Text used – Mark 8:31-38

• “Get behind me Satan.” Brace yourselves, friends … this is not one of those easy, heart-warming, pick-you-up sort of passages. But we’re going to dig right in because that’s what we do.
  • Challenging beginning to this passage = Jesus predicting his own trial, death, and resurrection
    • First time Jesus will do this in Mk’s gospel but not the last
    • Interesting bit that we don’t get because of where the lectionary begins the passage this morning → verses leading up to this: Jesus and his disciples went into the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They told him, “Some say John the Baptist [who had been killed at this point], others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.” He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about him.[1] → So as we begin our passage this morning, Peter has just declared that Jesus is the Christ – the Messiah, the one come to save them all – so today’s passage is Jesus explaining to the disciples exactly what “the Christ” actually means: suffering, rejection, death … and finally, resurrection.
      • Clearly not what Peter wanted to hear: But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him.[2] → Peter is literally pulling Jesus off to the side and giving him a talking-to. “Jesus, this isn’t the message your followers need to hear. You can’t talk like this. This is going to freak people out. Ease up, man.”
        • Reveals the political climate of the day – scholar: While messianic expectations different among first-century Jews, the idea that the Messiah would deliver the Jews from Roman oppression was prevalent, and Galilee was the hotbed of revolutionary activity. That Jesus’ Galilean disciples would harbor such a view would not be surprising. Certainly no one expected a suffering and dying Messiah![3] → To Peter, Jesus’ words would have sounded defeatist – like he’d given up before their revolution had even begun. In his mind, Peter was trying to lift Jesus’ spirit – to get him to rally!
          • Same scholar paints the scene for us: Peter walks over to Jesus, puts his arm around him, and takes him aside to set him straight about messiahship. “Suffering, rejection, and death are not on the agenda. Prestige, power, and dominion are on the agenda. It’s David’s throne we’re after, ruling the nations with power and might. We signed on for a crown, not a cross!”[4]
      • But THAT was clearly not what Jesus wanted to hear because we then get those famous words: Jesus turned and look at this disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You’re not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.”[5] → Now, I know we like to focus on that first sentence because it’s the punchy sentence. “Get behind me, Satan!” It’s dramatic. It’s evocative. But it’s really the second sentence that carries the weight of Jesus’ intent here. Jesus is rebuking Peter because he’s focused on the wrong thing. He’s focused on worldly power. He’s focused on meeting the expectations and fulfilling the desires of those around him instead of focusing on what God wants him to do. He’s living for himself, not for God.
  • Jesus doubles down on this message with the rest of the passage – those verses that are so hard to hear if we hear them through the filter of faith instead of through the filter of the world: “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.”[6] → Let’s not mince words this morning, friends. This is a call to action – faithful, gospel-informed, love-driven action … action, not for ourselves, but for others.
    • Brandan Robertson, who framed out this sermon series: Jesus’ call is to “lose their lives for the sake of the gospel,” which means lost their self-centeredness for the sake of manifesting the more beautiful world that God desires. This call is, in many ways, more difficult than the call to martyrdom. It’s one thing to physically die; it’s another to live a life in which one continually dies to one’s own self-interest for the good of one’s friends, neighbors, and even enemies.[7] → Friends, I have to say it this morning: this is where we are failing this morning – failing as the Church, failing as Christians, failing as human beings. This is a more dangerous country to live in if you are different nowadays than it was just 10 yrs. ago.
      • If you are not white, you are targeted
      • If you are not male, you are targeted
      • If you are not straight, you are targeted
      • If you do not identify with the gender on your birth certificate, you are targeted
      • In lots of places, if you don’t believe a very particular, narrow brand of Christianity, you are targeted
        • And yes, friends, this happens even here. → fire at Peace in Rochester 3 yrs. ago – targeted because of their inclusive message and ministry
    • And it both breaks my heart and boils the blood in my veins, friends, because we have the words of Jesus here: All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them.[8] → Jesus is trying to get it through the disciples’ heads that it’s not about them! All that he was doing and teaching, all those whom he was healing and loving and including had nothing to do with power or prestige or wealth or “being right.” Jesus’ whole life and ministry was about being and doing for and loving the other. And if we truly follow Jesus, our life and ministry should be about setting aside whatever judgments we carry so that we can see others for who they are, not who we expect them to be.
      • Jesus’ last words in this passage: Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes to the Father’s glory with the holy angels.[9]
        • Bit that I found on online recently: In an interview with NPR, Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore said that multiple pastors had told him disturbing stories about their congregants being upset when they read from the “Sermon on the Mount” in which Jesus espoused the principles of forgiveness and mercy that are central to Christian doctrine. [Russell stated] “Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount – [and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those liberal talking points?’” Moore added: “And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.’”[10] → Forgiveness is weak? Mercy is weak? Peacemaking is weak? Reaching out to someone who needs you is weak? Loving someone, not with an agenda to change them, but just because you are called to love them is weak? Speaking up for someone who’s being bullied just because of who they are is weak? No, friends. That is the gospel. That is the work that Jesus calls us to – to work that constantly forces us to think and grow and change and be uncomfortable for the sake of someone else. Let’s make this abundantly clear: if the gospel you proclaim places you above everyone else, that’s not the gospel. Jesus is pretty clear today. It is through self-giving, through service – to others, for others, with others – that we find the life that Jesus has promised. Not through ourselves. Never through ourselves. Amen.

