a Samaritan village where his disciples went in to get food, but they weren’t going to go in to teach.  By reaching out to this woman, Jesus was also bringing the message of his Gospel to a whole city which would not have been reached by his disciples.  The woman had had five husbands, and the feeling I’ve often been given with this story was that she was to be viewed as promiscuous with her serial marriages and as a wayward soul, living in sin with this man who was not her husband.

In their custom back then, however, only men could divorce.  Women and men weren’t exactly on equal footing regarding marriage, either entering in to marriage or choosing to end a marriage, so five different husbands had either died or divorced this Samaritan woman, and now she was living with a man who wasn’t doing her the honor of marrying her.  Cast off or widowed five times and now dishonored by the man with whom she was living, this woman was definitely in need of the living water which Jesus offered.  Jesus was being a light to this woman who was in darkness.

Jesus was being a light to the nations, which Israel was created to be, even if Israel had not entirely lived into who they were.  The Samaritan woman, then, received the living water from Jesus, caught the fire of Jesus’ light, and carried the fire with her to the people of her city so that she could be a beacon to them, pointing them back to Jesus, to the streams of living water.

This woman, along with Jesus’ disciples were beacons for others, or as Jesus said, they were reapers of the harvest.  The fields were ripe for harvest, Jesus said.  People were ready to hear Jesus’ word and to follow him and believe in him.  People were thirsty for the living water which he offered.  People who had been in darkness were ready for the light of Jesus.  The fields were ripe for harvest.

So, the disciples were sent to reap the harvest, to be beacons of light, pointing people to the living water of Jesus.  The Samaritan woman was sent to reap the harvest, to be a beacon of light, pointing people to the living water of Jesus.  We are here to reap the harvest, to be beacons of light, pointing people to the living water of Jesus. 

I think of those people in my life who have been beacons, pointing me back time and again to the living waters of Jesus.  A friend in college who asked in a public place to pray with me and for me.  Another friend from college who, years later, wrote and spoke beautifully about her faith, and hearing the depth and beauty of her faith strengthened mine.  Family who have stuck their noses in cautiously and lovingly to listen, to advise, to pray, and to be a beacon of Jesus for me.  Parishioners who have lovingly again advised me that I didn’t seem to be leading as Jesus would have me lead.

I’m guessing we’ve all got stories of people who have been beacons for us, pointing us back again to the living waters of Jesus.  Many of us have been beacons for others as well.  That is who we are individually as Jesus’ disciples, and as a the Body of Christ as St. Mark’s.  We are beacons to each other, and St. Mark’s is a beacon to the community.  As Jesus said to his disciples, the fields of Bay City are ripe for the harvest.  There are so many who are thirsty for the living waters of Jesus, so many who are in darkness of one kind or another.  There are so many who need us to be beacons to give them to light of Jesus and lead them to the streams of living water. 

Being a beacon to the community is who we are and why we do so much of what we do.  We’ve had concerts here at the church, and we have another coming up on April 5^th.  We had a pub mass at the Fat Grass on St. Patrick’s Day.  Partly, we had those events simply because they were fun.  I thought green wine with pub songs sounded like a lot of fun for a Eucharist.  The other reason we had these events is to be a beacon to the community.  Having a concert at the church or a pub mass isn’t going to make a new Christian, but those things can help lower the bar for people who wouldn’t come to the church, who wonder, “what are those crazy Christians up to.”  Having these fun events can help people who come realize, “hey, these crazy Christians aren’t so bad.”  This place and the people here are opened up to others through these fun events so we can shine as a beacon to the community.

We have outreach breakfasts on Friday mornings and we give bags of food to hungry folks partly because people are hungry.  We also do that here at St. Mark’s because people need the living waters of Jesus, and serving people helps keep the beacon of St. Mark’s alight for the community to see.

We are beacons of light through personal invitation, in being here on Sunday mornings, sometimes largely for the sake of the other.  People come here looking for the living waters of Jesus, sometimes for the first time, and there is no one to welcome them but us.  Kristin is going to be here this morning with our month-and-a-half old daughter, Ellie.  Kristin was talking about the challenge that would be.  Ellie is still nursing, she’d probably have to go in and out as Ellie really started crying, and she said to me, “I just don’t think I’m going to benefit much from being there on Sunday.”  

