Transfiguration and the Season of Lent

On the Last Sunday of Epiphany we heard the Gospel Story of the Transfiguration, but now we have fully entered into the Season Lent. Lent is a penitential time – when the Church refocuses us on our personal need to do a bit of (or a lot of) “spiritual housecleaning!” That can mean some very hard work needs to be done; yet, the result is that we are transformed – transfigured, if you will – into what God fully intends for us. So as a Lenten Reflection for us, I’d like us to return to that mountain with Jesus and just maybe we can find reason and purpose for Lent.

Read: Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36

Poor Peter! Here he is the Apostle of Apostles, the keeper of the keys to the kingdom, the rock upon which Jesus will build his church. Once again, Peter demonstrates that he is more human in his saintliness than is often depicted. I, for one, am thankful that Peter's most human moments are preserved in scripture rather than simply glossed over, cleaned up, or even left out. For those who continued to transcribe and produce our scriptures, the temptation to "fix" his apparent blundering must have been tremendous. Yet I believe that we are more like Peter than we realize.

Like Peter, we live in a matter-of-fact world. Even though our modern world is vastly different from the ancient world and we are so-called enlightened individuals, it remains true, that we still have our own particular ways of explaining the mysterious and the unexplainable. For example, through science, we now know how living creatures reproduce. From our DNA on up, we can identify patterns in a person's genetic code that indicate specific characteristics. Yet, with all of our scientific knowledge, we still can't explain what Life is! Although our species still keeps trying, we still cannot create "life" – even if we can “manufacture” important bits of it. Life is still a mystery to us – because life is more than just a biological being that pumps blood and has awareness.

Like Peter, we experience events of the supernatural with misunderstanding. Part of this is we are limited by our language. We can only explain these events in analogies; however, the importance of biblical supernatural events lies not in trying to explain how they happened. Meaning is found by seeking the practical importance of God's action. In fact, seeking importance in the Transfiguration is so significant, the church calendar requires us to focus on it twice every year. Why is that?

The yearly reading of the Transfiguration serves a number of purposes for us. First there are biblical reasons. In its context, this event is directly tied to Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. If there was any doubt remaining in the disciple's minds, the transfiguration stood to prove that Jesus is more than a carpenter; he is not John the Baptist, nor Elijah, nor even one of the ancient prophets who has come back to life. Jesus is the anointed one of God who will redeem and save creation from the power of sin and death. It was at this moment when all was fully revealed to our Lord. In a moment of seclusion and prayer, the Kingdom of God intersects human reality and Jesus speaks with the two most important figures in Hebrew history: Moses and Elijah. Though driven to Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit (knowing the prophecies about his final arrival) Jesus is now fully informed of his journey's cost. For God's beloved Son and for the disciples the events that follow will test every part of their being. Knowing the future doesn't guarantee that they will have the courage to face it.

This event served the practical and mystical purposes of giving both Jesus and his closest friends the supernatural courage to go on to Jerusalem and face the cross. This was the hardest thing for them to do. Is it any wonder that some of the earliest heresies of the church involved explaining away the agony of the cross? To some, God somehow “possessed” Jesus' body and was immune to pain. To others, Jesus' death was simply unnecessary; therefore, somehow he avoided the whole affair. One ancient legend has it that the Romans were stupid enough to crucify Simon of Cyrene by mistake, while Jesus scoffed in victory at his executioners. These heresies show how easy it is to forget the real anxiety and apprehension Jesus humanly faced on his way to the cross.

All of us share the need for profound vision to carry us. The events of Jerusalem and the cross are simply too much for us to bear without it. We cannot depend on our optimism, for we are all faced with the eventuality of death. “Wishful thinking” will not sustain us when the journey becomes difficult. “Positive thinking” forces us to deny what lies ahead. The point here is that "taking up one's cross" is not possible unless God has first "taken us up" by the power of the Holy Spirit. We simply cannot do it alone. The event of the Transfiguration calls us to put the “religious experience “back into “religion”. What is it that draws you to religion? Is it an experience with the Holy?

