Sermons

The Transfiguration
Good morning everyone,
It’s always nice to see you all!
I hope you had a nice valentines day!
I think we can all imagine me doing the whole skater boy thing in the early 2000’s or being a
long haired California kid on a surf board.
Truly, that was never the case.
While I aspired to have long flowy hair, my mom ensured I found my way into a hair cut
regularly and I never had the balance for doing anything that required my feet to be off the
ground.
I’d ski straight into trees during the classes and the skate board would slip right out from under
my feet and it would wind up in the air with me on the ground.
Balance was never my thing.
Now that I'm doing ministry full time and I’m married to a pastor also doing ministry, there are
certain days where our balance is a little easier than others.
We don’t have 9-5’s and some days you have to be able to stay balanced as a curve ball comes
your way.
We’ve been having to do a bit of intentional work to think about when the time for working is
and when the time for rest is.
What is the time for reading the news and the time for reading the scriptures.

And what I love about the bible is that we’re invited into a sense of awareness of the importance
of balance in the rhythm of our lives.
We hear, often at funerals, that there is a time for planting, and a time for harvesting.
A time for dancing and a time for grieving.
There’s a balance to life.
There’s a balance here in this morning's gospel…
Where Jesus is raised to glory for a moment, and is centered between Elijah, the Prophet who
taught other prophets and ensured the worship of Israel was centered on God,
And Moses, the recipient of the Law for the people of God, who lead God’s people out of Egypt.
At the center of the prophets and the law…. Is God.
Raised high above all else in creation, we get the reminder this morning once again exactly who
Jesus is.
The Son of God.
Jesus is the center. Jesus is the way the truth and the life.
Jesus is the centering force that balances life.
The transfiguration is this idyllic moment where we feel as though things are finally as they
should be. Now we know what it means for Jesus to be the Son of God,
So it’s super understandable for Peter to say, let's stay here a while. This is nice.
Jesus, you take my tent. Elijah and Moses can use James and John’s I’ll go get some more tarps
and we can just camp out here for a bit.

But what the transfiguration story reminds me of this morning and what the sacred scriptures
invite us into is that sense of balance.
The transfiguration reminds us that there’s a time to ascend the mountain, and a time to come
back down off of it.
There’s a balance.
What I want to also hold up for us this morning, is the balance of the Lenten season.
Yes, we begin on Ash Wednesday.
Yes, we will serve pancakes on Tuesday.
But before we get to that, we will take time on the mountain with Jesus and the elders of the
faith.
And over the next 40 days, as those who follow Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, we’re
being called to take a hard look at the balance of our lives.
We may feel called to a sense of examination into how we are doing at that profound command
given to us all this morning…
“listen to him…”
and as we search for the balance in our lives, I pray that we find that balance for our lives in the
devotion and listening to Jesus.
And the world is trying so hard to sell you on so many things that are going to make finding that
balance easier or more convenient.
But Jesus is not selling you anything…
We’re being invited, all of us, into something radically different.
as we being our walk into lent this week together,
I want us to remain aware of the balance of our lives.
Because things around us are changing daily.
And before we know it, we’re at the base of another mountain.

And we’re asked to ascend again.
Except this time it’s not high into the mountains…
But mount calvary.
Where Jesus will be lifted high once again…
High upon the cross.
Crucified.
And no more Elijah and Moses either.
Jesus is lifted high between two criminals.
There's a balance here to our Lenten season and the biblical story.
Between the transfiguration and the crucifixion.
Between Elijah and Moses and the two criminals.
And what I have seen time and time again in my own lived experience is that it’s easy for me to
love Jesus with the prophets and the law.
But whether I like it or not…
The gospels are pointing us to that balance of Christ being here to walk with the prophets and the
greatest of Elders of our faith AND the criminals.
And the poor, the blind and the lame. And those who society rejects.
The tax collector, the centurion, the humble fisherman.

Those who have walked different paths than our own and have done things that maybe I
wouldn’t have. Yes, Jesus is here with an invite for them too.
There’s a balance to the gospel story of Jesus Christ lifted high in glory and walking with,
ministering to, being present for the lowly.
God is not only for the few or the select, but for all creation.
There's a balance to life
and at the center of it all, is Jesus Christ glorified.
At the very heart of creation and life itself, is Jesus.
This Lent, I pray that you’re able to continue to explore that balance in your life and the place
that Jesus holds for you as an individual, as families, and for all of us as the St. Peter’s
community.
I hope you do so knowing that I’m doing the same. That my time won't be spent trying to
balance myself on a skateboard,
but
Working to ensure that Christ holds the exact right place in my life,
the center.
Amen.