I said, “Your right.  You’re not going to benefit much being here on Sunday, but others will benefit by your being here.”  Sometimes, purely for ourselves, we might benefit more by staying home on Sunday.  Sometimes we just need some extra sleep.  Sometimes, however, we come not only for our sake, but for the sake of the other who would benefit by our being here.

The beacon to the community that we are at St. Mark’s grows stronger by our being here, sometimes even when we don’t think we need it..

Jesus is living water that fills us and feeds us and gives us life, and I keep thinking, we could shout it to the hills…except of course there are no hills in Bay City.  There are, however, lots of people in need of living water, and St. Mark’s is here as a Beacon to the Community to guide people to the living water of Jesus.  Amen.

...But Jesus Told Me to Be Childish.

Brad Sullivan

2^nd Sunday of Lent, Year A

Sunday, March 16, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17

           

Nicodemus came a long way in John’s gospel, from the man we heard about today, questioning Jesus at night, ashamed and fearful even to be seen talking to Jesus, to presumably being a follower of Jesus, bringing myrrh and aloes to help bury Jesus.  It seems at some point along the way, Nicodemus stopped questioning Jesus and began following him.  It seems at some point along the way, Nicodemus was born again from above. 

Nicodemus was Pharisee, a Jewish sect known for their strict adherence to the Law of Moses, all 613 of the laws.  The Pharisaic life was a life of ritual and religious practice.  As Episcopalians, we kinda get that. 

We are a people of ritual and religious practice.  We wear white robes, symbolizing resurrection garments, and we light candles in rooms full of light, as symbols of the light of Christ.  We’re in the middle of a self-imposed 40 season of fasting and penitence to prepare us for Easter.  We intentionally remind ourselves of our sin and our mortal nature so that we might amend our ways, seek reconciliation, and rejoice in the resurrection.  As Episcopalians, we definitely get ritual and religious practice.  There is nothing wrong with ritual and religious practice, and yet, Jesus was constantly butting head with the Pharisees over their religious practice.

Where the Pharisees (and sometimes even Episcopalians) go wrong in the practice of religion is in believing or acting as though the ritual and religious practice are absolutely necessary for our lives with God, rather than potentially helpful.  Sometimes ritual and practice can take over one’s life, and any meaning or aid in the practice is gone.  We tend not to force or demand ritual and practice.  Where is it helpful, use it.  The practices of our faith have often proven helpful in our journeys with God, helping us to grow into disciples of Jesus.

None of this is possible or even helpful, however, without being born from above.  We often find ourselves in all kinds of messes.  There are all sorts of things from which we need saving, and we often find ourselves trying to claw our way out of the darkness, sometimes even through religious practice and ritual.  While we will have some success, we’re not going to climb out of the darkness on our own.  We tend to go in the wrong direction, be overcome by the darkness, or being grown and knowing so well our capabilities, we tend to rely too much on ourselves.  We need to be born from above to rely not only on ourselves, but on Jesus as well.

Last Wednesday, the Rev. John Newton, Cannon for Lifelong Formation at the Diocese, came and spoke with us for our Lenten soup supper, and he has just written a book called “New Clothes:  Putting On Christ and Finding Ourselves.”  In his book, he wrote the following:

…growth in the spiritual life is not about us doing something but about our hearts being converted to the reality of what God in Christ has already done.  The garment of salvation is already ours through Christ.  The shoe is already yours.  The meaning of life is to grow into that show and to walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4)…remember:  we don’t need to climb out of the darkness.  We have a Rescuer who has climbed down and set us on solid ground and turned us around.  Jesus our Rescuer longs to give direction to our lives.  We need not make a name for ourselves.  Our Rescuer has already named us and spiritual growth is about learning from Him who we already are.  

To me that sounds an awful lot like John 3:16-17:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God so loved the world that he sent Jesus down into the darkness of our lives so that we don’t need frantically to climb out, but to believe in him and to go in the direction he gives us.  God has saved us already, and transferred us into his kingdom.  We needn’t fight or strive for or achieve God’s kingdom; we must grow into who we are as God’s beloved children and inheritors of His Kingdom. 

You must be born from above, Jesus told Nicodemus.  Become God’s children; become who we truly are.  The only action we take in being born from above is the waters of baptism.  I suppose there is some ritual there, but what is important in baptism is that God partners with us in baptism, using those waters to be waters of rebirth, turning us once again into children, giving us the garment of salvation, and transferring us from the darkness in which we find ourselves into the light of His Kingdom.  Also realize that God is not prohibited by baptism.  We can be born again whenever we trust in Jesus that he is here with us and that he will guide us.  We can be born again whenever we allow God’s Spirit to enter into us to heal us and to lead us.

