Hi everyone,
Welcome to worship this day for the Transfiguration of Our Lord Sunday, landing on February 11, 2024!
The bulletin for this service can be found here. You may follow along with it or with the words on the screen. The full sermon manuscript can be found below, under the worship video.
If you would like to enhance your online worship experience, you are welcome to have a candle in your space, lit at the beginning of the service and extinguished near the end after the sending hymn, when the altar candles are extinguished. And you are welcome to join in communion as well, by having something small to eat and drink prepared for the appropriate time in the service. Further instruction will be given then.
May God’s radiance shine in and around you, this day and always!
Lord our God, may the light of your Spirit shine brightly in our hearts as you speak to us with your Word, Jesus Christ our Saviour and friend. Amen.
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well… this is awkward.
We aren’t all that comfortable in the silence, are we? We don’t really like it when things aren’t happening. It is sometimes awkward to be just there, without anything to do or to say.
Because, we like to do things and we like to say things. But it seems like the level that we like to do and say things in society has come to a fault, in that it seems like we’re at a point where we have to somehow keep ourselves busy like all the time lest we find ourselves feeling… I don’t know… just off. No one wants to feel whatever it is that we feel when we have nothing going on, so we tend to fill up our time doing things that don’t really need to be done. We break awkward silences with words that don’t really need to be said. We bite our nails, twirl our pens, and buy these fidget toys to keep in our pockets just so we are never not doing anything.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that having things to do or saying things is bad or buying fidget toys is weird. Honestly some of those things are pretty cool, I wish I had more of them. But of course there will always be something that we can do, and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s a necessity for life. What I’m saying is that it seems like we’re so self conscious of those times when we actually have nothing to do or anything to say. Like it’s almost a source of anxiety just to think that we’re not being productive or making the most of our time. Time is precious, there’s no doubt about that, but it seems like we fill up this time, this space, these gaps with general stuff not out of necessity, but out of fear.
Fear of not doing enough, maybe. Fear of looking lazy perhaps. Or it could be a fear of being lonely.
Maybe you know what I’m talking about. Maybe you know someone like this. Or maybe you’re like this. I know I am, I often say things randomly that don’t really make sense or quickly do something that ends up not being helpful. But really, I think that’s something that most people do at least on a subconscious level, because society has drilled it in our heads that we need to be doing something… anything… or else we’re just not doing our part. We’re not fulfilling our role as a member of society if we were doing nothing. We’re not living up to the expectation that has been set out for us unless we are busy all the time.
So again, we do what we do. I load ourselves up with stuff. We say things without really thinking about what we’re saying. We just fill the gaps that we can’t stand to leave unfilled.
I see this “fill the gap” mentality a lot in today’s readings. Poor Elisha in the first reading is just walking with his master, his teacher, the only mentor that he’s ever known, fully aware that this would be the last walk they will take together. And what do their prophet colleagues do? They fill the gap with their “words of comfort.” They remind Elisha that he’s on the cusp of feeling loss, sadness, and pain. They ask him out of concern if he knows what’s about to happen. They’re trying to help by not helping at all. So much that Elisha tells them to “be silent” or in our vernacular, to shut up. Clearly their words weren’t what Elisha needed, but they used them anyway.
And don’t we do that too? We might not know how to comfort those grieving around us, but we want to be comforting because we genuinely care. We want to help them but we might not have the words. We want to say something, anything, that might alleviate the discomfort that we feel in their pain, and so we might fill that gap with our “thoughts and prayers” sentiments.
The gospel has an example of this need to fill the gap as well. We have the transfiguration story of course, it’s Transfiguration Sunday. And we’re familiar with this story with how Jesus goes up a mountain, turns into something that is whiter than the whitest whites, and good ol’ Peter wants to make some huts.
You know, say what you’ll say about Peter, but this guy is hilarious. He doesn’t disappoint. 10/10, will laugh at him again.
But the text is clear, his suggestion to build these dwellings comes out of his literal not knowing what to say. He doesn’t know what to do. So out of his awkwardness and discomfort he just blurts out his great idea. Huts. On a mountain. For three celestial supernatural beings that are seriously freaking them out. Great idea.
So Peter was filling in the gap here just as those prophets were for Elisha. And just like Elisha’s response to them, Peter is shut up by a voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”
Jesus, God’s beloved son. Listen to him.
I don’t know, I think they better do what that equal parts mysterious and terrifying voice says. It seems to mean business.
But it makes sense, though, doesn’t it? Jesus has just been miraculously and divinely transfigured before their eyes. They just saw him chilling out with Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest figureheads their culture has ever known. This was just a physical manifestation of the radiant light that they’ve already seen shining through his care and compassion for people, his wise and wondrous teachings for any who wish to hear, his whole life of love that they know thus far. Listening to him sounds like a good idea.
But… they can’t do that if they’re too busy talking or doing things. They can’t hear if they’re caught up in spewing empty words or performing idle actions. They can’t experience God in this way without the still and silent moments of life.
You know, those ones that we try to fill up with stuff? Those times that we try to avoid with doing and saying things? Those gaps that we try to fill to stave off the awkwardness and uncomfortable feelings they bring?
It’s in those moments that God can be most seen, most felt, most heard in speaking to us, leading us, showing us God’s ways of peace and contentment.
After my dad passed away almost 7 years ago now, my mom joined this class at her church that was specifically for grieving people and was to teach them how to manage and cope. My siblings and I thought it’d be a good idea for at least one of us to go with her to each of the 5 or 6 sessions they offered. I, being a pastor and very familiar with grief, thought I’d be internally rolling my eyes a lot through the session I agreed to go to because what is this person going to tell me about my feelings? As it turned out, it was a lot. It turned out that I was feeling a lot more than I was letting myself acknowledge. As it turned out, I needed to listen. Listen to this guy teaching. Listen to my own heart and feelings. Listen to God, present in community, present in our relationships, present within ourselves, opening our eyes to the world, lifting us up out of shame, and showing us the radiant beauty and joy of life.
At this session I went to with my mom, the instructor kept repeating the phrase “lean into your pain.” As in, don’t avoid what you’re feeling. Don’t try to bottle up what’s inside. Don’t fill the gap with work, activities, and words. But just lean into it, and feel those feels.
There was a woman in the group who at the time had been grieving her husband for 5 years already. And she expressed how she didn’t do that, she didn’t lean in, she didn’t allow herself to feel, she didn’t listen. But now she does and it has brought her healing, comfort, and peace.
Now I’m not saying that just taking the time to be quiet is going to make all your troubles go away. It’s not some miracle fix-all that we can apply and suddenly life is honky dory. It’s not like a get-out-of-jail-free card.
But what I’m saying is that it’s ok to find yourself e in the quiet. It’s ok to not have anything to say or do in any given situation. It’s ok to not fill in the gaps, but just lean in and listen. Allow the experience of the moment surround you. Let God’s voice radiate in your life. We might just learn something.
As we end this season after the Epiphany, this season of learning about the person of Jesus and seeing and recognising his role in our lives, community, and world, and move into the season of Lent, a season of penitent reflection and recognition, may we boldly find the space to be still and silent, that we might see, hear, and listen. Thanks be to God. Amen.