Indexed by Date. Sermons for Epiphany Year C

February 9, 2025 -Season of Epiphany

Isaiah 6: 1-8
Psalm 138

Empty Boats - Full Lives!

In 1878 our Federal Government brought in what was called, “The National Policy” under the leadership of the Conservative Prime Minister, Sir John A Macdonald . He believed that a true country had to have a national economy. Thus, high tariffs protected Canadian goods from American imports. The policy lasted till WWII. It strengthened east-west trading relationships and enabled Central Canada’s economy to flourish.

When I was in High School we all watched a NFB film on it, titled, “Empty Harbours, Empty Dreams.” This prosperity came at the expense of the Maritime Provinces who had found their prosperity in the fishing and lumber trade with the States on the east coast - relationships which had lasted for many generations.

When this topic came up in the cafeteria one day at lunch time, a number of years later, a fellow student dismissed the argument as “nonsense” because the Maritime’s traditional economy was “on the way out anyway.” I didn’t bother to discuss the topic any further with this fellow student; he was always right.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana hard and devastated a number of coastal communities, especially the City of New Orleans. This city is, on average, 1.8 metres BELOW sea level and relies on a complex system of levees, and pumps to control; the water and make the city livable. (For your interest, Saskatchewan’s lowest point is 200m ABOVE sea level.) This low lying and vibrant city became the site of one of the worst flooding disasters in memory. Government aid was slow and very inadequate with accusations that it was fuelled by racism and other forms of discrimination. For example, some evacuees attempted to flee to a nearby state but were turned back at gunpoint.

The Sea of Galilee or Lake Gennesaret as it is sometimes called, and the Dead Sea are both below sea level. The Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world (after the Dead Sea, which is a “salt lake.” The Sea of Galilee fluctuates between 215 and 208 metres below sea level depending on rainfall. The Dead sea is 9 times saltier than the ocean and is almost entirely devoid of life. Fish cannot live here and it is too buoyant for normal navigation. Years ago, a professor showed us a picture of himself, floating in the dead sea, reading a book. It looked like a cheap paperback and not a more expensive professional type book!

Even today, Lake Gennesaret, or the Sea of Galilee is used for commercial fishing and as a reservoir for municipal water supplies. The surrounding hills can be responsible for wild and sudden winds that make boating hazardous but have created a natural amphitheatre such as the ones that have been built in various places in the ancient world, including Rome. Someone has done a study and discovered that 6,000 people would be able to hear a sermon delivered from a boat on the lake.

Before I came to Saskatchewan, I thought you harvested everything with combines but I soon discovered you had 94,000 lakes and 50,000 of them contain fish. I had always associated commercial fishing with salt water!

As you probably already knew Saskatchewan’s lakes support First Nations subsistence fishing; recreational angling and commercial fishing. Where would we be without the recreational anglers who come to this area to while away the hours casting and reeling in, casting and reeling in? The railway arrived in the Qu’Appelle valley and fish plants sprang up to process and ship the catch to the rest of Canada and to the United States.

As the text for today tells us, Jesus was walking by the lake and saw crowds. He probably knew how sound carried in the area and he seconds a nearby boat as a pulpit. The fishermen whose boat it was had been fishing all night and caught nothing. Fishing at night was common, if only because they had to get their fish to market before it spoiled in the heat of the day. Maybe that was when the fish fed.

I once saw a movie on a modern fishing disaster and the boat’s ice plant broke down. Without ice their catch would spoil and be worthless, so they braved a storm to get back to their home port, sell their catch and fix the ice maker. They did not make it; the boat vanished on the open ocean without a trace.

Jesus tells these fishers to try again and this time the catch is SO BIG that not only are their nets in danger of breaking, his boat and his friends’ boats are in danger of sinking with the weight. Immediately Simon knows that he is in the presence of divine power and falls at Jesus’ feet. This results in a call to discipleship and those called abandon their boats and follow Jesus.

I find it interesting that one of the resurrection accounts has the resurrected Jesus going to look for his disciples and he finds them back at their old jobs, fishing. The calling and re-calling of fishermen book-ends the earthly ministry of Jesus. The metaphor of catching fish and catching people seems to imply that they are somehow the same. The catalyst for the calling in today’s gospel is an encounter with the holy; an encounter with one who has the power to fill their nets when they had been labouring in vain all night.

