“Working at the Roots” a sermon based on Luke 13:1-9 Lent 3, February 28 2016

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” 

Then he told this story: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘Look! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’  The gardener replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, then cut it down.’” 

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A few years ago, Norio decided he wanted a pear tree in the back yard. Now, the back part of our yard – that part which isn’t garden – is about 40 feet by 60 feet – and in that 40 x 60 we have bamboo (two kinds) white pine, red maple, spruce, Colorado blue spruce, and Alaskan dwarf cypress which somehow hasn’t yet figured out it’s a dwarf. In the midst of all these trees, a pear tree gets planted. Jump ahead three years. I return from Newfoundland to find a bamboo grove in the back yard, and the pear disappeared, swallowed up by the bamboo. Well, most but not all bamboo got dug out, and then there was the argument about what to do with the pear tree – take it out, or feed and prune it. Honestly, it looked like something out of “Day of the Triffids”. The pear tree got pruned, the soil around the roots loosened and fertilised, and the following year produced a crop which fed innumerable birds and squirrels. It was fruitful all right, we just never got any.

There are two seemingly separate texts put together in today’s reading from Luke, and at first glimpse they don’t seem to relate to each other at all. On second glance, maybe they do. I suspect Jesus has been hearing comments that the Galileans who suffered, and whose blood Pilate had used in sacrifices, were somehow worse sinners than other people. It’s a common human response – they probably did something and deserved what they got, but we aren’t like that. Or, says Jesus, those who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them, were they worse offenders than everyone else?
But, he says, unless you all repent, you too will perish as they did. And then he tells the story of the fig tree. Now, the fig tree was a symbol of goodness and peace. Everyone, ‘neath their vine and fig tree, shall live in peace and unafraid. The fruit of the vine, the fruit of the land.

But if the tree is simply left to its own devices, will it produce fruit? 

"Let's tear out this fig tree," says the land owner. "It ruins the soil, the grapes can’t grow. It’s supposed to produce fruit, and it's not even doing that." When Norio and I trimmed the pear tree, that wasn’t all we did….every so often, the soil needs to be loosened, and fertiliser put down – otherwise the tree will grow lots of branches, but because the roots get tightly bound and there’s no nutrition, they won’t produce any fruit – everything goes into leaf growth. If the roots aren’t fed at all, the whole tree will sicken and just die.

I was reading a sermon from a colleague, Rev. Heather McCance, who says (paraphrased):  - “Because there are days when I'm sick and tired of the stupid, horrible things we human beings do to one another, there are also days when I completely identify with the harsh punishment line of thinking. There are times when I can understand the story of God flooding the earth, saving only one human family and some animals – and starting again.”

Her comments are echoed in the book “The Education of God” by David Bumbaugh. In the chapter called “Noah”, God has kind of forgotten the tiny little planet She created,butone day when things are boring, She notices the tiny speck, and goes over to take a look. She’s left Adam and Eve on their own, having booted them out of Eden as a kind of gentle punishment – but when the whole mess which has grown since then becomes apparent, God becomes angry at how the people in this experiment with this tiny blue planet have behaved – this was to be a crowning achievement, a jewel in this galaxy, and they all act like idiots. So in anger God floods the earth and wipes out just about everything, and starts over. Noah and his family reach land after the 40 days afloat, and promptly get stinking drunk, and the whole cycle starts over. Bumbaugh says God learned something from that experience. Harsh punishments don't work.

Let’s imagine we are the fig tree. We’ve been planted in the same place for a long time – and we tend to get root-bound, planted in our familiar garden in our familiar ways of being. I don’t think God is exactly interested in cutting us down and starting over, because there are always second chances with God. I do think, though, that drastic measures happen – digging around our roots, spreading manure, pushing us to produce fruit and be who we are called to be – especially ina world where being compassionate and caring, and kind even to those we believe have hurt us or hurt others, is more and more important.

We are the fig tree, called to produce fruit for the world. The first step is to continue to feed the roots, to take care with the soil, not to let it get so packed down that the roots suffocate and starve. The second step is producing the fruit of the Spirit – the fruit which brings peace, and no more fear. Just pruning branches back won’t help a lot. The whole of the tree is important, from the roots to the tips of the new growth. The whole of the person is important; the roots of faith are fed, and the result is the fruits of faith. Paul’s letter to the Galatians tells us “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." May it be so.

