Uncreated Light

 We can tell it is the end of the Epiphany season

            not just by this Wednesday being Ash Wednesday

                        but that today’s gospel is the Transfiguration.

Ending the Epiphany Season with the Transfiguration 

            is ultimate manifestation, or Epiphany, of Light to the World.

This is Uncreated Light from the Source, the Greek word arch,

            translated in the Prologue of John as the beginning,

            the beginning point or source point of all that is,

                        creation for the Uncreated Light.

 

Before we can talk of the Transfiguration, however,

            we must look first at this story of Moses.

 

Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the Law of the Covenant

            on two tablets of stone, the revelation of God’s will,

and the face of Moses is ablaze with the reflected Shekinah Glory of God,

                        Moses having been in God’s presence for 40 days and 40 nights.

 

What would you think, how would you react to

            someone coming to you with a message from God

            whose face was emitting a bright light?

 

Weird, freaky, unnerving, frightening…

 

It just might be a little too close for comfort 

            to be around someone on such a close personal basis with God.

 

Yu can imagine the Israelites saying in response:

“Let’s just focus on the Law written on those stone tablets,

            give us something we can do,

and put a veil over that shine, 

            so we don’t have to look at what happens to a person 

                                                                                    in intimate relationship with God.”

 

Does this describe our spiritual condition?

Let me read to you a quotation from something my spiritual director wrote

            about the human condition 

                        in relationship to this encounter with God’s presence.

 

“Give us the Law, give us the rules, give us the traditions, 

give us the structure of authority, …

give us the way of righteousness 

            so we can know we are in and those not of us are out.  

Give us this great, frozen mask of our hearts, 

            our refusal to know our nakedness before God, 

            our continual absorption in issues of will and deed 

                        that we may be distracted from our heart’s condition, 

                        from our fear of pure intimacy, 

                                    our utter openness to great mystery, 

                                                                                    great love, unspeakable power, 

                        from our utter lack of control over love, worth, and death.  

Just tell us what to do.  

Help us ignore that not the merest [veil] separates you and us.”

 

Is this a moment of truth telling? 

Can we be honest enough to admit that there are many times

            when we would put our practice of religion between us and God                                     whose sheer presence is so unnerving?  

that we would put the effort of producing our own righteousness 

                        through the keeping of rules 

               as a buffer between us and the Love of God that is so intensely personal?

 

Okay, now let’s look at the story of the Transfiguration.

Jesus has been praying on a mountain, Mount Tabor,

            There are no stone tablets this time.

Instead it is Jesus himself who is the revelation of God’s will.

            And it’s not just his face shining, but his whole body.

No amount of clothing will veil this radiance, this Shekinah Glory of God.

 

And what is this?  Moses and Elijah are with him.

            Aren’t they supposed to be long departed from this world?

There is something of Resurrection about all this.

 

And Moses and Elijah and Jesus are deep in discussion,

            about what? about the upcoming events in Jerusalem – his death.

 

Peter, James and John haven’t been praying;

They had been trying to stay awake

            while Jesus was pulling another all-nighter in prayer.

Their level of consciousness might be questioned.

 

            So when they are jarred back to consciousness 

by this revelation of radiant being and the presence of Moses and Elijah,

                        Peter starts babbling.

What Peter proposes is less about Jesus and Moses and Elijah

            and more about Peter, James and John,

            about building three little hermitages 

                        where they can sit and contemplate 

                                                this colossal spiritual experience of radiance,

                                                this “mountaintop experience.”

They want to institutionalize it, encase it, hold it, 

            have some way to control it, keep it from going any further.

It’s  not the radiant revelation they want to preserve – – but their experience of it.

 

And so the Cloud comes over all the scene.

 

Where have we heard of a cloud before in Bible stories?

The cloud that led them in the desert, 

            that came over the Tent of Meeting,

            that descended on the Temple, such as in Isaiah, chapter 6.