[1] Mk 8:27-30 (with my own insertion for clarity’s sake).

[2] Mk 8:32.

[3] W. Hulitt Gloer. “Second Sunday in Lent – Mark 8:31-38 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville; Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 69.

[4] Ibid., 71.

[5] Mk 8:33.

[6] Mk 8:34-38.

[7] Brandan J. Robertson. “Lenten Series: The Power of Sacrifice” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 101.

[8] Mk 8:35.

[9] Mk 8:38.

[10] Posted by Clergy Coaching Network on Facebook, February 11, 2024, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=775406354619006&set=a.547725677387076.

Text used – Mark 1:9-15

• This doesn’t happen often, folx, but today is one of those days when I wish I had the capability to share a movie scene with you.
  • Movie that came to mind for this week → 1989 classic coming-of-age movie Dead Poets Society (and one of my favorite movies in high school)
    • Written by Tom Schulman
    • Directed by Peter Weir
    • Stars: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke
    • About an English teacher at a boys prep school in New England in 1959 who uses poetry and unorthodox teaching methods to embolden and encourage the boys in his classroom to break out of their shells, pursue their dreams, and seize the day
    • Particular scene that I was thinking about this morning happens relatively early in the movie

• • • • Keating begins lesson by jumping up an standing on his desk → explains to students, “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way. You see, the world looks very different from up here.”
      • Then challenges the students: “You don’t believe me? Come see for yourselves. Come on.” → invites the students to join him one by one up on his desk
      • Continues his lesson: “Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way, even though it may seem silly or wrong. You must try.”
      • Culmination of the lesson: encouraging the boys to bring their own thoughts, experiences, interpretations, and understandings to the situation
        • Situation in the classroom context = reading poetry
        • But as he is so powerfully adept at doing, Keating applies the same teaching to the situation of the boys’ lives: “Boys, you must strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ Don’t be resigned to that. Break out. … Dare to strike out and find new ground.” → It definitely would have been a particularly radical thing to teach a room full of boys on the cusp of becoming young men in 1959 as becomes abundantly clear throughout the rest of the film. I don’t know … maybe it’s a particularly radical thing to teach today, too.
  • Last line – last 2 verses – of today’s Scripture reading is what had me thinking about that scene from Dead Poets Society: After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”[1] → “Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” This definitely would have been a particularly radical thing to preach to a people living oppressed by a foreign, hostile occupier back in 1^st-cent. Jerusalem as becomes abundantly clear through the life and death of Christ himself. I don’t know … maybe it’s a particularly radical thing to preach today, too. I guess we’ll see.
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call that rings out through the millennia from the moment Jesus uttered them more than 2000 yrs. ago to today and on into the future
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call that echoes Mr. Keating’s philosophy in Dead Poets Society
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call of the season of Lent
    • Call to change hearts and lives = call to sacrifice à theme throughout our Lenten worships this year
