Readings for Last Epiphany/A:
2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
February 3, 2008
The Rev. Karen Faye Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino, CA
“Suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said: This is my son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” [Matthew 17:5]
A walk up a high mountain, Jesus’ face shining like the sun, a vision, a cloud, a voice, a declaration of being deeply loved, fear, and then a command to remain silent. The story of the transfiguration is a strange one; one that has been interpreted in many ways. Having preached on this story for over 15 years now, I wondered if I had any new insights to share with you. Fortunately the answer is YES! I want to talk about the incredible things that can happen to you, to me, and to the world at large when we begin to realize that we are deeply loved, beloved people of God. I will use the gospel as my text.
Irenaeus once said: “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” I believe that Jesus was able to do what he did and to shine with the brightness of the sun because he was fully alive. He was fully alive because he knew that he was beloved by God and actually became the beloved in his daily life. Scripture tells us that when Jesus was baptized, he heard the words: “This is my Son the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” [Mt. 3:17] Imagine how different we would feel and act if we were to hear these words on a daily basis! I don’t know how often Jesus was affirmed with these words but I do know the sentiment was confirmed later in his life: “This is my son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased.”[Mt. 17:5]
During the 1980’s, Henri Nouwen (a Catholic priest and author) befriended a secular Jew who had no use for traditional religion. This friend challenged Henri to write about spirituality in a way that would reach people living in a secular world. In particular, men and women who were high achievers yet were not completely satisfied with where they had ended up: People who had no religious background and for whom the Bible was a strange and confusing book; people who had long ago left the church and had no desire to return; businessmen whose lives had taken up all their energy and for whom Saturdays and Sundays were little more than a brief respite to gain enough strength to reenter the arena on Monday mornings; men and women who felt the many demands of a society that claimed their attention but feared at the same time that this society was not going to offer them much in the way of real life. This is what Henri said to them (and now to us) through his book, Life of the Beloved:
“All I want to say to you is “You are the Beloved”, and all I hope is that you can hear these words as spoken to you with all the tenderness and force that love can hold. My only desire is to make these words reverberate in every corner of your being- “you are the Beloved.” The greatest gift my friendship can give to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn’t that what friendship is all about: giving to each other the gift of our Belovedness?”
“Yes, there is that voice, the voice that speaks from above and from within and that whispers softly or declares loudly: “You are my Beloved with whom I am well pleased.” It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: “You are not good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody- unless you can demonstrate the opposite.”
“These negative voices are so loud and so persistent that it is easy to believe them. That’s the great trap. It is the trap of self-rejection. Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can, indeed, present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection.”
“When we have come to believe the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap however, is self-rejection. I am constantly surprised at how quickly I give in to this temptation. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking: ‘Well that proves once again that I am a nobody.’ Instead of taking a critical look at the circumstances or trying to understand my own and other’s limitations, I tend to blame myself- not just for what I did, but for who I am. My dark side says: ‘I am no good…I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned’….Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.”
“Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deeper.”
“Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say or do. As long as ‘being the Beloved’ is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence and, bit by bit, to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless specific realities of everyday life. Becoming the Beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above, down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about, and doing from hour to hour.”
When we become the beloved and give to others, the gift of our Belovedness, the world will change from darkness to light. In fact, we too will become transfigured. We will strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. The problems of poverty, war, human trafficking, discrimination, and man’s inhumanity to man would cease to exist. We will spend our primary time and energy seeking and serving Christ in all persons loving our neighbor as ourselves. And all creation will begin to shine with the brightness of the sun. Unfortunately, most of the world’s population is unwilling or unable to honestly address the spiritual issue of self-rejection and a cloud has settled over us. What are we to do?
In 2002, the Millennium Project was commissioned by the United Nations to develop a concrete action plan for the world. Its purpose is to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger, and disease affecting billions of people. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.
Today, we are focusing on MDG #2: Achieving Universal Primary Education for children. Educated children have better access to economic opportunities and are less vulnerable to disease. Educated children contribute more to their communities. And yet, more than 100 million children are not in school today. Seventy percent of those children are girls. Education, especially for girls and women, is the best way to break the cycle of ill health, hunger and poverty. “Improving literacy among women leads to smaller families, lower poverty rates, and improved health.” [NCCC] The target of this goal is to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling. Supporting primary education is just one way to communicate to the poor and the oppressed children of the world that they are truly loved.
One of the ways that the people of St. Jude’s are addressing this particular MDG, is by donating outreach funds to address primary education in Africa. These outreach funds come from your generous pledges. This week, the social justice/outreach committee is going to discuss funding “Friends of African Village Libraries.” This library project was created by two professors from Santa Clara University. They were inspired to create sustainable library systems in some of the poorest countries in Africa and then to help train and mentor local talent to maintain the libraries. If you would like more information about this particular outreach project, please join our social justice committee this Tuesday at 7:30pm.
Children who do not go to school may never know anything about their human rights. They may never have a chance to climb above poverty or learn to protect themselves from abuse and disease. They may never be able to help their own countries develop. If you want to make a difference in the world, be concerned about these beloved children and give generously with whatever gifts God has given you.
2015 is only seven years away. Do you really think the eight MDGs will be achieved by then? Incredible things can happen to you, to me, and to the world at large when we begin to realize that we are deeply loved by God. May God give us the grace to see ourselves and others as the Beloved so that this world may be transfigured in Christ’s image.
| Updated February 8, 2008 |
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