Last Sunday after the Epiphany Year A

The Last Sunday after the Epiphany_Year A February 23, 2020 One of the consistent surprises for me in parish ministry is that sometimes there are seasons when I come into my office and discover things that you have left for me on my desk. Often they are things that you like that you think I would like too, so you offer them to read or listen to or sample. Sometimes they are notes from you. Sometimes they are what I like to call “happies,” thoughtful little gifts that you leave. All of these surprises bring light and joy to my life by their thoughtfulness. In the past couple of weeks, I have received a number of these surprises from you. Someone left me a copy of this month’s O Magazine. (Whoever you are, I can’t help but wonder if you intentionally didn’t sign the card lest you end up in a sermon? But thank you for seeking to help you priest avoid further petty larceny!) I also received a lovely scarf depicting stain glass windows from the National Cathedral along with a chocolate bar and a note from the giver encouraging me to continue to keep my light shining. It helped me to realize that is the effect for me of all of these surprises, these notes, these gifts; they are gifts of encouragement to me from you saying that you recognize the light in me, you give thanks for it, and you give me bits of yourself to strengthen me to shine on even in the darkest of times. This week, I learned that there is a Hebrew word that gets to the heart of some of this. It is Shekhinah, and it describes “a light that reveals God’s glory (or God’s presence?) in someone;” Or as a colleague of mine referred to it, “The dazzle.” We see the shikhinah or “the dazzle” of the glory of God at work in our Old Testament reading and our gospel reading for today—fitting readings for us on this last Sunday in Epiphany, the season of light and dazzle. Jesus takes three of his disciples up onto the mountain, and there they witness his be-dazzlement, his transfiguration. They see the shikhinah—the glory of God as revealed in and through Jesus and they hear the voice of God affirming Jesus in his ministry. In the face of this light, all four of them are changed, refreshed and renewed, and the disciples are afraid and confused and unsure of what to make of it all until Jesus tells them not to be afraid. Sometimes when the light of the glory of God shines through a person it is truly a fearsome and wondrous thing. What you all do for me is what we are all called to do for each other as a Christian community and beyond. We are called to recognize the glory of God when it shines forth in the other, to hold up a mirror to them to show them their bedazzlement, and to encourage them to shine on. It’s the heart of why we come to worship week after week; we show up longing to be dazzled, to see and taste and hear and smell the presence of God in our worship and in each other and in ourselves. But in order to do this well, we must create space for it. We must be willing to come apart to a deserted place. We must be willing to be still and silent and present and wait for the Lord’s glory to be revealed. We must be opened to being dazzled by each other. A couple of weeks ago, a parishioner left me a note on my desk that shared with me why he came to church. He wrote about how throughout the week, he feels like an old car who has been driven too hard, gotten too dirty and run down. But he comes to church, and he finds himself restored, refreshed, renewed; and he goes back out into the world feeling like a bright, shiny car, buffed and cleaned and polishes and ready to go for the next week. What a gift that note has been to me, as I’ve been thinking about those images he shared for the last couple of weeks, thinking especially about how I am called as the priest here to try to help us cultivate space in worship for renewal and refreshment. One of the ways that I think we can all do this better is to try to be more intentional in our quiet before the service begins, spending that time in preparation for worship, in opening our hearts to God, inviting God to show up, shine for and dazzle us; looking forward to the ways that God will refresh us in and through our worship. We are a very social congregation, and we often struggle to be quiet before the services. It is much more appealing to visit and catch up with our friends, and socializing is an important aspect of church life. It also becomes a way to fill up and avoid the silence that our souls need to be open to God and to each other in our worship. So for the season of Lent, I’m going to invite us all to return to the practice of being quiet when you come into church. I’ll provide some prayer resources for you to help you prepare for worship; you may use them if you like or say your own prayers or even rest in the quiet. To help set the reflective tone we are trying to cultivate, we’ll be playing some quiet, reflective music through the sound system. I invite you to enter into this in the spirit in which it is offered-as creating space for ourselves and for others to be refreshed and renewed in worship and to encounter the dazzle, Shekhinah, the light that reveals God’s glory (or God’s presence?) in someone or some place. So that you may be refreshed and renewed, sent out to seek out God’s light in others and to hold up a mirror before them. Your invitation for this week is to see the light in one other person and to find some way to acknowledge that in them, to hold up the mirror before them through words or deeds so they might see God’s glory reflected back at them. In closing, here is a blessing for you for this Last Sunday after Epiphany by the artist and minister Jan Richardson: When Glory A Blessing for Transfiguration Sunday That when glory comes, we will open our eyes to see it. That when glory shows up, we will let ourselves be overcome not by fear but by the love it bears. That when glory shines, we will bring it back with us all the way, all the way, all the way down.i i. When Glory by Jan Richardson. http://paintedprayerbook.com/2014/02/23/transfiguration-sunday-when-glory/