A Place at the Table

Prayer of the Day

O God, rich in mercy, by the humiliation of your Son you lifted up this fallen world and rescued us from the hopelessness of death. Lead us into your light, that all our deeds may reflect your love, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Numbers 21:4-9

⁴From Mount Hor [the Israelites] set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. ⁵The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” ⁶Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. ⁷The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lordand against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” ⁹So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

¹Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good,
  for God’s mercy endures forever.
²Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
that God redeemed them from the hand of the foe,
³gathering them in from the lands;
  from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
¹⁷Some were fools and took rebellious paths;
through their sins they were afflicted.
¹⁸They loathed all manner of food
  and drew near to death’s door.
¹⁹Then in their trouble they cried to the Lord
and you delivered them from their distress. 
²⁰You sent forth your word and healed them
  and rescued them from the grave.
²¹Let them give thanks to you, Lord, for your steadfast love
and your wonderful works for all people.
²²Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
  and tell of your deeds with shouts of joy.

Ephesians 2:1-10

¹You were dead through the trespasses and sins ²in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. ³All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. ⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us ⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

John 3:14-21

[Jesus said:] ¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Sermon – Meggan Manlove

God’s abundant love for the world—that’s what we hear in today’s gospel text, these iconic verses from John Chapter 3 that are on billboards, tattoos, bumper stickers. It is a love for all people, you and me, our friends, our enemies, people we have never met. What’s remarkable about this love is that it does not depend on transactions. What I mean is, God continues to love the world with abandon and often that love is not returned. 

Put another way, we human beings continue to rebel against the will of God. We do not welcome in the reign of God. We do not perfectly love our neighbor as Jesus instructed us to do. We so easily are self-centered. Martin Luther used a Latin term to describe this, Incurvatus in se, “curved in upon oneself.” We put ourselves ahead of others. As our gospel passage says, we love darkness instead of the light of God.

When we are getting ready in the morning, we look in a mirror. We straighten out a hair, maybe put on some makeup, check that we’ve brushed our teeth thoroughly. But what about our insides, our heart, soul, and mind? What will help us see ourselves as we really are, our insides? Who will hold up that mirror? 

Worship is one place that happens. Worship is for people who have have not trusted God’s promises or walked in God’s ways, who have have hoarded and squandered the gifts of God’s creation, who have failed to welcome the stranger and the outcast, or make room at the table for the homeless and the hungry. Each week, in our confession, we announce that we are not who we would like to think we are. And each week we open ourselves to the God of second chances.

Pastor Bill White tells a story some of you might remember reading in high school. Silas Marner was a shriveled up old miser who had been falsely accused of stealing. He responded by becoming a recluse for fifteen years. His major joy in life was counting his gold. He loved to sit by the lamp at night and let the coins run through his fingers. Then a thief stole his gold and Silas believed he had been reduced to nothing. 

Shortly after the theft, a destitute woman left her little girl sleeping in front of the fireplace in Silas’s cottage. The next day the woman was found dead. When no one claimed the child the old miser raised her. It was an experience of delight, and it slowly changed him. He began to speak to his neighbors, and his cottage, once dark and drab, took on a new cheer. There was light in his eyes and a smile on his face. There was an outward focus to his life. No longer was he turned in on himself. The child gave Silas a reason to exist. Parenting became an experience of grace, an encounter with God.

Grace is always an undeserved gift of God. In Ephesians, Paul expresses his amazement that God did not lose his temper when we mess up. “⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us ⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Oh my goodness! This is the best gift. Some have called these verses the heart of the Christian faith. It is all grace, all gift; we are saved by a gift. We cannot do it ourselves, nor can we overcome our self-centeredness by ourselves. God does it for us. All we have to do is trust God.

Hear that passage from John 3 again, and I’m going to use the word trust instead of believe. “16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

Paul puts it this way in Ephesians, “⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

This past week, the camp director I worked for for three summers died suddenly of cardiac arrest. This is the third man of great importance to me to die in a six-month period: Trinity member Bob Torrey, my own father, and now Bob Quam. I did give Bob’s family and my mom a heads-up about this sermon. I want to say to God in my prayers, “Enough!” As if that is how prayer works. And yet, in a way it does. And each one of those men, in his own way, modeled being really honest with God. God, they showed me, was big enough to take all of my pain and anger. It would not scare God away. 

Each one of them was also an instrument of God’s grace. They all saw my messy side, my brokenness, my worse self, and loved me and assured me of God’s love. 

More than that, they modeled their trust in God’s love through their own lives. I have laughed at how each of them had a stubborn streak that sometimes scared me, sometimes made me laugh, always reminded me of their humanness. 

My dad grew up in a home that modeled love of neighbor but also had just enough of an image of fire and brimstone God that he looked for something else as an adult. He found it with a Lutheran pastor and congregation in St. Paul, Minnesota. That congregation proclaimed loud and clear the grace of God. My dad got that message of grace. It was transformative. And after he died, through greeting cards, Caring Bridge notes, and phone calls, our family my family was reminded just how many people received the gifts of God’s grace through my dad.

