5th Sunday of Epiphany: Luke 5:1-11
“They appeared
in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish
at Jerusalem.”
I am not sure if
it is a product of our culture or of how I have been raised, but I live my life
very goal oriented. And my
gut tells me that this is much of way most of us live. I tend to look at life like there are a
series of mountains to climb.
In 6th grade, I looked up to the eighth graders in Middle School. I vividly remember not only how much
taller and older everyone looked, but I could not wait until I reached that
age. In high school, the mountain
was achieving certain scores on the SAT and certain grades so that I could
freely choose to attend school were I wanted. Now it is finishing school, getting a job, paying off the
house, finding a place to live next year, finding the right childcare. And it might just be where I am in
life, in this particularly transitory place, but I feel I am especially focused
on what is to come next.
Yet, is it ever
any different? We worry about
meeting the right person in hopes of finding a companion to set goals together
with, or finding the perfect career, and then when we do find the a path we
believe in, our focus shifts to getting the promotion or moving to a better
firm or company. Or we worry about
getting enough money saved in a college fund to support our children, or enough
of a nest egg to retire. Life
becomes a series of mountains to climb, of goals to accomplish. We create bucket lists, benchmarks, and
even realistic long-term dreams.
And from time to
time, we reach those peaks. For a
brief moment in our lives we find ourselves on top of the mountain. And even if just for a short while, it
feels really good. We can look
back at all the hard work it took to get there. The 30 years or 360 mortgage payments that it took to
get there…. The years of studying
and hard work it took…
Does this ultimately
lead to satisfaction? Do we
ever sit back and say I have done all I was supposed to do? I have lived my life to the fullest and
now my work is done and I am just going to retire? Or have I prayed enough that I am as holy as I want to
be? I have helped enough people in
this world that I’m sure that in some way, I have made God proud? When we start to move from
self-centered goals to self-sacrificial goals the flaw of mountaintop living is
exposed. Maybe this is why we have
mountaintop experiences and shortly there after we find ourselves back in the
valleys, our eyes set on new goals, feeling that satisfaction will only happen
when those new peaks are reached.
Today we hear of
three of the most well known apostles: Peter, James, and John. They find themselves lead up to the mountaintop
by Jesus witnessing what I cannot even begin to fathom. They witness the transfiguration of
Jesus, they witness the radiant glory of God. And Peter thinks he has it all figured out. “Master, it is good for us to be here.”
And darkness fills the day, a voice cries out in what sounds like anger. Peter, James, and John had once
again missed the big picture. They
are expelled off of the mountain into a faithless community that has also
failed to understand the glory of God.
Deep down, the
story of Peter, James, and John is a story that resonates with our soul. We want nothing more in life than to
know God in all of God’s glory. In
our humanity we realize that it is less important to explain God, yet essential
for our being to know God. Deep
down, we know that to experience the love of God is so much more important that
anything else we can accomplish or accumulate. This is our
human story, a quest to know and be known by God.
Last Monday, I
spent some time with a few St. Georgians, studying how this story of the
transfiguration is in dialogue with the famous artist Raphael’s painting of the
transfiguration. In his
painting, he portrays the sleeping apostles atop a hill while a crowd is
bellowing dealing with the pain of a suffering child. In his painting, there is a clear division between those on
top of the hill and those below.
The painting shows the crowd, reaching up from the depths of the valley
with their eyes to the sky to see the transfigured Jesus. But Luke’s Gospel gives as a slightly different account. Although Raphael depicts the people
looking up, it is into the crowd of people and off the mountain that Jesus
moves.
Luke’s Gospel
reminds us that on top of the mountain is not where we are supposed to be. For Luke, the glory of God can only be
understood in light of the suffering that takes place on the cross. In our suffering and our care for those
who are suffering we come to know and experience God.
I think we all
are far too aware that mainline Christianity is declining at a rate that makes
us all too uncomfortable. And I have to wonder if there is a correlation
between the decline of our faith and society becoming increasingly more
uncomfortable with suffering.
Think of modern medicine’s approach to death. We have moved it out of our homes and into the hospital,
away from our comfort zones. We
want nothing to do with pain, suffering, and grief. In some sense
our attempt to climb mountains is a direct result of trying to distance us from
pain and suffering. If we can just
get that better job, we can live a more comfortable life. If we can just save enough money for
college, we won’t worry about our children.
Yet it is not on
top of the mountain that we are supposed to be. It is in the crowd below that Jesus calls us. It is on the road to Jerusalem we are
to travel to be with Christ.
A few weeks ago
Bishop Johnston stood right here and looked out, and he said, “I don’t know
what ‘It’ is, but whatever ‘it’ is, you have it.” I have to say I think he is right. We have it going on right now. In an age of religious decline, I kind of think we
look like a transfigured church.
We have a building that is occupied seven days a week. We have a church with new faces
visiting every Sunday.
And maybe this
is the result of us becoming a little more comfortable with our own suffering
and the suffering of our brothers and sisters. Luke reminds us that we come to know the glory of God when
we experience the pain and grief in the world. When we give of ourselves, when we give of ourselves so much
that it hurts, then we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem.
When we open our
doors five days a week for lunch through the food pantry, when we offer meals
to the homeless and poor through our HOST program, or when we sit down to have
pancake supper with those in pain we come off the mountain. When we hold the hand of a loved one as
they say goodbye to our earthly world, or when forgive our spouse for the words
that cut just a little too deeply. When we give up our Sunday evenings to serve at the local
shelter, or break bread with the Sunrise community or the homebound, we
experience God. Or when we
advocate for affordable housing through listening to the stories of the agony
of our neighbors… Or when we offer the box of chocolates or the bouquet of
flowers to say not only I love you, but I am deeply sorry, and this pain that
we are experiencing is not what either of us intended. When we sit with a friend, or a
stranger, and give of ourselves we come to know the suffering servant that Luke
shares with us today.
When we strive
only for the mountaintops we will always be brought up short, because deep down
our soul longs for nothing more than to know and be know to God. When we place our hands in the wounds those
who suffer, we feel the wounds of Jesus Christ, and we come to know God in a
deep and transcendent way.
Preached at St. George's, Arlington
February 10, 2013
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