Lent is about the Journey… Last week we followed our Lord into the desert and today we journey up the mountain. In the weeks ahead, we’ll journey to Jacobs Well for a drink of life-giving water and move towards healing where we can truly see again and even come back to life. But this journey of ours ultimately brings us to the Way of the Cross, the portion of the journey where our Lord carries us and all the world’s burdens up that hill so that we might truly live!
So how is your journey going so far this Lent? How’s life without that “thing” you gave up so that you might have room in your heart for God’s healing grace?
Like so many other times on this road, today we are given a promise; the promise that we are not alone and that we have a place to go. For as the Lord told Abram, we can “go forth from the land of [our] kinsfolk and from [our] father’s house to a land that [will be shown to us].”
So here is a fun aside… In today’s first reading, Abram will become Abraham. On this side of the encounter with God, Abram is being given an offer to consider. He is given a journey to make in order to truly know his God! His trust to follow will bring him to a place where this promise will be fulfilled in the Covenant that gives Abraham descendants as many as the stars in the sky. This may sound simplistic, but when we follow the call of our Lord, something changes in us, something as core as our very being. In scripture, your name means everything, so when Abram becomes Abraham, he has changed forever! Another example of this occurs in the New Testament when Saul, the Pharisee who persecuted Christians and oversaw the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr and Deacon for that matter, had an encounter with Jesus along his journey to Damascus. During that encounter Jesus, present to him in a blinding light, asked him by name, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul, now blinded by the light, fell to the ground and his transformation began, for soon after, and with the waters of Baptism, Saul became Paul, and Thea’s they say, the rest is history… The history of our collective journey of faith. So while our names might not change, although, sometimes we do take a new name for Confirmation… When we answer the call of the Lord to make our journey, the promise is for more than just finding a new piece of land. It is a complete change in who you are and what you are called to be… You are a child of God! You are one of those descendants promised with God’s Covenant with Abraham. You are one of the countless stars in the sky that is destined to find the Promise-Land to serve the Lord, bear the challenges, and share his love with all along the way!
As we sang in today’s Psalm, “Lord have mercy on us… as we place our trust in you.” So yes… This all depends on our TRUST and the acceptance of Christ’s promise of salvation. In the spirit if the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, “We need to keep our eyes on the prize,” but in the spirit of what we all know to be true, we must prepare for the struggles along the way, seeing them as worth the effort and worth the sacrifice, which is why St. Paul encouraged Timothy and his community to “bear [their] share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.”
Let me take another aside here and note that one privilege I get to do as a Deacon is to live out the adage that a Deacon has one foot in the Clergy and one foot in the Laity. This means that as much as you see me here on our Altar, I, like you, am called to be active in sharing my faith in my marriage, my family and with the world in which we live, and I am called to represent that “service arm” of our Bishop and our Church. For those who don’t know it, I work for the State of Alabama in their Department of Rehabilitation Services, specifically as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor. I have the honor of serving a case load of high school and college students and adults who are disabled. My vocation is to help them achieve career goals, in spite of the challenges that come with their disability, be it physical, mental or cognitive in nature.
Week before last, all of the elements of my life converged when an “issue” became a part of my heart. In my work with a student in my caseload that had become inactive, I set up meeting with she and her mother to simply check-in. As would be customary, I asked, “So tell me how everything is going.” The two looked at each other, and the young lady began to tell me of how her father was picked up my Immigration Officers. As they shared their story, and the fact that there didn’t seem to be a reason for his arrest as he had everything in order, their eyes filled with tears and my heart broke. Issues and reasons and everything else took a backseat to the reality that a wife and daughter had to experience this kind of pain and worry. With tears in my own eyes and a lump in my throat, I removed my work badge and asked them if I could be myself for a moment, and not just a voc. rehab counselor. I said, “My name is Deacon Greg Thompson and I’ve been praying for you for quite a while.” I explained to them that in my prayers I have been praying for those generally affected by the many challenges in our world today (and this would be one of them), but I’ve yet to meet someone so directly affected. We prayed and we cried, and I thanked them for their witness of courage and strength, because as they told their story, they always added that they know that God has a purpose for them and that they would get through this. So my prayers continue, but now they have a face of one who sits in a detention center somewhere in Louisiana hoping that everything works out for him and his family. While the face in my prayer is that of a husband and a father, it is also includes many other faces and lives that must endure similar challenges and feelings of helplessness… I have no doubt that this might include you because it’s not just related to this issue, it stretches to all who have to bear their hardship and are strengthened by the God who loves them!