Regional youth events in Saskatchewan aim to provide Christian community for youth when individual youth are few and far between in local churches. These events provide a safe space (in the United Church context) for youth to explore their own faith in an environment where everyone is accepted regardless of differences. I don’t know about the shape of your youth events taking place at the time of your former Conference meetings but the ones I have experienced elsewhere added vibrant life to our sometimes dull meetings and gave us the feeling that our church will be in good hands when these young people become our leaders.

Anecdotal evidence would tell us that an experience of church camp was a significant factor in the lives of those who have felt called to ministry. There is nothing quite like the experience of nature, song and faith based discussion with youth centred mentors for the development of a sense of call. One of my other experiences was a “festival of faith” when I was in high school where 800 young people gathered with a few dozen adults who introduced us to new music (Ron Klusmeier and his then wife, Kris, led us in song) and a number of other leaders led us in prayer and discussion and games. It was a fantastic event.

We have very little information on Jesus’ life before he appeared at the Jordan to be baptized by his cousin John. Tradition tells us that Isaiah of Jerusalem and King Uzzah were first cousins but we don’t know much before his call as recorded in today’s passage. The biblical story tends to place things in history in relation to the political situation. It seems that people are often called in times of transition - so Isaiah of Jerusalem was called in the year that King Uzzah died. The death of a monarch can be a time of transition. I still catch myself referring to King Charles III as the “Prince of Wales” but that title now belongs to his son, William. In the future, these times may be referred to as “in the second term of Donald Trump’s reign,” or some other significant event yet to occur.

Jesus may have been extraordinarily discerning when he met the men who would become his disciples but who is to say that he did not meet them at an earlier time? We simply don’t know for sure. But what seems clear to me, at least with the fishermen called is that he called ordinary people and connected ministry with what they already knew. I am not sure though if we should stand on the steps of the post office and throw big nets over the people coming and going!

Reading between the lines of he gospel I am sure that there were days that Jesus wanted to cast all his disciples into the sea! They were sometimes for frustrating and thick headed. But he trusted his instincts and except for Judas we are told that they were faithful to the end.

(Nipawin) One of the things that the Stewardship committee is looking at is a study or discussion on naming our spiritual gifts. We are involved in many things as a church community but perhaps we need to discern what gifts God has given to each of us. I can balance my own chequebook but don’t ask me to deal with something sa complex as the pastoral Charge finances. I know, more or less, how a piece of music I know is supposed to sound, but I cannot sing it in tune or play it on any instrument. Other gifted people handle that.

(All) When we look at our Sunday School we need people who actually like children and have a heart for them, to be teachers. They are people who are open and flexible and seeking their own path of faith but not insisting on imposing their ways on everyone else. We need cooks and we need helpers; we need organizers and doers. We need people who can see a need and be a catalyst for something new. As a community and as individuals we need to discern who is good at what and encourage the right people to employ these gifts and talents. God’s call is issued to all of us. “Come, follow me.” It is a call to do different things and be about different ministries.

I have experienced many churches who were so resistant to change that any new people were more or less required to pick up the mantle of the retiring people and not change the way anything was done.

When a new person, or a younger person, takes the reins we need to trust that the new way may very well work out just fine. Many years ago a new couple offered to cook a lunch after church for the congregation. The captain of the old guard decided to stay home that day, but she did not stand in their way, which I saw as a sign of progress! Like fishing on an unpredictable lake, discipleship takes a certain amount of risk but it also takes trust. We are not likely to be poisoned and the roof will not collapse !

(Codette: Once we get the walls tied together that is).

Let us open ourselves to the call of God and let us go forward in faith. Let us leave our boats on the shore if that is our call and fulfill God’s dreams for us.

Amen!