1.      Second Chances a sermon based on Luke 13:1-9 by Rev. Heather McCance

2.      The Education of God by Rev. David E. Bumbaugh. Rising Press Series 1994, Copyright - Reprinted in paperback 2010.  Professor of Ministry, Meadville Lombard Theological School, Chicago.

3.      Galatians 5:22-23.

“Hens and Chicks” a sermon based on Luke 13:31-35 Second Sunday of Lent February 21, 2016

“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." Jesus replied to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because a prophet cannot be killed anywhere outside of Jerusalem.'

 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

See, your temple is left to you. But I tell you, you will not see me again until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.'"

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Luke sets up this story and its point in an interesting way. He tells us “some of the Pharisees” came to Jesus to warn him about Herod. We can find other parts of Luke where Pharisees  - or perhaps more specifically Caiaphas the High Priest and his minions, are clear that they are not on Jesus' side (Lk 6:11; 11:53). (Lk 9:7-9). They tell him Herod wants to kill him, and Jesus calls Herod a ‘fox’.  And for clarity – this isn’t the same Herod who was in power at the birth of Jesus – but his son, Herod Antipas, who was a ruthless leader but nothing like his father, supposedly.
We do know that not all the Pharisees were against Jesus – some actually did support him, albeit quietly.  Joseph of Arimathea was one who buried Jesus.  Or maybe the Pharisees are trying to get Jesus to keep the lid on things; maybe they’re thinking the threat of Herod may help them silence Jesus.

Jesus, however, won’t have any of it. "Tell that fox that today, and tomorrow I am curing and healing, and on the third day my work will be finished.”  Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He knows this is where he needs to be. He makes it clear that he knows where he is heading and will not be stopped in finishing his task.

There is a book by Stephen Covey called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Two of the habits he notes are that they are proactive, choosing their direction in life based on what they value. And he says they begin with the end in mind  -  deciding where  they want to be when they arrive at the destination. Jesus expresses both concepts in this short passage. He does not let Herod or the threat of Herod or the threat of the Pharisees make his decisions. He chooses a course of action based on his own value system.

And then Jesus says some rather strange things. He says “Today, tomorrow and the next day I must be on my way, for a prophet cannot be killed anywhere outside of Jerusalem.”

Then he says he has wanted to gather them in ‘like a mother hen’ to protect them, but they were not willing.

Then he says, “Your temple is left to you.”

Hmmm. Jesus had a way of being cryptic, but this is head-scratching. What does that mean? That every prophet has to go to Jerusalem to be killed? Does it only happen in Jerusalem? If they stay away from Jerusalem does it not happen? Is Jerusalem the city? Or does he mean something else?
Then the comment about the mother hen gathering the chicks, but they were not willing. This begins, I think, to offer a clue. Jerusalem is maybe the ‘children of Israel’. We know the city of Jerusalem is where the temple is, where the Ark of the Covenant is, the spiritual heart of Judaism – but in this case is Jerusalem the place? Or the people?

Last clue – your temple is left to you. Your so-called spiritual centre still stands, but you have abandoned your faith. You haven’t been willing to look again at God’s law, but preferred your own way. Now you won’t see me again, until you are able to say “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.”

And now, for me, his comments about the mother hen and her chicks comes into clearer focus. Rather than come back to God, they (and we) would rather peck the ground in front of us and not paying any attention to our direction – we’re myopic. We don’t see obstacles and dangers before us, but we also might miss something that God has prepared for us.

We are neither proactive nor do we have a long enough range in our vision to see where we are heading. Instead, we react to whatever is pushing us right now or whatever we see in front of us right now. And we haven't a clue as to where our current path will lead us. We are walking in a darkness of our own making, a wilful blindness.

Now, if you’ve raised chickens, you will know that chicks don't necessarily follow their mother around – they’re busy pecking in all directions. In order to protect them, the mother hen uses her beak to pull them under wings. The chicks, however, are too busy trying to peck, and don’t recognise what the mother hen is doing. They have the attention span of a flea, basically.

