Sermon for February 14, 2021 - The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany - The Ven. Pat Zifcak
This morning, we are in an in- between moment. Yesterday Holy Women, Holy Men, our guide to the Saints of the Church, celebrated the life of Absalom Jones, a central figure in the story of our historically black churches as the first African American to be ordained priest in the Episcopal Church and founder of the first black church in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. St. Thomas was established in 1794 and Absalom was ordained its priest in 1802. The congregation continues to worship in the same church building today.
Yesterday, today, and on Wednesday we gather virtually for our Ash Wednesday services at noon and seven. It felt important to mark these two significant events in the life of the church in light of our readings today.
Elisha accompanies Elijah on the road. Peter, James and John accompany Jesus up a high mountain. We are marking a journey of faith that recalls God’s action in the lives of our ancestors and calls us to a faith journey in this mountain top experience with Jesus.
I recognize the journey because the words God speaks to those gathered on the mountain are the same words God speaks at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan: “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” We recognize that we are on a journey when Elijah strikes the waters of the Jordan with his mantle and the waters part to allow the travelers to cross on dry land. When I hear Elisha’s promise to Elijah, “I will not leave you” I remember Peter outside the gates in Jerusalem and at supper with Jesus on Maundy Thursday. He made a promise he couldn’t keep.
Peter is Peter. He misinterprets the appearance of Elijah and Moses and assumes that Jesus’ transfiguration is the end of his earthly work. “It is good that we should be here. Let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Elijah and one for Moses.” Permanence. Even though Jesus has been preparing Peter and the others for their journey to Jerusalem, they do not understand.
God’s words at Jesus’ baptism sanctified his ministry of teaching and preaching. God’s words now, “Listen to him…” sanctify his journey toward suffering and death. Peter wants to wear the crown without the cross. And we can’t blame him. We are beginning this part of the journey again and with certain knowledge that what is asked of us is remembering not suffering. Peter was on the journey for the first time, knew the end of the story, and did not want to go. Would we have been any different? Jesus’ transfiguration is a glimpse of what awaits him-resurrection. Peter misunderstands the appearance of Moses and Elijah. He thinks they have come to welcome Jesus. They have come to talk with Jesus about his departure- what awaits him in Jerusalem. Their journeys have ended; his, not yet.
This Sunday is the last after the Epiphany; next Sunday is first Lent. Today we can look back to the beginning of our faith story and the birth of Jesus; next Sunday we begin to walk toward the cross and crucifixion, the dark and quiet of Lent inescapable for those of us who journey with him in these forty days. The lectionary sets us firmly in this time of contradiction, this time of transfiguration. Life and death. What greater test of faith could there be than this and what greater companion for us on the way?
There are moments in our lives where the destination is everything. How we travel doesn’t matter, what we might learn along the way doesn’t matter. Arriving is the only goal. And here we are at the start of another Lent with decisions to make between the journey and the destination. What is it that matters most to us? Good Friday and Holy Week will come whether we stay on the mountain and send Jesus on alone or whether we, knowing what lies ahead, travel the way with him. I do think our experience of Easter Sunday will reflect the choice we make. Will the crown fit comfortably upon our heads if we have not born the cross, even for a little while, or been pierced by thorns? Will our alleluias ring with the joy that comes at the end of a long and difficult road? Will our Eucharist hold the power of remembering Maundy Thursday? As we pray will our knees ache with the memory of kneeling at the foot of the cross? How can we know joy without sorrow? How can we rejoice in the power of the resurrection on Easter Sunday without the journey through the wilderness?
Our journey of faith began at our baptism. Now we must choose for ourselves how to live into the promises made for us. Will it be the journey or the destination that shapes our lives? Today we can invite Absalom Jones to be our guide. Born into slavery in 1746, he educated himself first by learning to read scripture. When the white congregation of the Methodist Church where Absalom was lay minister to the black congregants insisted that they sit in the balcony, he refused to stay. With his associates, he built a church that still remains and, although it took seven years, he was ordained a priest in 1802. In an excerpt from a sermon, Absalom Jones declares that the God who delivered the children of Israel from their bondage is the same God who hears the cries of enslaved peoples today and will deliver them. Is there any doubt that for Absalom it is the journey that matters? It is the journey that builds the courage we need, step by step, to rise up out of despair, to walk away, to begin again, to believe in God’s constancy. Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on the holy mountain and God found them there. How we journey is not important; that we journey is everything.