Welcome to our worship service for February 14, 2021.
My name is Danny Bradfield. My pronouns are he, him, his. I’m pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church, and I am blessed and honored by your presence with us for today’s online worship service. Even though we continue to be physically separated, these services are a reminder that we are not alone. We are united and connected by God’s Spirit - the Spirit that dwells within you; the Spirit that dwells within each of us.
In Genesis 1, it says that humankind was created in God’s own image. The holy dwells within you.
At communion, we take into our bodies the presence of Christ. That is also a reminder that the holy dwells within us.
And, in the ancient Biblical languages, the word for Spirit is the same as the word for breath. The Spirit is as close to us as our own breath… The Spirit is a part of us, just as our breath is a part of us. Inspiration and respiration are one and the same.
That is also a reminder that the holy dwells within us.
This is true for every human on earth. Unfortunately, when we look at one another… when we look into the face of our neighbor… when we look into the eyes of the least of these, the poor, the vulnerable… too often we fail to see that divine image.
Unfortunately, when we look at ourselves… when we look into the mirror… when we dwell on our past mistakes and failures… we fail to see that divine image.
Jesus came into the world to help us see that divine image. In others. In ourselves. To do that, he first needed to let the world see the divine image in him.
The transfiguration reveals Jesus’ divine nature. He is fully human, made of dust and ashes just like you and me; yet he is also much more than that.
For Peter, James, and John, who witnessed this event, it was a significantly profound moment. The truth was revealed to them, but at the moment, it was difficult to comprehend. They didn’t know what to make of it.
Which, I suppose, is understandable. It’s hard, at first, to accept any news that is earth-shattering, any news that is mind-blowing. Any event that reveals previously unknown yet deeply profound truth is going to rock our world.
In some ways, the entire ministry of Jesus - which scholars think lasted about three years - was a period of great Revealing. Great revealings can occur in an instant, like on that mountaintop, or over a period of time.
Sometimes, it’s just too much. When Jesus’ true, divine nature was revealed to Peter, James, and John, they didn’t know what to make of it.
Peter said, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here…” except that the Greek could also be translated, “Rabbi, is it good for us to be here?” He may have been asking a question, rather than making a statement. “Is it good for us to be here?”
Then Peter offered to make three dwellings. Was this his attempt to contain the Revealing? Was it so much, so powerful, so overwhelming, that all Peter could think to do is put some boundaries on it, so he could control it somehow? If he could contain the Revealing within these dwellings, then Peter could control his exposure to it… he could shield himself from it… he could even - if it made him feel safer - deny the Revealing’s very existence… pretend that the Revealing never happened.
Now. What was so bad about this Revealing? Don’t you think that seeing your friend, your teacher, suddenly glowing with divine radiance, would be an awesomely joyful event?
And yet… what would this mean for your friendship? The Revealing has let you know that this person is not all you thought he was… he was so much more. So much different than anything you could have imagined.
And since you’ve committed your life to following this person and living the way he taught, this means that your life would be so much different and so much more than you had imagined.
This revealing changes everything.
And anytime things change in a big way, we feel threatened.
“Rabbi, is it… is it good that we are here?”
“Let us make three dwellings… let us put some boundaries on this… let us try to manage the situation, bring things under control...let’s keep things neat and orderly and predictable…”
That’s all an understandable way to react to an overwhelming situation. We don’t like being overwhelmed, so we do whatever we can to try and create some order in the midst of the chaos.
For almost a year now, we have been living with this COVID-19 pandemic. Life as we know it has been turned upside down. Who could have possibly imagined, one year ago, that all our worship services would take place via livestream, that students would all be going to school via zoom, that all our favorite coffee shops and restaurants would be closed down, at least to indoor dining; that almost half a million people in the United States would die from this terrible disease?
And yet…
Is it not also true that this pandemic has been a time of great Revealing for our generation? It has forced us to examine aspects of our lives, our church, our society, that otherwise would have remained unexamined.
This pandemic has helped open our eyes to what it is that truly matters in life. We have recognized - for example - that what we miss most are the gatherings with friends and loved ones. Our friends. Our families. Our church. We have struggled to find new ways to nurture our relationships with one another, because these relationships are what really matter.
This time of great Revealing has also revealed to us with greater clarity the disparities in society between rich and poor, and between people of different races. We’ve seen how this disease has affected people differently, with greater or lesser severity, based on where people live, what their income level is, and what their race is.
And I can’t help but make a comparison between this time of great Revealing, and the great Revealing that took place on that mountaintop so many years ago.