February16, 2025 - Season of Epiphany

Jeremiah 17: 5-10
Psalm 1
Luke 6: 17-26

BE Attitudes

Back in the “good old days,” almost all people being ordained or commissioned in the United Church were subject to “transfer and settlement”. Basically, it meant that the Church could send a new minister anywhere in Canada for the first three years of ministry. First came transfer where each conference tried to get as many ordinands as possible. Once transferred to a certain Conference you completed whatever paper-work or other information that the receiving Conference was looking for. In 1988 those of us transferred to Maritime Conference were required to make a tape. A second career friend of mine sang a song for her tape, “Happiness is.” In her made-up song she indicated that happiness was living near her husband’s job and various other things she thought the settlement committee needed to hear.

I too decided to sing a song to begin my tape. One of the church organists played and I sang one verse of “I shall not be moved.” After I sang I asked to be left where I had been serving as Candidate supply since graduation and gave the reasons why. This was not usually done but I figured that there was no harm in trying, eh!

Before the Conference meeting began, and before the results were made public, I ran into one of the ministers on the settlement committee on the University campus and as we met he began to laugh and said that he would never forget my presentation to the committee. The request on the tape was granted and I spent another three years in the same at Pastoral Charge. As I reflected on the Psalm used today I thought of trees, deeply rooted and my mind wandered to that long ago event!

There were 4 preaching points on that Pastoral Charge and one family attended church in one point, because the mom was the organist, and then they all went to the next service because they were one of the two congregations with a Sunday School. Since I did not feel I could come up with two children’s stories per week, Dorothy, a teacher who attended the first service agreed to do the children’s story. I remember well her, “Bee Series”. She made a brown paper mache beehive and each week she brought a new bee which was made out of various materials and flew at the end of a coloured pipe cleaner. The bees encouraged the children to “be kind”, to “be generous”, to “be grateful,” to “be thoughtful,” and so on! At the end of the year there was a hive full of attitudes and actions that they were called to emulate or to “bee.” As I thought about the “Beatitudes” from today’s passage I thought about Dorothy’s bees, and smiled. She passed away a few years ago.

There are two versions of the Beatitudes in the gospels. The passage from Matthew’s Gospel is often referred to as the “Sermon on the Mount” and focusses on spiritual qualities and the inner character of the believer, while the passage from Luke read today is referred to as the “Sermon on the Plain. In Luke the Beatitudes are contrasted with corresponding woes,” and have more of a focus on social justice and care of neighbour. As we heard, the passage begins with Jesus healing the sick and notes the desire of people to touch him and feel his healing power in their lives.

As I said, in this passage, the blessings are contrasted by a set of woes, but it is hard to see because of the way the passage is organized. More about that in a minute! . On the surface these blessings and woes make no sense to the way the world sees things - not even then. Someone, or perhaps a number of someones, have said, “I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich, and rich is better.” Just for fun I put the term “successful people” into the Google search bar and the top nine names were all ones I recognized: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Beyoncé, Tom Brady, Serena Williams and the late Steve Jobs. Current and Past President of the USA, Donald Trump appeared further down the list.

However, I wondered if each of these were satisfied with their success, if they felt they had achieved or earned enough, or if their lives were always focussed ondamassing and consolidating money and power.

I was watching Dragon’s Den one evening and the people pitching their product were asked by one of the panel, “Show me the money - all I care about is the money.” Of curse it is designed to be a show in which people are pitching their invention to gain enough investors to take it to the next level. I don’t know for sure, but believe that some of those pitching odd-ball products are there just to fail and give the audience a good laugh! Some go away empty handed, some get a promise of business training and a cash infusion (for a share of the company, of course.) Some are offered money but end up turning it down.

Honibe, a producer of solid honey drops, appeared on the show and were offered money, but turned it down, and have been quite successful without it. Canadian Astronaut, Chris Hadfield even took a package of their “drops” onto the space station, so you could say that hionibe has circled the globe.

When we look at this passage and re-arrange the verses to directly pair each blessing with a corresponding curse (or woe) we are forced to reflect on what is really important in life. We are forced to decide just what it is that is worth doing.

First: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Then we read: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”

Second: ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.” And then read: ‘‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”

Third: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” And contrast it with this one: “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.”

Fourth: a beatitude that is a real head-scratcher! “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.” Interesting. And now listen to, “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” Ouch!

When placed in this order it makes it clear that he is turning common wisdom upside down and inside out. We have to really think about what our goals are and what we are looking for in life.

