Transfiguration of Our Lord (C)
Luke 9
Unless there’s at least one other person you care for and have been in right relationship with in this world, is it even possible to be in right relationship and to give or receive divine love?
When Sue Kinnunen’s second child was diagnosed with autism she was told she should give Carl up to a permanent in-treatment facility. This was a couple of decades ago, and not an uncommon practice at the time. But Sue was not one to unquestionably follow the common practices! She was determined to raise Carl at home as one of the family, along with her husband and two kids. It was not always a picnic or smooth sailing, but it sure made a difference in Carl’s life, and in many of ours, who knew him. For one thing Carl had a savant-like talent, that when you told him what day your birthday was, say October 29, he could tell you right away what day of the week it was. “That’s a Tuesday,” Carl would say. Just kind of an amazing little gift he would give you!
And for Carl, it made all the difference that he had people who loved him, and held him accountable to learning the boundaries, as best he could, of living and getting along with his neighbors. His level of autism would forever hold him back from fully engaging with others, but he learned how to navigate shorter interactions, and was immeasurably happier having family and friends in his life, than he would’ve ever been in a much more closed institutional environment, where he may never have had the chance to practice bonding with another human being.
All of us need at least one other person to care for and be in right relationship with in this world, in order to be in right relationship and to give and receive divine love!
Today we celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus. Like at the beginning of this Epiphany season, at the Baptism of Jesus, we see and hear clearly, if only for a moment, the divine relationship Jesus had with his motherly-Father. At his baptism, God spoke to Jesus alone, “You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” But here at the transfiguration, with Jesus standing close by, God is speaking from the heavenly cloud directly to the disciples, “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!” God draws the 3 disciples, and all “disciples,” into a divine relationship reminding us that Jesus has something to say. He shines dazzling white, like Light itself. He will be a divine guide. Listen to him!
What grabs me in our gospel story this time, however, is how Luke says Jesus took Peter and John and James up the mountain… to pray! When the gospels of Matthew and Mark tell this story it is very much the same, except they don’t mention Jesus going to pray at all! But if we were to look at Luke more extensively we’d find that Jesus prays at a number of important moments in his ministry, even when Matthew and Mark don’t say so. Jesus was praying at his baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. Jesus was praying, of course, in the Garden of Gethsemane, waiting to be arrested. And on the cross, Jesus addresses God, asking for the forgiveness of those who crucify him, and again as he commits his life to God in his final breath.
I can’t tell you why prayer wasn’t mentioned in the other gospels at these times. Did they not get the same memo? Did Luke decide on his own, to add it in? Or maybe Mt & Mk just assumed Jesus prayed, where Luke makes it more explicit?
How about for us? How essential is prayer? When and how do we address God? And what does it look like?
Prayer can be expressed and experienced in such a wide variety of ways. But fundamentally, it’s a part of being in relationship with the divine. Which for us, means a relationship with the Holy Spirit is some way, and for the gospel of Luke, this always includes the ongoing battle of Jesus and the forces of evil, which are present throughout Luke’s narrative, and we learn that prayer, oddly enough, is one of Jesus’ first weapons in this conflict.
And always through Jesus, God is calling us to be God’s own children. We answer boldly in going to the baptismal font, and joining the assembly of the faithful on a journey, as disciples. Sometimes our relationship with God and Jesus becomes weak, our faith loses its way. We need to reinvigorate our relationship with God, just as we sometimes do with a friend or partner. Note that Valentine’s Day, this Thursday, often works as such a renewal day for couples!
Lately I have been experiencing prayer as, substance following form. And so, prayer is both practice as well as relationship. Sometimes, to get to a fruitful prayer relationship, our open communication with God and Jesus, we have to just jump in with any practice of prayer, often before we feel the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. We put one foot in front of the other, trusting that the spirit will come, maybe when we least expect it. The action and practice will invite and induce the relationship, not because faking it is okay, but because God is already present and near. The Holy Spirit is working in, around and through us, now and always, calling and opening doors to us, and the relationship is ours to see and live into.