There are, of course, some notable differences. We recognize now the glorious awesomeness that the transfiguration was… but glorious and awesome are most certainly not words we would use to describe the pandemic.
But my mind is drawn to what the Dalai Lama has said about his time in exile, about how he found great blessing in his life because of the exile.
If you don’t know, China invaded his homeland of Tibet when he was fifteen years old; he was forced into exile, escaping Tibet in secret; and he has lived in exile ever since.
Certainly, exile is not what the Dalai Lama wanted. And yet, he sees so many blessings due to his forced exile. His presence, his teachings, his wisdom, have gained a wider audience than if he had been allowed to remain in Tibet. And he’s thankful for that. In fact, listening to him, it almost sounds like he is glad that the exile happened. Certainly, he is grateful for what has been revealed, to him and to the world, as a result of exile.
I recently read about a not-very-old woman diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The diagnosis was devastating for everyone in her family; there is nothing glorious or awesome about being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Some in her family wanted to fight against the disease; but this woman and her husband chose to accept it, and instead of denying it or fighting it, they worked to figure out how best to live with it. They planned their future while she was still able to participate in that decision making process. She even became a national spokesperson for the Alzheimer's association.
Later, her husband said, "We did not choose to have this disease;"and that made me think of how the Dalai Lama did not choose exile; and I thought of how we certainly did not choose to live in a time of COVID 19.…
"We did not choose to have this disease,” he said, “but I did choose this experience for everything that it can teach me about myself and our future. " [How to Lead When You Don't Know Where You're Going by Susan Beaumont]
He decided to allow a time of living with Alzheimer’s to be a time of Revealing, to learn whatever it was that this time of Revealing had to teach him. And even in the midst of their sorrow and their grief, there was also blessing.
We did not choose this pandemic. It has brought so much suffering, so much turmoil and uncertainty, so much sorrow. And I would never say that this pandemic, or any great misfortune, is God’s will.
But we can recognize this as a time of great Revealing, and we can be thankful for what it has taught us, and what it continues to teach us...
A few of you may remember that almost 20 years ago, this congregation was in a period of challenge and conflict. You might even call it a time of crisis. I wasn’t here at the time, so my assessment may not be entirely accurate, but from what I’ve heard, it was a traumatizing time.
After I arrived in 2008, the crisis was past, and much healing had taken place. But even then, I could see evidence of past trauma. Wounds that were still healing.
But I also sensed that, in that time of crisis - even though it was not something that anybody wanted - a great Revealing had taken place. In that time of crisis - and in the healing that followed - relationships were strengthened, and this congregation began to look more deeply at where the Spirit was leading.
One thing became clear: ministry after that time of crisis would - by necessity - be different than ministry before the time of crisis. If anything, the lesson learned was that we needed to be open to wherever God’s spirit was leading us, even if that was on a different path than the one we’d travelled before.
This, in turn, made us more receptive to what our New Beginnings process had to teach us. Would we have been as open and receptive to the lessons of New Beginnings if we had not experienced that prior time of crisis and healing? I don’t know.
Our time of New Beginnings was its own period of Revealing, and this, in turn, prepared us to live into our current time of pandemic. Because once again we are being forced to adapt and adjust to a new normal. Just as the crisis prepared our congregation for New Beginnings, New Beginnings prepared us for ministry in a time of pandemic. Each of these periods was a time of great Revealing.
And yes, through all of these revealings, we wondered: is it good for us to be here? Just like Peter may have said at the transfiguration: Is it good for us to be here?
In fact, more often than not, we probably said to ourselves: “No! This is not a good place for us to be!” And we were tempted to construct booths or dwellings to contain the situation, or to pretend that nothing, really, had changed.
But we couldn’t ignore the lessons. We couldn’t ignore what had been revealed to us. And with opening hearts and opening minds, we discovered that God had so much more to teach us!
The truth is that as long as God is in the world, truth and divine mysteries will be revealed to us. And as long as we are open to the lessons of every situation - good or bad - we will learn the lessons of every moment of Revealing. As long as we resist the urge to contain it in dwellings of our own creation - or to hide in those dwellings ourselves - more will be revealed to us…
And even though the revealing may come in times of crisis, times of trauma, times of grief… we can also receive the blessings that come with each revealing.
In all things, and in all people, there is something holy. What was holy in Christ was revealed at the transfiguration. What is holy in us and among us today is being revealed to us in every moment.
So keep your eyes open, through every circumstance and situation, so that you don’t miss the revelation of God’s holy presence.
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