Fred Rogers, known simply as “Mr Rogers,” is recorded as having said, “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”

The word blessed or blesséd appears 319 times in the NRSV - the bible we use here in worship and it is used 25 times in the Psalms alone. Some of you may have noticed the round sign I have at my main door on the front of my home. It is a statement on what is important in life, but it is also a reminder to myself: Grateful, BLESSED Thankful.

About 10 years ago I asked a lomg married couple sharing a room in the local nursing home, “are you glass half-empty people or glass half-full people?” Without skipping a beat she replied, “neither, our cup runneth over.” Each of them had msjor health problems which limited their mobility and enjoyment of life but they looked at their blessings first!

There was a popular poster out a few years ago, I hope it was a spoof on many motivational posters, and it said, “the one who dies with the most toys wins.”

There is a business in Moncton, New Brunswick, with the catchy name “Toys for Big Boys,” and one in Mississauga, Ontario named, “Big Boys With Cool Toys.” I’m sure there are dozens of similar stores across Canada but it’s the name that stands out for me. The toys are snowmobiles, off-road bikes, 4 wheelers, speedboats, jet skis, remote control, airplanes and on and on. None of theses toys are cheap and not-so-subtly emphasizes that play is expensive.

I read a story a while ago about a yung man who was trying to impress a new girlfriend. He told her about his 4 wheeler, his jet ski, his snowmobile and his dune-buggy. After listening to his bragging about all those activities for a time, she said, “don’t you do anything that does not burn gas and make a lot of noise?’

Perhaps Jesus might say, “the one who dies with the most toys, still dies.” The well known Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote a short story that sounds very much like one of Jesus’ parables, “How much land does a man need.” In this story the man became focussed on acquiring more and more property. Then after a long life of adding to his real-estate holdings he died and was buried in a grave that was the same size as any other grave. That was as much land as he needed!

Methodist minister and leader, John Wesley is recorded as having said, "Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can." Notice that he did not say, “spend all that you can.”

Someone has said that the love of money is the root of all evil. Notice that it is the love of money, not money itself. Each of us, as we assess our income and savings for a rainy day or for retirement, or vacation or whatever, needs to reflect on the place money has in our lives. What is our attitude toward those who have much less, for whatever reason?

When I was first in ministry, several brothers (who were in elementary school) in one of the churches I served found that they rarely received invitations to go over and play with their classmates. Nintendo gaming systems were all the rage, and they did not have one and could not play the games with any skill. The family lived on one income by choice and they had decided that with his good job would provide for the family so she stayed home to raise the children and volunteer in the community. It meant that they did not have the bells and whistles that others counted oln, but I think they were just as happy overall.

Feeling blessed is a choice and it can free us from allowing our economic situation to dictate our state of mind or soul. Feeling blessed is a choice which can free us to be a blessing to others because we are dealing with a different economics. Let us allow God to bless us realizing that it has little to do with wealth, health or status. Jesus said, “I have come that all people might have life and have it in all abundance.”

Amen.

February23, 2025 - Season of Epiphany Genesis 45: 3-11, 15 Codette, Nipawin, Online Psalm 37 Luke 6: 27-38 February 23, 2025

Live the Impossible Dream!

"The Impossible Dream” is probably the best known tune from the 1965 Broadway musical “Man of La Mancha.” It came to mind as I was pondering the human impossibility of the guidelines Jesus speaks of in the gospel passage. A few years ago, a former parishioner wrote a series of children’s books about a donkey, whose name was Oatie. The first book introduced the little donkey who had an impossible dream; he wanted to grow up to be a cow. His name is a spoof on the name of one of the main characters in this musical. So, sound that one out for yourself - Donkey Oatie, without the pause, of course.

Then my mind wandered (it does that a lot) to another musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” which tells the story of Joseph, the dreamer, the spoiled, favoured son of the great patriarch, Jacob who ended up becoming second in command in Egypt and given the power to save his family from starvation. He lived his impossible dream.

There is just something about songs: words set to music, which mere words can never express. There is just something about songs that fixes them in our heads; there is something about songs that fixes them in our heads and eventually, they grow in our souls.

