You are beloved...

NOTE: As I am getting ready to post this I find myself listening to a podcast of a new radio show hosted by Hal Lefferts. I was in a band with Hal during high school - he is a totally smoking guitar player and all round sweet soul - and it is a treat to here his new show. You can check him out at: Robin Hood Radio from Sharon, CT at http://www.robinhoodradio.com/shows.phphp Keep on rockin' dude, keep on rockin!

Ok, here are my Sunday sermon notes for Transfiguration Sunday, February 14, 2010. As the last Sunday before Lent begins, a theme has emerged: living the spirituality of the beloved. Henri Nouwen, of course, is critical for moving this deeper and I sense that I will be taking each of his major themes - living as those who are chosen, blessed, broken and shared - to guide my preaching throughout Lent.

So, come join us this week if you are in town at 10:30 am. If not, we're also doing a weekly gig on PCTV in Pittsfield at 11:30 am and 6:00 pm. You can also check it out on-line at: http://www.pittsfieldtv.org/sfieldtv.org/ under the program name: "Sunday Street with the Rev. James Lumsden."

I am going to ask you to try to do something this morning that is very hard – it isn’t complicated – but will take genuine concentration. For, you see, I would like you to try to be genuinely open to the wisdom of today’s gospel.

• Not necessarily my take on the gospel

• And probably not your old or favorite understandings either

• Just an “openness” so that God’s presence might really be good news to you

I think of the old story about the Zen master who welcomed a new student to his community. The novice was filled with zeal and ideas – his enthusiasm was palpable – so the old soul asked him to sit for tea. And as the tea progressed, the young man talked and talked and talked; he was on fire about the quest for enlightenment and full to overflowing with questions and concerns.

So the old man stood and started to refill the young man’s cup – and when it was full he kept on pouring – and pouring and pouring and pouring. At first, the novice thought it was a foolish accident but eventually shouted, “Master whatever are you doing?” To which the enlightened one said, “How can anything be filled if it is never empty? Be still – be open – then you will be ready for blessings.”

• I think that is the challenge and invitation for us, too: be still – be open – for then you will be ready for blessing.

• And blessing is what today’s gospel offers, yes? For after Jesus ascends the mountain with Peter, James and John – and shares a mystical time of ecstatic prayer with Moses and Elijah – a voice from beyond and within proclaimed: this is my beloved, the chosen, listen to him.

I am convinced that we have been invited by God not only to listen to Christ Jesus as God’s beloved, but also to live within God’s grace as the beloved in our generation. So let me first ground this morning’s gospel for you in a context that explains the images and symbols.

• Second let me deepen our conversation about the four ingredients necessary for living into this spirituality – how being taken, blessed, broken and shared by God are essential for becoming the beloved in our world – ok?

• And third let me remind you why the life of God’s beloved always takes us down from the mountain top back into the rough and wounded realities of everyday life.

Context – spirituality – real life: so please pray with me that we might be grounded and open for this journey.

Gracious and Compassionate God – close to us as breathing and distant as the farthest star – be with us now that we might be open to you. Take the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts and cleanse them that we might be claimed as your beloved. In the spirit and presence of Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.

Here are two important contextual insights about this morning’s gospel: a) Jesus takes Peter, James and John – his closest associates – up the mountain with him for prayer; and b) while praying Jesus mystically encounters Moses and Elijah – the symbolic personifications of the Law and the Prophets of Israel – who together illuminate Christ’s deepest identity.

Only Luke’s gospel places this event we call the Transfiguration within Christ’s prayer – and I don’t think that Luke does anything accidentally – he is careful and intentional in telling the story of Jesus and the birth of the church. So when he reminds us that Jesus was at prayer, we’re supposed to connect the mountain top with other prayerful experiences:

• Jesus and all the people were at prayer during his baptism when the skies broke open, a dove appeared representing the Holy Spirit and the heavens proclaimed: This is my beloved, the chosen, with him I am well pleased. Almost the same words as today, right?

• Jesus was in prayer for 40 days and nights in the wilderness – a season we will mark together starting next week as Lent – during which time he explored his fears and brokenness amidst an abiding trust that God’s light was always present even in the darkness.

