Believe in the Strange

The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C

Luke 9:28-36

St. Matthias

March 3, 2019

           Imagine snow - on fire.  I’ve seen it.  It was in North Dakota and my deputy crew commander, Mike Kettering, and I were driving out to Hotel Launch Control Center.  A truck had crashed and there was a fuel spill.  The temperature was somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 degrees below zero at the time.   Some of the fuel caught fire – and as fast as the snow melted it would freeze again.  So, what we saw was snow on fire!  It didn’t look like fire usually does. It was more of a blue flame like you see on the stove.  We sat there and watched until the State Trooper motioned us on.  It was strange.

           Think about the strangest sight YOU have ever seen, and this would be something like what the disciples saw in our Gospel reading this morning.  Jesus, Peter, James, and John had gone up the mountain to pray.  While they were there and much to their amazement, Jesus’ face and clothes became dazzling white. Moses and Elijah suddenly appeared with Jesus and it could only be described as the Glory of God.  In theology, we call this event – The Transfiguration.  It was strange – especially if you were Peter, James, and John that day.  Jesus looked human and for the most part, acted pretty human.  The disciples had every reason to think that Jesus was human just like they were.  I have no doubt that Jesus went through all the standard illnesses and injuries that every other person suffered.  If he stubbed his toe – it hurt.  Jesus was just as likely to catch a cold as anyone else.  Jesus laughed and cried and loved his mama just like we do.  Jesus the Messiah, born in Bethlehem, was as fully human as all of us.  That part was easy.

           But what would it take for you to believe that someone you knew was also divine?  Not just holy and not just a really nice person, but just as much God as Human.  Fully human and fully divine.  For the disciples, it would have been impossible to imagine because they had never seen it or even heard of it before.  The miracles were one thing.  Healing the sick and casting out demons WERE amazing.  But all of these could possibly be explained.  How do you explain the Glory of God – especially when it’s happening right there in front of you?  Up until now, Jesus had looked like everyone else. 

           Sometimes you just have to believe.  Even when it doesn’t seem so – even when your mind is telling you that logically it couldn’t work that way.  I would never have guessed that I would be an Episcopalian.  I attended my first Episcopal Church in Lompoc, CA.  Up until then, I had been raised a Baptist and my parents had made sure I was in Church every time the doors were open.   I had been less than faithful in attendance, interest, or enthusiasm since college.  Now I was in California going to Missile school and when you are in California, it seemed to me you ought to do something radical, so I decided to try other churches.  I decided to start with the Lutheran Church.  Except that I got the service time wrong and St. Mary’s Episcopal was just across the street and their worship was going to start in about 15 minutes.  Hey, it was California so why not?  From the very first Eucharist, I was hooked.  I loved the liturgy – the sermons were short and relevant - and short - and uplifting - AND short.  The music was incredible – still is!  But it was communion that kept me coming Sunday after Sunday.  There was something about everyone coming to the altar rail together and receiving bread and wine.  I could just feel that God was there.  I liked the part about how the bread and wine “became to me the body and blood of Christ – spiritual food for my spiritual journey.”  But how could that be?  After all it was just bread and wine.  It looked like real bread and real wine before, during and after the priest gave it to me.  Was it changed somehow in the middle of the service?  So, I asked, and I am still asking today, and I can tell you after all these years I am still coming to understand every time we gather at this altar rail.  I understand that it is real bread and wine.  I understand that baptism happens in real water – straight out of the tap – absolutely nothing holy about it.  I understand that Jesus was fully human just like you and me.  I understand it and I believe it because I have no problem imagining real bread and real water and a real human person.  And I am still coming to understand and believe that through the mystery of faith – bread and wine become to us spiritual food for our spiritual journeys.  It’s not transformation or transubstantiation or consubstantiation or anything else like it.  It’s God working.  We can pour, immerse, and even sprinkle water on you during baptism and through faith God works.  In all the sacraments and in all the moments of our human lives, God works in divine and holy ways that we will always be coming to understand.  It is the strange work of God that we humans can believe in.

           I never did make it to the Lutheran Church or any other church in Lompoc, CA.  I kept going to St. Mary’s Sunday after Sunday.  Thank heavens there was an Episcopal Church in Minot ND and there I continued to discover God who came for us humans.  I am quite sure that the Resurrected Christ is still fully human and fully divine.  I’m sure that Jesus still laughs at some of the things I do.  I believe you can’t stub your toe in heaven.  I know that God loves us humans.  He sent his only Son and we believe.  Seems kind of strange.  AMEN.