The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Proper 16 – 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43
Psalm 84, John 6:56-69
In the early morning stillness that is not silent... soft patter of rain, the ticking of a clock, distant wail of a train whistle and wet tires on the street below, the surrounding world still asleep. In the exuberant bustle of an adolescent gathering...voices out-shouting one another in an enthusiastic cacophony coalescing finally into recognizable song. On the streets of Southside... faces of hunger and need met by hands offering food and compassion. In the ordered rows of Cathedral pews...familiar books, comfortable words, soothing rhythm. Prayer. Worship. People longing for, reaching out for connection to God. To loved ones. To others. In one place or another, in one pattern or not, with words and music and images, with silence and emptiness, with form or none at all people seek God. My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord prays the psalmist almost 3000 years ago.
What does your soul desire? How do you pray? I was born and baptized into an Episcopal church whose worship was bound in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. My early spirituality was formed by the shape and language and familiarity of that book. When I was confirmed at age 11(because that’s how we did it back then) my Godparents gave me a white leatherette prayer book with my name embossed on it in gold. The 1928 Prayer Book. But on Sunday mornings something else was happening. We worshiped out of the green book, the zebra book, and the purple book, named for the color of their covers. These “trial” liturgies were used on Sundays as the Episcopal church began to explore language and form heading for the 1979 BCP which you now find in your pew. So people who longed for the Lord, who raised their hearts and voices in worship, struggled with change. This struggle was a gift to the church, infusing our gathering with a richness and variety of liturgy. And it was a gift to me, allowing me to experience process and journey as the way to something full of possibility. I grew up thinking such change and variety were normal. My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord.
What do we long for? In part, being connected to God and one another in meaningful worship. What is God calling us to do? To renew that connection and tell others about it so that they can know a place to bring their longing hearts. In steady times and uncertain times, in transition times and new times, when we stand in the doorway or on the precipice, when we are confused or crystal clear our souls have a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord.
Around 960 BCE Solomon builds and dedicates the temple in Jerusalem and significantly moves the Ark of the Covenant into what is to be its permanent dwelling. This is no small thing. The Ark of the Covenant, considered the earthly dwelling place of God, built by Moses according to God’s instruction, is the most sacred symbol for the people of Israel. The Ark contains...holiness. It is said to have held the two stone tablets on which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments, or a pot of manna preserved from the wilderness journey, or scrolls of sacred writings. It was carried with the Israelites wherever they went had had no permanent place. But neither had the people. They had wandered through Canaan for generations before David built Jerusalem. Before that they wandered 40 years in the wilderness with Moses. And for the longest time before that they had been resident aliens in Egypt. And before that? There had been Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, all of them following God’s call as they wandered about the fertile crescent through what is modern day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine and Egypt. How dear to me is your dwelling, O lord of hosts, my soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord.
Where is God’s dwelling place? In the heavens? In the Ark of the Covenant? In our hearts? When Solomon built the first permanent temple for God and placed the Ark in it people were asking, where is God’s dwelling place. In the heavens? In the Ark of the Covenant? In this temple? Journey and Exodus had defined them, been their reality for the longest time. God and the worship of God were not to be found in any one place (we sometimes struggle to remind ourselves that God is everywhere and not just within these wall son Sunday morning. They didn’t have that struggle). Yet Solomon builds the temple in faithful response to God’s call for him. And it left some of the people with questions. Can God hear in heaven the prayers we pray in this temple of stone? Can God dwell on earth?
So as Solomon dedicates the temple he prays. He prays that it will be OK to pray in this place. “Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today… hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place.” Solomon longs for God. He longs also to know that this change will be OK. His prayer of dedication is longer than the excerpt we have in our passage this morning. He asks for God to hear and act. He pleas, if someone sins, hear and act. When Israel is defeated by an enemy, hear and act. When drought comes, hear and act. When there is famine, hear and act. When even the foreigner prays, hear and act. All who pray are to be heard and the prayers acted upon so that the whole world will know the God of Israel, will know that God hears and acts. How dear to me is your dwelling, O lord of hosts, my soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord. Where is God’s dwelling place? In the heavens? In the Ark of the Covenant? In our hearts, minds, souls? In this Cathedral? In this gathering? In Christ?