Bob Torrey came to his adult faith in this space and with the community of faith that is Trinity Lutheran Church and he never looked back. Everyone who has joined the congregation in my tenure has a story of receiving the love of God through Bob. At the heart of Bob’s passion for stewardship was his deep awareness of God’s grace. He was great at talking about stewardship of finances. But what God was always stewarding himself was God’s grace. He never seemed to tire of passing that gift along, whether in a council meeting, fellowship time, new member class, or passing of the peace.

Bob Quam, my camp director, was sometimes a troubled soul, but possessed so many gifts. One of those gifts was getting college staffers excited about sharing the grace and love of God with kids. He believed in the power of the God we encounter in scripture, in the Beartooth Wilderness, and in Christian community. God’s grace spilled forth in Bible Studies, hiking, worship, and mealtimes. And last July, on my birthday, his message was, as it had been for every former staffer on Facebook, “Welcome to another year Meggan. May if flow with grace and truth.”

The free gift of God’s grace has been written about in volumes, songs, treatises and now I am sure you could find hundreds of videos of people explaining it. But experiencing God’s grace and love has to be lived. Likewise, trusting God’s grace finally must be lived. I am so grateful for the way my dad and Bob Torrey and Bob Quam helped me learn to live this trust. 

I certainly do not trust God’s grace and love every moment. It is not a trust that leaves me with no agency for my own life. I still try to make good decisions and take responsibility for my life and actions. But when I have failed miserably, when I hurt other people, when I become curved in on myself, the way out is to trust the God of second chances, to remember that God loves the world, me and you and everyone else. This grace and love are pure gift. 

I firmly believe that opening this grace up to others is one of the church’s deepest and most important callings right now. It is something the world needs desperately. It is the balm for the oppressed, the salve for the overworked, the comfort for the anxious. 

The way we become right with God is trusting in what God has done and is doing. It is a gift. We stumble, we fall, and mess things up each day of our lives. But God’s love is everlasting and abundant and pure gift. It is so much bigger than our mess. God’s love and grace are free gift, and they are transformative. Thanks be to God.

Prayers of Intercession

Relying on the promises of God, we pray boldly for the church, the world, and all in need.

A brief silence.

You sent your Son that the world might be saved through him. Inspire the witness of the church throughout the world. Empower missionaries, Bible translators, and ministries of service in your name. Bless our partners in ministry (specific mission partners may be named), our ELCA global partner churches, and Young Adults in Global Mission. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

From east to west your steadfast love is shown. Nourish seas and deserts, wilderness areas and cities. Give water to thirsty lands; nurture spring growth that feeds hungry creatures; bless farmers as they prepare for the growing season. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

You sustained your people in the wilderness. Give courage to all who lead in times of crisis and scarce resources. Prosper the work of those who aid victims of famine and drought (especially). Bring peace in places where scares resources cause violence. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

Your mercy endures forever. Deliver all who cry to you, especially those who are hungry or without homes. Give life in places where death seems triumphant; give healing to those who are sick and comfort to those who mourn. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

By grace we have been saved. Fill this congregation to overflowing with that grace, that we show mercy to others. Nourish any in our midst who are hungry, especially children, and bless our ministries of feeding and shelter (especially). Give us patience and courage when the way seems long. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Your Son was lifted up that whoever believes might have eternal life. We praise you for all who have died in Christ. Bring us with all the saints into the fullness of your promises. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Spirit of sweetness, teach us the ways of transformation and fertilization, the path from pollen to sweetest honey.Teach us to taste the essence of each place we alight. Draw us ever closer to the wisdomhidden within beauty. As with your bees, give us flight and sunlight, passion and productivity, and cooperation with those around us. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We entrust ourselves and all our prayers to you, O faithful God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Prayer of the Day

Holy God, through your Son you have called us to live faithfully and act courageously. Keep us steadfast in your covenant of grace, and teach us the wisdom that comes only through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Exodus 20: 1-17

¹God spoke all these words:   ²I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³you shall have no other gods before me.   ⁴You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.   ⁷You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
 ⁸Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.   ¹²Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.  ¹³You shall not murder.  ¹⁴You shall not commit adultery.  ¹⁵You shall not steal.  ¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.  ¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Psalm 19

¹The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims its maker’s handiwork.
²One day tells its tale to another, and one night imparts knowledge to another.

³Although they have no words or language, and their voices are not heard,
⁴their sound has gone out into all lands, and their message to the ends of the world, where God has pitched a tent for the sun.

⁵It comes forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber; it rejoices like a champion to run its course.

 ⁶It goes forth from the uttermost edge of the heavens and runs about to the end of it again; nothing is hidden from its burning heat.  

