Year B Last Epiphany 2018 Glory Revealed and Stardust

Year B Last Sunday of Epiphany, 11 February 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“Revealed Glory and Stardust” 

Collect: O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 2 Kings 2:1-12 Psalm 50:1-6 

2bGod reveals himself in glory.  

2 Corinthians 4:3-6 

Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

 Mark 9:2-9 

Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 

I have been blessed to have lived a good life. I have seen much, and I have travelled far. Uncountable are the times when I have turned a corner or gone over a rise to see a stunning sight of overwhelming beauty, and it gave me pause to just stop and glory in the moment.  I am sure my students, or fellow pilgrims, or my poor kids, have had to put up with me saying, “Oooh, look at that! Thank you, God!” Because that is where my mind goes when I am overcome with the impressive, the majestic, or the beautiful. And so it is with God. 

One of my favorite professors in seminary put it this way, “The only response we can have in a true encounter with God is…” At this point his jaw would drop open and he would stand there for a few moments. Unadulterated AWE can be the only human response to the Divine. As I have lived my life, all I can do is affirm Dr. Hinson. Repeatedly I have sung my song of silent praise. [Hang jaw open in awe.]  

Psalm 50:2b “God reveals himself in Glory.”  

I truly believe that. I have seen it time and time again.  

Often silently, miraculously, with no trumpets or fanfare, God slips in and beauty beyond belief appears. We do not see it happening, nor did we expect it. But there it is.  

There have been dark nights of my soul when I saw no way out or through or under or over. The door has been locked and barred and bolted. And then I notice the window open and a fresh breeze blowing through the still and silent room. Glory be! 

Because, you see, “God reveals himself in Glory.” 

When you encounter the Beautiful beyond Belief, God is there. When you hear angels sing in the middle of Handel’s Messiah, “God reveals himself in Glory.” When after hours a pain and anguish, you hear your newborn’s inaugural cry of life, “God reveals himself in Glory.” When you stand beneath the Jüngfrau in Grindelwald, Switzerland and see the majesty and might of God’s creation stretching around you in every direction, “God reveals himself in Glory.” When you find that you are at the end of your rope, and you hear a still quiet voice above the thumping of the adrenaline, and it says to you, “Let go,” and you do to find yourself on solid ground, “God reveals himself in Glory.”  

Too often in those moments, as the world is spinning around us we forget to utter the words Meister Eckhart said is the prayer that is enough, “Thank you!” We err, by calling it coincidence or happenstance. We err by wanting to set up monuments or stay in that moment when we recognize them. The Wisdom of Life is having the glorious-God-revealing moment, and recognizing God’s presence, and staying on the journey. The momentary miraculous subsides. 

When Jesus invited his closest disciples to join him going up the mountain, little did they realize the event that was about to take place. It says nothing about the set up. Were they praying? Were they just walking along? It says Jesus was transfigured, his appearance was changed. That is all it says. His clothes became so WHITE that it hurt their eyes to look upon him. “No one earth could bleach it” so white. That is white, and no, unlike the SuperBowl, this is not a Tide ad.  

Then, as if that were not enough, Elijah and Moses show up. Moses, the Law-Giver, the Deliverer of God’s People, the writer of the Pentateuch, the epitome of the Law, shows up to see the fulfillment of the Law, Jesus. Elijah, the quintessential prophet, Proclaimer of the Will of God, who called down fire from heaven on Mt. Carmel, who was taken up to heaven in the angelic chariot, the prophet’s prophet, shows up to see the fulfillment of all the prophets’ promises. And there is Jesus, the Fulfiller of the Law and the Prophets, the Messiah the Lord. 

We, along with the three closest disciples, are able to see him for who he is, the long-awaited Messiah. Every year we finish the season of the Epiphany, the season of God’s Revelation in the Christ, with the Transfiguration because after this moment in the Gospel, Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem, he turns his face and predicts his own Death. He turns and walks to certain doom. But that is not all, in faith he walks with the Promise of the Resurrection. As do we all. “God reveals himself in Glory.” And there he is, out for a stroll, two tremendous heroes of faith join with him in pray, and Peter, James and John are able to see him for who he is.  

And immediately, Peter, and have you ever noticed how often Peter sticks his foot in his mouth, (Never trust anyone nicknamed Rock…) He wants to set up memorial  booths as a remembrance of this event. When we have mountaintop experiences, how often do we want to do the same thing. Even Shrine Mont, which so many of us adore, the Shrine is truly named, the Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration after this very event. And, yet, as much as I love it, it seems, we may have set up our own booth. And let that be a cautionary tale. As wonderful as it is, we are called back to the valley of life.  

We cannot create God’s Glory. It is only revealed. Now God’s Glory may be revealed in something someone does, maybe something you yourself do. But it cannot be manufactured, manipulated, nor manifested apart from God. 

