St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Welland, Ontario, Canada

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TRANSFIGURATION SUNDAY MARCH 2, 2025

Prayer of the Day: Holy God, mighty and immortal, you are beyond our knowing, yet we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Transform us into the likeness of your Son. Illumine the world with your image —through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God now and forever. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 9:28-36 [37-43a] 28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but as they awoke they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” not realizing what he was saying. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40 I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was being brought forward, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43a And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

SERMON
What do you suppose finally led Peter, James and John to break their silence about about seeing Jesus’ transfigured as he prayed on the mountain?

It fits that we would need assurance that what happens to Jesus in Jerusalem isn’t only yet another example of the empire crushing dissenters—-

Let’s look at just one unique feature Luke includes in his telling of the event. Luke reports what Jesus, Moses and Elijah talk about Jesus pending arrest and execution. Luke uses the word EXODUS. Jesus is revealed as liberator.

Moses and Elijah know a thing or two about liberation and freedom from oppression. God’s liberating ways are like a vibrant thread woven through a tapestry of scripture. Israel’s experience is defined by the Exodus. The early stories lead up to Exodus and the Law and prophets operate in light of its reality.

Is the cloud that overshadows the disciples meant to remind us of the cloud that leads the Hebrew refugees to a promised land? Is the voice from above meant to remind us of the one that speaks to Moses, giving Ten Words that would teach a people to live liberated lives?

A divine word that Jesus is the beloved reprises words spoken from above at his baptism and they foreshadow the confessional words from the executioner—words accompanied, not incidentally by darkness, seismic tremors, and the shredding the Temple curtain in half. This liberator is revealed as God’s own beloved…the one who preached in synagogue saying he would be fulfillment the prophet’s vision of liberation for the captive, good news for the poor and the year of the Lord’s favour.

What happens after the transfiguration is also most revealing. In this season of epiphany or as some call it manifestation we see Jesus at work. The disciples fail to do what they were once able to do; so Jesus liberates a child oppressed by a spirit that slams the child to the ground in seizures and convulsions. Soon thereafter the disciples would be ensnared with petty squabbles over which one of them was greatest. Jesus overrides the trap telling his followers that welcoming a child in his name is a mark of a true follower. It is still a very long way to Jerusalem with pitfalls and setbacks at every turn. Yet Jesus is present even in the setbacks…undeterred from who he is and what he is destined to do—to be the agent of liberation for all and of all.

Epiphany gives way to Lent, and we continue on, straining to listen for Christ’s call for us to follow and squinting for glimpses of God’s liberating ways in our lives and in the world.

Seventh Sunday after Epiphany-February 23, 2025

Prayer of the Day (from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)
O Lord Jesus, make us instruments of your peace, that where there is hatred, we may sow love, where there is injury, pardon, and where there is despair, hope. Grant, O divine master, that we may seek to console, to understand, and to love in your name, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 6:27-38
[Jesus said:] 27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

SERMON
What does it mean that God is merciful? Imagine thoughts and feelings so powerful they propel you to act. The rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel interprets much of the Hebrew Bible through the lens of appreciating God as passionate and compassionate. Unpacking the word “compassion” com+passio gives us the idea of suffering with those who suffer. When Jesus calls on us to be merciful, he is inviting us collectively to live compassionately. The next words about compassion come from the writer and teacher Henri Nouwen, known for his gentleness and compassion:

Father Nouwen, we can aspire to be a compassionate people, yet…. ….My hospital training and experience introduced me to the concept of “compassion fatigue” and it also introduced such fatigue to me first hand. One charge nurse whom I knew to be highly caring and competent admitted in the break room one day that she feared she had a “broken give a darn”. I was feeling the same thing, just lacking words to describe the experience.

Weeping with those who weep and suffering with those who suffer is not the way of our world…it certainly wasn’t the way of the Roman empire which valued raw power and unrelenting conquering. These days we’re learning unconditional positivity is toxic. It shames those who struggle when society insists “it’s all good and designed to be…always upward, always bigger and better. Some of us sense all of that is unravelling with appalling speed.

Maybe some self compassion is in order for each of us. It matters that Jesus is speaking to a whole community when he casts a vision for contrasting society of people who live as merciful and compassionate. It also matters that Jesus is steeped in traditions that know how to lament and grieve. Our bishop has specialized training in working with those who grieve. There’s fire in her eyes when she says ours is a death-denying grief illiterate culture. It matters that Jesus weeps. It also matters that Jesus lived as creatures were designed to live; times of activity alternating with times of rest. Jesus would speak about taking cues from nature where plants and animals don’t appear to think the world’s fate rests upon incessant worry or activity.

We can take cues from the traditions Jesus learned and revered as we seek to be people of compassion. These traditions are gifts community—we’re together, not alone. In community that might mean spelling each other once in a while just as geese do when flying in formation and taking turns flying in front where the drag and wind resistance is greatest…and taking a turn toward the rear of the flock, being drafted along by the other birds in flight.

Besides the gift of community, we have the gift of lamenting. As my mentor Anna reminded me, Augustine’s words about hope having two daughters—grief at how things are and courage to live into the merciful and just way of life Jesus maps out.

We also have the gift of being part of nature, not above it. We are creatures who need rest and renewal on occasion that we might delight in friendship with nature, with God and with other human beings—that friendship is how the late Daniel Erlander defines Sabbath.

Jesus later warns the disciples that his path of compassion would be arduously difficult. He adds, not as an afterthought, those even as we fear losing our grip on life, we would find life. For those of us who feel numb, overwhelmed or helpless, we might remind each other that God gives us gifts of community, lament and creatureliness. For those of us who feel like our give a darn is broken or at least sprained will discover that the little bits of compassion we offer are tiny echo of the overflowing compassion God plops right into our laps.

Due to the severe weather alerts for this Sunday, alternate plans are being arranged to cancel the in-person worship this Sunday (February 16) and replace it with a ZOOM service.

Pastor Bart will lead service by Zoom on Sunday, if the storm, that’s predicted, actually arrives!

More information (worship time and how to get the ZOOM link) will be posted on this website, as we get closer to Sunday morning, and we get more up-to-date information about the storm.