When we are born from above, we become a child again.  Jesus said in Mark 10:15, “truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”  In being born from above, we reclaim some of our childlike wonder and delight in the world.  In being born from above, we reclaim some of our insatiable curiosity.  No longer content with our knowledge of how things work and the way things are, being born from above, we wonder again, constantly asking how and why, no longer bored by and immune to the beauty all around us. 

Being born from above, we are children again, and children don’t do everything on their own.  Children trust in and rely on their parents.  We trust in and rely on God.  As children, we’re ok with being naked, with being spiritually and emotionally vulnerable and intimate.    

Being born from above, we put aside our need to achieve greatness, to make a name for ourselves.  As children, we have no need to prove our worth.  Children are given immeasurable worth simply because they are beloved of their parents.  We are given immeasurable worth not by what we achieve or accomplish, but simply because we are beloved of God.     

I said earlier that as Episcopalians, we understand ritual and religious practice, and so we do.  We understand that ritual and religious practice do not make us beloved of God.  We are beloved of God.  Ritual and religious practice can help remind us of the fact that we are beloved of God and remind us to put our trust in Jesus and to follow him as even Nicodemus eventually did. 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God so loved the world that he sent Jesus down into the darkness of our lives so that we don’t need frantically to climb out, but to believe in him and to go in the direction he gives us.  God has saved us already, and transferred us into his kingdom.  We needn’t fight or strive for or achieve God’s kingdom; we must grow into who we are as God’s beloved children and inheritors of His Kingdom.  Amen.

I'm Sorry, You're Just Not That Special

Brad Sullivan

1^st Sunday of Lent, Year A

Sunday, March 9, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 32

Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

If ever someone could have said that he was special and the regular rules just didn’t apply to him, Jesus would have been that guy.  He was the Son of God, the very Word of God who had become human.  Jesus could walk on water, multiply food, bring the dead back to life, change the weather with a word.  It seems he could pretty well do whatever he wanted and he had been declared beloved of God by a voice from the heavens.  It seems Jesus could pretty much do whatever he darn well pleased. 

He didn’t do so, however, at least not in the selfish way we tend to use that phrase.  What pleased Jesus was to do the will of God.  Jesus could have broken any rule, any law, he could have done anything, and the tempter knew this, and yet Jesus bound himself to following the ancient wisdom of Scripture.  Jesus was special and yet he still knew the ways of God applied to him. 

Back in 2009, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford had an extra-marital affair, lied about it, and then said, rather lamely, that he had made a mistake.  Pulitzer prize winning writer, Leonard Pitts, of the Miami Herald, wrote the following:

It isn’t the cheating I’m complaining about…No, what incites this diatribe is those four words of putative explanation: “I made a mistake.” There is to them a connotation of honest error, unwitting miscalculation, accidental omission and “Oops, my bad.” They allow the offender to appear to accept responsibility for his offense while at the same time, minimizing it. He just misjudged. It just happened. He was just careless, inattentive or forgetful. He couldn’t help it.

…[Well] if I put my hand into a fire because I’ve never seen fire before and I get burned, that is a mistake. If you see me get burned and then put your hand into the same fire, that’s not a mistake. That’s an idiotic calculation that somehow, the rules do not apply to you. (http://www.chron.com/default/article/Pitts-I-made-a-mistake-excuse-1741407.php)

I assume Governor Sanford had heard at some point the wisdom of scripture that cheating on your wife is not the way to go.  He chose not to follow that ancient wisdom of scripture in favor of other continually reoccurring, rather selfish wisdom that basically says, “If it feels good, then do it.”  That’s the wisdom that Adam and Eve followed in eating the fruit that God commanded them not to eat.  The fruit was a delight to the eyes, and so they ate. 

Notice that Adam and Eve were not faithful to God and they were expelled from the garden.  They had punishment.  Jesus, on the other hand, was faithful to God and came out of the wilderness strengthened and blessed.  From then on, everything was peaches and cream for Jesus, without anything bad ever happening to him…yeah, ok, not so much.

Here’s the thing.  We’re not going to escape the wilderness.  We’re not going escape times of trial or suffering.  Hard times will come.  Temptation will come.  What we do with and how we respond to those hard times, those trials, is what will bring blessing or curse. 