  

One of the biggest heartbreaks of the life of faith is that what may be apparent to one is hidden from another. It just is impossible to see for some. A story is told of 5 blind men who were stumbling along together in India. On their path they sense on obstacle. The first blind man reaches out and says, “I feel what must be a wall.” The next says, “No, I feel what must be tree trunk!” The third reaches out, and says, “No, it is some type of rope!” The fourth, thoroughly confused reaches out, and says, “No, it is some type of palm with a leaf so large as this!” And lastly, the fifth screams and shouts, “Run, we have surely found a snake!” The blind men, scattered across the path were not delusional, they had just all reached out and touched a different part of an elephant. One his side, one his leg, one his tail, one his ear, and finally, one his trunk. From their limited perspective, they saw a version of the truth, some benign like a wall, others terrifying like a snake. Those outside the faith may think we are the ones with limited vision, and we may say the opposite. With the eyes of faith we may see things that those cannot without.  

This is what St. Paul was getting at when he said those outside the faith were “blinded [in] the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:4-6) 

And with our eyes opened, we come to the end of Epiphany. We have seen Christ’s Glory in its fullness. “God reveals himself in Glory.” And with the truth in our hearts, we turn ourselves towards Jerusalem, and its inevitable, foreboding outcome.  Will we walk the path, taking up our cross along with Christ, knowing its outcomes. Pain, suffering, death, and inevitable Glory?  

Let us not delude ourselves, for that is what Lent is. This Wednesday as we mark ourselves in the sign of the cross, outward, visible, obvious, for all the world to see, we claim that we are merely dust and that we recognize our finitude. We mark ourselves with burnt remnants devoid of life, Ash, the substance of which we are made. Stardust, cosmic ash, living, breathing, loving, dying stardust. The miracles we are, filled with the breath of Life from the Giver of Life. Lent calls us to this awareness. And whether we recognize and claim it or not, it does not stop it from being true. Whether bidden or unbidden, God is present. As is the spectre of Death. It is the constant elephant in the room. We may allow ourselves a moment to be like the blind men from our story and see it differently for a time, but when our eyes are opened we cannot deny it. 

So let us speak and hold tight to the truth, but likewise, embrace that God is with us before, during, and after, all the days of our lives. Jesus promises us, “I am with you always, even to the end of the earth.” God reveals himself in Glory. And as we leave God’s revelation in the Transfiguration, and we move into this holy Lent, we follow the one who leads our way. Amen. 

Year B Epiphany 5 WED No Half Solutions

Year B Epiphany 5 WED, 7 February 2018
St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA
“No Half Solutions”

2 Kings 5:1-14 

I Corinthians 9:24-27 

Mark 1:40-45 

40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

The story we started with today is SOOO true to human nature. Naaman, general and leader, wants to be healed of the scourge of the ancient world, leprosy. He had given up hope, and then was given a glimmer that someone in Israel could do something. So he headed that way with a fortune in hand. When he arrived at the king, where any foreign guest might head, the king is clueless and grieves thinking this is a set-up for failure and possibly war with a neighbor. Fortunately, Elisha, the prophet who received the mantle from Elijah, caught wind of what was happening and shows up.

Now here is where the human nature comes through. Elisha tells him to go and dip in the Jordan 7 times. This is how desperate he was, he could not believe that it could be so easy. Nothing worth having comes that easy, and he expressed as much. And his servants, who knew his suffering called him on it. He was so desperate he got in his own way.

Thankfully, he followed the instructions, no matter how simple they were, and he was healed. We get in our own way like that, too many times.

When Betty Crocker started making box mixes they did market tests, and people were impressed with the product but said they were unlikely to use them because it could not be that simple. Everything was in the box, but there had to be more to it than opening the box and stirring. So they reconfigured the recipe so that one had to add an egg. That was enough to make their box mixes “real.”

We are funny creatures, we want miracles, but not too miraculous. Naaman and Betty Crocker. Who’da thunk? We are presented with options and choices, some lead to success and others do not. Not choosing a route is a choice that will eventually lead to failure. That is one of the hard lessons of life.

I have been thinking a lot lately about goals and outcomes. I have been reviewing records for our Annual Meeting and Parochial Report due to the Diocese.

So with that on my mind I have been thinking about incrementalism, that bit by bit approach to doing things. Some things need to be done incrementally. Teaching children to swim; definite stages are involved. Getting kids to the level of calculus; again, definite stages.

But there are some things that we just need to do. Pulling off Band-Aids, for one. Nothing drives me more crazy than the slow pull. Just do it. Just do it.

When we see Jesus with the leprous man, it got me thinking. Jesus did not do it halfway. You simply cannot clean a leper halfway and call him healed. Nor can you wash a dish halfway and call it clean.

