03/02/2025 ~ The Eight Sunday After the Epiphany and the Last Sunday Before Lent ~ A.K.A. Transfiguration Sunday ~ A.K.A. the eight Sunday in ordinary time ~ Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a) ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/1062771341

Transfiguration and Reality

“Therefore, because we have this ministry through God’s mercy, we do not give into discouragement, we do not lose heart.” — 2 Corinthians 4:1.

Most of you have heard me say I worked in professional theater. When I do that I often mention being a writer and lyricist. But that short changes what I did. Like many people in theater I did a myriad of things.

To highlight just one thing, I was an executive with The Actors’ Fund of America, now known as the Entertainment Community Fund. The Fund offers social services from financial assistance to employment training and operates the Actors’ Fund Home, a nursing and assisted living facility.

Now, when I worked for the Fund I was one of two people who went through the estate of Basil Rathbone and his wife Ouida. Those of you over 50 will know exactly who Basil Rathbone is. Those of you under fifty will probably have to Google him.

Rathbone, a British character actor, played heros and villains— Sherlock Holmes and Pontius Pilate to name one of each— and in the 1940s was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. After Rathbone and his wife died lawyers rummaged through their estate, got what they thought was of value and handed the rest over to the Fund.

Some of what to those lawyers looked like was junk was not. I got to plow through what was leftover. For reasons too long to explain, back then I had a reputation for evaluating theatrical memorabilia— items associated with significant theater people.

Now, when you go through an estate seeking something which might have value, rule one is when you find junk get rid of it. But discerning what has value isn’t easy. It’s not necessarily about monetary value. It’s about emotional value.

Here’s an example of the difference between memorabilia worth something and junk. Rathbone’s first Actors’ Equity contract on Broadway— valuable. An 8 x 10 glossy picture of a place setting from a Rathbone dinner party— not so much. (Slight pause.)

We hear this in 2 Corinthians: “Therefore, because we have this ministry through God’s mercy, we do not give into discouragement, we do not lose heart.” (Slight pause.)

Every commentary I’ve ever seen says this passage is very complex. Hence, figuring out what Paul is trying to say is not easy. But I want to make a suggestion. Paul is encouraging us to go back to essentials, the basics— get rid of the junk.

I find it instructive that this reading is the assigned Epistle lectionary today, Transfiguration Sunday. That $64 word you heard earlier, theophany, is defined as an experience of the real presence of God, something which certainly involves our emotions. The Transfiguration is a theophany. [1]

That brings us back to Paul. The apostle brings up the Torah, the teachings, Moses. Then Paul says (quote:) “And we… reflect the glory of our God, grow brighter and brighter as we are being transformed into the same image we reflect.”

In New Testament times anyone would have recognized what Paul is doing using the word ‘glory.’ Glory— Kabod in Hebrew— means the real presence of God. And what is the Transfiguration? It’s an experience of the real presence of God.

And that is, I think, why Paul insists ministry is present through God’s mercy and we should not give into discouragement, should not lose heart. Indeed, Paul draws on the story of Moses to make the point that in Christ God enables all to participate in the glory of God because the glory of God is present. God walks with us.

And that is the reality we Christians claim, the claim of the Transfiguration, the claim of the Resurrection. God is present. God walks with us. (Slight pause.)

As Christians, we need to focus not on the idea that God is present to me, God walks with me. Rather God is present to all of us. God walks with all of us.

Further, Paul also says do not be discouraged. Are there are times I am discouraged, times we are all discouraged together? Yes. But that’s simply life, simply being human.

Indeed, if Paul possessed any human trait he also must have had those times of being discouraged. If that were not true the Apostle never would have never written (quote:) “we do not give into discouragement, we do not lose heart.”

Why? Because (quote:) “We have this ministry through God’s mercy,….” And that, my friends, is not junk. Paul is simply pointing at the basics of life with God, the basics of our emotional life with God.

So, what do we need to do? We need to do something else very, very human. We need to look around and realize that ministry here and now, in this place, at this time, is granted to us by God. And yes, God is with us. God does walk with us. This is basic. This is about our emotional life with God. Amen.

03/02/2025
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Generally, we Congregationalists fall under the category, the heading, of the group commonly called Protestant. But we need to realize that the Latin root of the word is protestari. It breaks down this way: testari is to declare publicly, to testify, to witness. Pro means for. Hence, a Protestant is not someone who protests but someone who witnesses for. For what do we Protestants witness? We witness for the reality that God is with us. God walks with us.”

BENEDICTION: God heals and restores. God grants to us the grace and the talent to witness to the love God has for us. So let us live in the light God offers. And, therefore, let us be ready as we go into the world, for we are baptized in the power of the Spirit. And may the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.

[1] A theophany was explained when the Transfiguration reading was introduced.