The Cloud of God’s Presence.

 

And from the Cloud comes the voice:  “This is my Son…listen to him!”

 

                        Shut up, Peter.  Wake up and listen to Jesus.

 

I have stood on the Mount of the Transfiguration, Mt. Tabor.

 

They have built Peter’s three tabernacles there,

            Chapels for Moses and Elijah and the central domed church.

 

Isn’t that just the way!

Turn the revelation into a building, a structure,

            rather than see it immediately present in close proximity

                                    to ourselves personally.

 

In the Eastern Orthodox Church at least 

            there is a fascination with this Transfiguration event,

                        this Uncreated Light that shines through the whole body of Jesus,

                        this Light from the Source referenced in the Prologue of John’s Gospel.

 

There is the realization that this radiance of Uncreated Light 

            is the NORMATIVE state for Jesus,

                        not something he took on at that particular time

                                    to dazzle the eyes of Peter, James and John.

The Eastern Orthodox say that rather at this time

            the eyes of the disciples were released to be able to see

                        what has always been there, the Truth of what Jesus is like.

Jesus opened the spiritual eyes of his disciples

                        so that they could see the Uncreated Light,

                                    that same Light reflected in Moses’ face,

                        the Uncreated Light in him, in Jesus, the Word incarnate,

                                    the Word that is Light coming into the world.

 

The implications of this are enormous,

            because of the Resurrection,

for in Resurrection Jesus fulfills his promise to always be with us,

                        even to the completion of the age.

 

There is nowhere that is not full of the Resurrection Presence of Jesus,

            and specifically this is said of the Church, his Body.

 

Here’s the connection between ourselves and the Transfiguration,

            this shining revelation of God’s Glory Presence,

and there is no way to keep a distance from it,

                        except in our own ignorance, denial and avoidance,

            which, unfortunately, we are quite adept at doing.

 

There is a story from a collection of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers,

            those mainly from the 4^th Century on 

                        who went out into the desert places of Egypt

                        fleeing the ease of life in the cities 

that was having such a corrupting influence on the Church.

They went out into the desert seeking to follow their Lord more purely.

 

The story goes that Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him,

            “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little,

            I pray and meditate, I live in peace

            and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts.

            What else can I do?”

Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven.

His fingers became like ten lamps of fire 

            and he said to him,

            “If you will, you can become all flame.”

 

The Radiance of God is all around us all the time,

            but we don’t see it.

And we need to see this 

            in order for our ministry to one another and the world outside our door                                     to become even more effective.

 

St. Theophan the Recluse, one of the great saints of the Eastern Church, wrote:

            “As God is Light, so also our spirit is light.

            Having been breathed into us by God,

            it seeks God, knows God, and in [God] alone finds rest.”

 

Now when we celebrate the Eucharist,

when we partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus

            we receive into ourselves his Life energy.

 

How many years have you been coming here Sunday by Sunday

            consuming the Body and Blood of Jesus?

You are shot through with this same Light 

                        as the disciples saw in the Transfigured Jesus.

 

May the Church awake to this great truth of being,

and may we be delivered from our fears about coming into 

                        the brilliant Presence of this Love,

            so that we may serve faithfully with the gifts entrusted to us.

The Butterfly Effect

 Today I want to start with the Old Testament lesson from the Hebrew Bible.

 

It comes towards the end of Genesis,

            and is one of those key, essential stories at the heart of 

                        both Jewish and Christian understanding 

            about human relationships and what God is like.

 

You all know the back story, I hope.

            This reading’s placement in the lectionary makes that assumption.

If not, you have your assignment: read all of Genesis,

            read all the stories about the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

                        and their families, their wives and children.

When we read these stories, 

            we ought to be somewhat amazed that these “pillars of faith”

                                                (as we think of them)

                        really had rather conflicted families.

And their faith was often put to the test.

 

These stories are not heroic sagas.