Solomon asked, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth?” Almost 1000 years after Solomon placed the Ark in the temple God indeed came to dwell on earth in a whole new way. Not in a temple, not on a throne, but embodied in humanity. Incarnate. In Christ. In Christ Jesus who had the audacity to claim to be the bread of life. Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.” This was such a shock, so difficult to grasp, that even some of his disciples stopped following him. I have no doubt that all of those disciples longed to be connected to God and that they had sung that hymn, How dear to me is your dwelling, O lord of hosts, my soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord. Jesus knew from the first there would be those who would not believe. But that didn’t stop him from preaching the good news to them. And some people left because…because it was difficult? Because it was about eating flesh? Because they thought Jesus didn’t have what they longed for? Or perhaps because they thought Jesus was what they longed for?
Do you also wish to go away?
“Do you also wish to go away,” Jesus asks the twelve. Simon Peter answers, “Lord to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Where is God’s dwelling place? In the heavens? In our hearts? In this Cathedral? In this gathering, the very Body of Christ? In the early morning stillness? In a group of enthusiastically singing youth? In a soup kitchen on the Southside of Bethlehem? How dear to me is your dwelling, O lord of hosts, my soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord.
© Anne E. Kitch 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
Pentecost 11: A Flesh & Blood Faith
The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
August 20, 2006
Proper 15 ~ 1Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14, John 6:51-58
Do you remember when we first met David? King Saul had gone astray. Samuel, the prophet of the Lord had been sent to the home of Jesse the Bethlehemite to see if there was there one who had the potential to lead the House of Israel.
1 Samuel 16. 11 Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are all your sons here?’ And he said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.’ And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.’ 12He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, ‘Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.’ 13Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.
And today we encounter the time some 40 years later when David sleeps with his ancestors and the boy Solomon now sits on the throne of his father David.
Of all that he could ask of God, he asks this: And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?"
And God grants Solomon a wise and discerning mind, and so much more; that today we speak wishfully and wistfully, sometimes wantingly of the Wisdom of Solomon.
We can remember that David did walk faithfully with his God – some of the time. We remember, too, that there were serious lapses in his decorum, in his behavior, and in his deeds – murder, adultery, and more. But he always, always, always returned to the Lord in repentance, attempting once again to walk before God in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart.
And we know the story of Solomon as well. Marrying multiple wives to secure military alliances, he sacrificed on those high places less and less to the God of Israel and more and more to the gods of his wives; he walked less and less with his God, turning more often to the lesser gods of his wives. Until the days came when Jehovah finally would no longer walk with Solomon.
We can treat this history, these stories as if they were a “Days of Their Lives” soap opera, or some ancient Greek drama, or a more modern drama like the ”Perils of Pauline”, or we can learn from them.
It is important to remember that the great men and women of the Bible were just ordinary people like you and me; flesh and blood, fallible, mortal. Yet God could and would and did use them. If God could work in the world through a murderer like David, or an idolater like Solomon, then perhaps, in some way, he can use us.
So the question becomes how do we make it through this life walking in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart? How do we make it though the day? How do we make the right decision? How do we build a just society? How do we make peace in the world, in our community, in our homes, in our own hearts? How do we stay faithful?
We stay as close as possible to the Source of our strength, the Source of our Salvation, to the One who shows us the that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Just as David and Solomon and all the others were real flesh and blood, fallible, mortal human beings, so is this faith we ascribe to a flesh and blood faith; real life meeting real life. A real price was paid by Jesus of Nazareth, a blood price was paid for the soul of the world and for the souls of Rick and Mary and Sue and George and Trevor and William and each and every one of us.
Sarah Dylan Breuer writes: Flesh and blood are the seat of life -- life belonging only to God, life that can be claimed rightly only by God. And yet in Jesus, God has willingly poured out that life for the sake of the world -- not just the good people, the people who try hard to do the right thing, the people who praise and encourage the saints, but as much or more for the people who hate, and who act on their hatred...
He is… the Source of our eternal salvation and the Source of our daily strength. "Eternal God you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ and you have fed us with spiritual food in the sacrament of his Body and Blood."