I have probably already told you that I fell in love with Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat when I was in Junior High School. Mr Nelson, our music teacher, made a copy for me on a cassette tape I brought in. I played it so often that I memorized it and I wore it out. Years later, I was able to find it on CD which, I’m told, wont wear out!

Today’s passage has Joseph telling his brothers that he has come to believe that he has been “set up” (in a good way) to go to Egypt to be in a position to save his family when the time of famine came.

The first problem in Jacob’s family was polygamy. I suppose that very situation brings the almost-certainty of more conflict than usual two-parent families experience!

I suppose that many parents of 12 have favourite children, but Jacob could not hide his true feelings - Rachel and her son Joseph were the clear favourites. Benjamin, Joseph’s full brother was not born until much later in Jacob’s life and he too was favourite.

Jacob doted on Joseph with the most egregious example being the coat that was made for him. It seems to have been a long coat and would have been expensive because of the number of colours. Its length meant that Joseph would not be expected to do much manual labour. That was the part which would have made his brothers seethe.

To top it all off Joseph was a dreamer who did not hesitate to tell his brothers that God had great plans for him and that they would be bowing to him. Having dreams and being able to interpret dreams was a gift that was a sure sign of God’s favour! I suppose a 7yr old could get away with such bragging, but as a young adult, certainly not; his brothers resented him more and more each day. As I am writing this sermon, the song “Coat of Many Colours” sung by Dolly Parton came into my head! Those darn ear worms! That’s a picture of the coat in the song, recreated for the museum by her mother.

To finish the story, one day Joseph’s father makes a BIG mistake by sending him out to check on his brothers - and when they see him coming they hatch a plot to first throw him in a pit and convince dear old dad that he had been killed by a wild animal. However, instead of leaving him there to die he is sold to a caravan of traders who end up selling him as a slave to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. His owner’s wife takes a fancy to him, but when he wont be seduced she cooks up a lie and he is sent to prison. While in prison, he befriends fellow inmates by interpreting their dreams and is eventually released when he interprets their dreams and when the Pharaoh has a troubling dream, word of Joseph’s gift reaches Pharaoh and he is able to predict a region-wide famine. In short order he is released and promoted to second in command; his job is to garnish enough food in the good years to last for the years of famine. The plan was that when the famine started and the people’s storehouses were empty, the Pharaoh would then SELL the people the food that they themselves had grown. They would also have enough to sell to foreigners caught in the web of mass starvation.

After some time, the sons of Jacob travel to Egypt looking to buy food. Joseph recognizes them but they have no idea who he is - and why would they! Slaves had a very short life expectancy and it was all but certain that he had long since died! The other rule is that slaves do not rise to positions of power! Joseph comes up with an elaborate ruse to see if his brothers have changed and after some tense moments they pass the test and they are all re-united happily. Today’s passage tells the story of “the big reveal.” As I was writing it and trying to summarize as much as possible, it began to sound like a story Edith Bunker, of All in the Family, would tell, doesn’t it? It is a convoluted tale.

Aside from his interactions with his brothers, Joseph was not, how say we say, a benevolent ruler, and Genesis ends with the enslavement of the Egyptians and the transfer of all of their assets to the Pharaoh because, they had to pay for their food and with no income for 7 years they ran out of cash. It’s a part of the story we have not read in Children’s Bibles, or in church. When you go home, you can read it and decide for yourself if anything has changed with respect to the certainty death and taxes!

So now, as this scene in their history closes, the people of Israel are living in Egypt, on land set aside for them, and they are set for the next chapter, in which Moses will lead them to freedom. Their temporary salvation, the result of living an impossible dream.

As I was reflecting on the story of Joseph, which I have just outlined, and the teachings of Jesus which begin with the command to, ”Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you,” I found a connection in the impossibility of the Joseph story and the impossible nature of the teachings of Jesus. Who can do what is asked in these passages? Really?

Why would a man who narrowly escaped death, be kind to those who sent him into harm’s way? Why would he forgive his brothers’ especially when he could have told his father the truth, had his brothers thrown in prison and set up a nice palace for himself, dad and Benjamin. Well, he did not. He was able to see the wider purpose of their family story, of becoming a great nation; having his family starving to death or rotting in prison was not part of that plan.

