Sermon - February 11, 2024 - The Rev. Emily Collette

I speak in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

I think we see them.

So today is the final Sunday in the season of Epiphany, and as we do every year on the

last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, we hear the story of Jesus' transfiguration on

the mountain.

This Wednesday we will begin our journey into Lent, which is a somber and sobering season

where we get the chance to walk just a little bit closer with the parts of life that we

often pretend don't exist, or at least until we have to acknowledge things like suffering

or illness, disappointment, shame, and death.

On Ash Wednesday we will hear the promise that we are made from dust, and to dust, we

and all of this and everything that we accumulate in our lives will return.

In Lent we have a time to reflect on the spaces that we need to do and about face, on the

times and the places, the things that we need to do to get more close to God, to get closer

to where we are being called by God to walk, to give up the things that are separating

us from God, and to take on the things that will bring us closer.

Lent is a time for us to reflect on just how much God loves us, just how far God is willing

to go to come and find us, and then we have the chance to learn how to pattern our life

with the knowledge of just how good we are.

But today we have one last Sunday to reflect on the season of Epiphany, to reflect on how

God is being revealed in the world and in your own lives.

We are in year B in our lectionary cycle, which means we get to focus mostly on the

gospel of Mark, and so it is Mark's version of the transfiguration that we hear today.

In this scripture passage we have Jesus ascending the mountain with three of his closest friends

and disciples.

Incidentally, these are three of the first four followers of Jesus, James and Peter.

Suddenly those disciples are swept up into this strange and awesome moment.

Jesus' clothes become dazzling white, and standing with him are two of the greatest

prophets of Israel, Moses and Elijah.

Peter, in such a human moment, has no idea what to say, and offers to build three dwelling

places for Jesus, Moses, and it is such a wonderful moment with Peter, not knowing at

all how to enter into this grace-filled God moment happening in front of him.

It is all the more embarrassing, I think, for him to have his offer completely ignored

and overshadowed by God's booming voice, proclaiming that this is Jesus, the beloved Son of God,

who we are supposed to listen to, whose message of repentance and love can change our lives.

And just as suddenly as the moment arrived, it is now ended.

The odd disciples are left alone with Jesus on the mountain.

All is exactly as it was, or so they think.

All is exactly as it was, but nothing will ever be the same after such a close encounter

with God.

Our story ends with their descent from the mountain and Jesus' stern instructions to

tell no one what they have seen or experienced in the resurrection.

Recently I did a day-long Godly Play training here at the church put together by our wonderful

children's director, Amanda Austin.

Godly Play is the program that our youth, that our children have to do every Sunday

mornings during the Christian education hour.

And in Godly Play, they hear the story of the day and they are invited to engage with

it with one question.

These are just questions for them to see where the story is speaking to them in that moment.

Where are they in this story?

Where do they hear Jesus?

What parts of it are they getting caught up in?

And the point of these wondering questions isn't to find answers.

The point for the wondering questions is just to wonder a little more fully about where

God is in their own lives and where they see themselves in this story.

It's a great technique for children, but I couldn't help but thinking the whole time

I was at this training that this would be a great technique for adults as well.

It's a really powerful way to engage with scripture to ask these wondering questions

to let ourselves wander through the story and not try to come away with clean and tidy

answers.

So this week as I read through our scripture reading, I let myself begin to wonder.

And I wonder what it must have been like in this first disciples to see that story standing

on top with Jesus, seeing Moses and Elijah with their teacher.

I wondered about the times where I too, like Peter, have tried to enter into those divine

moments with God, but not knowing how to take the first steps.

I wondered why Jesus told his disciples not to share this moment with anyone else.

There are so few times in scripture where God speaks clearly to everyone who is there

to hear.

There are so few times where God isn't the quiet voice in your heart or in your dreams

or listening when you have a silent moment with God, but that God speaks clearly.

Why not share that with everyone?

Why not tell everyone what they have seen?

Why wait until the resurrection?

Why wait at all?

Why not now?

But one of my deepest wonderings this week as I read this story was about the revelation

of who Jesus is and what Jesus' ministry is about.

This story is our final in the season of Epiphany, and it so closely parallels the story that

we opened this season with, the story of Jesus' baptism by John in the River Jordan.

In both stories, and a sign of just how important that moment is, of just how near heaven has

drawn to earth, we hear the voice of God.

At Jesus' baptism, God reveals that Jesus is indeed the beloved Son of God whose mission

and ministry and whose saving act are pleasing and will always be pleasing in God's sight.

And in today's story of the Transfiguration, God takes it a step further.

God once again affirms that Jesus is the beloved Son, and as an imperative for us, instructions

to listen to Jesus, to listen and follow Him.

In the final piece of God's revelation for who Jesus is, and all of that falls into place

in this story, God has revealed it all so perfectly, clearly for us.

This is Jesus, the beloved Son of God whose mission is sanctified by God, pleasing to

God, and we are to listen to Him and pattern our lives after Him.

So the work then becomes for us to listen better, to see the ways in which we are not

being revealed in the world, around us and in our own lives.

When we slow down and actually make space for God to speak to us in our busy and full

lives, when we look and listen with the eyes and ears of our soul, where do we find God?

As we enter into this upcoming season of Lent, a time of reflection and repentance, as we

prepare ourselves for Easter, I invite you into a season of your own holy wonderings,

a time of sacred curiosity and reflection where your sole aim is just to come closer

to God, just to walk more closely with your Lord, to not seek impossible answers to life's

hardest questions, but just to work as God tells us so clearly in these passages, to

walk and listen with Jesus a little more fully.

I wonder where you are seeing God at work in your life right now.

I wonder where and how God is choosing to be revealed to you, not only in ourselves

but also in people around us.

I wonder how you are called to be a Christ revealer in your lives, your friends, your

families, your neighbors, even strangers.

I wonder how your relationship with God has and will continue to transform over the many

years of your life, all the days that you have left and all the time after that as well.

I wonder how God will change us, how our relationship with God will change us if we let it, how

our lives can become richer and fuller when we learn to listen to and follow Jesus.

God is very much at work in the world around us.

God is at work in your life.

God is at work in my life.

God is at work in as many lives as there are people on this planet.

As we close out this season of Epiphany, my prayer for us is that we continue to seek

those ways in which God is being revealed to us, in which God is coming to us and asking

us to follow.

So I pray for your holy wonderings in the days ahead, that each of you will notice God

within yourselves and within each other, that you will have eyes and ears and hearts and

minds that are open enough to see how God is being revealed.