Luke 9:28-36

"Transfiguration" - Year C
Lent 2 - Year C


Those who want to save their life will lose it.
Those who want to save the church will lose it.

 

These parallel paradigms inform one another regarding the universal found in every particular and the unique in the midst of larger pictures.

 

When we lose one of these perspectives, we lose both.

 

In both cases we are caught by any number of temptations to attempt to control an uncontrollable urge of creation or to demystify the mystery of life and relationship. The result of narrowing self or church down to what we can understand or construct to force understanding is stasis or death.

 

This is the context from 8 days ago. Play with 7 "days" and take away 8. We are back in chaos. Any usual definition of saving will lead us back to a darkness over the deep.

 

What then will move us on to participating in the ride of our lives, both individual and corporate? Transfiguration. New life. Remembering, "You are beloved" or "We are beloved", leads us back down whatever mountain of remove we have clambered up to get an over-view. To "lose" our temptation to save the unsavable we return from our isolating perch to the rough and tumble of relationship. There are only additional encounters with the brokenness of life to engage in. Parents are disconnected from children, generation from generation, and self from self. In the midst of the discontinuities of life we invite brokenness of every stripe into our experience of belovedness.

 

All our usual tricks of superstition to shape an outcome - rally hats, deep thoughts, self-abnegation, political power - fall short. It will take a return to the expectation of the unexpected. In this case Jesus calls it "prayer", but we are talking about a water to wine experience, magi to a baby, dignity to the forefront.

 

The humility of silence is antidote to an aggrandized sense of saving self and meaning. This opens us to extend the reading to "greatness" being that of welcoming potential, welcoming a child, welcoming a return to an 8th day as prelude to another 7 days and 70x70 days.

 

Transfiguration sees its own loss [vss. 43b-45] and goes ahead anyway. This is its validation, its shift from caution (saving from) to courage (investing in).

 

Friends, it is time to remember our belovedness in the gift of silence and to return to the noise of life and its potential. Onward.

 

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/02/luke-928-36-37-43.html

 


 

As we babble on, there comes a cloud. Cloud coming down! Cloud coming down!

As we babble we have no clue about the big picture. All we can see is, "Cloud coming down!" And that ain't good.

Clouds can lead in the day if they are a ways away. But a cloud coming from above rather than from ahead is a terrifying thing. Tornados come that way - right toward us instead of leading us from here.

From a babbling brook to the strongest wind we move from frying pan into fire.

What is hardest to do when so caught between chaos on the inside and the outside? Is chaos squared exponentially more chaos or is chaos simply chaos as an infinity? With that kind of a question added to the experienced swirling of life is it any wonder that "listening" is the needed thing, the hard thing.

Find yourself babbling? Find the rest of the world babbling? Find yourself being a blowhard in the midst of a storm that blows harder? - - - listen.

The part that got left out that would help us here is the usual messenger formula of "Don't be afraid." That would help us listen to the instruction to listen.

So how is your listening going today?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/march2004.html

 


 

Peter was tired, able to see the tradition, but tired enough not to know what to do with it other than institutionalize it, build a box around it.

We are tired enough to catch a glimpse of the power of loving our enemies. It is part of our tradition. But we are tired enough not to know what to do with it other than let it fade into the background as we build a box out of loving those who love us that is so strong that the love of enemies simply doesn't have any time or space in which to operate.

We are likewise tired in regard to judging. It is so difficult to keep our eyes open and so we doze in front of justice and listen only for that which reflects ourself or to let the continuation of what's best for ourself take control of the outcome.

As if we weren't tired enough ordinarily, if those two additional personal and political demands don't put us all the way to sleep, then the economic one will. We simply have irrational responses to the appropriate interactions between ourselves and our economic system.

Good night. Ignoring the best of our tradition in favor of second best is more effective than counting sheep. We have to work so hard to avoid the best that we babble and snore.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/february2004.html

 


 

Raphael has an interesting painting entitled Transfiguration. In it we have both parts of the pericope - blessing and healing. This is a devotional painting, not a scenic one (note the calm devotees in the upper left and the agitated ones below). Some have said the woman is the Church, the Bride of Christ, pointing out the to-do list for Jesus.

The congregation here is having a Capital Funds Campaign Commitment Sunday for the raising of a shelter/temple in this community. Interestingly, it is going to be located at the bottom of a hill. Perhaps we might yet see that Christ's glory is enough without monuments to it and that the mission outpost or hospitable hospital image might yet be ours.

The distance between transfiguration and healing is not all that great in this painting. How is it in life where you are?

- - -

got it figured out?
not without figuring
on transfigurement
for figurers

or

figuring
minus
transfiguring
is no figuring
at all

or

F-T=0F
and that's cold

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

 


 

We began Epiphany with a star in the west, drawing eastern magi on. We close the season with another shining - that of apparel. Whether you sense new light on the horizon or close surrounding you, there is one persistent blessing - that of belovedness. Whether your light is attributed to a creation-wide spirit of star-stuff or some very specific manifestation of same, there is always the question of what difference such makes.

Here there is healing in the wings. As folks return from enlightenment a healing need moves from the wings to center stage. "Look! Look!", cries an eternal chorus. As the scene progresses there is a heightening from description of seizure to experience of convulsion.

This and many healings first elicit a powerful, "No!" How astounding it is to break free of inertia to say, "No!" Where might you practice this today? Just mutter "No!" to yourself in response to the "news of the day", so you won't be taken in by the easy descriptions and avoidance of experience? Just state "No!" to someone else you encounter at home, business, or on the street, for together your "No!" will be strengthened? Just demand "No!" in and to your congregation, community, or nation, that a response to systemic illness can begin and eventually open space for a "Yes!"?

Accepting Belovedness eventuates in a rebuking "No!" and a healing "Yes!" May your star-stuffed belovedness so proclaim.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/02/luke-928-36-37-43.html