In Light of This - The Way Part 5 (Sunday, March 3, 2019)
Sometimes I wonder, in the
moment, whether the disciples had ANY CLUE about what they were witnessing in
the person and the work of Jesus.
I mean…sure know about Peter,
James and John dropping their fishing business when they heard “follow me.”
And we know that the crowd
that followed Jesus grew and grew and grew.
And we know more and more
amazing things happened – the blind regained their sight, the lame walked.
Thousands were fed with a few loaves and fishes.
But here at the doorstep of Lent, did these followers really know what was happening? Could they see the scale? The potential?
On the last Sunday before
Lent begins, we observe the Transfiguration.
I hope it is a story that rings some bells. Jesus, along with the favorites – Peter,
James and John – goes up on the mountain to pray. And while there, the sleepy
disciples wake up just in time to witness some of the interaction between
Jesus, Moses and Elijah… who seem to be all glowy and glittery.
Once they really wake up,
they suggest memorializing the event by building some sort of dwelling,
presumably so that Moses, Elijah and Jesus can continue to commune.
But they are interrupted by
God’s own voice, affirming Jesus’ chosen-ness and telling the disciples to
listen to him.
The story goes on in what
feels like a new direction, but it is important.
They come down the mountain,
and on the next day, Jesus is met by a man whose son is possessed by a
demon. While Jesus was away, the man has
appealed to the disciples, but they haven’t been able to heal the boy. Jesus chastises the faithlessness of a “faithless and perverse generation,” and
then goes on to cast out the demon.
…And all were astounded by
the greatness of God, the text says.
But did they get it?
I mean, I can be amazed and
still not really get it, right?
I know many of us have a
powerful testimony about our “God encounter.”
Mine involves being in the
throes of a marriage falling apart and Jesus showing up in my car…speaking to
me the words love, grace, integrity and peace.
At the time, I didn’t even
quite know what those words meant…in light of where I was in life. But I took the time to write them down in a
little ring-bound journal with daisies on the front.
I had no idea those words
would carry me through a divorce, seminary, remarriage, the assault of one of
my children, ordination. I had no idea
the number of times that my experience of Jesus showing up and whispering the
words love, grace, integrity and peace would make its way into conversations
with folks like each of you about what Jesus is speaking into your life.
I had no idea.
So…the disciples come down off
the mountain. What are they to do “in
light of this?” In light of Jesus having a conversation with Moses and Elijah?
In light of his getting all glowy in their presence?
They don’t seem immediately
impacted. I mean…the disciples failed to be able to heal the child with a
demon. And Jesus seems kind of impatient
about that….
But when you are begging for
a healing, can you really see all that is going on around you? I mean…your in
the midst of your own trauma. In light
of his son being healed, do you suppose the man suddenly understood who Jesus
was and what was happening? Did he
think, ah, yes, in light of my son’s healing, here’s what God is doing.
Friends, we’ve talked about,
you’ve read about the rift in The United Methodist Church this week.
Or…maybe you haven’t. Here’s the armchair quarterback version.
The plan that was being put
forth with the support of a majority of our bishops, the plan that would keep
the church together as a single denomination – a big tent that left room for a
wide spectrum of understandings about LGBTQ folks and their calls to ministry –
that plan failed.
The plan that passed by a
narrow margin (54 votes with a total of 822 delegates voting) makes it
impossible for gay persons who have a call from God to be ordained by the
UMC. The plan creates mandatory
punishment for clergy who perform same gender weddings. It requires signed statements of allegiance
to the practice of homosexuality as incompatible with Christian teaching.
Who are we and what are we to
do…in light of this?
My truth is I don’t actually
believe homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.
That is not t what God has
shown me in the people I’ve met. It isn’t what I discern from what I read in
the biblical text.
So…I’m feeling like I’ve come
away from a big moment – certainly not a mountain top glory experience of the
goodness of God’s glory – but a moment in which my faith suggests God was
there.
And I’m not really sure what
happened.
In light of this…
I’m not really sure I can
make sense of it all right now.
But experience tells me that more will unfold.
Maybe you are someone who
takes great comfort in the idea that your pastors will sign an oath of
obedience.
Maybe you are someone who
aches because your child or grandchild or friends have been hurt by our broken
conversation.
In light of this…
In light of this…
In light of this…
I am reminded that the Jesus
I follow died a horrific, painful death on a cross at the hands of the Roman
empire.
In light of this…
I am reminded that he rose on
the third day.
In light of this…
I am reminded that he hung
out with his friends again…and I’m confident that they still didn’t full
understand what was happening.
And that eventually, he left
them again.
But he sent the Holy Spirit.
In light of this…
In wind and in flames the
church – the body of Christ in the world – was born.
To serve the least and the
lost.
To teach of God’s love and
mercy.
To call the stray lambs back
into the fold.
In light of this…
And I’m sure there is not a
darn thing our human sinfulness - our
drive for power, our insistence on control, our need to name who is in and who
is out - can do to destroy the body of Christ.
It just might not be where I
always thought I’d find it.
In light of this, I’m more
confident than ever that I am waiting for a new thing to be born. Because we are resurrection people.
When something dies,
something new is born.
The way cannot be seen from
where we are right now.
The way unfolds before us,
unknowable at times.
The way is in God’s hands.
The way requires that we
trust God is in the midst of it all.
In light of this…Our work is
to show up, to love lavishly, to welcome the stranger and the orphan and the
widow.
God’s got the rest.
In light of this….
We gather at the table knowing
the power of mystery…a place where bread and wine become the very body of our
Lord Jesus Christ so that we might be his body for the whole world.
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