When we start looking at the stories of Jesus and the disciples, how many times do we hear of them arguing with one another. Who is going to be the greatest among them? Who will sit beside Jesus in the new realm, on his right and on his left. Jesus has to snap them back into focus. In the story of the transfiguration, they get hung up and Jesus has to bring them back to reality. Jesus has focus. The others don’t.

Jesus has seen clearly where he is going. He knows, not through any magic ability, but through astute evaluation of the political and religious climate around him, that going to Jerusalem for the Passover is not going to end well. Yet he knows that’s where he has to be. In the end, he says, God has offered them a way, but they have turned away from God, lost focus, even with the physical temple sitting in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem becomes more than a physical place – it becomes a people who have lost their way, who have become distracted, who go through the motions of building a temple and keeping the tablets of the law there, and then completely ignoring the law in favour of their own way of doing things. Jerusalem becomes an allegory for the children of Israel.

What about us? What about the church today? We come to church on Sunday. Why? What brings us here? We say we follow Jesus, yet we focus on pennies here and pennies there to keep the church open, but what do we want to keep it open for? We come for Bible study, worship, education. We listen to the scripture, but do we forget that the words written there are meant to shape and guide us along the way? Instead of focusing on the transforming of lives through worship, education, service, we peck at each other. And what happens if we are called back to focus on the Way of Jesus?

Keeping our focus and not going off on different paths is hard work. It means looking inward, and being honest about our motivations and our actions. But if we really do know who we are and whose we are, we can learn to be proactive, and keep the destination in mind. Following Jesus has to be the basis of our decision-making. The good news is that we have chance after chance – being called back time after time after time to BE Jerusalem, to BE the people, to be proactive, to discern the way and follow. May we find our way back.

Sources: “Brood of Chickens” a sermon based on Luke 13:31-35by Rev. Randy Quinn

“In the Dark” Luke 4:1-13 First of Lent February 14, 2016

Years ago, in a series called “Touched by an Angel”, there was an episode where Monica, the centre of the story, loses her faith. She has seen the destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City  - the number of deaths and injured, especially the children. She falters in her beliefs, suddenly questioning why a loving God in whom she has believed can have allowed such a thing to happen. She runs away into the “wilderness”. And into the wilderness comes that adversary, in the form of the fallen angel who in our twisting of historical faith has become a ‘devil’ or Satan.  He arrives in the form of Mandy Patinkin, a smiling, urbane and completely reasonable counter-voice who understands her pain – and he does, because he’s experienced it himself – and he tries to convince her that she doesn’t need God, that she can do all the things she needs to do on her own. Except that he could help her of course.

Recently I’ve been having conversations with a young person who is exploring faith. He is inquisitive, and wants to grapple with a faith which makes sense in today’s time. One of the issues which came up was a definition of the devil, and the existence of demons.  As I lay thinking about his questions in the early morning I also got to thinking about the Gospel text this morning, in which we are told Jesus is ‘led by the Spirit into the wilderness’ and ‘tempted by the devil’. And I thought about the comments and discussion with the lectionary group on Wednesday. What does the text really tell us – not just the simplistic interpretation of a real devil, but the old biblical understanding of ‘the adversary’. Who is the adversary? When does the adversary appear?

We don’t get told much about what happened with Jesus. We know that he was baptised, and the text tells us the Spirit then led him into the wilderness, and that during these forty days he fasted and prayed.  Now, did he really fast for forty days? Doubtful. Nor do I think it’s very important how long it was. ­Forty is a pretty common figure in the Bible meaning “a long time”. Noah sat stuck on the ark for forty days and forty nights; the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years. So sufficient to say Jesus fasted and meditated. And it’s an earmark of deep meditation and fasting, that often the subject begins to hallucinate.

For me this is one of the texts in which Jesus’ humanity is completely clear – both Matthew and Luke record the story – and I think with the point that Jesus *was* human – and as a human, subject to all the things which would tempt any human. He’s just been baptised and in that moment had a deep spiritual experience, and he is literally alive and on fire with the power he feels. The Spirit now leads him into a wilderness, a dark place, where he has to face himself.

