Sermon on
RCL Readings
by Charles Morello, Jr
Last Spring my
wife and I were at Cape Henry, VA, a few miles north of Virginia
Beach. We, along with many others, were sitting on bleachers
to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first landing of the
3 ships under Captain John Smith – the group that would
subsequently found Jamestown, VA. It was quite a cold and foggy
morning and we wondered just what was going to happen.
Had we come
all this way in the uncomfortableness of a foggy, damp, and
cold beach just to listen to speeches?
Suddenly, we
began to make out the sails and masts of a ship slowly emerging
out of the fog. Behind it came two other ships, which also slowly
emerged into full view. They had been a quarter of a mile off-shore,
but to our eyes and in the fog, and, until they appeared, they
might as well have been many miles away.
I bet it was
a bit like that for Peter, James, John (the Apostles) as they
went up that mountainside with Jesus and then, suddenly, Moses
and Elijah appear and God talks from the clouds. That's enough
to give anyone heart palpitations! The Rev William S. Bennett
calls this a feeling of "Fear and Trembling" –
which we hear mentioned in today's Psalm as well.
In today's Exodus
reading, the Israelites look up at the mountain shrouded in
a cloud – waiting as Moses waits. Then, suddenly, God speaks
from the cloud and fire makes everything too bright. That, too,
must have made for "fear and trembling" for the Israelites
looking up from the valley below.
For the Apostles
and the Israelites, this "Fear and Trembling" was
a way to identify the presence of God; and, they are comfortable
with this God. They are comfortable because they know how to
act in God's presence: They bow down in fear, with their knees
shaking, covering their eyes and with their bodies dimpled and
pimpled with the little mountains of gooseflesh. They, however,
like it, because it's the fear that keeps God distant. They
never can approach this God of fear and trembling. And it is
with this same "fear and trembling" that we often
approach God today.
Look at our Lessons
today:
Moses and Jesus speak with YHWH and Peter, James & John
hear God speak. All the others keep their distance and keep
God at a distance.
It is only in
Matthew, when Jesus tells the Apostles to "Get up and do
not be afraid" that we are offered a chance to transform
our relationship with God.
Here's a real
opportunity for God and the human part of God's creation to
draw closer together. Jesus tells the Apostles – and us
– not to be afraid of the presence of God.
Did you notice?
Peter does not mention "fear and trembling" in recounting
this story years later. He has experienced God's presence, God's
love.
The Exodus reading
speaks of fire coming from the cloud. We know that the light
of that fire is God's love – a love so powerful and so
overpowering that we turn away in perceived unworthiness. How
often do we say, "how can God love someone like me!"???
However, I think,
that that is how God wants us to see him – as love making
radiant all of God's creation. All of it, mind you – from
the smallest of creatures to the great Leviathan; from the smallest
of plants and microbes to the giant sequoias; from deep ocean
basins to snowy mountaintops.
We usually think
of the Transfiguration story in Matthew as something that happens
only to Jesus. Dare we think of Jesus's transfiguration as something
that happens also to us?
When the transfigured
Jesus said to the Apostles, "Get up and do not be afraid"
he was offering them a transfiguration
- from "trembling and fear"of God
- to "overwhelming love" by and
with God.
Perhaps, our
personal transfiguration should be in radically cultivating
our awareness of God by living out our lives knowing and recognizing
that God is present in all of Creation – not just in human
beings or not just in Christians. Can we look at a grain of
wheat and not think of how it can be transfigured into bread?
Or a grape, into wine?
God wants all
of creation to show forth God's love – a love that moves
across and among all parts of God's creation.
The Season of
Epiphany – very short this year – is an ever expanding
manifestation of Jesus Christ in and to the world and it comes
to an end somewhat as it began – with God announcing that
Jesus is God's son and that God is pleased with Jesus.
We hear it in
the Epiphany story of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan –
in a valley – and we hear it in the clouds of a mountain
top with the Apostles, and we hear it in Peter's retelling years
later – at all times and at all levels of God's creation
God proclaims that Jesus is God's son.
Some may see
the clouds in both Exodus and Matthew as a metaphor for that
which obscures our understanding of God. I would offer that
the clouds also tell us that it is in the ordinary and everyday
things of creation that we encounter the presence of the Creator.
It is in those times when we feel God's presence dazzling us,
that God's voice may be heard in the gifts of creation.
We all expect
to experience God on a mountaintop – after all, retreat
centers are built with that in mind.
- But what if we were to experience God in
all places and in all times – not just on mountaintops?
- What if we sought after God in the swamps
and bogs and in the ghettos and slums of the world?
- What if we recognized God's presence in
butterflies and mosquitoes?
in poor families and rich tyrants?
in water, wheat and grapes?
Surely God is
present on the high hills and mountains of our world. Should
not that same creator God also be found in even the smallest
microbe down here in the trenches of our lives?
For those who
remember Bishop Charleston's presentation at the 2006 Diocesan
Convention, one of his points for us Episcopalians is that "wherever
we go, we go together" – we go as companions on a
journey through and with God's creation. We humans are not separable
from the rest of creation.
So, my sisters and brothers in Christ, today on our journey,
when we look around at God's creation, we can't help but be
troubled.
- We hear about pollution, climate change,
global warming, and dwindling resources.
- We hear about people who want us to wait
for more evidence that climate change and global warming are
real.
- We hear about "better living through
chemistry" as a way to grow more food and stop pollution.
- We hear about mining our way through creation
to take the resources we need.
For some of us,
the only way to go is to escape from the problems of the "real
world". These people seek refuge away from the "maddening
crowd" and all of the problems of day-to-day life. By escaping
to their mountaintop they hope to escape the world's problems.
They, like Peter, want to build booths – the walled communities
to keep out the problems. They do not want to be bothered by
the problems of climate change or pollution. They have separated
themselves from creation.
Recently, I read
something from the Rev Peter Kreitler of Earth Talk Today. He
said,
Today, out
of the whirlwind of climate change and global warming, the question
is not ‘where', but ‘why'.
He then muses
about God saying to us:
Woman and
man, I have placed you in the garden to be guardians, to keep
and serve. And you are watching as creation collapses. I have
given you two hands, one for the book of scripture and the other
for the book of nature, as your guidebooks along the pathway
of life; I've lifted up prophets to hold mirrors to your face;
I've lifted up a modern-day prophet – the voice of water
– Jacques Cousteau, who said [at the Earth Summit] in 1992,
‘unless we do something radical today, we will be unable
to do anything at all tomorrow.'
And, my brothers
& sisters in Christ, Kreitler concludes
Tomorrow is
today. The earth is in our hands.
So, my friends
in Christ, our way of living has now transfigured God's creation
in a way that is becoming inhospitable to humans and many species
of plants and animals.
If Jacques Cousteau's
tomorrow is today, then perhaps we need to change our actual
relationship with God's creation to be more expressive of God's
love.
The Episcopal
Church and our local communities offer us plenty of opportunities.
Here in Northeast Minnesota the Environmental Stewardship Commission
of this Diocese offers many opportunities to learn about changing
our relationship with God's creation to be more loving. You
here at St. Andrew's are about to start a Lenten series about
the Effect of Climate Change on our Surroundings.
Peter Kreitler
was right when he said "the earth is in our hands."
So, my sisters
& brothers in Christ, as you begin your journey down from
the mountaintop of Epiphany and into the "real world"
of Lenten discussions about God's creation and what we are doing
to it,
- are you ready to be transfigured and transfiguring
in this world?
- are you ready to find God in all of Creation?
- are you ready to "get up and ... not
be afraid"?
|
.