The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.
The best chance we have for living grace-filled lives is to accept this incomparable gift of the body broken and the blood shed for us, and to accept it often and regularly so that as it strengthens our bodies and souls and minds and hearts, we can know that Christ dwells in us and we in him.
Time and again we can receive this holy food and drink of new and unending life. It is given for you. Take it and feed on him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.
A Baptismal Coda
As God selected David and Solomon as his chosen people, today God brings Trevor and William into His divine life, with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of being a child of God. It is imperative that parents and Godparents keep them close to the source of strength that will empower their lives each and every day and beyond, so they may walk in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart before their God all the days of their lives.
It is an awesome responsibility and this community is here to support you in it.
Amen.
August 20, 2006
Proper 15 ~ 1Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14, John 6:51-58
Do you remember when we first met David? King Saul had gone astray. Samuel, the prophet of the Lord had been sent to the home of Jesse the Bethlehemite to see if there was there one who had the potential to lead the House of Israel.
1 Samuel 16. 11 Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are all your sons here?’ And he said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.’ And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.’ 12He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, ‘Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.’ 13Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.
And today we encounter the time some 40 years later when David sleeps with his ancestors and the boy Solomon now sits on the throne of his father David.
Of all that he could ask of God, he asks this: And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?"
And God grants Solomon a wise and discerning mind, and so much more; that today we speak wishfully and wistfully, sometimes wantingly of the Wisdom of Solomon.
We can remember that David did walk faithfully with his God – some of the time. We remember, too, that there were serious lapses in his decorum, in his behavior, and in his deeds – murder, adultery, and more. But he always, always, always returned to the Lord in repentance, attempting once again to walk before God in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart.
And we know the story of Solomon as well. Marrying multiple wives to secure military alliances, he sacrificed on those high places less and less to the God of Israel and more and more to the gods of his wives; he walked less and less with his God, turning more often to the lesser gods of his wives. Until the days came when Jehovah finally would no longer walk with Solomon.
We can treat this history, these stories as if they were a “Days of Their Lives” soap opera, or some ancient Greek drama, or a more modern drama like the ”Perils of Pauline”, or we can learn from them.
It is important to remember that the great men and women of the Bible were just ordinary people like you and me; flesh and blood, fallible, mortal. Yet God could and would and did use them. If God could work in the world through a murderer like David, or an idolater like Solomon, then perhaps, in some way, he can use us.
So the question becomes how do we make it through this life walking in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart? How do we make it though the day? How do we make the right decision? How do we build a just society? How do we make peace in the world, in our community, in our homes, in our own hearts? How do we stay faithful?
We stay as close as possible to the Source of our strength, the Source of our Salvation, to the One who shows us the that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Just as David and Solomon and all the others were real flesh and blood, fallible, mortal human beings, so is this faith we ascribe to a flesh and blood faith; real life meeting real life. A real price was paid by Jesus of Nazareth, a blood price was paid for the soul of the world and for the souls of Rick and Mary and Sue and George and Trevor and William and each and every one of us.
Sarah Dylan Breuer writes: Flesh and blood are the seat of life -- life belonging only to God, life that can be claimed rightly only by God. And yet in Jesus, God has willingly poured out that life for the sake of the world -- not just the good people, the people who try hard to do the right thing, the people who praise and encourage the saints, but as much or more for the people who hate, and who act on their hatred...
He is… the Source of our eternal salvation and the Source of our daily strength. "Eternal God you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ and you have fed us with spiritual food in the sacrament of his Body and Blood."
The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.
The best chance we have for living grace-filled lives is to accept this incomparable gift of the body broken and the blood shed for us, and to accept it often and regularly so that as it strengthens our bodies and souls and minds and hearts, we can know that Christ dwells in us and we in him.
Time and again we can receive this holy food and drink of new and unending life. It is given for you. Take it and feed on him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.
A Baptismal Coda
As God selected David and Solomon as his chosen people, today God brings Trevor and William into His divine life, with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of being a child of God. It is imperative that parents and Godparents keep them close to the source of strength that will empower their lives each and every day and beyond, so they may walk in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart before their God all the days of their lives.
