Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church

Transfiguration Sunday

January 23, 2008

We are headed to the celebration of Transfiguration Sunday on Feb. 3 and then on to the celebration of Ash Wednesday on Feb. 6. Some of us have our attention focused on the upcoming Super Bowl on Feb. 3 ... and I encourage you to not fuss at your people because they are more excited about that upcoming football game than they are about coming to church to celebrate either Transfiguration Sunday or Ash Wednesday!

I want to encourage you to be so prepared to present a worship experience on Transfiguration Sunday that demonstrates what it is like when God shines his favor on those who love him God and worship him in Spirit and Truth. I want this day to be a day for which you prepare by surrendering yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit -- so that you may experience the presence of God as Peter, James, and John obviously did on that mountain.

You see, every Sunday needs to be packed with power for those who come to worship God. The week has been long ... trials have come ... temptations have been placed in our way to entice us to be unfaithful ... someone denigrated us this week ... and we have had experiences that have tried to change our testimony. We need to see God in the preacher. We need to hear the voices of angels from our choirs. We need ushers to welcome and usher us into the presence of the Lord most high. We need acolytes that carry in the flame of the Spirit and the presence of the Christ. We need Sunday school teachers who teach as if they were the very voice of the Teacher. We need a welcoming face sitting next to us in our pew or chair that says, "I’m glad to be here with you today as we are touched by the hand of God."

And when we leave our worship experience, even if someone says to us, “Tell no one about the vision," we will experience the words of a gospel song: “I said I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but, I just couldn’t keep it to myself.”

And when you go to Ash Wednesday after a worship experience like that on Transfiguration Sunday, no one will have to remind you that “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” No, you won't need the reminder because you will know that what you experienced last Sunday was divine and could have only come from the hand and touch of the Creator. The ashes will remind you of our common beginning and our common destiny. It will remind you that all is in the secure hands of he who loved us so much that he hung, bled, and died for our sins and transgressions. The joy comes when we understand that this was a willful act. That is, God made a choice to send his only son. The Son made the choice to die for these dust-made creations, and the Holy Spirit has made the choice to live within us and empower us to serve and please God.

I dream of a transformation for the people of our churches that will demonstrate to a disbelieving world that Jesus is God’s son and the lover of our souls. I pray that it will be so for you on this Transfiguration Sunday and on this Ash Wednesday.

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