      • Main idea for this series from Rev. Brandan J. Robertson: In this Lenten series, we will examine the tangible ways that Jesus demonstrated sacrificial living in his day and age, and the powerful, world-shaking ramifications that his sacrificial life had on his society in his day, while posturing ourselves to imitate Jesus in our day.[2] → To put it in terms of the reference from Dead Poets Society, we’re going to spend Lent standing on our desks, changing our viewpoint and trying to look at the world around us from a different angle, and reflecting on where that new angle might take us.
• Today’s Scripture reading = perfect opening to this whole discussion of sacrifice and world-shaking ramifications and change → Mark’s version of Jesus’ baptism
  • First need to remind ourselves of the world of Mk’s gospel
    • Remember: Mk’s gospel was the first one written not that long after Jesus’ death and resurrection – makes it a more “quick and dirty” narrative of sorts → As Christianity began to take root, they needed a way to circulate Jesus’ story – to begin to share that “good news” in a way that was consistent and translatable.
    • Also remember: Mk’s gospel was written in a difficult and dangerous time[3]
      • Nero was Caesar = one of the most dangerous emperors for Christians → lots of persecution (led to violent deaths of a number of Jesus’ original disciples)
      • Lots of false prophets rising up, trying to fill the gap left by Jesus → see that reflected in lots of NT writings
      • Temple had just been destroyed for the 2^nd (final) time by the Romans as retaliation for a Jewish revolt → after 4 yrs. of war, in 70 C.E. Romans finally regained control of Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, leaving only a portion of the western wall (Wailing Wall still stands in Jerusalem today)
  • Because of all of this, Mark’s gospel has an immediacy to it. It’s the “just the facts, ma’am” version of the good news. The word “immediately” pops up in Mark’s gospel all the time – Jesus and the disciples are always doing things and going places “immediately.” → while that word doesn’t show up in today’s passage, Mk’s version of Jesus’ baptism certainly gives off that feeling of immediacy
    • No crowds (that we know of)
    • No pre-baptism declarations of Jesus’ greatness from John (that we know of)
    • But there are a few things that I really love about Mark’s few sparse verses about Jesus’ baptism.
      • First= how completely normal everything seems → opening verse: About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River.[4] → There isn’t fanfare involved. There isn’t any added gravitas or ceremony or formality. Jesus and John found one another somehow – we’re not even told if Jesus sought John out or if it was the other way around – and Jesus was baptized. It just feels like this makes Jesus a more approachable Jesus … a more relatable Jesus … a more human Jesus.
      • Another thing I love = ambiguity of the Spirit’s declaration → not ambiguous in the words but in who hears them → A few of the other gospels make it clear that others heard the Spirit-dove’s declaration about Jesus being God’s Son and about God being pleased with Jesus. But Mark’s gospel leaves that uncertain. It just says: While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.[5] → Was it Jesus alone who heard those words (and then told someone else about the experience later … since it is included in all four gospel accounts)? Did John hear it, too? Was there anyone else around who saw and/or heard the Spirit-dove? Mark’s gospel has a tendency to leave us with more questions than answers, which when you think about it is a lot like faith – it’s as much about sitting with the questions as it is about seeking out answers … maybe even more so.
  • Today’s Scripture reading = also perfect opening to this whole discussion of sacrifice and world-shaking ramifications and change because it represents a significant moment of sacrifice and world-shaking ramifications and change in Jesus’ own life → These encounters – Jesus’ baptism and temptation in the wilderness, John’s arrest, and Jesus’ public call to “change your hearts and lives” – is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