This past week Fr. Joe led a reflection for our St. Vincent de Paul Ministry Team which offered us a chance to relate our visits with seeing the Face of Christ in the ones we serve, which in a way bring us to today’s Gospel as “Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”
For the first time, Jesus’ Apostles saw him for who he truly was, God’s beloved Son with whom he is well pleased. As the Lord was there, transfigured before them, he was flanked by Moses, the Face of the Law and the one who guided us to the land promised to Abram all those generations before, and Elijah, the Face of the Prophets and the Truth they professed, especially during times of trial and challenge.
I find it fitting that it was Peter, James and John that went with Jesus up the mountain, for their journey announced their call and their purpose. Moses who represented God’s Law and our exodus to freedom, offers us a connection to Peter and how he would lead the Church as a way of leading God’s people home to the promise of heaven.
Elijah, representing the Prophets and their sharing of the Truth of God’s plan, even in tough times, offers us a connection to James, one of the Sons of Thunder, who with courageous faith would be the first Apostle to be martyred.
And finally, Jesus who’s “face shone like the sun [with] his clothes dazzling white, represents the love of God fulfilled for all, making John, his most beloved Apostle a symbol of our grace in sharing in a divine love for God!
So with much grace and thanksgiving in my heart, I stand here and see the Face of Christ in you. I see the face of our Law of Love and the Lord’s Commandments being lived. I see the face of Truth and the struggle to grasp it and share it all. And I see the face of love in the people that I share Church and Ministry with… Bright like the sun in a dazzling light before me, I see us celebrating the Face of Christ in our midst!
But we can’t stay here as we must go back down the mountain. We must have the courage to rise and live out our faith, not in words but in action, so that other might see the risen Lord when his Face is revealed to them in the works that we are privileged to do!
So how is your journey going so far this Lent? How’s life without that “thing” you gave up so that you might have room in your heart for God’s healing grace?
Like so many other times on this road, today we are given a promise; the promise that we are not alone and that we have a place to go. For as the Lord told Abram, we can “go forth from the land of [our] kinsfolk and from [our] father’s house to a land that [will be shown to us].”
So here is a fun aside… In today’s first reading, Abram will become Abraham. On this side of the encounter with God, Abram is being given an offer to consider. He is given a journey to make in order to truly know his God! His trust to follow will bring him to a place where this promise will be fulfilled in the Covenant that gives Abraham descendants as many as the stars in the sky. This may sound simplistic, but when we follow the call of our Lord, something changes in us, something as core as our very being. In scripture, your name means everything, so when Abram becomes Abraham, he has changed forever! Another example of this occurs in the New Testament when Saul, the Pharisee who persecuted Christians and oversaw the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr and Deacon for that matter, had an encounter with Jesus along his journey to Damascus. During that encounter Jesus, present to him in a blinding light, asked him by name, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul, now blinded by the light, fell to the ground and his transformation began, for soon after, and with the waters of Baptism, Saul became Paul, and Thea’s they say, the rest is history… The history of our collective journey of faith. So while our names might not change, although, sometimes we do take a new name for Confirmation… When we answer the call of the Lord to make our journey, the promise is for more than just finding a new piece of land. It is a complete change in who you are and what you are called to be… You are a child of God! You are one of those descendants promised with God’s Covenant with Abraham. You are one of the countless stars in the sky that is destined to find the Promise-Land to serve the Lord, bear the challenges, and share his love with all along the way!
