IMPORTANT NOTE: Six Words for Lent, a devotional booklet produced by members of the congregation was distributed in the course of this sermon. [1] To see the booklet and to follow along as that booklet is reviewed, you need to see it as a PDF file on line. God to this website for that file:
Also note, that file can be downloaded for your individual use. However, also note, if you are trying to follow along for the sermon because this is a PDF file on line the booklet appears to be presented sideways and you will have to scan forward and backwards to see the pages in order. All of which is to say, printing out the booklet first and placing the pages in the right sequence is a good idea.
02/19/2012 ~ The Last Sunday After the Epiphany, Known in Many Traditions as Transfiguration Sunday and in others as the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. It is the Last Sunday before the Season of Lent; 2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:1-6; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9:2-9 ~ Six Words for Lent Devotional Handed Out.
Listening?
“Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them; and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Beloved, my Own. Listen to this One!’” — Mark 9:7.
As has I hope been made evident, this Sunday, the last one before we enter the season of Lent, is the Feast of the Transfiguration. It is so known, in part, because each year a version of that episode is read from one of the Gospels.
This year, year “B,” it’s Mark’s turn. Last year, year ‘A,’ was Matthew and year ‘C,’ next year, will be Luke. Each of the authors has a slightly different take on the tale. Each sees it from a different perspective.
Words and images are like that. Each person has their own take. Each person sees things, hears things, in a slightly different way.
By way of proof that premise that each of us sees in different ways, let me offer a verbal picture for your mind’s eye. I ask that you close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine this: a field of wheat, just as dawn brakes, shimmering in a freshly minted sun. A slight breeze gently bends golden grain. The whole field seems to move to a single tempo as if an invisible conductor was waving a baton, now and then changing the tempos of the wind in the flowing field. (Slight pause.)
Now, my bet is each of you has conjured up a different image for those words. You see, neither images nor words are static. To reiterate: we don’t all perceive the same thing the same way.
So too, these words from Mark and the words used to describe the Transfiguration in the other Gospels help us imagine Jesus and Moses and Elijah, and imagine a voice and a cloud. But again, it’s unlikely any of us imagines it in exactly the same way.
Well, let’s do an experiment— another one— with imagination and images with the devotional booklet that was developed by Bonnie Connolly and Linda Oehme. I’m going to hand out this book and we’ll look through it together. I do ask that right now you only look at the cover which says simply Six Words for Lent. Don’t look inside. [Pause while these booklets are being distributed.]
The words and the pictures in this devotional are meant to be meditations, with pictures for each day of Lent and six words for each day of Lent. What do the words mean? What do the pictures mean? I know what they mean to me.
Or, rather, I think I know what they mean to me right now, as I look at them. Tomorrow, they might mean something else. And they might mean something else again next week. But I certainly don’t know what they might mean to you. As I said, we each see things differently.
So, since this booklet is meant to be a devotional, a meditation, what I’d like to do is go through this together, page by page. I’ll recite the words and pause at each page. What I hope to do is to try to let you meditate on each page for a moment and I invite you to ask yourself to where might these words and these images lead you, right now. (Slight pause.)
“The hands of God point upward!”
“Time to pray and give thanks.”
“Sometimes... I really feel turned upside down.”
“Does it grow up or down?”
“Closed door. Wonder what’s behind it?”
“Defying gravity: easy. Overcoming fear: hard.”
“God takes ordinary and makes extraordinary.”
“During life’s storms trust and obey.”
“God the door to infinite possibilities.”
“It’s empty, right? ...think about it.”
“Looked for answers... found new questions.”
“Everyone has coats of many colors.”
“Never alone, even on an island.”
“Raw or cooked? Outsides are deceiving.”
“Reminds me of my grandma’s lap.”
“If only the walls could talk.”
“Beautiful to see, painful to touch.”
“Symbolism: a reminder of God’s grace.”
“Gardens can be special meeting places.”
“Change is mandatory. Growth is optional.”
“Have you wandered from God’s path?”
“God clothes the flowers in the field.”
“Sometimes nature cleans our human messes.”
“At the Lord’s table give thanks.”
“God created it; please maintain it.”
“Keep your lamps trimmed and burning.”
“God is good all the time.”
“Hear: God’s word; speak God’s truth.”
“I’ll make you fishers of people.”
“This door is open to all.”
“Needles intertwined to form and to protect.”
“When life’s rocky drink Living Water.”
“Once you start hard to stop.”
“In Christ many parts, one body.”
“Family makes a house a home.”
“I need to pray every day.”
“Creation was God’s first precious gift.”
“The day’s end is often welcomed.”
“‘The Rock’ builds a strong foundation.”
“Reflection of God is in us.”
(Long pause.) So— interesting exercise. Can you, personally, conjure up an image of a transfigured Christ? And, if so, what does an image of a transfigured Christ mean to you, personally? Please note: when I ask what the image of a transfigured Christ means to you I did not ask what that image might look like. I asked what it means. (Slight pause.)
Many take the Season of Lent as a time to give something up, to do penance, even to be morose. I want to suggest that is not at all the way to approach Lent.
And I want to suggest this is why, on the Sunday right before Lent, we read the story of the Transfiguration. Not only does the story ask us to imagine what the transfigured Christ might mean to us, personally. Lent invites us to ask what the resurrected Christ might mean to us, personally.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not relegating the passion of Christ to a subcategory. When it comes to Lent, I am suggesting that the reason for the Season is the resurrection of Christ.
I am suggesting that the season of Lent, by definition, must point not to the Crucifixion of Christ but to the resurrection of Christ. You see, if Lent does not point to the resurrection of Christ, it renders the death of Christ... meaningless. (Slight pause.)
So, let’s turn to the back page of the devotional. (Slight pause as the pastor holds up the back page of that devotional.) And what does it say there? “Alleluia! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia!” (Slight pause.)
You see, for me, that Christ is risen is central to Christian faith. And the resurrection of Christ is the reason I keep coming back to the covenant which proclaims “Love God; love neighbor.”
Indeed, the image I hold of a risen Christ tells me the covenant is real. The image I hold of a risen Christ empowers me to love God and love neighbor. The image of a risen Christ tells me that God loves us now and throughout all eternity.
The image I hold of a resurrected Christ says loving God and loving neighbor is the standard for all people. The image I hold of a resurrected Christ tells me that God imagines a world without conflict. The image I hold of a resurrected Christ tells me God imagines a world without economic injustice. (Slight pause.)
So, let our journey together through Lent begin. Let us imagine. Let us imagine the world as God sees the world— peaceful, just. For what we are invited to imagine when we hear the words: “Alleluia! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia!”— is a world in which the will of God prevails, the love of God is present, the justice of God reigns. Just imagine! Amen.
02/19/2012
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Are the Hebrew Scriptures— the so called Old Testament— and the Christian Scriptures— the so called New Testament— connected? I need you to notice something. The words spoken from the cloud say: ‘Listen to this One!’ The words of the Shema, the Great Commandment say ‘Hear, O Israel.’ Listen. Hear. The words do not direct us to any action except listening, hence, engaging, hence imagining. It is only when we listen that we can begin to understand what to do. So, perhaps we do need to hear and to see and to imagine as God would have us hear and see and imagine.”
BENEDICTION: Hear now this blessing from the words of the Prophet Isaiah in the 60th chapter (Isaiah 60:19-20): The sun shall no longer be / your light by day, / nor for brightness shall the moon / give light to you by night; / but Yahweh, God, will be your everlasting light, / and God will be your glory. Amen.
[1] Photos by Bonnie Scott Connolly. Words by Linda Oehme. Production and Layout by Cheri Willard
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