February 6, 2005

Exodus 24: 12-18

Matthew 17: 1-9 (The Message)

Shine!

Elizabeth Macaulay

I suppose every preacher has preacher heroes. I have a number of them – some famous, some not. One of the famous ones is Barbara Brown Taylor. She is an Episcopal priest who as preacher knows that the sacred and the mundane are in a constant dance.

She, like all of us who are desperate to know how we can best share the good news of Jesus Christ, does some thinking about the church and the ways we need to look at what can get in our way.

Language is one of those things. Church language can often be off putting, confusing, manipulative, or down right boring.

Brown Taylor puts it this way:

“The language of faith is like soil that has been farmed too hard for too long. Remembering the past years of plenty, we plant our sermons in it and wait with our chins in our hands, but the yield is not what it used to be. We preach in a diluted and disillusioned land, where language is used to conceal the truth, not to tell it, and words are distrusted by those who have been bullied and betrayed by them.

Our congregations are made up of people who have learned to protect themselves from words, especially words that want things from them. They have been promised the good life in exchange for their votes, their money, their hard work, and they are tired of waiting for returns that never arrive. They come to church searching for a different kind of discourse, but few of them are able to check their wariness at the door.”

So. We who are wary, suspicious and protective. What does a word like “transfiguration” mean to us?

It means radical and radiant change. A new way of seeing. A light-shine power that infuses the world that once was unremarkable with a dazzle that will remain in our bones for always.

Moses, when he came off the mountain after spending time with God, was discernibly lit by the experience. The shine he carried radiated off of him. And because he knew himself to be one who walked on holy ground in the presence of the almighty, he had the power to lead a nation to freedom.

Jesus, when he was on the mountaintop with the disciples was transfigured before their eyes. They saw him for the God-child he truly was. He was lit from within in such a way that it changed the way he looked from without. Sunlight poured from his face! And in case the light-shine in itself was not enough to make a point, Jesus is seen to be in the company of an all-star cast: Moses and Elijah are present there with him.

Moses was transformed by his encounter with God.

Jesus was transformed by his encounter with God.

How about us? We who are wary, suspicious, protective and oh so hungry to find meaning and depth in our lives.

How do we live the dazzle of transformation? How do we live our shine?

Because we walk on holy ground. In our homes in our places of work in our church in our places of mountaintop ecstasy and in our places of God-awful pain. We walk always on holy ground.

How often do we let the wonder of that break through the very pores of our bodies?

When the glory and wonder of God broke through the very pores of Jesus’ body, it made the people in his company very afraid. They knew him to be many things – Rabbi, healer, friend. But this! This change that came over him. How were they to interpret and live with that? Their first reaction is to build a structure to contain what they do not understand. To somehow wall it up so that they could have a monument always that reminded them of the once-dazzle.

But oh, to wall it away is to defile the gift of Godly shine.

The voice of God shares a different vision with them. This God shine is NOT meant to be set aside or bottled up. Using the same words heard at the baptism of Jesus, God speaks: “This is my son, the beloved”, and to that blessing the voice of the holy adds this so very important command:

Listen to Him!

We are to listen to Jesus.

And, because we are his disciples we are to know that our call is to listen to followers of Jesus who experience in their lives the expansive gift of experiencing holy ground and feling the power of God.

We are to listen. To Jesus. To ourselves. And to each other.

Because transformation dazzle is impossible to keep hidden. The shine is meant to be shared and savored and celebrated.

I want you to know that this church is no monument designed to remind us of the once-dazzle of a long ago time when all the answers were clear. This church is a place where we remember the holy gift of our own transformation. This church is a place where we celebrate the transformations that unfold around and amongst us day by day. This church is a place where we know that the struggles of our lives and the mountaintop shine times of our lives ache to be shared and listened to. This church is a place where we become willing to tell our faith story and listen to the hearts of others as they speak their truths and questions.

Kathy Currie, Ken Sturgis, Sarah and Sharon Gardner have collected stories of transformation. It is gift for us all to use for daily prayer during Lent, which begins this Wednesday. Forty disciples of Jesus who call this church home ranging in age from 93 to 3 have shared how they have felt transformation – times when they knew God was so very present in pain and joy alike.

Transformation. Don’t let church speak keep you distant from the shine of it:

A time when sunlight pours from your face and heart and warms this world.

Tell your story. Listen to the stories of others.

Share the light of Christ. Focus on the delight of God.

For you too are marked by God’s love. Let it shine!!!

Amen