    • Before that in Mk’s gospel = nothing
      • No childhood
      • No other formative experiences (e.g. – that time he was found in the temple teaching the teachers when he was an adolescent that we read about in Lk[6])
      • Nothing → Mark’s gospel begins with a short description of John the Baptist and his call, then dives right in with this world-shaking beginning of Jesus ministry – a ministry that brought about a change like no other.
• So let’s talk about that change. Jesus makes a pretty blatant call to change – “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” Throughout the season of Lent, we reflect particularly on that call. It is, after all, the call to repent.
  • Heb. “repent” = literally change direction, to return and to re-turn – to reorient your bearing → Throughout Lent, we try to reorient our hearts and lives, our words and actions, our whole selves back toward God and God’s call for us. It is a word whose very essence necessitates change.
  • Brandan Robertson has an interesting take on this: In almost any Christian context, the idea of repentance, especially tied to the proclamation of the gospel, has to do with asking God to forgive us for our moral failings. In a more progressive environment, repentance may be defined as turning from a damaging action or belief and choosing a better way. But the world translated “repent” here (which is translated as “change your hearts and minds” in our version of the text) … literally means “expanding your mind” – to work to move from our finite human perspective and expand to a broader, wider, diviner perspective. At the heart of the gospel is the call to change the way we see the world, to expand beyond our rigid boundaries and beliefs and begin to see things in a new way. … The way that Jesus invites us to respond to the news that there is a better, more righteous way to live and be in the world is to expand our thinking and to believe in the possibility of a more just and generous world that he demonstrates in his life and ministry. It all begins with the willingness to change our perspective, to see things differently, which is a sacrifice that requires great humility. True repentance means humbling ourselves to embrace a posture of empathy, a posture of listening, a posture of exploration, and a willingness to change the way we think, act, and live based on what we learn.[7]
    • Makes Jesus’ call a call to sacrifice, to be sure
      • Call to sacrifice long-held perceptions about ourselves and the world around us
      • Call to sacrifice our familiar perspectives in favor of another, more expanded, more Christ-like perspective
        • “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way. You see, the world looks very different from up here.”
  • Here’s the big question, friends. What if this “kingdom of God” that Jesus talks about isn’t something that we’re just supposed to wait and wait and wait for until it falls down out of the sky and covers the world like a fresh coat of paint? What is it isn’t something we attain through perfect prayer, perfect faith, perfect Sunday attendance, perfect piety? What if, as Jesus said, this “kingdom of God” is already here? What if the kingdom of God arrived with the birth of the Messiah and is simply waiting for us to change our hearts and lives … to repent … to reorient our whole selves to the love and work of God in this world? What if the kingdom of God is not a thing … not a place … but a way of living in the here and now?
    • Like Mr. Keating, call to stand on our desks … but we have to have the courage to take that first step up. Friends, you must strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ Don’t be resigned to that. Break out. … Dare to strike out and find new ground. Dare to risk and find holy ground. Now is the time! Here is God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news! Amen.