            They are stories of humanity mucking up and slogging through

                        and being shown surprising mercy.

            God’s patience is beyond comprehension.

            God’s compassionate care is surprising.

                        Given all these less than ideal circumstances,

                                    what can account for such…? – love ! from God.

 

 

So today’s reading comes out of the family dynamics of Jacob’s 12 sons,

            and Joseph, the apple of his father’s eye, this brilliant and gifted boy

                        showed remarkably poor judgment in telling them all

                                    about his prophetic-style dreams 

                        that put him in a superior position above them all,

                                    his parents included.

The older brothers fought among themselves about how to put the kid in his place.

            They came close to murdering him,

            actually sold him into slavery, and lied to their father about it.

 

And then many years later, during the great famine,

            when they came to Egypt to buy grain,

they had an epic karmic comeuppance with their long lost little brother.

 

When Joseph reveled himself,

            “his brothers could not answer him, 

            so dismayed were they at his presence”

 

Yes, dismayed.

            They thought that, even if he were still alive, he would be a slave, 

but now they find that not only is he alive, 

            he has great power over them.

Indeed, he has the power of life and death over them.

 

But now, the big plot twist, Joseph’s response:

            “Do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves … 

            God sent me before you to preserve life.”

 

We all have had family dynamics that have left us buffeted at the very least.

I know too many persons who have suffered neglect and abuse 

            at the hands of those whom they had loved.

You cannot just say to these persons, “Forgive and forget.”

 

Just look at world history,

            how one people wages war on another, 

            or enslave others,

            or subjugates others because they are not of “our tribe.”

            or now it’s our chance to turn the tables on our oppressors.

 

But then we can look at the work of Archbishop Desmond Tutu,

                                    may he rest in peace,

            who set up the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa,

that won him the Nobel Peace Prize 

and whose work is now being replicated all over the world.

 

The Sacred Ground course that is so popular throughout the Episcopal Church

            continues in this same work.

 

Dealing with the wounds of the past is hard work,

            but it is an essential part of our spiritual learning and growth.

We all have to deal with this 

            whether it is on the global or national level,

            or locally or within our church or our own family.

It’s unavoidable.

 

And now, maybe we are in a place 

                        when we can NOW consider the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel,

            and not feel like he is asking us to be a doormat 

                                                            for others to trample and abuse.

 

Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”

            This really goes way beyond the “Love your neighbor” message

                        from the Good Samaritan parable.

 

We may think that Jesus is asking just way too much of us:

            Do good to those who hate you.

            Bless those who curse you.

            Pray for those who abuse you.

And it gets harder:

            If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.

            If anyone takes your coat, give them whatever else you are wearing as well.

            Give to everyone who begs from you,

                        and don’t try to get it back again.

 

In the Middle East, this still goes against the deeply ingrained cultural customs

            today as it did 2,000 years ago.

If someone takes a chicken from you and you make no effort to get it back,

            then the next day your whole flock of chickens will have disappeared,

                                    will have been taken from you too.

 

And I don’t think that’s just a Middle Eastern cultural norm.

It’s an unwritten creed of most of the greed and aggression

                        that disguises itself as lucrative business transactions.

 

But the next words in the Gospel reading say it all:

            Do to others as you would have them do to you.

 

THE GOLDEN RULE

                        It is found in every other major world religion or philosophy

            but here it is stated in the positive, 

            rather than, “do not do to others, what you do not want done to you.”

 

Instead, do to others as you would have them do to you.            AND

            Do not judge, do not condemn.

            Forgive.

And the clincher to bring the point home:

                        “for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

 

Now, please understand that Jesus is not just laying a heavy trip on us.

What he said is what he lived.                        In spades.

Go to the cross with him, that hideous, torturous form of execution,

            and hear him say, 

                        “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they are doing.”

What he said is what he lived.

 

And what is it that Jesus lived out so completely?            Love.