It is an awesome responsibility and this community is here to support you in it.
Amen.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Pentecost 10: Feeling Puny
August 12, 2006
The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
Proper 14 ~ 1Kings 19:4-8, John 6:35. 41-51
My mother used to have an expression that she would use from time to time when she wasn’t feeling “up to par”. She would say, “I’m feeling kind of puny today.” Feeling puny… We took that expression up in our family, too. “You feeling okay? You’re looking a little puny.”
What she and we meant by that was just not feeling or being “up to it”, whatever it was. Feeling a little weak, not our usual robust self. You get the idea.
Well, in the lesson from the First Book of Kings, we meet up with Elijah who is feeling kind of puny, not his usual powerful, prophetic self, not up to the task, vulnerable to the whims and actions of other people, other powers, vulnerable to fate, itself.
Let me provide a little context for this unusual, for Elijah, but supremely common human situation.
To use a baseball analogy, Elijah had just pitched a no-hitter. He had just cleaned the clock of the prophets of Baal. Elijah was the last and only true prophet of Jehovah left and there were in that territory 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a showdown, actually a call-down, where the prophet of each god would call down from on high the power of their God to take up an offering.
It is written in 1Kings 18: “So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, ‘O Baal, answer us!’ But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.” (It is rather clear whose side the writer is on.)
Then it was Elijah’s turn. “At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.’ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.’”
It was a magnificent display of the power of God and the power of God’s prophet, and yet we find him in today’s lesson skulking off into the wilderness, feeling sorry for himself, feeling not up to the task, feeling downright puny, and wishing it all would end for him.
It could all be written off with a facile, “Oh, its only a post-miracle depression. It happens all the time. He’ll get over it.” Well, maybe it does happen all the time, but it is happening now, here with this person, and he is in great suffering, he is sick of it, even unto death.
I have not experienced a post-miracle depression, but I do know the feeling of “puny”. I do know the feeling of “it all being just too much”. I do know the feeling of just not being up to it, not having it. I do know the feeling of wishing it would just go away, if it would just pass me by, if I just didn’t have to do deal with it. I feel the puniest in the middle of the night.
Perhaps you have felt that way once or twice, or from time to time, or during some extended period. Feeling that what you know to be your gifts, your strengths, your powers… they are nowhere to be found. Your “getup and go” has gotten up and gone away. You’re running on empty.
Elijah and you and I need some Bread.
One way of looking at Elijah’s situation is to see that he has forgotten the Source. He has moved away from his center. He is relying solely on “what he brings to the table”. And he has given his all, given his best shot, and it still isn’t enough to do all that is needed, to provide all that is needed, to finish the job, to bring it to completion. He feels alone, bereft, and empty.
And it is then that the Angel of the Lord comes to him to point out what is needed. He is in need of Manna. He is starving for the bread of life. He hungers to be filled. He needs sustenance for his strength to be renewed. And the Angel of the Lord comes and provides bread enough.
“He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.”
And Jesus tells us, “I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not hunger; and they who believe in me shall not thirst… even if they die, they shall live forever.” (Hymn 335)
Whenever we have moved from the center, whenever we have forgotten the Source, whenever we have spent all that we have, the Angel of the Lord comes, in whatever guise, to re-center our lives, to remind us of the source, and to replenish our supply of bread.
So we come weekly, regularly, to the Source, to the table, to the altar of God. As our friend Ann Fontaine says, “We come to the Eucharist to drink the wine of encouragement and eat the bread of sustenance.”
And we remember, “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, says the Lord. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood dwell in me and I in them, says the Lord.” (Anthem S169)
We find it to be, as my stepfather used to say, an “elegant sufficiency”. Bread sufficient for all the days of our life… and beyond.
You’re feeling a little puny today? Try some Bread.
The Ven. Richard I. Cluett
Proper 14 ~ 1Kings 19:4-8, John 6:35. 41-51
My mother used to have an expression that she would use from time to time when she wasn’t feeling “up to par”. She would say, “I’m feeling kind of puny today.” Feeling puny… We took that expression up in our family, too. “You feeling okay? You’re looking a little puny.”