When we’re in the wilderness and the tempter is offering us solutions, our challenge is that the immediate solutions offered at the time may certainly look like they would work.  We can become blinded to anything other than “get me out of the wilderness.”  With the Mark Sanford example, I would assume he was having problems in his marriage.  He was in the wilderness, and he was probably blinded to anything other than “get me out of here.”  The immediate solution offered by the tempter?  New woman.  It seemed to get him out of the wilderness.  Forgetting that he wasn’t special and that his this solution wouldn’t work without terrible consequences, Governor Sanford listened to the tempter and took his solution. 

When we’re in the wilderness, we need to open our eyes, to take time and pray and think.  Does the immediate solution, being offered follow in accord with the ancient wisdom of God given through scripture?  Will we be causing others harm by how we’re choosing to get out of the wilderness?  The wisdom of Jesus would say if you have to harm others in order to exit the wilderness, then you probably need to wait on God for a different solution.

We know and understand this ancient wisdom.  Many around us do not, and many of us during our times in the wilderness tend to forget.  It is hard to think clearly while in the wilderness.  Part of our calling is to offer the ancient wisdom of God to those who don’t know it, have forgotten it, or just can’t see it because they’re stuck in the wilderness.

Some time ago, I was talking to a mother of a young, unmarried woman, not in Bay City.  Realizing that she couldn’t take care of the baby, the daughter was likely going to give the baby up for adoption.  The mother felt this was the best solution as well, and she was still, understandably, distraught over her daughter’s pregnancy, feeling that there were no good solutions.  She was at the time right in the middle of the wilderness. While no solution seemed like a good one, I asked her if any of the solutions were redeemable.  Could God bring redemption to the situation over time?  That reminder of God’s redemption, the mother told me, was what she needed to hear.  God’s redemption was what she couldn’t see at the time, stuck in the wilderness.

Jesus, following the ancient wisdom of scripture, had faith to see his situation in the wilderness as redeemable.  Jesus trusted in God to bring him out of the wilderness.  Jesus was special and could have turned rocks in to bread to eat, but humans can’t do that, so Jesus didn’t either.  Jesus was special, and God would certainly not have let him die if he had jumped off the temple.  Heck, Jesus could have turned the ground into a pool of water, but humans can’t do that, so Jesus didn’t either.  Finally, Jesus certainly wasn’t going to bow down and worship Satan, a part of creation, rather than worship the creator. 

During his time in the wilderness, knowing he was special, Jesus acted as though he wasn’t.  During his time in the wilderness, not knowing when he would be able to leave or what exactly would happen, Jesus trusted in God to redeem him…which gave him strength to trust in God to redeem him upon the cross as well.

During our times in the wilderness, the temper will come to us as well, telling us we are special, that the rules don’t apply, that this time, the stupid and harmful things which countless others have tried and failed at before will work.  They won’t of course, but the tempter will be mighty convincing. 

Before you get to the wilderness, study and live the ancient wisdom of scripture.  Study and live the way of Jesus.  When you are in the wilderness, call on others to be in the wilderness with you, at least to have a voice of support to help counter the voice of the tempter, and to help remind you that God can redeem the seemingly unredeemable wilderness in which you find yourself.  Follow the ancient wisdom of God given in scripture.  Believe in God and follow in his ways, even and especially in the wilderness.   Amen.

Let the Holy Smack Down Begin

Brad Sullivan

Ash Wednesday, Year A

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Joel 2:1-2,12-17
Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103 or 103:8-14

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

This morning, just before setting out our ashes for the service, I printed out my bracket for Lent Madness.  It’s kinda like March Madness, but with saints pitted head to head against each other instead of basketball teams in a single elimination, winner take all competition.  Each day during Lent, the Lent Madness people give biographical information about two saints, and people vote on the saint they want to win the holy smack down.  In addition to the gold crown, the chosen saint gets his or her face immortalized on coffee mugs which can be purchased from the Lent Madness people.  “It’s just kind of fun,” my wife said as I listened on, dumbfounded last night.  Over 50,000 people participated last year, my wife informed me, and I thought it was just crazy enough that I’d try it. 

