2nd Sunday of Lent Mar 12, 2022

Sometimes the best way for us to experience Sacred Scripture is to try to put ourselves deep into the story, to discover what it is about us and about God that is trying to be spoken in our lives today.

This story of the Transfiguration is familiar to almost everyone.  It is as if one can almost picture it in our minds eye….like we can imagine how Jesus face and clothes must have looked…so bright, peaceful and calm…kind of other worldly.  Yet I am going to challenge us to look deeper into this story.

What if Jesus was with us right now…right here today…what mountain would we be on?  Where is the Sacred Spaces of our lives?  Those places where we have encountered the Divine throughout our lives?  Maybe our mountains look like the front seat of our car, or our kitchen table, or couch, or in the embrace of someone whom we love and trust.  Maybe our mountain is a hiking trail or a boat in the middle of a lake in the summer.  Maybe it is our back yard, in spring or our garden at harvest…where do we most often meet the Divine? That is our mountain.
Now what if we were again encountering God…would we be asleep as the disciples were?  How often have we been in those holy places and missed the God who was being transformed before our eyes and missed it?

What if our God shows up in places we never imagined?  What if God showed up in our pain or our sorrow?  What if God showed up in our tears of sadness or of joy.  What if, we realized we missed the opportunity to encounter God?  Would we want to build altars there to remind us to be more aware next time, like Peter wanted to do?

When I look back on my life and I ask where my encounters with the Divine have happened, only a few of them have taken place in what others would call a sacred space.  A few have happened in Church or Chapel.  Most have happened in places others would never call holy or sacred.  What I have come to realize and believe is that our mountains can be anywhere.  That we can and do meet God, sometimes in very, very unlikely places.
I encountered God this past week on the floor of the hallway in prison, as I sat with a man who had cut his own artery because he could no longer bear the pain and shame of the world.  And as I sat holding his arm realizing I was powerless to stop what was happening, a calm enveloped me, and I leaned down and whispered in his ear as he breathed his last breath…”you are loved.” 

Somehow, beyond words and beyond appearances, God was there…in the pain and hurt and blood…and I prayed, as I traced the sign of the cross on his forehead in his own blood…”into your hands I commend my brother in the sure and certain hope that together with all who have died in Christ, he will share with you in everlasting life.”

What if God is showing up in our lives constantly, and we are sleeping?  What if the cloud is surrounding us and the voice is saying….you are my beloved, my chosen…

I wonder if we will hear it, or miss it?