Story of “Mary” and “Martha”
Some time ago, as part of my seminary education, I worked as a chaplain for a hospital. There were several other seminary students as well, from various other denominations. One of our responsibilities was to meet regularly as a group to share case studies and offer support. One of the students was a Unitarian Universalist and her faith consisted of a combination of Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity. For “Martha” (as I will call her), Jesus was simply a great teacher but no more the “son of god” than you and I are “children of God”. For Martha, there is no afterlife, no unity with God.I'll never forget one occasion where Martha shared a faith struggle with our group. One of the patients that she had been visiting was dying of breast cancer. The doctors had tried everything to save “Mary” (as I will call her), but the cancer had hopelessly spread throughout her entire body. All they could do for Mary was to keep her comfortable on morphine while they waited for her to die. Mary had two daughters: one a proclaimed atheist, the other a New Age mystic. Mary had begun to have visions, which deeply disturbed the atheist daughter. Mary would refer to these visions as a spiritual pilgrimage. She would be visited by and have conversations with angels. Much to the amazement of the nursing staff and her two daughters, Mary knew everything about her condition. When asked how she knew so much about her condition, her answer was always the same: “The angel told me.” The atheist daughter had come to Martha and asked in desperation, "Is my mother 'really' seeing angels, or is it the morphine?" After a short conversation with her, Martha finally answered, "I don't know."

When Martha got to our group she tearfully confessed, "I lied to her; I just couldn't tell her I believe that death is the end of all life. I copped out, there just doesn't seem to be any hope in that answer." All of us in the group tried to reassure Martha that, "I don't know" was actually the most honest answer she could have given. The rest of us also witnessed to her that our faith, the Christian faith, had a different answer. We can never really know for sure whether Mary saw and conversed with angels, but her experience with the Holy was REAL. Mary died peacefully in her sleep, knowing her destination. She simply went with her friends and this time stayed with them. I don't know how Martha's faith was changed by this event, but I do know that she was asking some very deep questions of herself after the summer was over. Mary's witness to Martha was a gift.

Peter's experience there on the mountain was also a gift. It was a gift that he would later draw upon. Faced with a community that had come to doubt the promises of Christ, Peter could state with boldness: "We were there! We saw it! We heard the voice borne from heaven!" (See 2 Peter 1:16-18) Peter states clearly: no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation; prophecy comes not from men but from the Holy Spirit. (See 2 Peter 1:20-21) If our scriptures are simply a collection of human reflection, then it is truly Peter who is wrong, and we truly do follow "cleverly devised myths". And if this is true, then there are truly no dreams left for us. The transfiguration shows us otherwise! Just like Jesus, and the disciples, we too need visions to give us courage.

Are you a visionary? What are your visions? Peter himself tells us that we are to be visionaries and it is the Holy Spirit who brings us these visions and dreams. In the Acts of the Apostles (2:17) on the very day of Pentecost, Peter quotes the book of Joel to his skeptics and says: “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

The Holy Spirit sows in our hearts and minds the seeds of dreams and visions. Life in the land of dreams and visions, with God, is a life that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. That is what Transfiguration is all about. It’s also what the Season of Lent is about: Transforming us from a life of sin by the Power of the Cross and making us into men and women of the Kingdom of God. In other words, transforming us into men and women of vision. And what is so different about being men and women of vision? Again, years ago, I read this from Pastor Dale Galloway, then Pastor of New Hope Community Church in Portland OR on what a difference visions and dreams can make:

• Men and women of vision and dreams have no trouble praying because they have something to pray about.
• Men and women of vision and dreams have no trouble tithing because they believe in it wholeheartedly.
• Men and women of vision and dreams have no trouble believing in God for success because they know that God can do the impossible.
• Men and women of vision and dreams have no trouble with drifting and laziness because they know where they are going and they're turned on for Jesus…
• Our calling from God is to learn the life of the Spirit and to be men and women of visions and dreams.

I know there are visionaries here in our midst. Young and old we come together each week to experience the presence of God and to worship Jesus Christ. Sharing our visions with one another is a step in the right direction. Praying for our visions is the next. But unless we take the chance in carrying out the vision that God has given us, we are simply “dreamers.” Lent is before us to be more than “dreamers.” It’s here to make us “doers” too! Jesus, Peter, John, and James dared to climb a mountain. Their intention was to pray. Their reality was an experience of the Kingdom of God. Lent can be that for us too – if we will but dare the journey!

May your Lenten Journey be Blessed! And may you be transfigured this Season!

In Christ,
Fr. John Riebe

Anglican work in Haiti

Many are wondering what they can do to help out in Haiti - Here is some "good news" and ways to help out even more! -- JR+

Anglicans have donated more than $70,000 through the Anglican Relief and Development Fund to support immediate relief in Haiti in the first week following the earthquake that struck the impoverished island nation on January 12.

January 22, 2010

Anglicans have donated more than $70,000 through the Anglican Relief and Development Fund to support immediate relief in Haiti in the first week following the earthquake that struck the impoverished island nation on January 12.