What she and we meant by that was just not feeling or being “up to it”, whatever it was. Feeling a little weak, not our usual robust self. You get the idea.
Well, in the lesson from the First Book of Kings, we meet up with Elijah who is feeling kind of puny, not his usual powerful, prophetic self, not up to the task, vulnerable to the whims and actions of other people, other powers, vulnerable to fate, itself.
Let me provide a little context for this unusual, for Elijah, but supremely common human situation.
To use a baseball analogy, Elijah had just pitched a no-hitter. He had just cleaned the clock of the prophets of Baal. Elijah was the last and only true prophet of Jehovah left and there were in that territory 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a showdown, actually a call-down, where the prophet of each god would call down from on high the power of their God to take up an offering.
It is written in 1Kings 18: “So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, ‘O Baal, answer us!’ But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made. As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.” (It is rather clear whose side the writer is on.)
Then it was Elijah’s turn. “At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, ‘O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.’ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.’”
It was a magnificent display of the power of God and the power of God’s prophet, and yet we find him in today’s lesson skulking off into the wilderness, feeling sorry for himself, feeling not up to the task, feeling downright puny, and wishing it all would end for him.
It could all be written off with a facile, “Oh, its only a post-miracle depression. It happens all the time. He’ll get over it.” Well, maybe it does happen all the time, but it is happening now, here with this person, and he is in great suffering, he is sick of it, even unto death.
I have not experienced a post-miracle depression, but I do know the feeling of “puny”. I do know the feeling of “it all being just too much”. I do know the feeling of just not being up to it, not having it. I do know the feeling of wishing it would just go away, if it would just pass me by, if I just didn’t have to do deal with it. I feel the puniest in the middle of the night.
Perhaps you have felt that way once or twice, or from time to time, or during some extended period. Feeling that what you know to be your gifts, your strengths, your powers… they are nowhere to be found. Your “getup and go” has gotten up and gone away. You’re running on empty.
Elijah and you and I need some Bread.
One way of looking at Elijah’s situation is to see that he has forgotten the Source. He has moved away from his center. He is relying solely on “what he brings to the table”. And he has given his all, given his best shot, and it still isn’t enough to do all that is needed, to provide all that is needed, to finish the job, to bring it to completion. He feels alone, bereft, and empty.
And it is then that the Angel of the Lord comes to him to point out what is needed. He is in need of Manna. He is starving for the bread of life. He hungers to be filled. He needs sustenance for his strength to be renewed. And the Angel of the Lord comes and provides bread enough.
“He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.”
And Jesus tells us, “I am the bread of life; they who come to me shall not hunger; and they who believe in me shall not thirst… even if they die, they shall live forever.” (Hymn 335)
Whenever we have moved from the center, whenever we have forgotten the Source, whenever we have spent all that we have, the Angel of the Lord comes, in whatever guise, to re-center our lives, to remind us of the source, and to replenish our supply of bread.
So we come weekly, regularly, to the Source, to the table, to the altar of God. As our friend Ann Fontaine says, “We come to the Eucharist to drink the wine of encouragement and eat the bread of sustenance.”
And we remember, “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, says the Lord. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood dwell in me and I in them, says the Lord.” (Anthem S169)
We find it to be, as my stepfather used to say, an “elegant sufficiency”. Bread sufficient for all the days of our life… and beyond.
You’re feeling a little puny today? Try some Bread.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Feast of the Transfiguration: Let Your Light Shine
The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Exodus 34:29-35
Luke 9:28-36
I have it under good authority that Transformers still exist; there is even an upcoming movie. These the toys that start out as human-like robots and then as the need arises they transform into something else. You fold in arms and legs and twist torsos around and suddenly you have race cars or jets or helicopters. There are also super heroes like Power Rangers, Wonder Woman, Superman living ordinary-looking human lives but when need arises they transform into something else; something greater , more powerful, stronger. Yet with all their super strength they do not cease to be who they are. They don’t permanently change into something else, rather they temporarily live into part of who they are. When they are done saving the world, they once again become ordinary youth, women and men. Well something like this happens to Jesus.
