February 15, 2015
Transfiguration
Scripture: Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings 2: 7-10
Epistle:
2 Corinthians 4: 1-2, 6
Gospel:
Mark 9: 2-9
Meditation: The “Value” that our mentors teach.
What is the “value” that our mentors teach us? What is this dazzling light?
This might be the wrong day to be focusing on “dazzling light”. We must admit really, so far we haven’t
had that bad of a winter. Not that much snow – at least up until yesterday. I can also say that fairly easily
since I have been hunkered down inside my warm home without to many demands to venture out into
the minus 30 realm outside my door. I was glad of my hibernation the other morning when it was -34
and I got an e-mail from a friend who is in Palm Springs. She told me she was “suffering” because it had
been above 30 for the last week. She doesn’t like HOT. Needless to say, I sent her a rather sarcastic email back encouraging her to be BRAVE in the face of her suffering!
I was also thinking about how “lucky” we have been as I watched the weather channel the other day
and saw what was going on in Boston and Newfoundland. They are really being challenged by
mountains of this white stuff. Streets, cars and even houses are being buried. They were interviewing a
few people on that channel who were shoveling, and I chuckled when one guy just looked up and said
“Enough Already” in a kind of desperate voice. That’s what happens to people when they are challenged
with things that they must face when really they are just feeling kind of desperate and they want to say
“Enough Already!”
It can seem like a pretty challenging world when you watch the news and see the mountains of despair
that appear to be in so many places. The people on the border of Ukraine and Russia are feeling pretty
desperate right now. They have been promised a cease fire and yet the fierce fighting has only
escalated. Things in the Middle East don’t appear to be getting any better and the rest of the world has
watched in absolute horror, the barbaric executions by sword and fire that have occurred. We are
constantly being reminded of the threat of terrorism right in our own back yard and are dumbfounded
by what it is that would cause young people to plan to kill complete strangers in a shopping mall.
“Enough Already” is a cry from the heart of the whole world.
My question, and one that I think we all echo is “What is wrong and what can we do about it?”
What indeed?
We NEED an awesome experience like the mountain top experiences that we just heard. We long for an
experience of light and transformation and the momentary presence of God in a very tangible way. We
want the brilliant flash of light and the miraculous parting of the waters and we even want the chariots
of fire. Isn’t that one of the reasons that we come together as a community to worship. We hope that in
the words and in the music, in the warmth of a friend’s touch, in the love and acceptance of each other,
that the darkness of the world outside of this place might be lessened. Here we might for a moment
forget that a loved one is sick or aging badly or that depression and loneliness are closing in on us. Here
we can, at least momentarily, forget that the world outside is placing very little value on church going
and faith. Here we can bolster the courage that we need to keep on striving to be all that God would
have us be. A colleague of mine was speaking about baptism the other day and said, “It takes courage to
ask for baptism in our day and age.” I think he was absolutely right! It takes courage to be a member of a
church in our time. It takes courage to believe in transformation when everything seems to be pointing
in the opposite direction.
So where do we get that courage?
Elisha got it from Elijah. The disciples got it from Jesus.
Elisha keeps on travelling with his friend Elijah even though he is urged to “stay there.” He ignores the
voices of those who taunt him with the message that soon his mentor and friend will be taken from him.
He goes on asking for the wisdom that Elijah might impart on him when he is no longer walking beside
him. They travel to Bethel and Jericho and finally to the Jordan, and all along the way they are talking
and Elijah is preparing Elisha for the change that is about to happen. Elisha demonstrates loyalty and
strength of character in his determination to learn more and in asking for a double portion of Elijah’s
spirit. And at the Jordan he has his miraculous “mountaintop” experience.
Peter, James and John do something similar. They walk up a mountain with Jesus, talking and pondering
on all that they have been learning from Jesus. Remember that this event is coming soon after Peter has
told Jesus “You are the Messiah” and Jesus has insisted that he would be leaving them, that he would
die and that those who follow him will also be required to give up much. Then suddenly in their
mountain top experience they see that their friend, their teacher, their rabbi is somehow uniquely
identified with God. Transformation happens, a voice proclaims, “This is my Son, marked by my love.”
Change is coming and the disciples don’t want it to happen. They want to stay on the mountain top
forever. Jesus knows though what lies will be difficult as he urges them on to Jerusalem. There will be
horrible moments of challenge, there will be the Gethsemane, and Golgotha, and even the cry from
Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And still there is the memory of the teaching and
the miraculous and the voice that reminds them “Listen to him”.
You and I might not have such dramatic experiences as these described in the Bible but if we are
attentive we too have those moments when we know and feel the presence of God. When the words
that we hear in worship, that we are loved unconditionally, forgiven unconditionally are felt to the very
marrow of our bones. The experience of God’s Spirit can come to us as well through the love and
teachings of a mentor and a friend. And maybe what is even more important to us and to our world is
that we can be that mentor and friend for someone else. Richard Rohr wrote in one of his books, “What
we don’t transform we transmit.” Let me say it again, “What we don’t transform we transmit.” That is
an awesome responsibility to hold in our hearts. That is a question that each of us can ask of ourselves.
How am I passing on the teachings of those who lovingly taught me? Am I transforming what needs
transforming or am I transmitting what will not be helpful to my world of challenge and despair. When
we face the hard realities that our world seems to constantly show us we can know that there is value
and worth in us and in our world. We can know that God weeps with us whenever we feel the pain of
violence and hatred. The mountain top moments give us the courage to face what seems unchangeable
and then work to change it. When we want to cry out “Enough Already” we can be reminded that God
IS ENOUGH. Here, together as people of God, as determined followers of Christ, we can remind each
other of the profound truth that we are deeply loved. And then we can go out and profoundly love in
return. Here in this place of sanctuary we can trust and hear that in miraculous ways we can indeed be
transformed and transform. And when we are “filled up” with this truth we can have the courage to
take it outside of our sanctuary and share it, and live it, and be all that we are meant to be.
Jesus faced tremendous challenge in the days following his moment of tremendous wonder. Jesus faced
risk constantly as he challenged the world in which he lived. I want to challenge myself and you to go
out there, find one person this week who needs you to be a wise mentor and friend and then even if for
only one moment be the shining light that the world needs so badly. AMEN