According to Nancy Norton, executive director of Anglican Relief and Development Fund, the organization is partnering with World Relief, a large and well established evangelical Christian relief agency. Working with World Relief ensures that these donations have an immediate positive effect in Haiti, where current estimates are that more than 200,000 have died and more than a million people are without shelter in the aftermath of the earthquake.

World Relief has had a long presence in Haiti, empowering the local church with health, economic and social development projects. World Relief's Disaster Response team is providing urgent medical care to hundreds of injured people at the Kings Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's devastated capital. They have also set up feeding centers in partnership with local churches, providing thousands of hot meals to hungry earthquake survivors. Volunteers from local Haitian churches are operating the centers. World Relief can feed a person two meals a day - lunch and dinner - for less than $2. It costs approximately $375 to feed 200 people rice and beans at lunch and milk porridge for dinner.

"Thank you to everyone who contributed through Anglican Relief and Development to help in Haiti. The generosity of our donors has been overwhelming. This financial outpouring will allow us to not only assist in immediate relief work, but also to be part of the rebuilding process through development projects in Haiti later this year. The needs in this terribly damaged nation will continue," said Norton.

Donations for our continued work there can be made online at www.anglicanaid.net or by sending a check to the Anglican Relief and Development Fund at:

ARDF
PO Box 3830
Pittsburgh, PA 15230-3830

A Stunning Witness!!!

Britt Hume makes a stunning Christian witness and defends his comments. Would it be that more public figures be so bold! Watch and hear what he says:

A Sermon for Christmas Eve

Last Sunday there was a wonderful comic (it was ‘Pickles’) where an elderly couple was sitting together.
The husband says (something like),
“I love this time of year – it always takes me back to my childhood: sledding in the fresh snow and skating on the frozen pond.”
His wife says to him,
“You grew up in Phoenix and you used to get sunburned on Christmas day!”
“There you go again,” he replies, “ruining my memories with the facts.”

Well… Christmas time IS full of imagery, memories, and (dare I say it) magic. It’s a magical time that takes us back to our childhood. Memories of trees and gifts given; of waking up Christmas morning to find stockings filled and presents that we’ve placed under the tree for others – and of course – those that were there for us. Maybe, just maybe, not everything was as rosy as we might remember… but that’s okay. All was still in God’s hands.

Our imaginations also take us to family gatherings, meals, and times where (whether we realized it or not) God was present. In good times and bad, God was and IS present – For His name Emmanuel means “God is with us”: present tense, not “Once upon a time, God was with someone else.” And it is that “present tense” that is most important for us tonight, for tonight is really not about nostalgia – or sentimental feelings – it is in seeing and knowing the actual presence of God. For some of us that just might be the first time in a long time… but that’s okay too… for we are once again all here in the midst of God’s glory.

What are we thinking about tonight? What fills our imaginations? What fills our thoughts? What might we still be fretting over? Have we prepared for tomorrow? I know some who've been ready for months! Someone (and I’ve long forgotten who it was) commented to me back in August that all their presents have been bought and all their cards were prepared and addressed. If that was you, God Bless You! For you have truly understood what Advent has all been about!

Most of us (including myself) have saved some things for the last minute – whether we attended to them or not. Yet – ready or not – Christmas has arrived! There is no stopping it! We must be assured that in just the same way Christ is returning to us! There will come a day, suddenly upon us, when Jesus himself will be here – ready or not – here He is!

Beyond our family traditions and memories – I’d like to take our imaginations to a different place tonight. If you're thinking, “Oh, right this is church so we have to think religiously;” Well…Yes and no. What we’ve heard tonight has all been about shepherds and angels, of Mary and Joseph in a stable – the birth of Jesus in a place of poverty because no “proper place” was made available to them. Certainly there is a sermon in that alone. But perhaps a better one for tonight is why on Earth did He come to us in the first place?

Just a few moments ago we sang “In the bleak midwinter.” I hope you were listening. But just in case you weren’t its hymn 112. It is one of my favorite hymns not because it has a catchy tune – but because it is one of the most profound theologically – especially the first verse. Contrary to what many people think, the composer (Christina Rossetti) is not singing about the weather.

• The “bleak midwinter” – really speaks of the time in human history before Christ.
  I’m not all together certain, but I believe that it was this hymn that inspired C. S. Lewis of Narnia… You may remember – where until rescued by Aslan, it was “always winter, never Christmas.”
• The “frosty wind” – was how humankind treated one another: Cold, indifferent, chilling – absent of the warmth of God’s Holy Spirit.
• It was Earthen hearts that were “hard as iron” – water (life it self) was stone cold.
• The “snow” is sin – for sin fell upon sin… upon sin… upon sin…
• And into this reality Christ breaks in! For God’s overpowering love for us was so great that not even Heaven could contain it.

