Feb. 27, 2022 Transfiguration Sunday

Luke 9:29-36  (The Message)

28-31 About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.

32-33 Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking.

34-35 While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.”

36 When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.

It was a mystical, spiritual, psychic, weird, crazy, spooky experience; too big, too powerful, too unreal for them to talk about.  It couldn’t be communicated with words.  Words could not contain it, describe it, pass it on.  So they said nothing.

Such moments- holy moments -  are not so much to be talked about as lived out.  And we all have them if we will only stop and see them.

They also are not to be lived in; we can’t stop the world and just stay in the holy moment.  This would make an idol of that experience.  Rather they are to be windows through which we see more clearly the road we are to travel and the presence of a loving God for our journey. 

"After enlightenment,               

the laundry.”

                  A Zen proverb  

Prayer thought:  “Thank you Lord, for those moments of enlightenment 

which show the way I am to go.  And be with me after they are over and I am back to the mundane.”

Epiphany 7 February 20, 2022

Luke 6:27-36 (The Message)

27-30 “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

31-34 “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

35-36 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

(Or as other versions have v. 36: “Be compassionate , even as your Father is compassionate .”)

We may not want to hear what Jesus is saying.  We may not want to be caught and convicted, challenged and changed by this Word.  We would rather hear a word which comforts, soothes, reassures us that we can have it our way and still be doing it God’s way.  We don’t like to be disturbed by our religion; we like to be appeased.

Jesus words are a simple and profound reversal of the values we live by and a challenge to dramatically change how we look at life and how we act as those who seek, as Luther said, “to live in his kingdom and serve him with prayer, praise and thanksgiving.”

It all hinges on the word merciful..compassionate.

To be compassionate is to be the best we can be.  It means a willingness to suffer with, to undergo with, to share solidarity with...those who are without, ungrateful, and even our enemies.  It means we are to live so that love not judgement is at the center of our lives, directing our words and actions.  

Even when we act in judgment we must do it as those who are struggling to be compassionate.  Judgment must never be the last word nor is it ever the best word!

It is a sign we have failed; we have given up.  Compassion does not give up!

 

We are to “live obsessed with 

passion for compassion”.

Ellie Wiesel

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to be the best I can be…compassionate!”

Epiphany 6 February 13, 2022

Luke 6:17-21 (The Message)

Coming down off the mountain with them, he stood on a plain surrounded by disciples, and was soon joined by a huge congregation from all over Judea and Jerusalem, even from the seaside towns of Tyre and Sidon. They had come both to hear him and to be cured of their ailments. Those disturbed by evil spirits were healed. Everyone was trying to touch him—so much energy surging from him, so many people healed! Then he spoke:

You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.

God’s kingdom is there for the finding.

You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.

Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.

You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.

Joy comes with the morning.

“The Great Reversal”

Jesus reverses how it is with us - we think we can find life by taking it.  Jesus says we find life by loosing it.  It is in of the depths of life’s struggles that we discover life.  It is when we are poor that we learn to trust; hungry that we learn to appreciate and be thankful; weep that we discover the joy which cannot be taken away.

Life is not found in being rich; it is found in being needy and then having someone fill that need for us.  Then we discover what friendship and love really are all about.

 

Life is not found in being full;    

it is found in being hungry 

for the deeper things of life, 

even hungry for God’s love.

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord help me to be hungry for the deeper things of life.  Be with me in the depths so I can know the joy which comes in the morning.”  

February 6, 2022 Firth Sunday After Epiphany

Luke 5:4-11 (The Message)

4 When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”

5-7 Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch.

8-10 Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.” When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. It was the same with James and John, Zebedee’s sons, coworkers with Simon.

10-11 Jesus said to Simon, “There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.” They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.

The Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, related a homely parable about a flock of geese that milled around in a filthy barnyard imprisoned by a high fence.  One day a preaching goose came into their midst.  He stood on an old crate and admonished the geese for being content with this confined, earthbound existence.  He recounted the exploits of their forefathers who spread their wings and flew the trackless wastes of the sky.  He spoke of the goodness of the Creator who had given geese the urge to migrate and the wings to fly.  This pleased the geese.  They nodded their heads and marveled at these things and applauded the eloquence of the preaching goose.  All this they did.  But one thing they never did.  They didn’t fly.  They went back to their waiting dinner, for the corn was good and the barnyard secure. 

It is not easy to risk; to risk rejection in order to discover friendship; failure in order to discover success; security in order to discover something new; faith in order to discover God.

The call to follow Jesus is a call to risk.

To risk is to come alive; it is to find life by loosing it; it is to discover what otherwise remains hidden.  And as Albert Schweitzer said, as an ”ineffable mystery” out of the risk of following Jesus “we shall learn who He is”,  and who we are!

 

“The disciple is dragged out of his relative 

security into a life of absolute insecurity, 

from a life which is observable and calculable 

into a life where everything is unobservable 

and fortuitous, out of the realm of finite and 

into the realm of infinite possibilities.”

Bonhoeffer,  The Cost Of Discipleship

Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, help me to risk being your discipleship even if the risk is great.  Help me to come alive to who you are and who I am called to be - your disciple!”  Amen