Last Sunday of Epiphany - February 22, 2004 Gospel: Luke 9: 28 - 36 The Rev. Diane Livingston, Interim Chaplain and Deacon Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Transfiguration - certainly a word that I do not use with any regularity! Today's Gospel though is a grand ending to the season of Epiphany which is a period of remembering how God revealed Jesus to others, how Jesus was manifested as the Christ. Somehow I have always related to more of the other ways that God revealed Jesus than to the transfiguration. We have parties and there is wine (remember that the Cana wedding feast was the first sign that Jesus is God's son) and we see boats and lakes and the sick and all in need of healing and so maybe we relate more to those miracle signs that Jesus is God. But to go to the top of a mountain and see what Peter, John and James saw is not our everyday example. "While Jesus prayed, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white." Transfiguration means that there is a metamorphosis; there is a change in form or appearance or there is a spiritual change. Today is also World Mission Sunday with this year's theme being Transformation. Transformation obviously links to transfiguration and both infer change. What does change mean to each of us individually, to our parish, to our diocese, to the Anglican Communion? There is nothing that mandates us not to repeat those things that bring us comfort or that strengthen and renew us; after all there is much tradition in our denomination. However with Jesus as our model we cannot overlook that change is necessary too. The face of Jesus changed and his clothes changed and it was a holy thing. Maybe so holy that was why the three disciples were not affected immediately by what they had witnessed. It took more happenings later to bring them into full awareness of the glory and power of Jesus and God. It took the cross and the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit after Jesus had risen for them to really get the transfiguration. When we live beyond ourselves, working faithfully in the company of others we WILL experience transformation. If we honor our church's historic commitment to the Great Commission that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations and the Great Commandment to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength we must be open to change. Our mission fields may be our neighborhoods, our diocese, our country or the greater world. There are examples currently around us in all of those areas: a Habitat House soon to be built by members of several churches in Starkville who normally have not worked together, a group of people from MS right now who are serving the sick and needy in Honduras and our own Mike Vance who is helping to fight polio in India right now. As with all things that we humans approach, we see and experience things around us with the lens of what we are experiencing in our personal and corporate lives. I rejoice that God understands this limitation and thus continues to give us all sorts of examples and hints and appearances so that we can get what we can at any given time. Whether we call it transfiguration or not, I would wager that we each have witnessed transfiguration/transformations/holy change in others or ourselves. To survive in this world we must figure out how to handle change. How are we to serve those in need out in the world and even among us if we do not recognize how our world is different than a few years ago. We have more Hispanic brothers and sisters in our state just within a short history of time and we are challenged to consider how inviting and welcoming our church is to those with different cultural backgrounds and a different native language. Though many assume that our increasing Hispanic neighbors are Roman Catholic, there is a large number who are not and many who are unchurched. Where will they worship and how will they continue their faith journey in a community of believers? In my own life I thought of several examples of transformation or transfiguration. While working with Big Brothers/Big Sisters in Abilene, Texas, I screened applicants for Bigs (as we called those applying to serve as Big Brothers or Big Sisters) and Littles (as we called those who applied to be Little Brothers and Little Sisters) and also the families of both of these groups. Our national standards required in depth questions and conversations and so I learned much about both groups of people. Most matches, as the pairings of Littles and Bigs were called, were quite positive as each learned from the other and friendships were formed and Littles increased in ways that hopefully gave them lifelong skills and positive goals in their lives. I think of a retired man named Stan in my church parish who underwent the application process. He was quite a character and offered many unique slants on life as I got to know him more and more. He became matched with Jason, an 8th grade student, who needed a positive male role model and friend. A privilege, and a requirement of the job, was to monitor these matches and thus I could see first hand how the Bigs and the Littles grew in so many ways. (And, yes, both sides grew and changed - not just the Little Brothers and Little Sisters.) On the day a match was made (that is, when I took the Big to meet the Little at the home of the Little) we always took a picture. These were mounted back at the office and used for promotional purposes if both sides gave permission to do so. Through the year or often many years that matches stayed together I recall looking at the initial picture the day the match was made and then at the Big and Little before me way down the road of their friendship and in many cases I could see transfigurations. Such was the case with Stan and Jason who stayed together until Jason's graduation and then even after that they maintained a way on their own to remain friends. The impact of one positive person who commits to faithfulness to the relationship no matter what on another's life brings transforming lifetime changes. Each week I have the greatest job in the world when I meet with our Canterbury students. I thank God that they are among us and that this parish welcomes them and has committed to a ministry with college students. As you all know, often their lives are full and busy and lop-sided at times as they go down different paths, figure things out, the hard way sometimes, and then go further on the course that they discern is right for them. Maybe this is a pattern all of us follow to a certain extent. I sit across from them at dinner and at worship and I marvel that they are being transformed. How I see them now is probably not completely how they will be in another 5 or 10 years. What will they say YES to, what passions will drive them in the worlds that they become a part of in their vocations and their relationships? And, since in a limited way I may represent the church to them, I ponder what their transformed lives will bring to the church and what the church will equip them with to take into the world that they will indeed help to shape. Since I am a Hospice chaplain, I enter people's lives at a very special time as they begin to deal with the reality of death. I see lives of patients and their care givers changed as focuses change, as joy comes from different things like recalling special memories or times past, as decisions are worked through about how one will live the best and fullest that one can with the permission to be honest about how they feel and what they can still control about their lives. Issues of forgiveness and expressions of gratitude take on significant importance. Transformation occurs for individuals, their loved one and also for our Hospice team as we learn from those we serve. The examples could go on and each of you may have your own stories of transfigurations. I think of the confirmation class last week that I sat in when a discussion about faith occurred. It was stated that faith is not about absolute claims and facts but more about discovery, about a journey that leads us to examine our lives. During this examination, we will encounter surprises, unexpected companions and learning bought at a great price. God will be steadfast, will love us, will offer to transfigure us, will offer us gift upon gift with no limits attached, and will forgive us. There will be mountaintop experiences that we will not completely comprehend or understand or that we marvel at and are strengthened by but as with Peter who wanted to freeze that moment by building booths, we will not be able to stop time. True discipleship means we must follow on in confidence that God is leading and that what lies ahead is even greater than what we have already experienced. The Biblical story of the transfiguration assures us that God has been revealed through Jesus but we cannot understand that point apart from the cross and the resurrection. We must leave the mountain and go out into the world and face the tasks and struggles that give our lives purpose. Our journey through Lent will take us to those parts of Jesus' life that make his story complete. The world around us filled with changes, with problems, with needs, with people very different from us is the world we must go into and indeed we have much to offer: the same things that God gives us - steadfastness, love, mercy, forgiveness, the sharing of our gifts and the potential of many transforming experiences - for us and for those with whom we build relationships.