This is what love is, 

            the kind of love which is both a spiritual gift given to us,

                        and the fruit of that gift working in us,

                                    that which can take root in us, grow, and produce fruit,

                        for the benefit of all those with whom we are in relationship,

                                    family, friends, acquaintances, strangers, enemies.

 

Look again at the Collect for today:

 

O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: 

Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, 

without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. 

Grant this for the sake of your only Son …

 

Jesus said, "I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

 

Love.

 

To paraphrase a saying by the poet Rumi,

            “Our task is not to seek for love, 

            but merely to seek and find 

            all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

 

So don’t look for love. 

Love is all around you. 

Look for the obstacles to love 

            all the barriers within yourself that you have built up against love.

 

We are all in this together.  

St. Paul gave us the beautiful example of how the Body of Christ operates:

            a diversity of body parts, but all fit together into one body.

If one part hurts, it is felt by all, 

            just as if when you stub your toe, your whole body reacts,

We are all in this together on this planet

            not just the human species, but all living beings.

 

If one part hurts, it impacts us all.

If one word or action hurts another, 

            that impacts everything else, not just me or you – everything.

Notice how much dissonance there is in the world.

That comes from every hurtful word and action echoing through all creation.

 

            It’s the butterfly effect. 

 

The butterfly effect is the idea 

            that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings 

                                                                        which ultimately causes a typhoon.

Everything affects everything else.

A harsh word can have a butterfly effect.

A harbored grudge can have the same ripple effect over the whole planet.

            This truly is the insidious sin that does the most damage,

                        not the big, flagrant sins,

            but the sin that when you commit it, you don’t even recognize it as sin.

 

So where does that leave us?

We come right back to the words of Jesus today:

            Love.

            Love your neighbor.

            Love your enemy.

            Love radically.

            Love counter to all expectations.

Turn it around.

Turn the hurt of the world around.

Create your own positive butterfly effect.

Set in motion that ripple effect that radiates love, harmony, balance.

 

Love.

Mighty Oaks From Tiny Acorns Grow

 The Gospel reading for today is a section from the beginning of

            Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain,” 

                        a comparative parallel to Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount.”

 

And a reminder of what I said last week about how each chapter in Luke

            gives the context for the passage selected from it for the day’s Gospel,

                        so here too in Luke, chapter 6.

I need to back up 5 verses so that you can get the impact of what Jesus is saying.

 

Jesus went out into the hills to pray, and he prayed all night.

What was he praying all night?

            The translation in your Bible is not accurate,

                                                that he was in prayer to God.

The Greek says that it was the prayer of God.

            This was a prayer of surrendered self-awareness in God.

            It was a prayer of being in full communion with God.

            God was praying in him.

 

And from that time of prayer Jesus comes down out of the hills

            and he does three things described as dunamis in Greek, power, or actions of God.

                        dunamis – think of the English cognates from the same root: 

                                                                                                dynamic, dynamite.

Three things: 1. Discernment: out of a large number of disciples

            Jesus selects 12 who will receive his intensive discipleship course,

                        so as to be sent out as apostles later.

2. Healing: power dunamis was coming out from him 

            and it was healing all – everyone, everybody

            so the crowd was seeking to touch him

3. Teaching: Jesus gave them this teaching.

 

Now this teaching, the Sermon on the Plain, was a not a morality, 

This is important to note: it was not a set of moral rules to follow,

            but a pattern of discipleship.

Jesus described a way to live as the Teacher lived, as he himself lived.

And the process of teaching itself 

            would be a way to transmit the energy of his power, his dunamis, 

                        to those who were listening to Jesus.

 

The portion of the sermon or teaching that we get this morning

            is the Luke version of the Beatitudes.

This version is much more literal and direct 

            in comparison with Matthew’s more spiritualized Beatitudes.

Blessed are you poor, 

            you who hunger, 

                        you that weep, 

                                    you who are persecuted.

Jesus is speaking to those who are without, the poor, those victimized.

