SERMON at St. Thomas

February 18, 2007

by Lynn E. Cunningham

Last Sunday in Epiphany

Exodus 34:29-35; I Corinthians 12:27-13:13; Luke 9:28-36

1.         The central statement in the Gospel passage about the Transfiguration, is God speaking to the disciples about Jesus, and saying, “listen to Him”, listen to this one who is my beloved Son.”

2.         The readers of the Gospel, you and I, are intended also to hear this message, this instruction, “listen to Jesus”.

3.         What might it mean to listen to Jesus?

4.         When someone says, I really want you to listen to a particular person, most people expect that they are about to hear a good story, a story that is important, or else directions about how to get somewhere, or how to do something. If someone wanted to find out how to fix a broken piece of farm machinery, they might go to one of you who knows farm machinery, and listen to him carefully while he explains how to repair it.

5.         All three lessons are exploring the issue of true identity, who a person really is. Listening carefully can be a way of discovering who one really is.

6.         The passage telling of Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai from the Book of Exodus, is in part a statement that God recognized Moses as special person who learns that he is to give the law of God to the Israelite people. Moses was recognized by God, by the Israelite people, and by his own self to be selected as the messenger who comes bearing the Torah, including the Ten Commandments, to his community.

7.         Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians, ends today’s passage by this haunting statement, “now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” This passage too is about Paul’s journey of discovery of who he is, and who he is in relation to God and to his community.

8.         So with the Lucan passage describing the Transfiguration of Jesus, the reader is prepared to discover that it too presents a moment of profound recognition as to who Jesus really is, the beloved of God, and that his identity means that he is someone that Christians are commanded by God to listen to. Jesus is the one to whom above all one should listen.

9.         This is why I say that all three passages explore the issue of discovery of a person’s true identity. The passages are read not to learn so much who Jesus, and Paul, and Moses were. That is clear from the passages themselves. More importantly, they help the reader discover somehow who the reader truly is, not just who Moses, or Paul, or Jesus were.

10.       “now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known,” as Paul puts it. Sometimes I wonder whether I can ever know myself fully, even as God knows me. When I moved to Dubois from Washington, D.C. about 18 months ago, I left behind my church there, my many circles of friends, my career. This was disorienting in many ways for me.

11.       I made this change willingly and for good reasons. I had for several years wanted to spend the decade of my sixties in this town of Dubois that I had grown over the years to love. And to be with friends here. To be in these beautiful mountains. To finally live out the ministry as Rector of a church community, something that I had been postponing for several decades.

12.       But I left behind a lot of good things and sometimes I find myself bewildered about who I really am and what I am becoming after this change. Sometimes I feel unsure of myself, unsure of what I can trust. Where am I really most at home? What is it about Dubois that leaves me feeling most secure? Why do I still miss Washington, D.C.? What was it about that place that helped me feel secure there.

13.       I can be open about these feelings because obviously many of you also go through similar emotions. I am not the only one who has retired to Dubois after a full and interesting life elsewhere. And, how many of the folks here spend winter months somewhere else because they are torn about where they are most at home in this world? I know many of you have given up things important to you, to come to reside in Dubois.

14.       “Transfer trauma” is a term coined by social workers to describe what happens to many folks when they are forced against their will to change from one living situation to another. Even those of us who have been blessed to be able to choose certain kinds of moves from one home to another still experience a kind of “transfer trauma”, when the familiar elements of daily living are suddenly changed for a bunch of new and unknowns, different doctors, different grocery stores, different streets, different friends, different weather. The list of changes and adaptations goes on and on.

15.       My identity has been shaken in some ways by my move. I am sure many here will recognize how these shake up as well your own lives.

16.       Transfering from one place to another is not the only way one’s life can become disoriented. Change may come from the loss of a spouse, or the loss of strength from aging or illness and disability. Or maybe we cannot remember much about those other places anyway because our memory seems to be failing!

17.       Whatever they are, such changes seem to shake up a person’s sense of identity, sense of who they really are.

18.       Our congregation goes through similar shake ups. People move away from Dubois, like Alyse Bell, or Dan and Jan Blair, or Jackie and Earl Page. They retire, as Pete Ensor has done. New people come to us, or return from a time away, such as Melinda Bobo has done, bringing her grace and gifts back to the congregation.

19.       Children grow up and change. Think what a big church school we would have if all those children of former years had never grown up, but had just stayed the same age all the time!

20.       Our nation as well faces dramatic shifts that shake up the national sense of identity. The war in Iraq has certainly left many feeling uncertain about what this country should do. Global warming has shaken up my sense of what the future may hold for the climate of Dubois, and for our country.

21.       Now, suppose these daunting changes are not just random events, but instead God is trying to tell each of us and our communities a story in them. Amongst all the changes and chances in this transitory life a story is being told by God of who you and I really are.

22.       Am I listening to Jesus in the midst of all this, as God instructed the disciples to do? Are you listening to the story that God trying to tell you of your life? “Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” What will you discover when you know even as you are known?

23.       Everyone I know already has a story made up for themselves about who they are, including me. In Dubois, many folks identify themselves as artist, or cowboy, or store owner, or construction worker. Teacher. Fisherman. Hunter. Everybody seems to have their ready made story to explain who they are.

24.       The stories usually include a family, their financial position, what sports they play or enjoy. What diseases and disabilities they have or have had.

25.       But what really is your story? When will I be able to say, with Paul, “Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

26.       Last week Melinda’s sermon pointed out how sometimes the story which a person is telling themselves gets in the way of their knowing the real situation. She gave the illustration of a person out in the back country in the winter and facing a possible avalanche condition in a valley where they are hiking or skiing. The greatest risk for that person is not what kind of equipment they have, or their level of experience, or even the weather conditions. The greatest danger comes from what the person assumes about how safe they are. In other words, the greatest danger arises from what story they are telling themselves in their head about how safe they are, as opposed to how much danger in fact exists.

27.       Did I ever tell you the story of how I tried to drive our Toyota SUV over the Sheridan Loop road on a snow mobile track in the dead of winter? What was the story in my head that day?

28.       If you sometimes find yourself feeling unease about where your life is headed; if you are wondering, where you can be most at home amidst the changes and chances of this transitory world, you have come to the right place this morning. This place is one of those where Jesus is most readily available to help tell you your story. Our worship today is a really good place where you can practice “listening to Him”.

29.       Listening to Jesus is not just a matter of reading in rote fashion what Jesus is quoted as saying in the Bible, although that is a good thing.

30.       Jesus is not just a wise person who said some very powerful words a long, long time ago. Nor were Moses or Paul.

31.       Our religion teaches that Jesus is alive in this world with you, that Jesus is the Word through whom all things are made,” as the Nicene Creed expresses it.

32.       Our church takes this reality very, very seriously. Jesus is walking with you and with me every day, whether we are listening to him or not. Jesus is speaking to people, to you and to me, today, and not just through his words recorded in the Bible.

33.       Listening to Jesus means stopping for a moment the tired old story running through your head about who you think you are and what you think you are about, and asking Jesus prayerfully and intentionally, what story do you have to tell me today? And then staying patiently open to Jesus’ response.

34.       The season of Lent starts this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday.

35.       I hope to spend this Lent, my second in Dubois, learning to rest more deeply in the story that Jesus is trying to tell me about who I really am, and am becoming. Did not God say, “Jesus is my beloved Son. Listen to him!” So, should I not try to listen more to him?

36.       I hope each member of the St. Thomas community will be listening to Jesus telling a special story God has for you. And, I bet, if you do listen carefully, the theme of that story could just be — “All is well; You are my beloved; all is well.”

37.       In Jesus name, Amen.