Jesus is transfigured. He goes up to a mountain top to pray, taking Peter and John and James with him. He is suddenly transfigured before their eyes; the appearance of his face changes and his clothes become dazzling white. Glory surrounds him. As preacher Barbara Brown Taylor writes “While Jesus was praying, he caught fire from within.” In that moment, Jesus reveals his God-self. The glory of God shone from within him and all around him. Moses the great law-giver and Elijah the great prophet show up for a conference.
Now this was something Jesus’ friends had never seen before. Sure, at some level they knew he was the messiah and the son of God, Peter had even said the words aloud. But they had never seen it. They knew Jesus as their beloved friend and teacher. He did go around casting out demons and healing people, but he walked and talked and ate just like any other man. But now, here on the mountain, his Godself was revealed in all its glory. They must have been stunned.
Before we go any further, let me be clear that Jesus is not a super-hero. Jesus is the Son of God, fully human AND fully divine and very real. He is not a comic book hero or an invented character embodying the attributes of someone we all wish we could be. Rather he is perfect human. Someone without sin. Someone who lived connected to God every moment of everyday. Jesus did not have super strength or x-ray vision or spider sense. What he did have was love; and a sure and certain trust in God. I’m not sure he had love in greater amounts than the rest of us, but he was better able to live in that love and share it generously. He wasn’t impervious to pain and death—and that is the point. Remember what he and Moses and Elijah talked about while Jesus shone in all his glory? They talked about his departure, his exodus, his upcoming death. In the end it was not any super strength but his human vulnerability and love and the giving up of his very life that saved the world…and continues to save the world.
Jesus’ transfiguration was a moment when his divine nature shone out leaving no doubt about who he was. And the transfiguration was more. The power and significance of this event was not just that Peter and John and James saw the light, but that the light shone in the first place. God’s light. Jesus let them see God’s glory pouring out of him and so they knew; knew in ways that they had not perceived before just what kind of messiah they were dealing with. Just like God’s light shone in Moses as he came down Mt. Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments.
Moses may rightly be called one of the heroes of the Hebrew people. But he was no super hero. He was an ordinary human being, one who had been in a lot of trouble. In fact, he had broken more than one of those very commandments he bore. But in that moment when he walks down that mountain, his face shines because he had been with God. He had listened to God and done what God asked of him and lived in to all the giftedness that he had. He became the great law-giver. God’s light shone out of him so that all could see. Just like God’s light is in each of us.
Yes its true. We are not super heroes. But we don’t even have to be super human to shine like that. We have only to be ourselves, to be who God calls us to be. I have seen it. I have seen ordinary people transformed in moments when they do very ordinary feats of love. I have seen the light of Christ shine forth in youth of this parish at camp and in Sunday school classrooms. I have seen it people visiting and working with people in hospitals and nursing homes. I saw it last evening as members of this parish wearing yellow T-shirts went off to volunteer at Musicfest in the name of Share-Care. I have witnessed people living into their giftedness and letting the light shine from within them. They do not necessarily manage this all day everyday, but are able to grasp those moments, those opportunities, to save the world.
Just who are we called to be? What are we called to do? Scripture is full of guidance. How about those Ten Commandments that Moses was carrying. We are called to love God first, with all our hear and soul and mind, and have no other gods. We are not to make any idols for ourselves. We are supposed to speak God’s name lovingly and with awe rather than with malice and contempt. We are to remember the Sabbath day, and set aside time for worship and rest. We are to honor our father and mother. We are not supposed to kill people, or commit adultery, or steal. We are not supposed to lie or give false testimony. We are supposed to be satisfied with what we have and not covet what is not ours. Well, that is certainly a good place to start and we haven’t even gotten to Jesus yet. Jesus doesn’t so much add to this list as intensifies it. If we are to be his followers we are to feed the poor, help the wounded, work for justice, not ask for more than our due, not abuse people, and in some cases give away all our possessions. These are the things that being a follower of Christ are about. These are the things that being a Christian are all about. When we do these things, then the light of God shines out of us and that holiness transforms the world.