And there are regular reminders that Jesus often got away from the grind for times of renewal and solitary prayer: after cleansing the leper, he withdrew to a deserted place for prayer; before choosing the 12 who would become his key disciples, he went out to a mountain to pray; before Peter confessed and claimed Jesus as Messiah we are told that Jesus was out praying by himself; and then, of course, there is the disciples’ lament, “teach us to pray, Lord” which evokes the Lord’s Prayer.

All of which leads me to believe that Jesus spent a lot of time getting empty before he was filled. And he kept on going back to those wild, empty places to be opened by trust because he believed that if he let go, God would fill him in God’s own time. How do our Muslim sisters and brothers put that? “Inshallah” – in God’s time – if God wills it: Jesus practiced being empty so that in God’s time he could be filled.

• His prayers were rarely GIMME prayers – give me health, Lord; give me hope; give me healing; give me love – rather, mostly they were quiet, waiting and trusting prayers.

• More listening than asking – more waiting than receiving – more letting go than acquiring.

And then, at the right time... he encounters Moses and Elijah in prayer. Now I am NOT going to try to explain how this happened – there really are NO words available for ecstatic and mystical prayer – all we can do is listen and be open to the wisdom of the story. And the story says that together Jesus, Moses and Elijah were glorified – enveloped and filled with God’s wisdom, love and light – and this is not accidental in Luke’s gospel either for Luke regularly tells us that Jesus is the essence – the unity – of the Law and the prophets.

• When teaching the wealthy about their use of money, Jesus tells them to consider the Law and the prophets and to share so that poverty is ended. (Luke 16: 16-17/19-31)
• When Jesus appears to his disciples on the Emmaus Road after his resurrection – a time when they are confused by grief – he begins to explain the meaning of his life with Moses, the Law and the prophets. And then later, at supper and the breaking of the bread, when the disciples realize it is Jesus sitting with them, they say NOW we understand! (Luke 24: 13-35)

More than the other gospels, Luke wants us to know that from the beginning of time through Moses and all the prophets God was at work bringing salvation to the world through Jesus. Small wonder, then, that Luke paints a picture not unlike the one in Exodus where Moses is engulfed in light after meeting with God. Are you with me?

We are being told by the context in Luke that becoming the beloved of God is at the heart of Christ’s ministry: you are my beloved the Creator said to Jesus on the mountain – and through Christ tells us – you, too, are my beloved and chosen. Not my rejected – not my forgotten – not my abused or discarded or despised – you are my beloved.

• For you – and you – and you and all of us are made in the image of… whom? God – Christ Jesus being the fullest vision we can grasp of God’s image.

• And guess what? God don’t make junk. God is NOT co-dependent, addicted, filled with hatred and so broken that she can’t see our fears and needs.

How does today’s psalm put it? God is enthroned with the cherubim and angels – God is the lover of justice and font of healing – God is holy, mighty and beyond awe – filled to overflowing with forgiveness so that we might be whole.

All of that is what Luke is telling us in this simple story: he reminds us that Jesus practiced emptying himself so that he could be filled – he assures us that just as God’s light enveloped Christ Jesus, so, too, you and me – and then he gives us a new name: beloved – born of Christ’s love and saturated with God’s grace. And over time those far wiser than me have figured out that there is a spirituality – an intentional way of living – that nourishes us life as God’s beloved.

There are four key ingredients that are simple but so important: to live as those taken by God and blessed, to realize that we have been broken by the world but also empowered to share grace, too. These ingredients – taken, blessed, broken and shared – are at the core of living as God’s beloved. They give shape and form to Christ’s ministry and outline the movement of the Eucharist. I think I am going to spend time with each element more deeply in Lent, but here’s a taste:

• Taken – I’ve come to think that this word might better be described as chosen – taken can be too violent or harsh. But chosen – embraced by God as precious – that is closer to the truth. And while many of us don’t really believe that we are precious to the Lord – chosen in love – the spirituality of the beloved says otherwise. In fact, it asks us to empty ourselves of self-hatred and doubt and trust that God knows us by name – knit our very being into existence since before the beginning of time –and loves us in a way that will not let us go. First, we are chosen and invited to practice letting go everything that denies this sweet truth.