Now, Jesus has a strong sense of social justice  -  and in his sense of power which he can still touch even in this dark place, he hears a little voice saying “Turn these stones into bread”.  We know he would have been famished. But the ability to turn stones into bread has economic and social implications as well - there were a lot of hungry people around Palestine – if he could create food for himself, then he could do it for everyone, someone who gave free food could become very popular very quickly with a lot of people in need.  He had to deal with the temptation of being able to respond immediately to the needs of many people. His response to this little voice in his ear is simple, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."(Deut. 8:3) 

Now, the little voice inside him promises to deliver all the nations of the world if he only bows down in worship to this other part of himself. Any one of us, being offered all the power of Caesar – would we take it?  Broad reforms, peace throughout the earth, a truly just society  - the realm of God in the here and now, and all done by him. But that’s not God's way – God’s way is for real change to begin at the grassroots and work its way up, not to come from the top and trickle down. Jesus catches himself again, and recalls the words "Worship God and serve God only." Note, Jesus never denies that these things couldn’t come about, nor that he has the power to do them – but he rejects the means by which he could personally achieve these things. 

The third time this little voice comes to Jesus is when in a vision he is transported to the temple at Jerusalem. He can look down  - he can throw himself down from the pinnacle and the words in his ears are a direct quote from the psalms and assurances of God's protection.  One last time, however, Jesus calls up scripture and that little voice in his other ear says  "Don’t test God!" 

And then the text says that the adversary departed from Jesus “until an opportune time”. For me this speaks even more to the humanity of Jesus – that there could be another time, a moment of weakness.  

Well, there are some threads I want to try to pull together here. Working with the notion of walking in the dark – being led into the wilderness, and having to work through some heavy spiritual stuff.  Did you know that the real meaning of the word ‘jihad’ is the spiritual war with one’s self? The story played out in “Touched by an Angel” depicts the same kind of entering into a dark place – the dark places right within ourselves, where we can’t see anything, and we have to walk in the figurative dark.  We talk about the ‘dark night of the soul’. It’s something real.

Many years ago Norio and I had a friend who was a Representative to the State Legislature in Michigan, the Rev.Lynn Jondahl, now the Honorable Lynn Jondahl. We always thought he would be a wonderful governor, but one of the things he said was this “I’d have to sell off too much of myself, in order to do that. Any political position like that comes at a huge price. I’d rather stay here where I can do some good and where I can live with what I’ve sold of myself already.”

Jesus was human. He got called into a dark place and he could have given in to the temptations in the wilderness. I think the point here was that he had to wrestle with himself, that true ‘jihad’, the internal spiritual struggle, and who he would become was based on the choices he made, which also means that he must have been free to choose otherwise.

In the sermon “Entering the Dark Cloud of God” Barbara Brown Taylor says talks about entering that “cloud of unknowing” – which I see as a kind of dark place, where all senses are changed:  when you enter the cloud of unknowing you have to slow way, way down . All those things you prided yourself on outside the cloud—your speed, your agility, your ability to suss things out at a single glance—they won’t do you any good inside.  You might as well crawl like a baby; at least you can’t fall down when you’re already on the ground.  The good news is that slowness has a lot going for it. There’s time to use senses you don’t use when your eyes are working fine. There’s time to wonder where you think you’re going and why - none of your outside navigational tools can help you now. Good luck with that compass, that laminated map, that guidebook, that Bible.  If it’s not inside you, then it’s of limited use to you now.  The good news is that second-hand wisdom can only get you so far.  Once you enter the dark, it’s time to find out what your primary resources are—what gyroscope, what tuning fork, what insistent, sacred whisper you can learn to trust when you’re walking by faith and not by sight.”

In the story of the angel Monica, she went into that dark cloud of unknowing, losing touch, being alone in the dark, even in broad daylight. She had to learn to find her way all over again. Jesus had to learn to trust that whisper which said ‘No, don’t do it.’ He had to learn to trust himself. Now, the way the story is related, it almost makes it sound banal – he just did it. But perhaps that’s why the story tells us he was there forty days.  Essentially it’s telling us it was a long time, and it was a difficult time. Jesus was walking in the dark.