Now once Peter figured out what he was seeing on that mountain, he wanted to stay there in that transfigured place full of glory. But that’s not how it works. They didn’t stay there. They went down that mountain and got to work. The disciples had some healing to do and Jesus had the cross ahead of him. As Sr. Joan Chittester writes, “The purpose of holiness is not to protect us from our world. The purpose of holiness is to change the way we live in the world, not for our own sake but for the sake of others. Jesus demands the same thing.” When God’s light shines from within us, it is not for our sake but the sake of others. This is how we are called to live; not for our sake, but for the sake of others. To live a Christian life is not about seeking our own comfort. Do you remember the prayer of St. Francis? It does not go: Dear God, let me be loved and forgiven, remove my doubt, give me hope, light and joy. Rather it goes like this:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. (Book of Common Prayer p. 833)
It is a well-loved prayer. But I wonder if people really pay attention to how it so simply and beautifully outlines our call: to orient ourselves to the other. It also beautifully outlines the great gift: when we do these things, then we are filled and healed and comforted.
We do not live in the glory zone, but we can touch it. It can touch us. I believe this because it happens all the time. In my bible there is a section in Matthew that has the helpful heading “The Witness of the Disciples.” Under that heading comes this quote, “In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:16) To witness is to let the light of God shine forth from you, to do good for others that others can see that light. The glory is given not to you, but to God.
God does not ask us to be super heroes or even super human. God calls us to love, to again and again make loving choices toward all those around us. In the end it will not be our super strength but our human vulnerability and love and giving up of our very lives that will help transform the world. Go out from this place and be who you are called to be. Go out and serve others. Go with Christ saving the world, one loving choice at a time.
© Anne E. Kitch 2006
(Barbara Brown Taylor quoted from “Dazzling Darkness” The Christian Century 1998, Joan Chittester quoted from “30 Good Minutes” 1991)
Exodus 34:29-35
Luke 9:28-36
I have it under good authority that Transformers still exist; there is even an upcoming movie. These the toys that start out as human-like robots and then as the need arises they transform into something else. You fold in arms and legs and twist torsos around and suddenly you have race cars or jets or helicopters. There are also super heroes like Power Rangers, Wonder Woman, Superman living ordinary-looking human lives but when need arises they transform into something else; something greater , more powerful, stronger. Yet with all their super strength they do not cease to be who they are. They don’t permanently change into something else, rather they temporarily live into part of who they are. When they are done saving the world, they once again become ordinary youth, women and men. Well something like this happens to Jesus.
Jesus is transfigured. He goes up to a mountain top to pray, taking Peter and John and James with him. He is suddenly transfigured before their eyes; the appearance of his face changes and his clothes become dazzling white. Glory surrounds him. As preacher Barbara Brown Taylor writes “While Jesus was praying, he caught fire from within.” In that moment, Jesus reveals his God-self. The glory of God shone from within him and all around him. Moses the great law-giver and Elijah the great prophet show up for a conference.
Now this was something Jesus’ friends had never seen before. Sure, at some level they knew he was the messiah and the son of God, Peter had even said the words aloud. But they had never seen it. They knew Jesus as their beloved friend and teacher. He did go around casting out demons and healing people, but he walked and talked and ate just like any other man. But now, here on the mountain, his Godself was revealed in all its glory. They must have been stunned.
Before we go any further, let me be clear that Jesus is not a super-hero. Jesus is the Son of God, fully human AND fully divine and very real. He is not a comic book hero or an invented character embodying the attributes of someone we all wish we could be. Rather he is perfect human. Someone without sin. Someone who lived connected to God every moment of everyday. Jesus did not have super strength or x-ray vision or spider sense. What he did have was love; and a sure and certain trust in God. I’m not sure he had love in greater amounts than the rest of us, but he was better able to live in that love and share it generously. He wasn’t impervious to pain and death—and that is the point. Remember what he and Moses and Elijah talked about while Jesus shone in all his glory? They talked about his departure, his exodus, his upcoming death. In the end it was not any super strength but his human vulnerability and love and the giving up of his very life that saved the world…and continues to save the world.