• Second we are blessed – and God wants us to know this from the inside out. Much of our tradition begins with sin – it is real and finds expression in our brokenness – but it is not how the story begins. No, the story begins with God’s creation and God calls it… what? Good – blessed – filled with bounty and value.

The late Henri Nouwen gives meaning to being blessed in a little story about the early days of serving the L’Arche Community in Toronto. After building a very prominent public career as a writer and seminary professor, Nouwen left it all to become a member – and part-time priest – to a group of people with disabilities and challenges founded by Jean Vanier. He writes:

One of my friends (at L’Arche) who is quite handicapped but a wonderful, wonderful lady once said to me, "Henri, can you bless me?" I remember walking up to her and giving her a little cross on her forehead. She said, "Henri, that doesn't work. No, that is not what I mean." I was embarrassed and said, "I gave you a blessing." And she said, "No, I want to be blessed.” Well, I kept thinking, "What does she mean?" Sometime later we had a little service and all these people were sitting there. After the service I said, "Janet wants a blessing."I had an alb on and a long robe with long sleeves. Janet walked up to me and said, "I want to be blessed." She put her head against my chest and I spontaneously put my arms around her, held her, and looked right into her eyes and said, "Blessed are you, Janet.

You know how much we love you. You know how important you are. You know what a good woman you are." And she looked at me and said, "Yes, yes, yes, now I know. Thank you.” And all at once I saw all sorts of energy coming back to her. She seemed to be relieved from the feeling of depression because suddenly she realized again that she was blessed. She went back to her seat and immediately other people said, "I want that kind of blessing, too."

I don’t think Nouwen’s experience is unique: we all want that kind of blessing – to know and feel from the inside out – that we are valuable and beloved of God. The second key ingredient is to nourish being blessed.

• Then there is the brokenness – we are a broken people – we live in a broken and wounded world. And while I will be sharing more about brokenness with you during Lent let me just say that the challenge of being broken is to own it. Embrace it. Not hide it or be ashamed of it or blame somebody else for it. How did Jesus put it when his flesh was broken on the Cross: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. There is MUCH more to say about this… Inshallah – if God wills and in God’s time.

• For then – and only then – will we have something to share – which is the fourth ingredient to the spirituality of the beloved. Most of the time we can’t fix things – not only are they bigger than our abilities – but so often they are beyond change. They simply are – and as much as we would like to take the pain away and replace the fears and darkness – most of the time we can’t.

But we can share those times – fill them with our presence and loving prayers – help those we love carry their burdens. We can’t take them away no matter how hard we try – in fact, most of the time we shouldn’t even try to take away the darkness – all we can do share it. And here is the mysterious blessing of sharing the darkness: it becomes ok – a little safer – a little easier – a little less harsh.

When my daughters were small and would wake up at night with a bad dream mostly all they wanted was for me to put on a small night light and sit with them until it felt safe again. And sitting by their beds – sharing the darkness – gave them the comfort to rest and know they were loved. And over the years I’ve come to see that we’re not all that different.

We’ll do deeper into this spirituality as we move through Lent. For now let me simply add that after the prayers – after the embrace with Moses and Elijah and the illumination of the Transfiguration – Jesus took his troops down from the mountain. Peter and James and John wanted to stay up in that lofty, ecstatic place with the saints – it was a good time – and only natural.

But Jesus said, “Knock it off, will you? We have work to do: we have been called to make flesh a way of living that documents what it looks like to be chosen by God and blessed – to own and embrace the brokenness all around and within us – and then tenderly share our lives with others who are afraid and wounded as well. Come on, let’s get off this mountain and back down into the valley of the shadow of real life.”

And my friends, what was true then is true today – and that is the good news for our time – so let those who have ears to hear: hear.

(as I was listening to Hal's first show... he started off with this tune and it just seems fitting to close with it, too.)