⁷The teaching of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the simple.
⁸The statutes of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes.
⁹The fear of the Lord is clean and endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold, sweeter far than honey, than honey in the comb. 

¹¹By them also is your servant enlightened, and in keeping them there is great reward.
¹²Who can detect one’s own offenses? Cleanse me from my secret faults.

¹³Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not get dominion over me; then shall I be whole and sound, and innocent of a great offense.
¹⁴Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. 

1 Corinthians 1: 18-25

¹⁸The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” ²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

John 2:13-22

¹³The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Sermon Meggan Manlove

Today’s scripture passages invite us into reflections on the role of buildings and spaces in our lives. It isn’t as if we need these passages to prod us into such reflecting. Many church leaders, including Trinity’s council members, have been talking about this for just about a year. Last spring, we heard, and sometimes shared, the phrase, “The building is closed, but the church is open.” 

 I confess that I have always been grateful that Trinity’s building is not too big, that our predecessors never overbuilt. When I served my congregation in Iowa, we had two church buildings, a big, beautiful country church three miles south of town where we worshiped Memorial Day through the end of June and the town church, a second massive structure built in the 1960s, where we worshiped eleven months of the year. Donations would come in for the country church all year long. At first, I would say to myself, “imagine what ministry these checks could fund.” But I soon realized that the people writing those checks would never defer the funds away from the country church to ministry in town. They wanted to maintain the building, so important to their families. 

And I will admit that there was something amazing about the history: the Norwegian immigrants who came across the prairie and decided that they wanted to build a place of worship. The curved wooden balcony, the reed pump organ, the one painting saved when the first country church burned down, and the cemetery, the only private one left in the county, that circled around the building. I grew to enjoy the month of worship there. 

One of my regrets about my time in Iowa is that we did not utilize people’s admiration for the building to tell stories of faith. I wish I had asked more pilgrims to the church and residents about their ancestors’ faith and how it inspired them to build that beautiful church.

I will never be certain if maintaining to the two buildings was the best use our resources; not that it was my choice. I honestly do not think there is a magical formula for figuring out when a building has become an idol that we worship, instead of a place that we gather together to worship. I actually do believe that church buildings can be sacred spaces instead of idols. All of those things are simultaneously true. And today’s story of Jesus in the Temple and the Ten Commandments encourage us to keep asking questions about our relationships to physical buildings and to faith practices. Those questions are especially appropriate during Lent, when our refrain is “return to the Lord your God.”

The temple cleansing completes the inaugural event begun with Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. That miracle revealed the grace and glory of Jesus and the abundant new life Jesus offers. The scene in the temple also brings new life—but in a very different way.

We cannot ignore the religious and historical context of the Jerusalem Temple. We can read all the rules dictating this in Deuteronomy. Cattle, sheep, and doves were required for burnt offerings in the Temple. Since Passover was a pilgrimage feast, many of those coming to worship in the Temple would have journeyed a great distance and would not have brought animals with them. This was not a quick trip to town; it was a journey cross-country on foot. And so, they needed to buy animals in Jerusalem in order to participate in temple worship.  

Furthermore, the temple tax could not be paid in Greek or Roman coins because of the human image, the emperor’s head, on these coins, and foreign coinage had to be changed into the legal Tyrian currency in Jerusalem. By now I hope we are seeing that the sale of animals and the changing of money were absolutely necessary if the worship was to proceed.

Surly there were inevitable abuses of the temple system, but in today’s story, Jesus confronts the entire system itself, not its abuses. Jesus confronts the practice and the setting and the process. He calls all of it into question, including the authority of the Temple and its worship.

The Jews demand a sign. Jesus responds to their request with the saying about the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple. They respond, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?”  

Early readers of the gospel familiar with historical events knew that Jesus’ words could not refer to a building. Why? Jesus could not refer to a building because the Romans had destroyed the temple in 70 C.E. and it still stood in ruins years later.  

So what in the world is going on here?  The narrator clues us in.  We must interpret this incident by connecting it with Jesus’ death and resurrection: When Jesus referred to the destruction and rebuilding of the temple, “he spoke of the temple of his body.”  What did this mean to John’s readers and, more importantly, what does it mean to us?

The animals and birds mentioned were prescribed by the Levitical code for sacrificed used for atonement and purification. Jesus disrupted the trade necessary for sacrifice. Jesus foreshadowed the permanent end of sacrificial worship in Jerusalem and its replacement with his own death.   

This would have been really, really good news to early readers of the gospel.  After all, the Temple had been destroyed; and with its destruction went the tangible means for forgiveness, the sacrifice. Now Jesus has replaced the Temple with nothing less than himself.

“But he was speaking of the temple of his body.  After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” The disciples remembered, and so do we each time we make our “journey” through Lent.  This is an introduction of a new spiritual order. It is not about anything we do. It’s about Jesus and the love he shared.  