[1] Mk 1:14-15.

[2] Brandan J. Robertson. “Lenten Series: The Power of Sacrifice” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 99.

[3] Pheme Perkins. “The Gospel of Mark: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 8. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 514.

[4] Mk 1:9.

[5] Mk 1:10-11.

[6] Lk 4:39-52.

[7] Robertson, 100.

Text used – Mark 9:2-9

• For the last 6 weeks, we’ve been talking about creativity and creation.
  • Began with God’s initial creation in Gen
  • Talked about our involvement with God’s creativity as individuals and when all our gifts come together as the body of Christ
  • Talked about the need for rest in the midst of creativity and how, even when we are exhausted, God’s creative actions continue
  • Talked about how powerful it is to both recognize and create the extraordinary in the ordinary as God created the extraordinariness of the Incarnation in the ordinary humanity of Jesus Christ
  • Culminates today in what I would call one of the most bizarre stories in the New Testament: the Transfiguration
    • Rasche’s description: In an act of ultimate creativity, Jesus’ identity as the Son of God is revealed to us. How do we descend from the mountaintop to share such an experience?[1]
• Before we tackle the creativity aspect in this whole business, let’s talk a little bit about odd and extraordinary Gospel account this morning.
  • Story of the Transfiguration shows up in what we call the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke
    • “Synoptic” refers to the similarities btwn these 3 Gospels
      • Mark = written first (probably around 70 C.E., 35-40 yrs. after Jesus’ death and resurrection)
      • Matthew and Luke
        • Both used Mk as a source → similar structure, wording, and content to Mk and to one another
        • Probably written 15-20 yrs. after Mk (sometime around the late 80s or early 90s C.E.)
    • Contrast with gospel of Jn
      • Probably written around late 90s or early 100s C.E.
      • Some overlapping stories but more different than not
      • Perspective and theology of Jn much more developed
        • Synoptic gospels → mostly about the actions and teachings of Jesus’ life with little theological interpretation or projection about what those actions and teachings would mean for Christianity
        • Jn’s gospel → much more developed language and extrapolations about the theological meaning of the person and work of Jesus
  • Transfiguration story in Synoptic gospels
    • Mt 17[2]
    • Lk 9[3]
    • And today’s passage from Mk 9
    • And while each of these gospels accounts of the Transfiguration include their own little details and nuances, they each tell essentially the same story.
      • Jesus takes 3 disciples – Peter, James, and John – up to the top of a mountain
      • Jesus transforms before the disciples’ very eyes → love the various descriptions of this transformation
        • Mt: [Jesus’] face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.[4]
        • Lk: As [Jesus] was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes flashed white like lightning.[5]
        • Today’s passage: [Jesus] was transformed in front of them, and his clothes were amazingly bright, brighter than if they had been bleached white.[6]
        • Gr. in all these instances = wide variety of words reflecting that idea of brightness, dazzling whiteness
          • One word that all 3 accounts share: leukos = bright, shining, gleaming, white
      • Along with this brilliant transformation comes a holy entourage → Jesus is joined by Elijah and Moses
      • Miraculous, dazzling transformation leaves disciples understandably dumbfounded → Peter offers to build three dwellings/shrines/tabernacles for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses
        • Lk’s version = gives Peter the benefit of the doubt: attributes his peculiar suggestion to his tiredness, saying Peter was barely awake when he spoke
        • Mt just lays Peter’s suggestion out there with no explanation about why he made it
        • Today’s passage attributes Peter’s words to fear: Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good that we’re here. Let’s make three shrines – one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t know how to respond, for the three of them (indicating himself and the other two disciples) were terrified.[7]
        • Now, poor Peter has been teased quite about bit throughout the centuries for his reaction in this moment. But we have to ask ourselves honestly … if we were in Peter’s situation, how sensibly would we respond?
      • Directly following Peter’s suggestion – before anyone even has a chance to address it – a cloud overshadows them all, and God speaks out of the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I dearly love. Listen to him!”[8]
      • Cloud dissipates → Elijah and Moses are gone again → Jesus and the disciples descend the mountain again
