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February 3, 2008
The Rev. John Auer
Scripture: Exodus 24:`5-18, 2 Peter 1:16-18, Matthew 17:1-9
“Enter the Cloud, Trust the Mountain, Dwell in the
Light”
The movie “There Will Blood,” made from the novel Oil, in addition to bloody
– in more ways than one: who is blood-related to whom? -- is big, blustery, brazen
and brutal. Yet I may have to see it again. The connection of blood
with oil is so central to our culture. There’s no mistaking the anointing
with oil so early in the movie when the first strike comes in. A young father
marks his son’s forehead with oil just before the father dies in the pit.
That child goes on to become the movie’s and our own witness of mute desperation
as the oil takes over our lives. We and our culture, this Superbowl Sunday,
cry out for healing of so many kinds.
This Sunday of Transfiguration, just before the beginning of Lent, we offer a ritual
of healing – of mind, of body, of spirit, of memory -- the older we grow the more
we live, and die, heal and hurt, by our memories! -- and of relationship.
We do so through simple anointing with oil, laying on of hands, and prayer.
Healing is part of Jesus’ own ministry of open, bold witness and action upon the
powers of God. Healing is part of the call to us to imagine a wholly new way
for our lives – a way of preaching, teaching, praying, feeding, healing, casting
out demons – both directly in our own personal lives and systemically in our public
life together.
Transfiguration is radical change! The stories of this Sunday call us with
Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and some disciples to enter the cloud of God presence and
power, to trust the mountain of God’s word and work, and to dwell in the light of
God’s life and love. We will find nothing constant but change – change of
appearance, change of perception, change of direction, change of behavior.
The word “trans,” as in “transport,” means a certain risking of change, of conversion
– a certain going across, crossing over, from one place, one side, one position,
one perspective, to another. It means opening ourselves up to, and accepting
for ourselves, the power of change in and for our own lives. And that’s where
the healing comes in. We reach an impasse, a dead-end, a point of no return.
We need a change, a way to get over, a way across to a better place – in relation
to pain, to abuse, to depression, to heartache, to grief, to neglect, to fear, to
addiction – whatever our need for healing and wholeness, caring and closure, may
be. God in Jesus invites us this morning to enter, to trust, and to dwell.
A great gospel song prays the chorus, “Lord, help me to hold out. Lord, help
to hold out. Lord, help me to hold out – until my change comes!” Until
my change comes. Everyone’s change is coming – some time, some way, or another.
Jesus is at such a point – even Jesus needs changing and healing! He cannot
see the way to go on with his life and work, his ministry and his mission.
He needs a healing, change, a sense of assurance that the power he calls his parent,
his “God,” still dwells in him – about him, with him, for him, through him.
In the long line of Moses, Elijah, Dr. King in Memphis that last night – Jesus in
this moment goes to the mountaintop! He looks out over the promised land!
Even though he may die with a sense of incompleteness, unsuccessfulness, Jesus longs
to be as true to his calling as he can be. Jesus, like any of us, just wants
to do the best he can with all he is given to live and to work with! He wants
to live out of, not into, his fears, his failures. He wants courage to face
the worst this world can do to him. He wants to offer up his whole being –
his vision, his voice, his mind, his body, his spirit, his heart, his soul, every
other last part of him – in witness and service of promises here repeated from baptism
just a few weeks ago – This is, You are, my Child, my Beloved, my Precious One!
With you I am well pleased. Sisters and brothers, we are invited to join in
this mountaintop gathering – to enter the cloud, to trust in the mountain, to dwell
in the light – for ourselves! In whatever way we need. With us God is
well pleased.
Remember what Mark Twain says about infant baptism? “Believe in it?
Hell, I’ve seen it!” Hell – literally, figuratively – we have seen it!
Isn’t Reno so close to Hell we can see Sparks? Isn’t this the biggest gaming
day of the whole year? Are gaming and mining not our own cycles of blood and
oil? Exploits and extracts? Lined with saved taxes and budget cuts?
We need healing! We believe healing and wholeness, baptism and communion,
are signs of how life really is for us. Loved so by God, we can love one another,
even all others, even ourselves. Healing is multidimensional. It happens
in every last part of our being – not only once but again and again. However
imperceptibly, healing is happening even now. It may be a leap of faith –
a mountaintop leap of faith – but we believe we are being healed, are subject to
being healed, all the time! In every way!
We believe healing is an essential and indispensable work of Jesus as the Christ,
the Messiah, for us – foreshadowed by Moses, forecast by Elijah, embodied by Jesus
for us. We believe – Lord, help our unbelief! – that in Jesus every last possibility,
every last opportunity for creative, positive, life-giving, life-loving change,
personally and publicly, lies so close at hand! It is up to US now!
Everything need has been made fully available, fully accessible to us. We
have run out of excuses. The power of spiritual healing is gift of the Spirit
to ALL of God’s children everywhere! Joel prophesies, Peter preaches, the
Spirit pours out on Pentecost Day – flames arising at last from the ashes of this
Wednesday! – power of God in Christ upon all who will enter, trust, dwell in faith
to receive it.
We believe the healing power of Holy Spirit is specially present and ready to act
in gathered communities of the faithful, the faith-filled – not only on this but
on every Sunday – on every occasion we gather to be the body, the life and the work,
the vision and voice, the heart, the head, the hands of Christ. So how else
might we bring healing and wholeness into our life together? As we go into
Lent to play “Follow the Leader” and to ask “What Would Jesus Do?” -- how would
Jesus heal and make whole in the midst of our lives and our life together today?
Healing is sacramental – the sacred of God alive and at work in earthen vessels.
We bring our whole beings and all our resources for healing. We are as “real”
about this as we can possibly be. We anoint with real oil. We lay on
real hands. We lift up real names and real needs. Healing, like every
work of the church, belongs in the context and setting of worship – truly the work
of the people! The healing and wholeness of our times and spaces for worship
are crucial and vital to all healing life and healing work. In these Words
for Meditation from faith-conscious novelist Flannery O’Connor – Each one of us
“got a secret need.” And once we know Jesus, we “can’t escape Him in the end.”
Even if we only “got at least knowledge” – “That’s enough! You know His name
and you’re marked! If Jesus has marked you there ain’t nothing you can do
about it! Them that have knowledge can’t swap it for ignorance!”
A little “healing knowledge” may go a long way and prove quite dangerous in the
end. Once we are marked by Jesus – the waters, the ashes, the oils – there
may be nothing we can do about it – only what we will do with it. God in Jesus
knows us personally and publicly, now and forever. In the end we cannot hide
or withhold, deny or betray, escape or avoid who we are. “Them that have knowledge
can’t swap it!” Such knowledge is not to be kept to ourselves or left on our
mountaintops. Even now Jesus is calling us down, back to the valley, even
the lonesome valley, and valley of shadow of death – to live by our faith.
And the church sighed, knowingly – and the church smiled, knowingly – and the church
said, knowingly – Amen!
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