It is something quite amazing to think about the embodied adult Jesus. We remember all the other bodies, just like ours that he came in contact with—people he ate with, healed, cast out demons from, and raised from the dead. And this list of characters might remind us of the characters in our own lives.

It is downright amazing, humbling, and truly awesome that God became embodied.  God is inherently relational and if we ever needed proof of that, the incarnation is it. God was never content to be off in the distance. Scripture is full of God arguing with humans, making covenants, giving us ways to live together. And yet in the incarnation, God’s relational character goes to a whole new level. Divinity and humanity relate to one another in a new way. God knows embodiment. 

This Lent we are encouraged to “Return to the Lord your God.” We are also planning our embodied return to in-person worship. As embodied creatures who have been apart and out of the building for a long period, how do we want to come back? What is most essential to nurturing our faith? What is most life-giving to the least among us and in our community? I come back to the question that has helped congregations measure the efficacy of their mission for years: “If Trinity Lutheran were to disappear tomorrow (not shut down due to a pandemic but really disappear), what, if anything would be missed?” 

We can point to our affiliated nonprofits of Trinity Community Gardens and Trinity New Hope to be sure. But what else would be missed? The building? Our message? The embodied people? What do we hope would be missed? How can we carry those questions into our embodied return? 

For better or worse, I have more questions today than answers. Fortunately, God is big enough for all of them. And God will continue to show up in the questions, in the unknown, in uncertainty, even when we do not know what steps to take. As Paul writes in his letter to the early church in Corinth, “For the message about the cross is foolishness.” 

The cross, in Jesus’ time and place, really was the most shameful and humiliating way to die. And yet that is what our embodied God did. It was the cost of eating with the wrong bodies, the cost of declaring that all bodies deserved to be whole and well, the cost of breaking the rules when the rules hindered the in-breaking of the reign of God.

We could all meditate on that line from First Corinthians for a lifetime. No trained theologian or pastor who says they fully comprehend the cross is worth his or her salt. But it is worth all of us pondering during these last few weeks of Lent, as we make our way to Good Friday. More questions: What kind of God chooses the cross? What kind of God reveals greatness in weakness? The kind of God who will continue to show up and be revealed when our broken embodied selves are downcast, forlorn, grieving, and lost.  Thanks be to God.

Prayers of Intercession

Relying on the promises of God, we pray boldly for the church, the world, and all in need.

A brief silence.

There is no God before you. Purify the faith of your church, that your people place their trust in nothing beside you. Your name is holy. Guide your church, that in every situation your people’s words and actions honor your name. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

The heavens declare your glory. Renew your creation. Provide leaders in the struggle for clean air and water; protect creatures and crops that rely on healthy ecosystems; give all people the willingness to repent when our way of life pollutes the earth and skies. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Your foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. Fill leaders with the foolishness of your peace and mercy. Your law defends the vulnerable. Work through legislators, judicial systems, and systems of law enforcement to protect the wellbeing and freedom of all (especially). Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Your weakness is stronger than human strength. Protect those who are vulnerable and give courage to all who are suffering (especially). Defend victims of crime and bring redemption to those who have harmed others. Give sabbath rest to all who labor. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

You call us to proclaim Christ crucified. Give clarity to this congregation and our leaders, so that we might follow Christ beyond our own habits and comfort. Clear out anything in our common life that would obscure the gospel or that serves our own interests. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

God, who searches for the lost: this season brings the lengthening of days. The longer light reveals what had been hidden. Cleanse our hearts as we spring-clean our dwellings.  May there be ample room in our hearts for justice, kindness, compassion and generosity, and from the abundance of our possessions, may we give away what we no longer need. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

The cross of Christ is your power for all who are being saved. Thank you for (Perpetua, Felicity, and) all the martyrs whose witness reveals the power of the cross. Give us the same trust in life and in death. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

We entrust ourselves and all our prayers to you, O faithful God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.      Amen.

Prayer of the Day

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life. Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. ²And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” ³Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ⁴“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁵No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”
¹⁵God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Psalm 22: 23-31

²³You who fear the Lord, give praise! All you of Jacob’s line, give glory.  Stand in awe of the Lord, all you offspring of Israel.
²⁴For the Lord does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither is the Lord‘s face hidden from them;  but when they cry out, the Lord hears them.

²⁵From you comes my praise in the great assembly; I will perform my vows in the sight of those who fear the Lord.
²⁶The poor shall eat and be satisfied, Let those who seek the Lord give praise! May your hearts live forever! 

²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; all the families of   nations shall bow before God.
²⁸For dominion belongs to the Lord, who rules over the nations.²⁹Indeed, all who sleep in the earth shall bow down in worship; all who go down to the dust, though they be dead, shall kneel before the Lord.
³⁰Their descendants shall serve the Lord, whom they shall proclaim to generations to come.

³¹They shall proclaim God’s deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying to them, “The Lord has acted!”

