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Sermon for Sunday, February 3, 2008
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
Transfiguration of Our Lord
Texts: Exodus 24:12-18; Psalm 2; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
Grace to you and peace, from our powerful and Living God and from Christ Jesus, God’s beloved Son.
Every Tuesday I gather together with other Lutheran pastors in the area to pray together, and to study the texts for each week as we prepare our sermons. We take turns leading the group, bringing resources and questions and ideas. This past week, the “brilliant” pastor from South Plainfield asked us the question, “When was the last time you knew you were in the presence of the Living God?”
“When was the last time you knew you were in the presence of the Living God?” While we believe that God is here in this congregation, is out there in the world, in our homes, our workplaces, moving and living and present, there are moments that stand out for us, there are times when there is no doubt in our mind that we were in the presence of the Living God.
If Peter were asked this question, I am sure that he would be able to say a few things - perhaps that moment when he was called from his boat to follow Jesus. I am sure Peter would have told about when he was in the presence of the Living God as he saw the resurrected Jesus walking along the shore, making breakfast.
But in his letter to one of his communities, which we read as our second reading today, Peter tells about the transfiguration of Jesus. He writes about being on the mountain, when he saw Jesus with his face shining like the sun, his clothes dazzling white, talking with Elijah and Moses. Peter tells of this experience as a time when he most certainly knew he was in the presence of the Living God.
Peter writes:
“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ’This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.”
This is not just a story, Peter says, because he himself saw the glory and majesty of God in Jesus. Peter held onto this moment when he heard, and saw and felt the power of the Living God made known in Jesus. In this transfiguration, not only was Jesus transformed, but through this revelation of the power of the Living God, Peter, and James and John, were transformed.
“When was a time when you knew you were in the presence of the Living God?”
Let me tell you a few stories, stories about when I knew I was in the presence of the Living God.....
Last spring, I had just spent my first winter in New Jersey, and I was getting tired of the gray days and cement (without even much snow to cover it up). I remember one of those days in the spring when the bushes and trees started to turn and blossom with brilliant yellows, reds, pinks and white - colors that I had never seen before, bursting out of the gray. On this day, in this sign of rebirth and life, in this expression of our creator’s wisdom, I knew I was in the presence of the Living God!
Just last week, at our Annual meeting, as we ate Odessa’s delicious food and shared stories, as we asked hard questions and faced some of the difficult realities of the future, as we committed ourselves to continue to give to support this congregation, as we challenged ourselves to another year of doing ministry, of working to grow, of being church, I knew I was in the presence of the Living God! In these daring and scary times, in our laughter and in our challenges, in these times of being community, as we dared to move forward in faith and urgency, in all this I knew I was in the presence of the Living God!
In December, I spent a lot of time with Mary Thorburn and her family as she was in hospice care. The day that she died, I sat with her family as we shared stories, as we prayed and said goodbye. At one point, Mary's daughter started to sing, quietly, “Amazing Grace.” While she sang, there was a calmness to Mary’s face, a sense of peace in her eyes. In the quiet of this song, in its words of assurance and hope, even in the midst of this difficult time, in this place between life here and life eternal, at that moment I knew that I was in the presence of the Living God!
“When did you know that you were the presence of the living God? ”
In these moments, profound and simple, miraculous and mundane, God is made known to us, and we are transformed. In these moments we are reminded that our God continues to make Godself known in our world and in our lives. It is not just some story, for we have been eyewitnesses to God’s glory. We gather together as God’s people because we have experienced the Living God’s power in our lives. In the midst of those hard days, the days which are gray and empty and broken, in the midst of those long nights of fear and loneliness and worry, in the midst of the questions and unknowns and troubles of our lives, when God seems absent or distant or powerless, we can remember these moments, can hold onto them, and can be revitalized by them. Through them, God holds us, encourages us and moves us forward.
The good news for us is this, that our God is present and living and powerful even when we don’t feel it, even if we have long forgotten those moments when we really knew we were in the presence of the Living God. God’s presence does not depend on our experiencing it. God’s power does not depend on our noticing it. God’s love does not leave us when we don’t feel it. While Peter and James and John saw the power and the majesty of Jesus that day - in his shining face and dazzling clothes - the power and majesty of Jesus did not leave him when the dazzle did. The power and majesty of Jesus was known, even as his glowing face was streaked with blood, his clothes torn, as he hung on another mountain. There, on Golgotha, the power of the Living God was revealed in its truest, most transformative actions, in the salvation of the world!
Throughout my own faith journey, throughout my own dark nights and long gray days, there has been one place where God has consistently met me, revealed Godself to me, a place where I always knew I would be in the presence of the Living God. This one place has been around this table of grace, not always this particular table, for sometimes it was just a rock on a mountainside, a fancy marble altar, a simple kitchen table, or a hospital counter. Wherever we were, with the Spirit, bread and wine, and simple words, I knew that I was in the presence of the Living God. I admit, I didn’t always feel it, but God was there, promises to be here, to be made known in bread and wine, to be here to nourish us, to hold us and sustain us on our journey. Here we know that we are in the presence of the Living God!
Jesus comes to us in this meal, fully present, that we might be changed. We taste and see Jesus here, in dazzling presence, that the power of the Living God might abide with us as we face the realities of our lives. In this meal we taste and see the power of the Living God. We need this power to get us through the day, through the night, through the week. Through this meal, in the revelation of God’s love for us here, in God’s presence and grace and mercy, God reminds us who we are and whose we are. Here, we, with Peter, are eyewitnesses to Christ’s majesty.
As we enter into the season of Lent, we face the reality that Jesus never promises that life is easy, but he does remind us that we do not need to be afraid - that the Living God’s presence is with us. Jesus does not let us stay on the mountain, but sends us into the world, having known the presence of the Living God at this table. So, in the midst of our weeks, we can trust, even when we can’t see or feel it anymore, that the power of the Living God still surrounds us. And we can come back again, and again, back to the mountain, to this altar, to taste and know the presence of the Living God.
Thanks be to God.
Amen
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