He was speaking to a large crowd of people

            who all could relate to that, 

                        given the location, date, and political realities of the time.

But he is also saying to his chosen disciples

            that this is their reality too, and would be even more so.

 

The people Jesus calls blessed are those the world calls wretched.

            And those “woe to you” statements that follow

            are to those whom the world view, the prevailing culture, 

                        would call blessed:

                                    the rich, the well-fed, the happy, 

                                    those without an anxious or sad thought

                                    those with status and a good reputation in the community.

 

But Jesus is teaching the crowd,

            Blessed are you poor, you hungry, you that weep, you that are persecuted.

            This is what you are going to get, what you are going to learn.

 

And with each of these comes 

the reason why Jesus could call these wretched conditions blessed:

            You who are poor, yours is the kingdom of God,

            your hunger will be satisfied,

            you who weep will laugh,

            you who are persecuted, your reward will be great in heaven.

 

Each cause of suffering will be accompanied by an abundance of love,

            a generosity.

True, rather than an abundance of material possessions,

            this is not the same thing.

But this is to bring about in the disciples an attitude of abundance

                        that comes through the power, the dunamis, of the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus is talking about a spiritual process of transformation

            that will take place in the disciples.

 

This spiritual process of transformation 

            is at work in all of us who are disciples, 

                        who follow Jesus, who are attracted to him,

            whether we recognize this spiritual process taking place in us or not.

It is, of course, helpful to be able to recognize what is going on,

            so that we can cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit taking place within us.

 

The Old Testament reading gives a practical example or metaphor 

            for recognizing this spiritual process.

 

Jeremiah 17:5f 

“Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals 

and make mere flesh their strength, 

whose hearts turn away from the Lord.”

This describes the attitude prevailing in the culture in which we live, does it not?

            People pretty much focus on relying on their own strength, ability.

Jeremiah says, “They shall be like a shrub in the desert,

and shall not see when relief comes.”

            A shrub is low to the ground, 

            a perspective from which view is limited, it can’t see very far, 

            so as to know that it is in a desert, an arid place.

In contrast Jeremiah says, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord…

They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots…”

            The tree being much taller than a shrub 

            has a much greater perspective, view, ability to see beyond limits.

            And the roots go deeper.

 

Play along with me:  Imagine yourself to be an acorn.

            What are you destined to grow up into?                        An oak tree.

Within the acorn the full grown tree exists already in potential.

                        That’s not just a scientific discovery; Aristotle pointed that out.

Imagine that you are planted in the ground,

                        that you sprout and begin to grow.

            At first you are very small, no taller than the shrubs around you.

            There you are in the midst of the limited perspective of the shrubs.

You can’t help but have that same limited awareness,

            as you struggle along with the shrubs for water.

 

But then the tree grows taller, above the shrubs,

and what do you discover?                        The sun, your source of energy.

            And your roots go deeper.

You discover a much larger space, the whole expanse of the sky, limitless.

 

Now you may be bigger than the shrubs, 

            but in comparison with the vastness of the whole sky 

                        you are still very small indeed.

 

In the spiritual process

            when we grow beyond the limited mindset and perspective 

                                    that we commonly live in,

            and we come into an awareness of a much vaster space of being,

                                                an encounter with the limitless divine,

                        then we experience true humility

                        and when we do, then we become truly useful as disciples.

 

This is what Jesus is up to in each of us,

            growing us taller spiritually.

 

So we are being called to be trees, not shrubs,

            to become what has been there in potentiality from the beginning,

                        just as the oak tree is there in its fullness in the acorn.

 

Jesus provides the dunamis, the power, and the love and the strength that’s needed.

 

Poor, hungry, weeping, wretched and oppressed?

            Come be fed, fertilized, and nurtured at Jesus’ Table.

            Grow taller to see beyond the limits of your horizon.

 

That’s why we are here – so that we can be changed.