Romans 4:13-25

¹³The promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
¹⁶For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, ¹⁷as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²²Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” ²³Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Mark 8:31-38

³¹[Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Sermon – Pastor Meggan Manlove

 “Then he began to teach them.” We are encouraged to ask, what happened before the “then”? Our passage picks up in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and his disciples. Jesus had asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter had responded, “You are the Messiah.” Dramatic healings, perplexing parables, incredible miracles, and shocking inclusion can all be seen as the characteristic activities of an appealing messiah. The Messiah is the anointed king through whom God will deliver or save God’s people. 

We are right to imagine that Jesus’ first disciples associate this title Messiah then with earthly glory. And in the disciples’ defense, they have witnessed a lot of local fanfare around Jesus. Crowds of mostly peasant villagers have swarmed to Jesus in order to witness and receive his healing powers. Whenever local leaders oppose Jesus, Jesus bests them in the debates. And so, it is hard to blame the disciples for seeing their future full of earthly glory.

But the model confession of faith by Peter has a disturbing sequel. And Jesus’ words jolt the disciples. Jesus lays the future out quite plainly. Up until now in his ministry, Jesus has spoken only cryptically about persecution. Now he says clearly that he, the Son of Man, must undergo rejection, suffering, and death. It is precisely for this reason that his followers will take up crosses and lose their lives. 

Yes, Jesus will rise again. Yes, persecuted disciples will receive new life. Still, here it becomes clear that the road to messianic glory runs through death on the cross. The disciples are following Jesus to a cross. 

An important word in today’s passage from Mark is “must.” “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering.” Often this verse is taken to mean that Jesus’ mission is principally to suffer and die. In this kind of reading, Jesus “must” go to the cross in order to affect a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. 

But let’s pull the camera out and look at this verse in light of all of Jesus’ ministry. When we do that, we get a different, but still profound, explanation for Jesus’ death. Jesus dies because powerful humans oppose both his healing mission and, more specifically, the disruption that mission brings to established law and order. 

Let me repeat that, Jesus dies because powerful humans oppose both his healing mission and, more specifically, the disruption that mission brings to established law and order. This means that Jesus’ opponents are opposing what Jesus first announced when he came on the scene: the in-breaking reign of God.

The power, me might even call it the politics, at work in Jesus’ ministry has been and will continue to be central. For example, Jesus is unflinching in his insistence that the divine mission to welcome and reconcile sinners outweighs the stigma of associating with them. God’s mission to end human suffering is more important than any religious tradition that might hinder it. In other words, religious tradition is only worth keeping if it helps alleviate human suffering, if it helps usher in the reign of God. 

This is not a Christian correction to legalistic Judaism. It is instead a radical channeling of the longstanding Jewish belief in God’s compassion for the marginalized. 

What is the result of Jesus’ announcing this mission with his words and actions? The response to this healing, life-bringing mission is violent antagonism from the people invested in maintaining the status quo. This should no longer surprise us.

One scholar said, the real epiphany of today’s passage “is not that Jesus’ mission is to die, but that his faithfulness to God’s healing mission will inevitably result in his death…. Jesus ‘must’ die because his commitment to human healing will not falter.”

It might be easy for us to shake our heads at Peter’s rebuke and think that we never would have spoken to Jesus the way he did. But I am not so sure. Remember how the peasants out in Galilee were treated during the time of the Roman Empire or kingdom. Now this man Jesus comes along who is clearly the Messiah. 

They want the earthly liberation and victory they have always imagined—in which earthly power stands up to earthly power. Imagine Peter walking over to Jesus and taking him aside to set him straight about messiahship. “Suffering, rejection, and death are not on the agenda. Power, prestige, and dominion are on the agenda. It’s King David’s throne we’re after, ruling the nations with power and might. We signed up for a crown, not a cross!”

Peter was blinded by his own preconceptions, everything he thought should be on the messiah’s agenda. How often are we guilty of this? We assume that we know what must be done, so that even a word from Jesus himself cannot change our minds. We get blinded by our own prejudices, presuppositions, and preconceptions. We think we would never rebuke Jesus outright like Peter. Our rebuke is benign neglect, quiet indifference. 

In the midst of the conversation between Jesus and Peter, who Jesus addresses, seems to grow beyond the inner circle. We, the audience 2000 years later, are also drawn into Jesus’ invitation when he uses words like “anyone” and “whoever.” 

Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

In other words, as one scholar wrote, anyone who says they “follow Jesus must understand that sacrifice is involved. Discipleship is not some comfortable affiliation with Jesus but a life-changing-and potentially life-threatening—commitment to him.”

I think the most problematic word in the text for me today is not even in the text itself. It is how we have translated it, “take up your cross.” At its worse, it has been translated into something like, “bear your suffering meekly,” which drives abused women and others back into the hands of their abusers. More subtly but as much a distortion, a few weeks ago I was reading a book on Christian leadership which was lifting up deep humility. I wanted to hurl the book across the room and say, I finally believe in myself. Please do not shush me now, just when I am finding my voice. Fortunately, that’s not the cross-bearing Jesus is talking about.