It does seem a little odd, playing a bracket vote off for the winning saint with a bunch of dead people, but they aren’t really dead are they.  These saints have died, and yet they are alive with Christ in God.  That’s what we’re really remembering today as we have ashes put on our foreheads and hear the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  We’re not mourning our mortality.  We’re embracing and celebrating our mortality because through Jesus’ resurrection, God gives us resurrection as well.  We embrace our death with hope and faith in Jesus’ resurrection. 

During this season of Lent, we’re preparing ourselves for celebrating Jesus’ resurrection at Easter.  We may fast.  We may take on some new devotion or new way of living intentionally as Jesus’ disciple.  We may give up some bad habit, some habitual action which keeps us from fully loving God and people.  Lent in a somber season because we are holding up a mirror and taking a good honest look at our lives, at our mortal nature, and at our sin.  Lent is also a joyful time, for the same reason.  We’re seeking to live more completely as Jesus’ disciples, and that is a joyful enterprise.

Is Lent Madness, then, not taking Lent seriously enough, turning it into a joke?  I’m certain some will see it that way, but taking Lent seriously, whatever action we take is really a matter of the condition and intention of people’s hearts. 

Jesus took prayer very seriously.  He prayed often, not making a show of it, but praying because he wanted to connect with God.  He knew he had to connect with God through prayer.  In our Gospel lesson from Matthew, therefore, Jesus wasn’t just setting up a new set of rules about how we are allowed to pray, to be followed up later by eat fish on Fridays (something we don’t have to do by the way).  Jesus was illustrating the condition of our hearts such that we pray in order to draw near to God, not to elevate ourselves above others. 

I wondered about Jesus speaking about the hypocrites who pray in public to be seen and rewarded by others.  Do we still have that nowadays?  Then I thought of several political ads I’ve seen lately with candidates vaulting themselves as champions of prayer, both person and public prayer.  I don’t know that those candidates are trying to be hypocrites in any way, and my guess is their prayer and faith is genuine.  I’m not sure, however, that Jesus intended prayer to be used as a tool for political manipulation. Prayer is intended to be shared, I believe, but more in a one on one kind of setting, human heart reaching out to human heart.  

The condition of our hearts, is what we’re seeking to explore and to heal this Lent.  Jesus’ desire for us is to heal our hearts.  So the big question this Lent is, “would Jesus be ok with Lent Madness?”  Yes?  I think so.  Jesus was and joyful soul.  He took joy and delight in creation and in God’s children.  If learning about the saints and having some fun with it helps heal our hearts, then I think Jesus would say, “go for it.”  Jesus desires us to live joyful lives.  

Sometimes living a joyful life means giving up and letting go of those things which keep us from living joyfully and keep us from allowing others to live joyfully.  Through fasting, prayer, self-examination, maybe even learning about the lives of the saints through Lent Madness, we’re seeking to heal our heart to live as Jesus would have us live.  I encourage you to practice an intentional, holy, and joyful Lent.  Amen.

Yes, I'm Still An Identical Twin

Brad Sullivan

Last Epiphany, Year A

Sunday, March 2, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 99

2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
 

After college, I worked for two years assisting the chaplain at the Episcopal campus ministry at U.T., and it was that priest and community that sponsored me to go to Seminary and become a priest.  So after all of the yes’s from the diocese and the bishop, agreeing that they thought I was called to the priesthood, I went to visit seminaries, and I was over the moon excited.  My first visit was Virginia Theological Seminary, where I ended up going, and it was everything I had imagined it would be and more.  I couldn’t wait to go there, and when I came back from the visit, I was so excited about it, I told the chaplain at U.T. that I felt transformed after that one weekend and if I were to go there for three years, I would be transfigured.

Ok, to be fair, it was a really great weekend, the professors, students, campus, all seemed wonderful, and I had just met my future wife that weekend, but it was still a pretty silly and pretentious thing to say, and no, I was not beyond changed with light emanating from me by the end of Seminary.  What I meant and thought was that Seminary would mold and shape me in such a way that I would be a dramatically changed person by the end of the three years, but that’s not what happened in the transfiguration.

Jesus did not go through some metamorphosis as a result of anything he did.  Rather, in the transfiguration more of Jesus’ complete and whole self was revealed to his disciples.  Appearing with Jesus were Moses and Elijah:  Moses, who gave the law of God to Israel, and Elijah, the great prophet of Israel whose expected return would herald the coming of the messiah.  Then we have Jesus, shining brighter and more majestic than either Moses or Elijah, visually showing himself to be greater than either, Jesus being God himself, the word of God which spoke to and through Moses and Elijah, the a voice from heaven declares Jesus to be God’s son.  “Listen to him,” the voice says.