In truth there have only been three moments when the nature of the Universe – time and space – have been altered. Three times. The first was when God spoke – and the universe existed. The second time – well we just heard about it tonight. It was the time when this same God entered human existence as Jesus.

One author Monsignor Guardini Romano says it this way:
The young [child] in the stall of Bethlehem was a human being with a human brain and limbs and heart and soul. And he was God. [His] life was to manifest the will of the Father: to proclaim sacred tidings, to stir mankind with the power of God, to establish the Covenant, and shoulder the sin of the world, expiating it with love and leading mankind through the destruction of sacrifice and the victory of the Resurrection into a new existence of grace… Jesus did not “experience” God; he was God. He never at any given moment “became” God; he was God from the start.[1]

The good Monsignor makes reference to the third time – Resurrection…
…when Christ overturned death itself, and bought for all who believe in Him, eternal life…
… and it is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that is solely responsible for our even being here tonight.

You might find it interesting to know that for the first three-hundred years, early Christians didn’t celebrate a “Christmas time” at all. For them, the central moment of Faith was Easter and Pentecost. Just before and during the reign of Constantine Christians began to reflect on Jesus’ birth. And 336 AD a previously pagan winter ceremony celebrating the birth of “Unconquerable Sun”; (on December 25th) became the Christian day of the Nativity celebrating the “Birth of the Unconquerable SON” – Jesus Christ.

Our Christian hope for a fourth time is yet to come when “earth and heaven shall flee away when he comes to reign.” But for now, “a stable place sufficed – the Lord God incarnate, Jesus Christ.” It has only been in these times when the nature of human existence has unalterably changed – for God has acted – Christ has come – and He is coming to us once more.

You see, the “magic” of this time really is more mystery than anything else – a mystery we are searching for and can discover – like that present that waits just at home – a present just waiting to be opened! What will it hold? You’ll have to open it to see. And isn’t that just like God?

The mystery and magic are all about what God is doing next. The remembrance of things past pales in comparison to what comes next. Certainly the shepherds left the manger that night wondering what comes next. Mary herself would ponder this as well. Maybe that is what we are meant to be left with – what comes next? We have come to know that our God is a giving God; and perhaps that is God’s invitation to each of us – the same question Jesus’ first disciples came asking. “Where are you staying?” “Come and see.”

There is a particular question that is asked every time Christmas comes: What do you want for Christmas? Of all of our non-religious activities perhaps this question is the most holy one we – and even nonbelievers – ask. We think of the other person and consider what would bring them joy. What if we asked that of God? What do you think God would like this Christmas? Now, at first you might think that’s a tough one. I mean, it’s not even like, “What do you get the man who has everything?” It’s worse! What do you get the One who owns everything? I mean, its all His in the first place! And the hymn goes on…

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give him – give my heart
– for your heart is the only thing Christ really wants in the first place.

When we give our hearts to God – you think the Shepherds saw a party?

If Christmas time is somehow anticlimactic for you because its not a “White Christmas” and there is no snow; we can all take solace in this: there probably wasn’t snow in Bethlehem years ago, either (of course no one knows for sure).

Tonight – this silent night, this holy night – we are once again invited to hear the angels sing – to worship and adore Christ our King! To be sure the angles are singing – and to be sure Christians all over the world worship with us.

Can we hear them?

Are we listening?

For certain, they are here just as they are all over the world on this night!

What are we thinking about tonight? What fills our imaginations? What fills our thoughts? Perhaps we can bring our hearts and minds out of Bethlehem and back into [where ever you are] where we all are – for God’s Glory is not in some far away place but right here Emmanuel: God IS with US. For Christ is once again born in each of us and right before us.

Oh, little Child of [where ever you are] descend to us we pray; cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.

On behalf of my Lord and Savior may I be one of the first to wish us all…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[1] Guardini, Romano, The Lord, pg. 16-17 slightly edited in the personal.

Beautiful and Different

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!

Some Holiday Fun - Amazing!!!

The Invisible Woman

You don't have to be a woman to appreciate this... and a wonderful subtle way to begin refelcting in Advent. Hat Tip: Matt Kennedy at StandFirminFaith.com.

From Youtube:
Nicole's sketch "The Invisible Woman" brings a powerful message of hope to every taken-for-granted woman in today's world. This video shared with permission from Fresh Brewed Life, Inc.

Think about the cathedrals you and I are building... and Who is watching!