Last Sunday After the Epiphany, 2018

For link to readings, click here

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Transfiguration

Transfiguration is the culmination of the Season After the Epiphany.

A season defined by the gradual unveiling of Jesus’ nature to the world.

Three kings and a stable.

Baptism in the river Jordan.

Teaching with authority in the temple.

Healing the sick.

A season in which one after another, people experience the unveiling of Christ. People witness the ordinary man Jesus living into his identity as the extraordinary Son of God.

They came, they saw, and then they lived.

They lived in the new reality that there was something more, something bigger, something which called them from what was, into what could be.

They may never have seen the like again.

But, they knew it was there.

And, because they knew, they kept showing up. Showing up to the possibility that the extraordinary might happen.

Which brings us to transfiguration.

When Peter, James, and John, ascend the mountain. When Elisha cannot be deterred from following Elijah. And, when Paul speaks to the unveiling that happens when we show up to the hope that something more will be, that something more is, and that we are to be part of that something.

They show up because they want to see. They long to see. They hope to see.

And, they do.

At this time, I want to invite our youngest parishioners to join me on the chancel steps for a book that speaks to this showing up.

 “if you want to see a whale” by Julie Fogliano, pictures by erin e. stead

at this point, the book was read. For link to the book click here

You can return to your grown-ups now…and I’ll go back to where the grown-ups can see me better!

If you want to see.

If you WANT to see.

You will need to go where the whales live. Not because of any guarantee that you will see a whale, but because you most assuredly won’t see a whale if you don’t go!  

And, if you show up the place where whales live, and you don’t see a whale. That doesn’t mean the whales do not exist. They may not be visible to you, but that does not mean the whale isn’t right there, beneath your boat. Glorious, powerful, and not yet visible.

“if you want to see a whale”, may not have been intended to read as Christian allegory. But, just as the child in the book must stay focused, actively engage in the search, and go out to where the whales live, we must stay focused, actively engage in the search, and go to those places where Christ can be revealed.

We need to go out into the desert. We need to climb up the mountain. We need to hear the Gospel proclaimed. We need to seek Christ in each other.

Do you want to see?

Amen.