        • Both Mt and Mk conclude their tellings of this odd story with Jesus’ admonition to the disciples not to share their story with anyone “until after the Human One had risen from the dead.”[9]
• Particularly love one scholar’s description of why the Transfiguration is such a powerful story: The boundary zones between the human and the divine are both disorienting and revelatory. Between heaven and earth, the everyday cues and perspectives that tell us who we are and how the world works no longer operate, but we may glimpse a new view of reality that transforms our understanding and refashions our world. The transfiguration of Jesus confuses and terrifies his disciples, but the heavenly voice that speaks from a cloud confirms that Jesus is not only the Christ, as Peter has [previously confessed], but God’s own Beloved Son and affirms that his word of the cross is true. Everything in this episode – Jesus’ transformation, the appearance of Elijah and Moses, Peter’s babbling attempt to be useful – leads up to the moment when God speaks from the cloud that suddenly overshadows them, naming Jesus and commanding the disciples to “Listen to him!”[10] → I love that this particular scholar describes that mountaintop of the Transfiguration as a “thin place” – one of those places in geography and in time where the space between heaven and earth grows thin and it becomes easier to encounter to Sacred … to meet God.
  • Places and moments of bursting creativity are often described as thin places by many of those doing the creating → places and moments where, in the midst of the frenzy and brilliance and outpouring of their creative medium – be it painting, writing, singing, dancing, sculpting, crafting, woodworking, or whatever else … places and moments in the midst of creating when they are wholly overwhelmed by the creation itself … places and moments when the realization hits: there is more at work here than just me … there is more at work here that his bigger, greater, deeper and wider, holier than me
    • Moments are often also described as “mountaintop experiences” → And while those mountaintop experience can give us incredibly inspiration and drive – while they can renew and reinvigorate us in ways we struggle to put into words – they are also not moments we can live in all the time.
      • Rasche beautifully addresses why we can’t live forever in those moments … on those mountaintops: Mountaintop experiences are also places of creation and relationship. It is the place for mere humans to experience just a part of God’s fullness of presence. It was at the top of Mount Sinai that God came to Moses with the guidance of right relationship with God and with one another. It was at the top of a mount where Elijah went to mourn and lament, but heard the still, small voice of God in the whirlwind to keep on where God’s call would take him. It is the place that brings clarity in the midst of chaos. It is the place where we can see fully what lies before us. It is also a place we cannot seem to stay forever; there is only so much space at the top of a mountain. Also, how would we know of such wondrous experiences if people did not make the descent to report on what had happened to them?[11] → Indeed, the beauty and the responsibility of mountaintop moments are inextricably linked. The beauty that we find in those moments – the tenderness of God’s love, the wholeness of God’s grace, the depth of God’s mercy, the inspiration of God’s beautiful creation – are moments meant for us … but not only for us. They are moments we are called to share through our own creative acts.
        • Mountaintop moments change us → creative endeavors change us
          • God’s creative endeavors change us
          • Our own creative endeavors change us
          • Encounters with other people’s creative endeavors change us
          • And in its essence, that’s the story of the Transfiguration – how truly transformational the continuing work of God can be.
        • After 1^st sermon of this series back in early Jan., one of Todd and Melissa’s guests shared one of her favorite quotes with me à wrote it down because I knew it would be perfect for this series – quote from late American author and motivational speaker Leo Buscaglia: Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. → Let me read that again. [REPEAT] We are gifted these mountaintop moments by a God who knows our gifts, our talents, the source and expression of our own creative sparks so intimately and affectionately because it was this same God who gifted them to us. But the giving of those very same talents and gifts and creative outlets are also a calling from God: “Go. Do. Be. And Tell of my goodness … my hope … my forgiveness … my grace … and above all, my love in that unique and beautiful way that only you can because someone needs to see it and hear it and experience it in your unique and beautiful way. I created you. Now you create with me and for me.”
          • Leave you with the words of a YCW colleague of mine – poem called “Selah! Transfigured by God” by Rev. Katy Stenta[12] (found on her Substack “Katy and the Word”) Amen.