Still, I know that I too am called to self-sacrifice, to take up my cross as an individual and as part of various communities. Our context of 21^st century America, with our democratic government and economy shaped by capitalism, is both similar and different to 1^st century Galilee under Roman occupation. 

Our context may be different, but the questions are the same: What are the barriers to the reign of God breaking in? What sacrifices will I make, that will cost me, really cost me, so that the reign of God comes in more quickly? Most days it feels like I have so little power to make any change. Where do I have power that I can wield? What power do I have with my voice, my wallet, my vote, my relationships? 

As a pastor of a congregation, these words of Jesus’ make me ask, what cross is our community asked to take up? What barriers to the reign of God breaking in can we help destroy? What will it cost us?    

These are all hard questions to ask during a pandemic, when the world has experienced so much death and loss. But the pandemic has also put a magnifying glass on those barriers to the reign of God. Every day we can read or hear about disparities in our health care system, barriers to exercising the right to vote, the widening gap between rich and poor. My deep abiding hope through all of it is that we will not waste all that has been brought to light.

This hope is grafted to the cross the Jesus himself bears. He carries it in a way I never will. Further, God will keep being present in surprising ways, just as Jesus was on the cross. Peter was hoping that Jesus would have earthly power, wealth, and fame and turn out to be the one on top. Martin Luther called this way of God working through things that are powerful a theology of glory. Jesus reveals, our passage today, and then again and again that God often works through the hidden, through weakness, even shame and death. Luther called it the theology of the cross.  

One scholar wrote that “A theology of the cross declares that the church is not Christendom, faith is not certainty, hope is not optimism, and love is not painless….To confess Jesus as Messiah is to recognize his dying body on the cross, and to recognize that discipleship is the way of our own cross.”

Prayers of Intercession

Relying on the promises of God, we pray boldly for the church, the world, and all in need.

A brief silence.

Your gift of grace is for all people. Give confident faith to all the baptized, that they may follow you wholeheartedly. Give new believers joy in your promises; give hope and courage to those who suffer for their faith. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

All the ends of the earth worship you. From galaxies to microorganisms, preserve your creation. Teach humanity to wonder at your works and to join you in tending to creation’s well-being. Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

You rule over the nations. Raise up advocates for peace and justice within and between nations. Give life where hope seems dead; call into existence new realities we cannot even imagine. (Here specific places of need may be named.) Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

In Jesus you joined humanity in suffering and death. Reveal to all the depth of your love shown on the cross. Accompany all who suffer in body, mind, and spirit. Restore all who are sick or grieving. Bring vindication for victims of injustice, exploitation, and oppression (especially). Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

You made Abraham and Sarah the ancestors of a multitude of nations. Bless grandparents, parents, and foster parents, and the children who look to them for care and guidance. Console those who deal with infertility, parents who have entrusted their children to adoption, and children longing to be adopted. Equip ministries and services to families. (The congregation’s ministries and community services may be named.) Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

Strike in our hearts the desire to help the needy. Help us to recognize that hunger affects not nameless, faceless people, but other human beings: people with families, hopes, and dreams for a better future. Allow us to work hard to bring about positive change in the lives of these people. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We await the day of Christ’s coming in glory. Lead us by the example of all the saints whom you have called to take up their cross and follow you, that together we may find our lives in you. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We entrust ourselves and all our prayers to you, O faithful God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of the Day

Holy God, heavenly Father, in the waters of the flood you saved the chosen, and in the wilderness of temptation you protected your Son from sin. Renew us in the gift of baptism. May your holy angels be with us, that the wicked foe may have no power over us, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Genesis 9:8-17

⁸God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹²God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Psalm 25:1-10

¹To you, O Lord,
  I lift up my soul.
²My God, I put my trust in you; let me not be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
³Let none who look to you be put to shame;
  rather let those be put to shame who are treacherous.
⁴Show me your ways, O Lord,
and teach me your paths. 
⁵Lead me in your truth and teach me,
  for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.
⁶Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love,
for they are from everlasting.
⁷Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions;
  remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
⁸You are gracious and upright, O Lord;
therefore you teach sinners in your way. 
⁹You lead the lowly in justice
  and teach the lowly your way.
¹⁰All your paths, O Lord, are steadfast love and faithfulness
  to those who keep your covenant and your testimonies. 