As Paul talked about in the Corinthian reading, we cannot run a race half-heartedly. We run it to win it or we do not. His question, reframed in modern parlance, remains: “Are you in it to win it, or not?”

So as we continue to gather and pray and look at the year ahead, I would call us to do that. What we commit to do we do, 100%, no halfways. This may lead to failures, but we will know we did our all.

We cannot build half a swimming pool, nor can we build half a bridge. If we do, we show our hearts were never in it in the first place. And when God instructs us, may we follow them fully. Amen.

Year B Epiphany 5 The Time That Has Been Given Us

Year B Epiphany 5, 4 February 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“The Time That Is Given Us” 

Collect: Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 

Mark 1:29-39 

After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. 

Today I am going to keep it short. With the baptisms and some event is happening tonight that seems to have everyone distracted, I am going to be direct.  

We are all equal. Right? 

That was not rhetorical. We are all equal. Right? 

We say it in our founding documents of our country, “We hold these truths to be self evident that all [people] are created equal…” 

We say we believe it, but we know it’s not true. We are not equal when it comes to money, talent, or looks. Some have more, and others have less. Some are born into privilege that enables them to be closer to the goal line than others, and yet there is one thing in which we all are the same. 

Time. Time is our common equalizer. We are all give 24x7x365, and it is up to us what we will do with it. 

The other way in which we are all equal is our Now, the Times in which we find ourselves. 

As I listen to the news today, I am often cautious. What are headlines these days, would not have been discussed in polite company in my childhood. I am aghast almost daily at the level to which we have devolved in what is decent, acceptable, and discussable. We are living in days which are trying. It is so troubling, I am quick to switch to music when my daughters are in the car with me. Too often I question how can I “train them up in the way they should go,” just like Everett’s parents and godparents will be promising to do today for him during the baptism, with the headlines of the crass, the crazy, or the filth. 

But we only have one choice when we are faced with troubled times, JRR Tolkien put it this way in an interaction with Frodo and Gandalf… 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

And that is it my friends, what are we to do with the time that is given us? 

You will hear more from me about this more in the days to come, but if I could sum up two priorities for the coming year, I would urge to look to what Jesus did in the Gospel story today. 

“...they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons…” 

Each and every one of us should be doing something for somebody else. Jesus taught and cast out the demons. He FED the people. He made sure to give them what they needed: the Good News, healing, deliverance, wholeness. A two year old can be a help to their family, and they WANT to help. It may take three times as long, but it is essential to training them up to make the world a better place. A 90 year old has a calling and a role to play. If you are still breathing, God is not done with you yet. 

But right after this we are told… 

In the morning, while it was still very dark, [Jesus] got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 

Jesus had to be fed as well. He went out alone to pray. He had to make sure he was fed, as well. This is not rocket science.  

And when the road is hard and the way is dark, know that our Father cares for us. Last week we sang it, and this morning we read it, Isaiah 40: 

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. 

God will provide, and we can trust in that. We all need to feed, and we all need to be fed. Maybe I feed you, and you feed her, and she feeds him, and so on and so on and so on. Jesus modeled for us that need to go and charge our batteries so that we can use them again.  

Every night I charge my phone. Every day I use my phone. Now some would say that it would make sense to leave my phone in the charger so that is never depleted. BUT THEN IT STOPS BEING A PORTABLE PHONE. But if I kept my phone in my pocket, so that it is always with me, it would not work for long. It has to be both. It gets charged so that it can be used, that is the point. And listen to what Jesus says: “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” Jesus could just pray and stay in communion with the Father, but he could have stayed in heaven for that. We could just stay in Church and get our souls filled on a Jesus Buffet, but then we would stop being the Church. We get Fed so we can Feed. We Feed so others can be Fed. It could not be more simple, nor more necessary. 

In Eucharistic Prayer C, which is too often controversial, but in one passage it makes this point very clear: 

Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name. 

Solace and Strength. Pardon and Renewal. Fill us with your Grace so we can spread to the world. 

As your Pastor, my prayer for us in this year to come, is that you all find the ways you need to be Fed. And moreover, that you find a way to share that goodness in a ministry that is as unique as all of us. 

We are all equal: we are all given the same amount of time, and the time at hand, we were made for such a time as this. If you get discouraged, remember, you were born for such a time as this, as Esther puts it. We may question “Why?” But know this, no one in the history of the world is as equipped as you are right here, right now, for the task that is set before you. Jesus knew what it was he “came out to do.” Do I? Do you? As we seek that together, God will be glorified. 

And an example to close with is what started the Gospel reading for today. 

After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 

Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, and then she fed them all. She was blessed, and then was a blessing. So may it be for us all. Amen.