So, then seeing Jesus’ transfigured glory, Peter said he wanted to make three dwellings and stay up on the mountain with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, and I can’t say as I blame him.  Peter understood something of the enormity of what was going on.  Moses had died over a thousand years previously, and Elijah, darn near a thousand, and yet there they were, chatting it up with Jesus, who happened to be emitting light at the time.  Yeah, this was a pretty big event, and definitely tabernacle worthy. 

I totally get Peter’s reaction to seeing Jesus transfigured before them with Moses and Elijah. He was seeing something beyond miraculous and seemingly wanted to hold on to that moment.  If they had dwellings, they could stay.  The moment could continue.  During wonderful, pinnacle moments in our lives, we tend to want those moments to last forever.  We take pictures, build monuments, tell stories to remember these great events. 

So Peter wanted to make booths when he saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah.  With a dwelling, he could also have returned to the place where the encounter with God happened.  The dwelling could have helped them remember, but it also could have gotten them stuck in that particular time and place.  I could see if they had made the three dwellings, then the dwellings themselves would have become special and sacred. They would have to go back up the mountain to maintain the dwellings and maybe bring people with them in pilgrimages to the dwellings.  

Jesus, however, has other plans and tells Peter, James, and John, not to build three booths, but to get up and not be afraid and to tell no one about the transfiguration until after the resurrection.  So, no shrine building for Peter.  Jesus didn’t allow them to stay stuck in that moment, because after the light of Jesus was revealed to them, they still had a lot of living to do.

My hope and my guess for Peter, James, and John is that the life was not all downhill after the transfiguration, this pinnacle moment in their lives, but that life was continually made sweeter by the memory of the transfiguration and by their continuing to experience Jesus’ transfiguration through the rest of their lives.

Jesus’ transfigured glory was lived by them when they followed Jesus’ way, when they saw him resurrected, when the Holy Spirit came and began the church.  Jesus’ transfigured glory was re-lived by the disciples when they had opportunities to love and serve, to heal and forgive and they took them.  Jesus’ transfigured glory is lived and relived by us whenever Jesus is suddenly present in a situation in life.  Jesus, the sacrament happens when we love, forgive, bless, pray, share stories of God in our lives, serve others, are served by others.  All kinds of sacramental moments when the world appears unchanged, and yet somehow Jesus is present and a tangible way.  Suddenly wherever we are or whatever we’re doing is a sacrament.

We say sacraments are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace:  physical elements which also contain and reveal God’s full presence.  Jesus has been called the primordial sacrament.  Jesus was fully human and fully divine, his divinity not destroying his humanity, but bringing his humanity to its completion, Jesus’ divinity making his humanity whole and sound.  That’s what Peter and James and John saw on the mountain, Jesus’ divinity shining through his humanity, not destroying his humanity, but bringing it to its completion, making his humanity whole and sound.  Jesus’ transfiguration revealed something of what is in us as well.  While we are not fully divine, we too have God’s presence dwelling within us, and the more we allow God’s presence to thrive and live out within our lives, the more our humanity is brought to its completion, our humanity made whole and sound through God’s indwelling presence.

Throughout our lives, we may have little transfigurations, sacramental moments when God is suddenly present almost tangibly through the things and people of this world.  These moments are beautiful when they happen.  They are transformative and revelatory, and they strengthen us and enrich us.  These sacramental moments are not, however, meant to be captured and held onto forever.  We remember and are forever blessed by them, but after they are finished, we come down from the mountain because we still have a whole lot of living to do.

Seminary was not one of these transfiguration sacramental moments for me, despite my early claims.  I enjoyed seminary, the classes, professors, the prayer, the daily prayer together; I made wonderful friends, met and married my wife, but seminary was not a mind blowing, build three dwellings kind of a place or experience for me.  At first I was somewhat disappointed by this.  I had thought it would be this life-altering, pinnacle experience.  It wasn’t, and it wasn’t supposed to be.  The purpose of seminary was not to stay but to go and live as Jesus’ disciple strengthened and blessed by my years there.  When we do have these pinnacle, sacramental moments, these transfiguration moments we also are not supposed to stay.  The purpose of these moments is not to stay but to go and live as Jesus’ disciples, strengthened and blessed.  Amen.