“God Give Me Strength” is a prayer (not really in jest) uttered by many parents when having an argument with teenage children, by those going through the terrible two’s, by business partners in a fractious meeting, or even, dare I say, during the meetings of church boards. I have no problem loving people I have never met, they live far away, in other countries, but when they are people I see everyday, or their decisions affect my life, loving them can become a challenge.

In the quid-pro-quo world of Canadian politics, an MP earns a seat in the Cabinet, or the Senate. The greater your party loyalty, the greater the payback; the greater the expectations of payback. More than once I have heard political commentators discussing prospective cabinet members, especially during an election campaign. Several people might be thought to be an excellent choice for the new cabinet, but he or she supported the wrong person in the recent leadership race and all of “those people” who did so, will have to wait for their leader to forget.

And, as I have said before, love is a verb, it is not a feeling. We cannot be commanded to like, but we can be commanded to love, and Jesus commands us to do it! Today’s Gospel passage, grouped together as if it was one speech of Jesus, is filled with loving actions. Do good, bless others, pray for enemies, give your shirt, offer the other cheek, give to those who have no ability to return the favour.

I recall abrasive people in previous pastoral charges who were all very hard to like, or even impossible to like, yet as I tried to love them, I worked with them as best I could, remembering all the stories shared with me about why Mr Smith and Mr Jones would never serve on the same committee! It sometimes became a “work in progress.”

As much as we chuckle at that, we think our own situations are different. If we have talked with Jesus yesterday over a double double and a couple of blueberry fritters, Jesus would tell us that our situation is a good exception. We don’t have to love that neighbour who fought for the other side in WWII. In our dreams we will be told that we are justified in not showing love to a certain other person because she or he stole our sweetheart, and the litany of exceptions we want to use as loopholes goes on. Jesus puts down his coffee and you can tell his stare is a loud, “no”. What could be worse than throwing your brother in a pit, selling him into slavery and lying to your father about the gallons of blood on his precious coat? What could be worse than being deserted at trial and then executed as a common criminal, by a very prolonged and painful method.

I don’t think we are expected to become perfect enemy lovers overnight. Jesus and Joseph give us examples of reconciliation, a goal for which to aim. The whole point though is to recognize the hand and will of God who is guiding the people God loves (which is all the people).

We sometimes think that dreams are supposed to come true instantly, or by magic, like a spell in Harry Potter movie does, but as I read somewhere this week, our lives as Christians are a work in progress. As God works on us, as we allow God’s vision and our dreams to align, let us remember it is only impossible if God is not in the equation.

Amen.

March 2 2025 -Transfiguration - Season of Epiphany

Exodus 34: 29-35
Psalm 99
Luke 9: 28-36

Transformation!

There was once a pair of waterbugs living in a pond. Through the clear water they could see some very wonderful creatures flying about on wings that were almost transparent and which moved so fast you could barely see them. One said to the other, “That looks so exciting! I think it’s called, flying!” The other replied, “I don’t know about doing that. You’ll never get me up in one of those!”

The truth is that in the natural way of things, all waterbugs transform into dragonflies, all butterflies and moths are the end result of some kind of metamorphosis which is the normal life cycle of such insects.

I remember a program to re-introduce Peregrine Falcons to New Brunswick, about 1988 or 1989. They had been driven to the point of extinction by the spraying of DDT that had been done for the Spruce Budworm which had devastated thousands of hectares of wood, destined for the pulp mills and the falcons were victims of “the law of unintended consequences.” At the top of the food chain the Falcons could not survive the accumulated toxins they ingested. DDT became an indiscriminate killer.

This Sunday is often called, “transfiguration Sunday.” The word used is the gospels is related to the same Greek word used for the biological processes of moths, butterflies and dragonflies - metamorphosis. If I remember my high school biology correctly, there are two kinds - complete and incomplete. I studied it in BSCS - (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study); I believe Glenn Dobson taught that here.

My mom’s Aunt saw herself as an accomplished amateur photographer. She found a butterfly chrysalis and put it in a terrarium in her darkroom with a camera set up on a tripod. She was able to photograph each life stage from pupa to butterfly. It is an amazing process but more than one well-meaning person has learned that humans can only watch - if you try to help a struggling butterfly out of a cocoon you end up crippling it because the struggle is necessary for its development into adulthood.