1 Peter 3:18-22

¹⁸Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. ²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Mark 1:9-15

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

¹²And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Prayers of Intercession

In Jesus your realm has come near to us in every place and time. Give your church throughout the world a spirit of humility and repentance; teach us to trust always in the good news of your salvation. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

You have made a covenant of mercy with every living creature. Protect all the earth’s creatures from destruction. Empower the work of biologists, conservationists, and science educators. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

All your paths are steadfast love and faithfulness. Direct the words and actions of leaders in our community and throughout the world, that they may maintain justice for the lowly. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

Even in the wilderness you are with us. Walk alongside migrants and refugees crossing dangerous lands. Tend to those whose lives feel desolate. Give healing and strength to all who suffer (especially). Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

In the covenant of baptism you claim us as beloved children. Nurture us in our baptismal identity and teach us to live within it for the sake of others. Strengthen this congregation’s ministries of care and concern (especially). Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

Here other intercessions may be offered.In baptism you join us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We praise you for all those who have died trusting in your faithfulness. Bring us with them to the fullness of your reign. Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

We entrust ourselves and all our prayers to you, O faithful God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of the Day

Almighty God, the resplendent light of your truth shines from the mountaintop into our hearts. Transfigure us by your beloved Son, and illumine the world with your image, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

2 Kings 2:1-12

¹Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. ²Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. ³The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” And he said, “Yes, I know; keep silent.”
⁴Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. ⁵The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know; be silent.”
⁶Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. ⁷Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. ⁸Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.
⁹When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” ¹⁰He responded, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.” ¹¹As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. ¹²Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Psalm 50:1-6

¹The mighty one, God the Lord, has spoken;
  calling the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
²Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty,
God shines forth in glory. 
³Our God will come and will not keep silence;
  with a consuming flame before, and round about a raging storm.
⁴God calls the heavens and the earth from above
to witness the judgment of the people.
⁵“Gather before me my loyal followers,
  those who have made a covenant with me and sealed it with sacrifice.”
⁶The heavens declare the rightness of God’s cause,
for it is God who is judge. 

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

³Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Mark 9:2-9

²Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” ⁸Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Sermon – Pr Meggan Manlove

The story of Jesus’ Transfiguration points us to mystery.  It’s a mystery beyond the reach of historical reconstruction or scientific verification. We are all children of the Enlightenment, whether we are lab scientists or social workers. The story of the transfiguration attempts to draw us into who Jesus is.  We do not sit comfortably with mystery.  We want everything to be factual. Today I am going to draw on two different traditions. Hopefully this will help us hear the story in a new way.

Two summers ago, when I was back in my hometown of Custer, South Dakota, I spent a few hours with Larry Peterson, a family friend and Lutheran pastor. Around twenty years of Larry’s ministry was serving as director of the retreat center on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We talked about the ways Lakota Christians interpret a variety of scriptural passages, but what stood out to me was the interpretation of the Transfiguration. 

Larry told me this story about when he was serving a White congregation in Hill City. “When I first came to the Black Hills again, in 1980, I got involved in a text study group meeting at St. Matthew’s Church in Rapid City.  This Episcopal Church served mostly Native American people, and the Priest was Fr. Bob Two Bulls. In our text study we were looking at the Transfiguration text and he said, ‘This is my favorite text.’ I thought he was joking, but I asked him why he liked this text so much. He responded that this was a text that everyone in his congregation could relate to. I told him that I find this to be a very difficult text because basically no one in my congregation, including myself, can relate to the event of this text. 

Bob Two Bulls went on to share with me what the vision quest is all about, and that even if a member of his congregation had never, personally, been on such a quest, they would know how meaningful an experience it is for the community.  Oftentimes a Lakota person will go on a vision quest if they are having a hard time figuring out direction for their life, or if they are struggling to know how they might help a member of their community who is going through a particularly difficult time in their life. 

When the person decides to take part in this ‘Crying for a vision’ they have a Spiritual leader prepare them, take them to a place to be alone as they seek to have this vision, and then meet with them following the two or three days they spend ‘On the hill.’ The person comes back to the Spiritual leader and relays to that person what they heard on the hill. The speaker may have been someone from the past (a grandparent, aunt, or uncle who has died), an animal, or just a voice. The Spiritual leader helps them understand what the message may mean, and how they might live in response to this vision.” 

I personally will never hear the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration the same again. Was Jesus crying for a vision? Maybe. The heavens had broken open during his baptism and he had heard a voice from heaven, “You are my son.” Maybe, having predicted his death and knowing what lie ahead, he wanted to hear the voice again. We can never be sure what Jesus was seeking. This disciples too had a vision. They saw their friend and teacher’s outside appearance change to dazzling. Further, they hear the voice affirm that this is God’s Son and that the imperative: “Listen to him.”

One other piece of this story that really stood out to me as I set it beside the Native American vision quest was the place of these other human beings. What I mean is, a vision quest may be a solitary experience, but it involves community, with other people helping interpret the vision and experience. That is as significant as the vision itself. This leads us into to the other tradition that may be helpful.

The Transfiguration, with all that seems strange to my post-Enlightenment ears and brain, also reminds me of what Celtic spirituality refers to as liminal spaces. Liminal space is a place of transition, it’s the moment in time caught between then and now, the past and the not yet. If that does not describe Jesus between his predictions about his death and resurrection and his time in Jerusalem, what does? Liminal spaces can make us feel uncomfortable—see Peter, who is in such a tizzy. 

