Sermon for March 2, 2025 - The Last Sunday after the Epiphany
Resistance and Transformation
It is good for us to be here today. It is good for us to gather as a community, not only because we get to officially welcome and ask God’s blessing upon baby James into this parish family, but also because we stand in the midst of the turbulent currents that are seemingly close to capsizing and engulfing us. We find ourselves in the midst of change. Some of it good, especially as we gather to reflect on the successes and joys of the past year while looking expectantly to the year to come. And some of it not so good, like the unprecedented blowup in the Oval Office that will inevitably affect the course of the war in Ukraine or the utter bleakness for the Palestinian people who are witnessing the final stages of their displacement and destruction as we helplessly watches in the wings.
This week we are also quite literally and spiritually moving from one place to another, from one season to another; all the while being refined and transformed from glory to glory. On this final weekend in the season of Epiphany we are in a bridge moment. We are both looking back at the impact of the Incarnation and the ministry of Jesus, and we are looking forward to Lent, an altogether new and different season. In three days’ time, our foreheads will be marked with ashes to remind us that we are always in the midst of change, in utter midst of transformation, and the hope of the ultimate transformation from this life into the next.
And so today we find ourselves standing alongside Peter, James, and John on a mountaintop bearing witness to the transforming power of God through Jesus Christ. For those three disciples this experience was nothing short of what we might call a “mountaintop experience;” a moment of clarity from God. When we experience such moments of clarity and purpose and fulfillment, we want to hold on to them for as long as we can, fearful of what happens when we descend down from the mountain back into the darker valleys of life. I imagine that some of that was pulling at Peter’s heart in our story this morning.
Peter often gets a bad reputation in the gospel stories. He is usually the most enthusiastic disciple, but he is also equally filled with doubt and fear. He briefly walks on water, only to sink. He is the one who confesses that Jesus is the Messiah but he talso denies him…three times. He wants to follow Jesus to the very end, but falters. And it would appear that Peter is up to his old tricks again; this time around suggesting that they build three dwelling places and stay there in that moment. He is immediately dismissed as “not knowing” and we are left with the impression that Peter shouldn’t have made the suggestion. He may not have fully known what he was suggesting, but Peter wants to encapsulate the experience. He wants to capture the feeling. He wants to stay in that place, to be fully present to the experience. He wants to hold on and not let go. That is a feeling we can certainly understand.
The transfiguration is a turning point, not just in the narrative as Jesus turns from Galilee to Judea, from safety towards the cross and Jerusalem; it is also a transition from one way of seeing Jesus to another. It is not just about securing the Jesus of the future or holding on to the Jesus of the past but points to our real human struggle with change, with transformation.
Just like Peter, we think we welcome change, but when it actually happens, we adopt stances of resistance and rejection. Or convince our selves that the change can wait. That it really isn’t necessary. That the time is not right. That the problems that will ensue are not worth the result of living into who we really are. We build our tents. We stand still while the world around us changes.
Like Jesus, like Peter, we all need transfiguration.
Transformation is hard. Change is hard. We each know this in our own lives. Traversing from one place to another, from one way of being to another carries significant change. It’s easier to stay the same. Stay the course. Convince yourself that what you’ve always known is satisfactory and sufficient even when you have glimpsed what could be. It is the cycle of thinking in which we all get stuck. We are comfortable with the known, and we will push back against attempts to move us from one place to another. We are all prone to allowing our fear and doubts to control our lives, and we may not even be aware of it.
So, we just sit. We pitch our tents and wait. For what? The right time? The right place? All of our questions answered? Before we know it, the world has passed us by while we wait.
This is why the transfiguration is so important. It just shows up. There is no right time. It just happens. No amount of planning can predict this kind of change. No amount of preparation can prepare you for an altered reality or an altered perspective. No amount of strategizing can make you ready for a transfiguration.
Change, Growth, a brighter future for All Saints
If you were here at All Saints five years ago take a moment, think back, look around, how has this place changed? How has this place been transformed because you were willing to take a leap of faith and undertook a journey of total trust God? Over these past five years a lot has changed. We have indeed been transformed. And like the disciples we may want to pat ourselves on the back, pitch out tents, and be content with how far we have come, but the transformation is not over yet. Like a child learning to crawl and then walk and then run, we need to continue to support the growth and change so we don’t collapse under the weight of God’s success through us. This means we must continue to invest time and resources in different areas, while also grafting on elements of being a Christian community that have fallen off because of a lack of people or where never really part of our DNA. This place is buzzing with the Holy Spirit. It is alive in the Spirit, and we want to harness that Spirit as together with God we run with confidence into a brighter future. We have had a good year and I can not wait to see what God has in store for us in the year to come.
Transfiguration means change and it is an invitation to a new way of seeing the world. Because at the heart of the matter transfiguration not only signals change, but it fundamentally alters life’s direction. It certainly did for Jesus. And it certainly did for this parish as we are on a forward and upward trajectory. And when that happens, no tent in the world is going to give us the security we think we want or need. Because when we shore up the shelters that protect us from harm we also run the risk of keeping out that which is so very, very good. Where would this congregation be today if we did not embrace an open heart towards transformation?
Through this process of transformation, we shed the distractions, the addictions, and all that seeks to separate us from God. Yes, we may even have to shed the comforts of the present so that we might move closer to God. But in doing so, we reveal the glory of our true-self; the imprint of God that dwells within and that shines forth from the very depths of our being.
The upcoming season of Lent offers us an opportunity to slow down and to enter into a time of prayerful reflection. We will be invited to take on new spiritual practices or to give up something. This is all so that we too might have that mountain top moment of clarity in which we see just how God is transforming us and the world around us, if we are willing to step into the flow and let ourselves go.