[1] Tuhina Verma Rasche. “Epiphany Series: Created Anew” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 89.

[2] Mt 17:1-13.

[3] Lk 9:28-36.

[4] Mt. 17:2b.

[5] Lk 9:29.

[6] Mk 9:2b-3.

[7] Mk 9:5-6 (with my own insertion for clarification).

[8] Mk 9:7.

[9] Mk 9:9.

[10] Stanley P. Saunders. “Last Sunday after the Epiphany (Transfiguration Sunday) – Mark 9:2-9 – Exegetical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 453.

[11] Rasche, 97.

[12] https://open.substack.com/pub/katystenta/p/selah?r=3g8b6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web.

Text used – 2 Kings 5:1-14

• What an utterly perfect topic for our annual meeting day! I didn’t plan this, y’all, I promise. I had this sermon series laid out long before the Session chose the date for our annual meeting. And yet here we are – in the midst of the ordinary business of the church and the extraordinary act of worship – thinking and talking about creating the extraordinary in the ordinary.
  • Perfect because of how we nestle our annual mtg. in the midst of worship itself
    • Not done this way everywhere (not the way I grew up → memories of sitting on the pew outside the sanctuary listening to the meeting with Myra Mitchell)
    • Meeting + worship meshed together = great because it reminds us that, as the church, all of our actions – from worship and mission to procedural votes and budgets – should be done for the glory of God
  • It’s also a particularly perfect topic for this congregation because of the elements that we’ve added to worship over the past year and a half have been mostly aimed at this – helping us recognize the extraordinary sparks of God out in the ordinary moments of our lives and using this sacred time and space to bring those ordinary and extraordinary moments together.
    • Glimpses of God time is all about sharing those ordinary-to-extraordinary moments … Or, as a doctoral dissertation with which I am intimately familiar puts it, this Glimpses of God practice “is intended to be a conduit through which the love and work of God in Christ Jesus can move through people’s life experiences into the worship of the church.”[1]
  • You see, so often we look at the ordinary parts of our lives and think, “How normal … how mundane … how boring.” And we expect God to work in flashy, extraordinary, knock-your-socks-off kinds of ways because the Bible is full of tales of burning bushes that aren’t consumed and parted seas and water becoming wine and people risen from the dead! Indeed, our God is a miraculous, incredible God who can do things we can’t even begin to imagine. But in the Bible, we also find out that God is a God who works through completely normal things: normal relationships, normal circumstances, normal people. And sometimes, it’s God work through normality – through ordinary, everyday moments and lives – that surprises us the most.
    • Today’s Scripture = quintessential e.g. of that work → And I love this story the most because not only does God work extraordinary healing through a completely normal act, but the extraordinary in that ordinary is blatantly pointed out, not by anyone in power, not by anyone of prestige … but by a group of unnamed servants.
• Today’s Scripture = story of Naaman
  • Description from the beginning of our passage – Naaman was “a general for the king of Aram, … a great man and highly regarded by his master, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram.”[2]
    • Aram = roughly Syria
    • Important to point out: “through him the Lord had given victory to Aram” doesn’t mean Naaman or the rest of the Aramean army was devoted to God – scholar calls this “a standard way in Israelite writings of explaining the defeat of Israel as God’s people”[3]
    • Also told that Naaman had a skin disease
      • Heb. = as general as that: “skin eruption” or “skin disease”
      • Most translations: “leprosy” → Because while today we know that leprosy is a particular disease, in the ancient world, the term “leprosy” was used to describe a wide array of skin diseases.
      • Whatever this disease is, we know that it’s bad enough that Naaman seeks permission from the king of Aram himself to travel abroad – to Samaria and the home of the prophet Elisha – and seek out healing.
  • Interesting interaction in the middle of this story – speaks of the anxiety and drama of political life
    • As he gives his okay to Naaman to travel to Samaria, king of Aram also off-handedly states, “I will send a letter to Israel’s king.”[4] → Presumably, since Aram had recently conquered Israel, the king of Aram was sending this letter as reassurance that his most powerful general was coming into the territory, not to wage further war or execute any military actions, but to seek out healing.