Jesus’ transfiguration was a moment when his divine nature shone out leaving no doubt about who he was. And the transfiguration was more. The power and significance of this event was not just that Peter and John and James saw the light, but that the light shone in the first place. God’s light. Jesus let them see God’s glory pouring out of him and so they knew; knew in ways that they had not perceived before just what kind of messiah they were dealing with. Just like God’s light shone in Moses as he came down Mt. Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments.
Moses may rightly be called one of the heroes of the Hebrew people. But he was no super hero. He was an ordinary human being, one who had been in a lot of trouble. In fact, he had broken more than one of those very commandments he bore. But in that moment when he walks down that mountain, his face shines because he had been with God. He had listened to God and done what God asked of him and lived in to all the giftedness that he had. He became the great law-giver. God’s light shone out of him so that all could see. Just like God’s light is in each of us.
Yes its true. We are not super heroes. But we don’t even have to be super human to shine like that. We have only to be ourselves, to be who God calls us to be. I have seen it. I have seen ordinary people transformed in moments when they do very ordinary feats of love. I have seen the light of Christ shine forth in youth of this parish at camp and in Sunday school classrooms. I have seen it people visiting and working with people in hospitals and nursing homes. I saw it last evening as members of this parish wearing yellow T-shirts went off to volunteer at Musicfest in the name of Share-Care. I have witnessed people living into their giftedness and letting the light shine from within them. They do not necessarily manage this all day everyday, but are able to grasp those moments, those opportunities, to save the world.
Just who are we called to be? What are we called to do? Scripture is full of guidance. How about those Ten Commandments that Moses was carrying. We are called to love God first, with all our hear and soul and mind, and have no other gods. We are not to make any idols for ourselves. We are supposed to speak God’s name lovingly and with awe rather than with malice and contempt. We are to remember the Sabbath day, and set aside time for worship and rest. We are to honor our father and mother. We are not supposed to kill people, or commit adultery, or steal. We are not supposed to lie or give false testimony. We are supposed to be satisfied with what we have and not covet what is not ours. Well, that is certainly a good place to start and we haven’t even gotten to Jesus yet. Jesus doesn’t so much add to this list as intensifies it. If we are to be his followers we are to feed the poor, help the wounded, work for justice, not ask for more than our due, not abuse people, and in some cases give away all our possessions. These are the things that being a follower of Christ are about. These are the things that being a Christian are all about. When we do these things, then the light of God shines out of us and that holiness transforms the world.
Now once Peter figured out what he was seeing on that mountain, he wanted to stay there in that transfigured place full of glory. But that’s not how it works. They didn’t stay there. They went down that mountain and got to work. The disciples had some healing to do and Jesus had the cross ahead of him. As Sr. Joan Chittester writes, “The purpose of holiness is not to protect us from our world. The purpose of holiness is to change the way we live in the world, not for our own sake but for the sake of others. Jesus demands the same thing.” When God’s light shines from within us, it is not for our sake but the sake of others. This is how we are called to live; not for our sake, but for the sake of others. To live a Christian life is not about seeking our own comfort. Do you remember the prayer of St. Francis? It does not go: Dear God, let me be loved and forgiven, remove my doubt, give me hope, light and joy. Rather it goes like this:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. (Book of Common Prayer p. 833)
It is a well-loved prayer. But I wonder if people really pay attention to how it so simply and beautifully outlines our call: to orient ourselves to the other. It also beautifully outlines the great gift: when we do these things, then we are filled and healed and comforted.
We do not live in the glory zone, but we can touch it. It can touch us. I believe this because it happens all the time. In my bible there is a section in Matthew that has the helpful heading “The Witness of the Disciples.” Under that heading comes this quote, “In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:16) To witness is to let the light of God shine forth from you, to do good for others that others can see that light. The glory is given not to you, but to God.
God does not ask us to be super heroes or even super human. God calls us to love, to again and again make loving choices toward all those around us. In the end it will not be our super strength but our human vulnerability and love and giving up of our very lives that will help transform the world. Go out from this place and be who you are called to be. Go out and serve others. Go with Christ saving the world, one loving choice at a time.
© Anne E. Kitch 2006
(Barbara Brown Taylor quoted from “Dazzling Darkness” The Christian Century 1998, Joan Chittester quoted from “30 Good Minutes” 1991)
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