The story of the transfiguration appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke and is a key event in the life of Jesus - for the churches which follow the lectionary, as we transition from the season of epiphany to the season of Lent. Now that we know who Jesus is, Lent shows us that following Jesus is not always easy, not a way to, “win friends and influence people.”

If we are people who know our First Testament stories we might ask, “Why was it Moses and Elijah?” Why were these prophets part of this heavenly consultation? Why not Jeremiah? Why not Abraham, the original one promised that he would be the ancestor of a great nation? Why not the Patriarch Jacob?

People who study the biblical story have pondered this for 2,000 years. The consensus seems to be that one of the things that these two have in common is that neither of them were really reported as having died. The biblical text supposes that Moses died while at some geographical vantage point where he could see the promised land but knew that he was not going to set foot in it and tells the reader that no one knows where he is buried. The Bible tells us that the prophet Elijah was carried off toward heaven in a whirlwind accompanied by a chariot of fire. So, did he die? We aren’t sure!

But what if this is not about something other than history? The other reason could be that Moses represents the law of the Hebrew people and Elijah represents the prophets. When Jesus is seen with these two people it is as if he is carrying forward the mission of both of them. Now, the smart-alec kid in me asks, “how did the disciples know who they were?” Aside from the assumption that Jesus told them, it’s not a fair question. We have to take the text at face value.

There are several other things to note in this passage. One is that it is designed to be a kind of bookend in the story of Jesus ministry. The first bookend is Jesus’ baptism where a heavenly voice announces his identity at his baptism. At this time Jesus is turning toward Jerusalem and death and the heavenly voice wants there to be no mistake: this is a journey to the cross. The world will not take the truth of Jesus without a fight! The secret of Jesus is that sin and death will not win in the end!

Another is that the disciples were “weighed down with sleep,” and once they “came to” as it were, they were overwhelmed and wanted very much to preserve the moment. The disciples are often presented as “clueless” and as “not really paying attention. They are letting the most wonderful opportunity in history slip through their fingers, until it’s almost too late. Startled, chagrined perhaps, they wanted to honour all three with tents or dwellings. They wanted to preserve the moment. They did not want to leave.

Have you ever had a wonderful dream, but once you tried to bring it back, to write it down perhaps, it disappeared. Not long ago, I received an early phone call that needed only a simple answer and I was able to go right back to my dream. A second phone call awakened me enough that going back to sleep, let alone dreaming, was out of reach.

I think of my friend in university, who had an amazing dream, a mountaintop experience. He became very discouraged when he could not repeat it; he became very discouraged when he had to go back to class and study for exams!

I recall visiting a first-time mom in the hospital. She was sitting on her bed with the baby in her lap, and just staring at the child in love - in awe - in wonder. When she went home and the work started she had to rely on the wonder of those quiet moments.

I have seen the look on the face of a child, seeing something wonderful. One picture in a friend’s house, I remember clearly, is of her young grandson, about 2 ½ looking down with wide eyed wonder. You can’t see it, but he is looking into his sister’s crib. She has just come home from hospital and he is totally transfixed.

These moments of clarity and certainty can often be fleeting but we can use those insights or memories for strength. From the 1870s until 1956, Saskatchewan residents worked in underground coal mines; these days all coal mines, are strip mines. The song, “Working Man” written by Rita MacNeil, has Rita channelling the unnamed miner who only occasionally sees the sun, but the memory strengthens him for the long hours underground.

“And I swear to God if l ever see the sun
Or for any length of time
I can hold it in my mind
I never again will go down under ground.” 

In the Ballad Of Springhill, written by Peggy Seger, a trapped miner by the name of Caleb Rushton is quoted as advising his friends,

“There’s no more water nor light nor bread, 
So we’ll live on songs and hope instead.” 

The journey of lent is designed to strengthen our faith through adversity. When we realize that the Christian life is not easier, will not make us richer, or more popular; when we realize that it will have hardships, the transfiguration mountaintop experience will enable us to journey to the cross and through that to Easter.

Amen.