      • Could have been more troublesome/manipulative than that – some wording of the letter is relayed in our text: [The letter] read, “Along with this letter I’m sending you my servant Naaman so you can cure him of his skin disease.”[5]
    • And what is the response of the king of Israel? – text: When the king of Israel read the letter, he ripped his clothes. He said, “What? Am I God to hand out death and life? But this king writes me, asking me to cure someone of his skin disease! You must realize that he wants to start a fight with me.”[6] → We don’t know whether this was an overreaction or an appropriately-alarmed response. I think it’s safe to say, though, that either ways, it’s a response riddled with anxiety and fear … fear of the Other Side and what they might be planning to do to me. Hmmm … some things never change, eh?
  • Prophet Elisha hears of the king’s response → instructs the king to send Naaman to him
  • Naaman appears at Elisha’s house → But Elisha himself doesn’t even see Naaman. He sees Naaman arrive, and instead of going out to greet him as hospitality customs of the day would dictate, Elisha sends out a servant to speak to Naaman.
    • Servant relays Elisha’s instruction that Naaman should wash in the Jordan River 7 times
  • But this isn’t good enough for Naaman. This isn’t grand enough. This isn’t flashy enough. This isn’t miraculous enough. – text: But Naaman went away in anger. He said, “I thought for sure that he’d come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the bad spot, and cure the skin disease. Aren’t the rivers in Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all Israel’s waters? Couldn’t I was in them and get clean?” So he turned away and proceeded to leave in anger.[7] → Big old adult hissy fit here, folx. Not only is Naaman clearly offended that he didn’t even get an audience with the famous prophet, he’s been asked to wash in the presumably sub-par waters of the Jordan River … and Israelite river that clearly can’t be as good as the rivers in Syria.
    • Nationalism at its worst → presumptions that everything in my homeland is better than anything anywhere else simple because it is my homeland → Thanks for the example, Naaman.
  • And here’s where the best part comes in … Naaman’s sound rebuke by his own, unnamed servants. – text: “Our father, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? All he said to you was, ‘Wash and become clean.’”[8] → Boom. “What, Naaman? This is too easy for you? Don’t be ridiculous. You would have done something crazy hard if Elisha had demanded it without even batting an eye. But he tells you to do something easy, so it must be rigged? It must be useless? It must be a joke? Nah. Refusing healing because it’s ‘too easy’ … that’s the joke.”
    • Words clearly had an impact because Naaman shut up, did as Elisha had instructed, and was made clean
• Truly, friends, Naaman’s story is the ultimate example of getting so caught up in our expectations for God that we fail to actually see God working. We expect the flash and the bang, the pomp and the circumstance, the grandiose and miraculous. And yes, God is there working in those moments – those incredible stories that take our breath away for the extraordinary-ness of them. But we cannot be so blinded by our expectation of the extraordinary that we neglect to see God in those ordinary, everyday moments, too. Because if we truly believe that God is big enough and powerful enough and miraculous enough to work extraordinary moments, how can we not also believe that God can also be at work in our smaller moments, our weaker moments, our mediocre moments?
  • Tuhina Verma Rasche: God is immense and expansive and cannot be defined and contained in mere words. Yet God knows us enough and so yearns to be in a relationship with us that God finds ways in daily and ordinary life to be present with us. … God comes to meet us in the most common and ordinary of elements to redefine and recreate our relationship with God and one another. We were created anew when the extraordinary came to meet us in the most ordinary of elements and experiences.[9] → Today, we get to spent time with one another in some ordinary and some extraordinary moments, and we get to work together to seek out God in all of them. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] A quotation from my own doctoral dissertation: “Holy Word, Wholly Engaged: Reconnecting With God and One Another in the Context of Worship,” p. 80.

[2] 2 Kgs 5:1.

[3] Choon-Leong Seow. “The First and Second Books of Kings: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary series, vol. 3. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999), 193.

[4] 2 Kgs 5:5b.

[5] 2 Kgs 5:6b.

[6] 2 Kgs 5:7.

[7] 2 Kgs 5:11-12

[8] 2 Kgs 5:13.

[9] Tuhina Verma Rasche. “Epiphany Series: Created Anew” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 96.