The disciples, just like every Rabbis’ followers did, asked their leader Jesus, how to pray. And Jesus taught them what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. Its petitions are simple, yet its meanings profound and deep, and lead us into greater action and discipleship. We practice this prayer still, which helps us again and again to reinforce our relationship with the divine.
And Paul said of prayer that “the Holy Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words,” which speaks both to the power of God’s yearning to bridge the gap we sometimes feel from God, and the permission God gives us, that when we think we don’t know how to pray, we can let the Holy Spirit descend upon us. The important thing is renewing and building the relationship, and to Listen, as well as talk, to Jesus.
All of us need at least one other person to care for and be in right relationship with in this world, in order to be in right relationship and to give and receive divine love!
The reverse order could be said of the Transfiguration, I suppose. Listen to Jesus, God’s chosen one, and you will learn how to be a disciple in the world. Being made right by God in our divine relationship, we are freed to care for and be in right relationship with one another in the world. And so finally, if we are truly capable of loving at least one person, we’re capable of loving more than one, and eventually even our enemy, and finally all. Love is one cloth, broad and colorful and never ending.
My sister and brother in the faith, Sue and her son Carl, will always be an example for me in how loving one another gives us a glimpse of the Transfiguration on the mountain top. Without the personal sacrifice and the risk of loving another, so deeply, we cannot know the wonder and beauty of divine love.
Peter and John and James, as they come down from the mountain of Transfiguration into the valley of the 40 days of Lent, are met with their failure to heal a boy with an evil spirit, and they suddenly seem to be far from the cloud of glory and power of divine love. But, they will keep practicing, following Jesus, putting one foot in front of the other, all the way to the cross, and the Three Days. And they do finally receive the Peace of Jesus’ resurrection and the fresh blowing wind and gift of the Holy Spirit, and they experience and form a relationship with the divine – because, along the way, they have loved one another.
Unless there’s at least one other person you care for and have been in right relationship with in this world, is it even possible to be in right relationship and to give or receive divine love?
When Sue Kinnunen’s second child was diagnosed with autism she was told she should give Carl up to a permanent in-treatment facility. This was a couple of decades ago, and not an uncommon practice at the time. But Sue was not one to unquestionably follow the common practices! She was determined to raise Carl at home as one of the family, along with her husband and two kids. It was not always a picnic or smooth sailing, but it sure made a difference in Carl’s life, and in many of ours, who knew him. For one thing Carl had a savant-like talent, that when you told him what day your birthday was, say October 29, he could tell you right away what day of the week it was. “That’s a Tuesday,” Carl would say. Just kind of an amazing little gift he would give you!
And for Carl, it made all the difference that he had people who loved him, and held him accountable to learning the boundaries, as best he could, of living and getting along with his neighbors. His level of autism would forever hold him back from fully engaging with others, but he learned how to navigate shorter interactions, and was immeasurably happier having family and friends in his life, than he would’ve ever been in a much more closed institutional environment, where he may never have had the chance to practice bonding with another human being.
All of us need at least one other person to care for and be in right relationship with in this world, in order to be in right relationship and to give and receive divine love!
Today we celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus. Like at the beginning of this Epiphany season, at the Baptism of Jesus, we see and hear clearly, if only for a moment, the divine relationship Jesus had with his motherly-Father. At his baptism, God spoke to Jesus alone, “You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” But here at the transfiguration, with Jesus standing close by, God is speaking from the heavenly cloud directly to the disciples, “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!” God draws the 3 disciples, and all “disciples,” into a divine relationship reminding us that Jesus has something to say. He shines dazzling white, like Light itself. He will be a divine guide. Listen to him!