-          And, Barbara Brown Taylor says, God does some of God’s very best work in the dark.

Sources:

1.      “Entering the Dark Cloud of God” by Barbara Brown Taylor.  Preached at the Festival of Homiletics, Denver, Colorado, May 2014.

2.      “Resisting Temptation”  a sermon on Luke 4:1-13 by Rev. Richard Gehring

“Coming Down From the Mountain” Transfiguration Sunday February 7, 2016

Exodus 34:29-35 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that God had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out.  When he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see that the skin of Moses' face was shining.  Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in again to speak with God.

Luke 9: 28-36  About eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. While he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” - not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.  Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

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This isn’t the first time Moses has talked to God – remember he had an encounter with a burning bush and had to remove his sandals. But it is the first time he has looked at God – or so we are told. This time Moses has gone up the mountain, and spoken directly to God.  If we read more in Genesis we get a complete description of how God descends in a cloud at the entrance to Moses’ tent, So, in this text, Moses has been up there forty days and forty nights, as God gives the commandments for the people to follow. When he comes down, he has the tablets – but he doesn’t know that his face is glowing. The people see it right away and are terrified, and aren’t quite sure about Moses – but he is able to call them back, reassure them, and speak to them. After that, he covers his face, and the only time he removes the veil is when he goes back to talk with God.

Jesus and three disciples wend their way up the mountainside. Being alone with Jesus in a quiet place is a welcome change for them. Jesus had been talking a lot about his own death, and they had been getting exasperated. Maybe up here they would get some straight answers from Jesus, and clear their heads.  As they climb higher, the villages appear tiny;  they can see all the way to the coast, and for miles around. They reach the top and sit down in the shade of inviting trees for a rest. Jesus lifts his prayer shawl to cover his head, and says the familiar words: “Sh’ma Yisrael, adonai eloheinu, adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One.” How many times had they said these words themselves, and yet every times Jesus says them, they are new. They listen and try to imitate him in prayer, but after a long hike up the mountain they are soon asleep.

As he prays, clouds come in over the mountain, but the sun is still shining. Jesus feels that surge of energy, the sense of being fully alive and glowing from every pore, but something is different this time. He sees a reflection of himself, and with him Moses and Elijah. They talk, about the things which weigh on his heart, the things he believes he is called to do, and how difficult the end will be. They sit, together, shining in the cloud in the centre of a rainbow.

And the three stooges suddenly awaken. Today we get Luke’s version, in which they are ‘heavy with sleep’, but not yet gone. I suspect maybe Luke was being a bit kind. Mark painted them as a couple of sandwiches shy of a picnic, and took a jab at how they went through life – sleepwalking. Here was Jesus’ experience, opened  to the universe, Jesus seeing himself and his role in it. Yet he tells them not to say anything about it until after “the Human One had been resurrected.” The appearance of Moses and Elijah is meant to validate Jesus as the culmination of the Hebrew prophetic tradition – and the disciples completely missed the point.

All the disciples see is the immediate - Jesus with Elijah and Moses, and  Peter right away wants to freeze-frame the whole moment, build shelters so that they can stay there with the prophets and never come down. A voice from the cloud says “Listen to him…” and then it’s over. The sky is blue again, and Jesus is alone on the mountaintop.

At the top of Haleakala Crater in Maui, you can see all the way to the coast, and often beyond. Depending on where the cloud layer is, you are on top of the peak in the bright sunshine but the island below is hidden from your sight. It’s windy up there, but the cold wind is exhilarating, and your body feels a surge of energy and life – literally you tingle.

When the clouds come in through the crater at exactly the right angle  -  and have the right amount of moisture in them, and the angle of the sun is about 82 degrees, you can experience what is called a “glory” - see your own reflection looking back at you, from inside a rainbow circle. It is a glowing, shining reflection of who you are.

Now, this phenomenon can be seen anywhere the weather conditions are right – but the mountaintop experience of the glory speaks to those rare moments in our lives when we step outside ourselves and into something transformational and transfiguring.

People who meditate regularly often speak of a ‘mountaintop experience’ – that exhilarating surge of energy and insight, the whole of the universe in its infinite depth and height opens up – you can see far out into space, you can see individual molecules, you can see how everything is connected to everything else. It is a wondrous experience. After such an experience, the hardest thing to do is to come back to the everyday world.

