The Message in the Cloud

A spiritual mentor once told me, “To change is a mandate from God for us and for the world.”
“That’s too bad,” I replied sadly.
“Why do you say that?” he asked confused.
“Because,” I said honestly. “I really hate change.”

Change! I hate it! I like the status quo. I like the way things are and I don’t like working to make them any different. Its possible I don’t like change because its scary – the unknown. Perhaps I hate change because it involves so much effort – like dieting and exercise. Maybe I resist it because it brings loss. For everything you get from change, you have to lose something else. Every time I learn a new fact, and old assumption is kicked to the curb.

Remember this discussion from the Simpsons:
Homer: Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?
Marge: That’s because you were always drunk!
Homer: And how!

While Homer’s loss is understandable, mine isn’t! I don’t like letting go of things I do, know, and experience. I don’t like change! But, the bible tells us all time and time again that change is God’s desire for us. At no place in scripture is that more evident than the story of the Transfiguration.

In the liturgical year, Transfiguration Sunday is the Sunday before Lent. The scripture that goes with it tells a strange tale of Jesus on a mountain talking to Moses and Elijah and appearing to change form as he does so. For a long time, I didn’t like the story of the Transfiguration. I would read it and end up saying, “WHAT???” Up to that point the human Jesus seemed so – “real” – so “like us” and so easy to relate to on his journey. Until I hit that point – Jesus is the friend I could have as in “What a friend we have…”

Then he transfigures and I’m caught in awe once again. I’m overwhelmed in the truth of his incarnation. “He can’t be my friend…he’s the son of God! I can’t talk to HIM”. Then I find my heart locked in some sort of “transfiguration paralysis” – I’m so stunned, I can’t move!

I think Thomas Jefferson had similar problems because when he wrote his “Jeffersonian Bible”, he cut out all the miracles, supernatural items, and things that could not be rationally explained. He just couldn't deal with the unreasonable.  Among the stories that are missing from his text – the Transfiguration.

I don’t know why we get so put off by the idea of transfiguration. We do it all the time.

To transfigure is to “change appearance”. We do it by diet, exercise, or hairstyle. Others transfigure through things such as plastic surgery, body piercing or tattooing, change of style of clothing, or change of language and social settings. In fact – if you remember back to 8th grade – you transfigured almost every week as you tried out different groups, musical interests and clothing styles – looking for the true self in a sea of choices.

The thing we forget is that we are not really called to go through transfiguration, the way Jesus did – we are called to go the transformation – the way the disciples would, the way the movement Jesus started would, the way the world would.
Transformation is more than the simple change of appearance – it’s the change of being – the change of the way we are. It is an ultimate change and challenge. So how do we do it? How do we go about that process of changing into the person that God is leading us to become? The story of the Transfiguration shows us the way.

Change happens in connection with God

Jesus hadn’t just gone up the hill to check out some scenery. Jesus went for a very specific purpose: to pray. The bible tells us this prayer trip happened 8 days after Peter declared Jesus to be the Christ, and after Jesus talked about the horrible things that were to come to make his sacrifice complete. So – after having some time to reflect on this, and realizing his time on earth is coming to a close – Jesus takes his friends and goes on a hill away from the pressing crowds to pray.

No one knows what he was praying about, but into this prayer comes Moses and Elijah. Symbolically, you couldn’t pick two better Old Testament people. Moses represents the “Law” the boundaries and systems we are to follow, and Elijah represents the Prophets – the communication we have with God as we follow. Thus – standing together – Jesus, The Law and The Prophets make a complete triad of tradition and fulfillment. All three are together, and change is beginning to happen.

In our lives when we need (or sometimes even want) to make a change – it is best if we do so with that triad in mind. We need to pull away from the many voices, noises and distractions in order to get a clear vision of God's desire for the person we are to become. We require some Law. We need to have some boundaries for our change – knowing when it is enough, and when we are stepping outside of God’s plan. And, its best if we have a prophet along . Remember, biblically:

A priest is someone who talks from the people to God.
A prophet is someone who talks from God to the people.