As we sang in today’s Psalm, “Lord have mercy on us… as we place our trust in you.” So yes… This all depends on our TRUST and the acceptance of Christ’s promise of salvation. In the spirit if the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, “We need to keep our eyes on the prize,” but in the spirit of what we all know to be true, we must prepare for the struggles along the way, seeing them as worth the effort and worth the sacrifice, which is why St. Paul encouraged Timothy and his community to “bear [their] share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.”
Let me take another aside here and note that one privilege I get to do as a Deacon is to live out the adage that a Deacon has one foot in the Clergy and one foot in the Laity. This means that as much as you see me here on our Altar, I, like you, am called to be active in sharing my faith in my marriage, my family and with the world in which we live, and I am called to represent that “service arm” of our Bishop and our Church. For those who don’t know it, I work for the State of Alabama in their Department of Rehabilitation Services, specifically as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor. I have the honor of serving a case load of high school and college students and adults who are disabled. My vocation is to help them achieve career goals, in spite of the challenges that come with their disability, be it physical, mental or cognitive in nature.
Week before last, all of the elements of my life converged when an “issue” became a part of my heart. In my work with a student in my caseload that had become inactive, I set up meeting with she and her mother to simply check-in. As would be customary, I asked, “So tell me how everything is going.” The two looked at each other, and the young lady began to tell me of how her father was picked up my Immigration Officers. As they shared their story, and the fact that there didn’t seem to be a reason for his arrest as he had everything in order, their eyes filled with tears and my heart broke. Issues and reasons and everything else took a backseat to the reality that a wife and daughter had to experience this kind of pain and worry. With tears in my own eyes and a lump in my throat, I removed my work badge and asked them if I could be myself for a moment, and not just a voc. rehab counselor. I said, “My name is Deacon Greg Thompson and I’ve been praying for you for quite a while.” I explained to them that in my prayers I have been praying for those generally affected by the many challenges in our world today (and this would be one of them), but I’ve yet to meet someone so directly affected. We prayed and we cried, and I thanked them for their witness of courage and strength, because as they told their story, they always added that they know that God has a purpose for them and that they would get through this. So my prayers continue, but now they have a face of one who sits in a detention center somewhere in Louisiana hoping that everything works out for him and his family. While the face in my prayer is that of a husband and a father, it is also includes many other faces and lives that must endure similar challenges and feelings of helplessness… I have no doubt that this might include you because it’s not just related to this issue, it stretches to all who have to bear their hardship and are strengthened by the God who loves them!
This past week Fr. Joe led a reflection for our St. Vincent de Paul Ministry Team which offered us a chance to relate our visits with seeing the Face of Christ in the ones we serve, which in a way bring us to today’s Gospel as “Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”
For the first time, Jesus’ Apostles saw him for who he truly was, God’s beloved Son with whom he is well pleased. As the Lord was there, transfigured before them, he was flanked by Moses, the Face of the Law and the one who guided us to the land promised to Abram all those generations before, and Elijah, the Face of the Prophets and the Truth they professed, especially during times of trial and challenge.
I find it fitting that it was Peter, James and John that went with Jesus up the mountain, for their journey announced their call and their purpose. Moses who represented God’s Law and our exodus to freedom, offers us a connection to Peter and how he would lead the Church as a way of leading God’s people home to the promise of heaven.
Elijah, representing the Prophets and their sharing of the Truth of God’s plan, even in tough times, offers us a connection to James, one of the Sons of Thunder, who with courageous faith would be the first Apostle to be martyred.
And finally, Jesus who’s “face shone like the sun [with] his clothes dazzling white, represents the love of God fulfilled for all, making John, his most beloved Apostle a symbol of our grace in sharing in a divine love for God!
So with much grace and thanksgiving in my heart, I stand here and see the Face of Christ in you. I see the face of our Law of Love and the Lord’s Commandments being lived. I see the face of Truth and the struggle to grasp it and share it all. And I see the face of love in the people that I share Church and Ministry with… Bright like the sun in a dazzling light before me, I see us celebrating the Face of Christ in our midst!
But we can’t stay here as we must go back down the mountain. We must have the courage to rise and live out our faith, not in words but in action, so that other might see the risen Lord when his Face is revealed to them in the works that we are privileged to do!
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