Spiritual experiences – we know they happen, and in our human history there are countless stories of mystics who had deep spiritual experiences.  A friend described an experience he had during meditation, suddenly finding himself sitting on a mountaintop, seeing the whole of creation spread out in front of him, and suddenly having a moment of complete understanding, yet coming out of meditation terrified, and afraid to speak about his experience. About fifteen years ago I had such a strong experience that I was literally terrified, and began researching mental illness. The only person I could think of to talk to who would not laugh was a friend who is a Buddhist priest – because Buddhists are, in my experience, more open to such things. My priest friend who is part aboriginal, told me about his experience in the vision quest.Other people speak about sudden insights, sudden feelings of foreboding, or feelings of something imminent happening. Yet I can also identify with the terror the disciples felt . The interesting thing was, that many years later when I finally decided to talk about it, I discovered others also had experiences of many kinds, that they were afraid to speak about. For the disciples, far from getting straight answers and their heads clear, they are now more than ever confused.

The disciples, in that one moment, saw a “glory” – they had a glimpse of Jesus caught up in his experience; but they weren’t changed at all. With their own eyes they saw this ‘glory’, and totally missed the point. Their reaction to this incredible experience is to want to stay there, stay in it, hold on to the moment, freeze-frame everything.

Let’s hop back into the Hebrew Scriptures for a moment, and consider the story of Elisha. The people of Israel thought there could never be another Moses.  So we hear other stories -  about Joshua parting the Jordan, as Moses parted the Sea of Reeds. We hear of Elijah parting the Jordan with his cloak; he and Elisha cross on dry land; then Elisha repeats the parting of the Jordan to go back, using Elijah’s cloak. Elisha doesn’t really want to hang on to the experience – but he asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit in order to be an effective prophet.  He does try, sort of, to hold on to Elijah, to deny that Elijah will die. He is also afraid, because he’s been to the mountaintop with Elijah, and now he has to come down and carry on.  Moses, too – I’d wager – was terrified especially when he learned he glowed – but I’d also wager he was exhilarated by his. He had been to the mountaintop and seen – and that kind of energy transforms a person, momentarily. But then Moses had to come down the mountain again and deal with the people – who hadn’t had his experience, who were afraid, who wanted to go their own way.

What the disciples missed in that experience they had with Jesus, is that they had inherited the mantle of Elisha through Jesus, that was what he was trying to tell them. – the mantle of faith and leadership was being handed on. They would have to come down from the mountain top, from the exhilaration and excitement of a mountaintop experience,  and go on to living with the regular folks again.

One of our former moderators, Peter Short, has a special gift for helping people see in new ways. Many people have been given strength and vision to carry on in ministry because of their association with, and learning from, Peter. He has been a prophet – someone who speaks wisdom to us in our time.  He has brought skills for pastoral care which are deep, sensitive, and always insightful. When Peter’s term as moderator was almost over, there was a sense among many to try to persuade him to stand for a second term.  It seemed to many of us that through Peter we had a glimpse of what ministry God might have for the church in the next forty years. The other part of me recognizes that, like the disciples and Elisha, we wanted to hang on to the moment, to lean on Peter for our strength and inspiration, to continue to learn more and more,  rather than pick up the mantle we’ve been given, and carry on. We see Jesus in the ‘glory’, the radiant rainbow cloud – so let’s build a temple, a church, something, where we can enshrine the moment, and keep coming back to look at it fondly – but without getting involved in the living of faith ourselves. Get the right minister who will be beloved by everyone, the right boss, the right leader – and go along for the ride.

But here’s the point of transfiguration. What if the ‘glory’ is God’s way of showing us what and how WE are intended to be.  If you went to a mountain top and saw yourself, shining inside the symbol of God’s covenant promise, what would that mean for you? Would it change how you live back here? Would it change how you treat the people around you? Would it make you face your demons, and set them aside, because you, we, all of us – are transfigured and transformed to be in ministry TO each other, and WITH each other, every day of our lives.  Isn’t that what the Jesus experience is???What if?