What grabs me in our gospel story this time, however, is how Luke says Jesus took Peter and John and James up the mountain… to pray! When the gospels of Matthew and Mark tell this story it is very much the same, except they don’t mention Jesus going to pray at all! But if we were to look at Luke more extensively we’d find that Jesus prays at a number of important moments in his ministry, even when Matthew and Mark don’t say so. Jesus was praying at his baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. Jesus was praying, of course, in the Garden of Gethsemane, waiting to be arrested. And on the cross, Jesus addresses God, asking for the forgiveness of those who crucify him, and again as he commits his life to God in his final breath.
I can’t tell you why prayer wasn’t mentioned in the other gospels at these times. Did they not get the same memo? Did Luke decide on his own, to add it in? Or maybe Mt & Mk just assumed Jesus prayed, where Luke makes it more explicit?
How about for us? How essential is prayer? When and how do we address God? And what does it look like?
Prayer can be expressed and experienced in such a wide variety of ways. But fundamentally, it’s a part of being in relationship with the divine. Which for us, means a relationship with the Holy Spirit is some way, and for the gospel of Luke, this always includes the ongoing battle of Jesus and the forces of evil, which are present throughout Luke’s narrative, and we learn that prayer, oddly enough, is one of Jesus’ first weapons in this conflict.
And always through Jesus, God is calling us to be God’s own children. We answer boldly in going to the baptismal font, and joining the assembly of the faithful on a journey, as disciples. Sometimes our relationship with God and Jesus becomes weak, our faith loses its way. We need to reinvigorate our relationship with God, just as we sometimes do with a friend or partner. Note that Valentine’s Day, this Thursday, often works as such a renewal day for couples!
Lately I have been experiencing prayer as, substance following form. And so, prayer is both practice as well as relationship. Sometimes, to get to a fruitful prayer relationship, our open communication with God and Jesus, we have to just jump in with any practice of prayer, often before we feel the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. We put one foot in front of the other, trusting that the spirit will come, maybe when we least expect it. The action and practice will invite and induce the relationship, not because faking it is okay, but because God is already present and near. The Holy Spirit is working in, around and through us, now and always, calling and opening doors to us, and the relationship is ours to see and live into.
The disciples, just like every Rabbis’ followers did, asked their leader Jesus, how to pray. And Jesus taught them what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. Its petitions are simple, yet its meanings profound and deep, and lead us into greater action and discipleship. We practice this prayer still, which helps us again and again to reinforce our relationship with the divine.
And Paul said of prayer that “the Holy Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words,” which speaks both to the power of God’s yearning to bridge the gap we sometimes feel from God, and the permission God gives us, that when we think we don’t know how to pray, we can let the Holy Spirit descend upon us. The important thing is renewing and building the relationship, and to Listen, as well as talk, to Jesus.
All of us need at least one other person to care for and be in right relationship with in this world, in order to be in right relationship and to give and receive divine love!
The reverse order could be said of the Transfiguration, I suppose. Listen to Jesus, God’s chosen one, and you will learn how to be a disciple in the world. Being made right by God in our divine relationship, we are freed to care for and be in right relationship with one another in the world. And so finally, if we are truly capable of loving at least one person, we’re capable of loving more than one, and eventually even our enemy, and finally all. Love is one cloth, broad and colorful and never ending.
My sister and brother in the faith, Sue and her son Carl, will always be an example for me in how loving one another gives us a glimpse of the Transfiguration on the mountain top. Without the personal sacrifice and the risk of loving another, so deeply, we cannot know the wonder and beauty of divine love.
Peter and John and James, as they come down from the mountain of Transfiguration into the valley of the 40 days of Lent, are met with their failure to heal a boy with an evil spirit, and they suddenly seem to be far from the cloud of glory and power of divine love. But, they will keep practicing, following Jesus, putting one foot in front of the other, all the way to the cross, and the Three Days. And they do finally receive the Peace of Jesus’ resurrection and the fresh blowing wind and gift of the Holy Spirit, and they experience and form a relationship with the divine – because, along the way, they have loved one another.
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