Having someone in our life who speaks God’s love, God’s hope, and God’s direction to us is an amazing advantage as we seek to change, heal or grow. When we get so caught up in the process of our own transfiguration (look! I’m glowing!) a prophet can still cut through the interference and help us hear God clearly.

Change happens when you walk into the unknown

A number of years ago I was talking to a teenager who lived in a family where both parents were suffering from drug addiction. They were planning to go to treatment together but needed the teen to be willing to live with an aunt while they did it. I was trying to get her to agree when I asked:

“What do you think your life would be like if when you came home from school – no one was stoned, no one was craving, no one was passed out or yelling, and there weren’t strangers dropping by at all hours of the night?”

Her answer? “Weird.”

That was it – I was showing her this Utopia compared to her present life and it was so unthinkable to her, so unimaginable – that she wasn’t willing to let go of the chaos she knew to embrace a health that was unknown.

Yet, the people on the mount of transfiguration were willing to walk into the unknown – to walk into the cloud – and when they did they heard the voice of God.

It wasn’t easy to hear God at first, because Peter was yapping as usual. I think he talked when he got nervous because in the midst of this awesome sight – it is Peter who speaks up and starts talking. It’s annoying, really. Here they are witnessing a miracle and mystery, but Peter has already started jabbering and making plans. About his exuberance, Pastor Kate Hughey wrote,

“If Moses was told he couldn't see God and live, perhaps Peter should have been told that he couldn't see God and talk so much.”

Yet even as Peter is going on – they are walking into an unknown cloud. The cloud is frightening and envelops them – and then in the midst of something new and uncontrollable – they hear the voice of God. God affirms what they already know – “This is my son” and gives them a direction to keep changing – “listen to him”.

When we try something unknown – maybe a new arena, a new way of dealing with an old problem, adapting a new perspective or attitude or listening to someone in our lives who can help or encourage us – we get the affirmation and direction to keep moving forward into becoming who God made us to be.

The message they hear in the cloud is the one that makes the Transfiguration most powerful. Its God saying, “Yep. Jesus is more than your teacher or friend. He is my son. But – you can talk to him, and you can listen to him. In fact, you really should…”

The message in the cloud reminds us that change IS God's idea, and that Jesus isn’t just surreal (like the transfiguration makes it seem) but he is real and really God’s son. As we are real, and really God’s children. If that doesn’t transform us – what will?

Secure in the Sacred

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

About two years ago I took the volunteer position of “creating and running the multi-media for our contemporary worship service”. Or, as I affectionately say, “slide girl.” My life as slide girl has not been without its adventures. There was my first attempt on Palm Sunday when I didn’t realize how sensitive the clicker was and went through about 4 slides every time I tried to advance to the next one (thus giving the congregation visual whiplash as I scrolled back and forth). There was the Sunday I frantically tried everything I knew to focus, only to discover 3 minutes before service that the frosted plastic lens cap was still attached. And there’s the ever challenging possibility the band has changed verses or lyrics and everything I’m showing on the screen is wrong. Not always good times….

But one of the best events of being slide girl was hearing the explanation behind the painted block of wood used to keep put the projected image at the right height for the church wall. When the previous slide technician (he was a man of much dignity and it would not be accurate or fitting to call him “Slide boy”) announced he was moving, he graciously offered to meet me at church one evening and show me everything I would need to know about the system. I had seen the white 2 x 4 emblazoned with the word “SACRED” before and was most curious. I waited patiently while he showed me the filters that needed cleaning, the focusing mechanism (must have phased off during the lens cap discussion), the clicker, etc. When he finished his long and extensive lesson he asked tiredly, “any questions?”
     Just one,” I replied. I pointed to the wooden block and said simply, “This.”
     “Oh,” he laughed. “I needed the 2 x 4 to lift the projector to the right height. But every time I would have a regular 2 x 4 here someone would take it or would borrow it and I couldn’t find it on Sunday when I needed it. So, I painted this one and put the word “sacred” on it – and no one has ever touched it since!”