And yet, eve in its awkwardness, there is a sacredness in liminal space. If we move through it well, then we move into fullness. The poet, John O’Donohue made this connection with sacredness and liminal space, which he referred to as thresholds, saying, “when we cross a new threshold worthily…we heal the patters of repetition that were in us, that had us caught somewhere. I think beauty in that sense is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth.” 

Shemaiah Gonzaelz says that “When we push through liminal space, beauty breaks through in a glimmer as we see a truer reflection of who we are meant to be.” She continues by explaining how crucial community is to this process. It makes me mindful that Jesus did not go up the mountain alone. This is similar to but quite different from his 40 days in the Wilderness. He takes Peter, James, and John with him. If he had gone alone, it seems that he would not have remained that way. Elijah and Moses appear.

Gonzaelz, my guide for liminal spaces, writes, “I have been known to gather moss in liminal space, and it is community that has saved me. Community serves as a mirror, to see my weakness in the reflection of another but also to shine light on my strengths. In community I learn how to lean on another for support, knowing there will be a time when I will supply to shoulder to cry on or the arm to lean upon. In community I see who I was created to be and I rest, gathering strength for the transition to come. This is the crux of liminal space, as we can only come into fullness as humans in community, when we realize we are not alone.”

The transfiguration of Jesus comes at a point of major transition as he shifts from his active ministry among the people toward Jerusalem, the place of his death and resurrection. Jesus knows how hard it will be for his disciples to understand this.  And so, he takes his closest disciples, his community, and heads up a mountain. He sets out on a sort of vision quest during this transition time.  

On the mountain, they come into the presence of God the Father, and their hearts and souls are opened. They see what their eyes can barely believe. Their friend and teacher, the very human Jesus, is transfigured before them.  His clothes become dazzling white. Elijah and Moses appear before them. 

Jesus was affirmed as God’s Son, on a mission that will lead to suffering and death. Other passion predictions will follow, but none of them will be divinely affirmed as the first. The word from the cloud, “Listen to him,” is a reminder to pay attention to Jesus’ reliable words. He will continue to teach and heal. Ultimately this will all lead to his laying down his life.

Part of what it means to follow Jesus is to look for where God’s glorious new life bursts forth minute by minute. It means having the eyes of faith to see it. Eyes of faith perceive the presence of God where God is not noticeable, where we do not expect to find God, whether it is in a stranger’s welcome, the hospitality of a child, or even in someone’s question about God. Look for God where God is not noticeable and hold onto the promise that you never need to find him. And remember that you need a community to be a faithful disciple or follower of Jesus. Certainly, you can have moments of solitude and those can be life-giving, but we need other human beings.

I return to those words of Sheimaiah Gonzalez: “In community I see who I was created to be, and I rest, gathering strength for the transition to come. This is the crux of liminal space, as we can only come into fullness as humans in community, when we realize we are not alone.” 

Our Lenten theme, starting Ash Wednesday and carried through each of the midweek worship services, is Created for Community. Perhaps we can find some liminal spaces this year during Lent. Further, even though, we are physically separated, we can be mindful that we are part of so many communities—the creation, all the saints, our neighbors, those on the margins, and of Jesus Christ himself. From the snow silently falling, the neighbor we have gotten to know, the people experiencing homelessness, the friend who died, the Word and Sacraments, all of these communities God has made us part of are how we follow the imperative central to the Transfiguration Story, “Listen to him.” Amen. 

Prayers of Intercession

Guided by Christ made known to the nations, let us offer our prayers for the church, the world, and all people in need.

A brief silence.For the gospel proclaimed in word and deed, for communities of faith far and near, and for all who show the face of Christ throughout the world, let us pray. Have mercy, O God.

For creation: sun, moon and stars; life forming in the dark earth and ocean deep; mountains, clouds and storms, and creatures seen and unseen, and for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our stewardship of God’s creation, let us pray. Have mercy, O God.

For those responsible for safety and protection: for emergency responders and security guards, attorneys and advocates, civil servants and leaders of governments, that they witness to mercy and justice throughout the world, let us pray.

Have mercy, O God.For all who suffer this day (especially), that Christ our healer transform sickness into health, loneliness into companionship, bereavement into consolation, and suffering into peace, let us pray.Have mercy, O God.

For companions on life’s journey in this worshiping community, for loved ones who cannot be with us this day, and for guidance during struggles we face, that God’s glory is revealed around and among us, let us pray. Have mercy, O God.

Here other intercessions may be offered.In thanksgiving for the faithful departed who now rest from their earthly pilgrimage (especially missionaries Cyril and Methodius), that their lives of service and prayer inspire us in our living, let us pray. Have mercy, O God.

Merciful God, hear the prayers of your people, spoken or silent, for the sake of the one who dwells among us, your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.