SERMON
February
11, 2024
Mark 9:2-9
One of my favorite prayers is authored by Thomas Merton a Trappist monk, and a leading twentieth century spiritual thinker. The prayer is found in his book Thoughts in Solitude. A book that explores the necessity for quiet reflection in an age when, so little is private. In the prayer Merton speaks directly to God saying, "I hope that I will never do anything apart from pleasing you. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
Merton’s thoughts remind me of The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s statement about the importance of quiet reflection and solitude. In one of his many public appearances he commented, “If we do not take time to be quiet and be with God, we will disintegrate. Our vertical relationship with our Father is of the upmost importance to have right.”
Our vertical relationship with God is of utmost importance to have right.
Today’s gospel focuses on the Transfiguration of Jesus. Apart from the resurrection, the Transfiguration is the most definitive revelation of the incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ, as a divine figure. Atop the mountain his apostles Peter, James, and John at his side, Jesus is stunningly, dazzlingly transformed and revealed as the beginning of a new covenant that promises the grace and peace of God’s salvation for humanity.
The Transfiguration was an event that revealed Jesus’ deity and provided the sensory experience that would live within each of the apostles and offer testament and witness to all Jesus’ teachings and healings for the remainder of his ministry.
Today is also a day that the Episcopal Church focuses on World Mission.
World mission is the lifeblood of the Episcopal Church. World mission guarantees our church’s voice in the larger global community. A community comprised of all Christian faith groups as well as people of other faiths and people of no faith at all. World Mission provides witness to God’s reconciling love in a global context, crossing boundaries of differences and meeting Christ in one another. World mission implies being present with and journeying with others, as Jesus was present and journeyed with us.
World mission initiatives educate, empower, and inspire individuals and parishes to respond to God’s call for engagement through relationships and spiritual transformation throughout the Anglican Communion and beyond. World mission vows to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of all human beings; and to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
World mission offers the transfigured Jesus, God’s love, to all those throughout the world who seek healing and peace.
To quote Tutu once again, “God places us in the world as his fellow workers-agents of transfiguration. We work with God so that injustice is transfigured into justice, so there will be more compassion and caring, that there will be more laughter and joy, that there will be more togetherness in God's world.”
To work with God so that injustice is transfigured into justice in a world replete with injustice. To create more compassion and caring in a world filled with alienation and suffering. To foster laughter, joy, and togetherness in a world filled with sadness and grief; these are awesome tasks, some say impossible tasks. Tasks that cannot be accomplished if our hearts and souls are not filled with the glory of God’s grace incarnated in our savior Jesus Christ. Tasks that remain beyond our reach if we have not experienced the transfigured Jesus as the way to compassion, caring, healing, and unremitting love.
To be disciples of Christ, to be a Christian community uncompromisingly and persistently proclaiming the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is an impossible task without continually envisioning the transfigured Jesus and holding his divinity and his love deep within our hearts and souls.
And it is only by way of this relationship with the transfigured Jesus, of our unerring commitment to follow him to the cross and beyond proclaiming the good news without fear or distraction, that we can possibly establish a vertical relationship with God.
To follow Jesus beyond the cross, to be in vertical relationship with God, is the way, the only way, to a world that is reconciled to God. A world that is guided by justice, compassion, and caring. A world that lives in fellowship, and peace. A world in which our relationship with God is of supreme importance and our life, as we cross boundaries of differences and meet Christ in one another, provides witness to God’s reconciling love.
A life dedicated to the church’s five marks of mission:
·
To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.
·
To teach, baptize and nurture new believers.
·
To respond to human need by loving service.
·
To transform unjust structures of society, to
challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation.
· To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.
This is a time of transition for St. Simon’s. The assurance of our church’s solid future requires a congregation that is solid in their love of each other, their commitment to the teaching of scripture, their steadfast focus on the transfigured Jesus, and their resolve, both individually and corporately, to always be in vertical relationship with God. A vertical relationship that ensures a future in which St. Simon’s grows into its call to be an active member of the larger communion as it endeavors to undertake the church’s mission.
How do we do this?
A sacramental church. A church imparting divine grace. Through the sacrament of the Holy Communion, we strive to know Christ and to receive his divine grace as we gather at his table each week.
In Eucharistic Prayer A the priest prays on our behalf saying, “Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace…” Through the divine gifts of Christ’s body given for us and his blood shed for us we celebrate the gift of a new Covenant that brings with it the forgiveness of our sins. Through participation in the eucharist we meet Christ. Our hearts open to his presence within us and among us as reverently we take his sacred body and blood into our very being. Through this sacred gift we are fed, blessed, and sent forth to serve in unity, constancy, and peace.
Participation in the sacrament feeds us and prepares us for the work of striving to know Christ and make Him known. The second part of this mission statement speaks to our call to live into our sacramental being and to proclaim to the world by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. This proclamation is our first priority. The essence of our work in bringing reconciliation and peace to the global community.
St. Simon’s is A sacramental church, striving to know Christ and make Him known. A big mission. A mission that requires us to pay close attention to our congregational well-being. A congregational well-being that can be achieved only if our focus remains hard and fast on the divinity of the transfigured Jesus and through that focus remain in vertical relationship with God. Without this vertical relationship, as Desmond Tutu so wisely said, we will disintegrate.
All this requires solitude and prayer. Let us pray…
O gracious and loving God, you
work everywhere reconciling, loving, and healing your people and your creation.
In your Son and through the power of your Holy Spirit, you invite each of us to
join you in your work. We, young and old, lay and ordained, ask you to form us
more and more in your image and likeness, through our prayer and worship of you
and through the study of your scripture, that our eyes will be fully opened to
your mission in the world. Then, God, into our communities, our nation, and the
world, send us to serve with Christ, taking risks to give life and hope to all
people and all of your creation. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