In my two years as slide girl, I can verify – people have unplugged the machine, messed up the laptop, lost the clicker, BUT – no one has ever moved, taken or touched the “sacred” 2 x 4. What does that say about us? It says we have somewhere gotten the wrong message. Instead of finding the sacred – we fear it.

Fearing the Sacred

How often to do we hear about the “Fear of the Lord” – and translate it into “the fear of what is the Lord’s”? How many children do we show a pulpit bible and then tell them not to touch it? How many times has the laughter of teenagers been squashed by someone reminding them they are in “God’s House”?

Why do we fear what we label sacred (sometimes we label things literally – like the word sacristy – sacred space and sometimes we label figuratively as in “that song is sacred”)? I think we get confused from the very definition – according to Miriam-Webster sacred means

“Dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity. Devoted exclusively to one service or use (as of a person or purpose).”

Set apart. That’s why we fear those things that are sacred. We feel that they are different, foreign, and away from us. If I told you my chair was “sacred” would you sit in it? No, because you would think, “wow, sacred –  that’s not for me!”.

But today’s scripture in Corinthians tells us not only is the sacred FOR us – it IS US!!! We are the children of God, the temple of God and we are sacred in God’s sight. Imagine for a moment what the world would be like – if we realized we are sacred, and other people are too. Imagine.

Understanding that concept of sacredness through a different lens – a lens that says “touch me, know me, be me” instead of “RUN AWAY, I’m SACRED” (like a biohazard sticker might), what are we to know?

The Sacred Should be Recognized

When Moses is approaching the burning bush a voice came from heaven and said, “OH MY GOSH -- DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT WALKING HERE!! GET OFF THE GROUND, ITS HOLY!!!!”

No, wait…that’ s not right…actually the bible says that God said, ‘“Shal Naalechah me'al raglecha, ki hamakom asher atah omed, admat kodesh hu” – or in English - "Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place wherein you stand is holy ground."

God doesn’t want Moses to run away (although God cautions him, probably because of the fact a bush was on fire, not to come any closer!), and God does not chide Moses for approaching or standing in a sacred place. Instead, God just wants to make sure Moses recognizes the ground he is standing on is holy ground.

The purpose of the sacred isn’t to repel us, but to inspire us and to strip away the coating of this world. Rabbi Melanie Aron lists two possible reasons why Moses needed to remove his shoes to be on holy ground. One was that it leaves the trappings of the world outside. All the muck and dust for the world is left behind so the person stands fresh before God. The other was that when your shoes are off – you have to pay more attention. With shoes, pebbles, twigs and thorns are nothing - you can just walk on them – but without shoes you are vulnerable so you must step carefully and pay attention to what you’re doing. That’s what God wants us to be doing when we approach our creator – pay attention.

Whatever the reason – purity or purpose or both – it is clear that God wants us to recognize when we are on sacred ground or dealing with a sacred person. Sacred people? Look back at Corinthians – that means US. We need to treat each other with the recognition of the sacredness we all have as the temple of God’s presence. Your friends are sacred, your clients are sacred, your waiter, your mechanic, your massage therapist, your banker, your neighbor: sacred. Do you treat them that way? If not, when approaching them – particularly someone difficult to deal with – take off your mental/emotional hard-soled shoes – and walk carefully among them.

I know, I know…the temptation is to say – “If I walked around all day regarding every one as sacred and every place as holy ground – I’d never go anywhere and I’d never talk to anyone!” But the truth – as Moses tells us, as Corinthians tells us and as the generosity-natured Holy Spirit tells us – is that if we walked around recognizing the sacred people and places around us – we would walk in heaven on earth, and we would talk so much more to God.

So the next time you see a painted 2 x 4, or a person living on the street, or a student riding a bike on the side of the road, or a cranky older patron of Ukrops taking forever to pay and causing the line to slow down – instead of raising the defenses, or running for the hills – take a deep breath, and take off your shoes. They're sacred.