February 19 -- Transfiguration Sunday

Some of you know that my last call was a difficult one. There weren’t many places where I could talk about it openly. To spare you the details, suffice to say, that I was trying and for the sake of the ministry up there in Orange County, I felt like I needed to be something that I was not. (Nothing can be more detrimental to your well being.)

And part of the pain was keeping it to myself: I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings; I didn’t want to alienate myself. And I’ve grown up in a culture that tells me that you should just put on a smiley face, “make the best of it”, and tell everybody (and even yourself) that everything is fine.

But I was coming up short, and I was coming apart. As our bishop keenly helped me name, it was “sucking my soul”.

The only time I could be brutally honest was with a few close friends and colleagues, who were geographically far away. And I would get to see them twice a year a retreat called First Call Theological Education. As new pastors in the ELCA, we are required to go to these gatherings twice a year for our first three years of ministry…just a place to fellowship, to learn, and perhaps (more often than not) to commiserate with other new pastors over the unexpected challenges and woes of ministry.

I had not yet finished my 6 required FCTE events when I arrived at Shepherd of the Valley, because I was only in my first call for 2 years.

The whole reason I’m tell you all this: When I came back, one particularly observant colleague, who I didn’t even know that well, said to me:

“Hey Dan, what’s with you? Something’s changed about you…You’re standing up straighter, you look calmer and genuinely happier, it’s like your shape has changed. I almost didn’t recognize you.” True story.

Not every would have caught that. I hadn’t even. But Maegan did: She said my shape had changed for the better.

Have you ever notice that in people? When their shape changes for the better? And I’m not talking about loosing weight here. I mean their whole demeanor shifts. I’ve seen it happen when people get a new haircut, or a wardrobe makeover, or a new job, or a new friend…and suddenly there’s a spark there that they didn’t have before. They just carry themselves differently. It is as if their shape has changed for the better. In other words, it is as if they have been transfigured.

Today we celebrate transfiguration. And here’s the thing: Jesus is transfigured so that we might be transfigured too. [let's repeat together]

Peter goes from being full of hot air – he just blathers out, “Jesus, let’s build three dwellings…” because…he was scared to death, because he didn’t know what t say. Some people clam up when they’re scared. And then others, like Peter, can’t keep their mouth shut.

But on that mountain, it’s not just Jesus who is transfigured. Jesus is transfigured so that we might be transfigured too! So that we too might shut up for a second, all our chatter and banter, blathering. Just shut up for a second, Peter, and bask in the awe and the glory and the grace and the beauty of God.

Have you ever been around people that are so nervous and fidgety that they make you that way too? On the flip side: have you ever been around someone who is so calm, that it starts to rub off on you?

I think we really have to cultivate peace and non-anxiety….because we live in hyper-hyper-anxious times, uber-angst [angst in GE is "fear"]. (I don’t have to sell you on this idea, just look at news, look around...)

As I read this Gospel text from beginning to end, it’s like crossing a spectrum from hyper-anxiety to the peace that only Christ can offer. Peace is imaged here as a cloud. [pause] I love sunshine and blue sky, but what peace there is an overcast sky! What peace there is in being covered by a cloud. It’s like God’s quilt. I love, love verse 8: “And suddenly [then] when they looked around, they saw no one with them, but only Jesus.” They too had been transfigured. We too have been transfigured.

In the encounter with the brightness of Christ, which we find here in Water, Word and Meal. Be not mistaken – every Sunday can be understood as a transfiguration Sunday. We might not always light [this] Paschal candle, but Christ always lights our hearts, in the breaking of the bread, in the passing of the peace, in the sharing of the Word and the splashing of the water. Our shapes are changed for the better. The load is lifted. We stand up straighter. We look calmer, and genuinely happier. They almost don’t even recognize us…God’s grace and glory is so good. And we are at peace – not sedated. No we are at peace in Christ, at peace with ourselves, at peace in the world. And so we can move…right off this mountain! We are active in God’s world, loving and caring and sharing what we have, because we are at peace…that is, we know that what we have is all really God’s anyway. It all belongs to God.

And it is a joy to take care of what God has entrusted to us—money, talents, time—for this short life.

We go now from this mountain, sisters and brothers, with Christ, having been transfigured and transformed for the better. Having been fed and nourished. Having been offered the peace that only Christ can give. We follow Jesus down from the mountain, to serve and love, and live and share. AMEN.