Changing Likeness

Last Sunday of Epiphany Reflection St. Luke’s/St Anne’s, Roper, Grace, Plymouth March 2, 2025 Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher Changing Likeness Exodus 34:29-35 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-43a Psalm 99 This is the Last Sunday of the Season of Epiphany. The word “Epiphany” means a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature of something. The “Oh Wow, that is what is really going on!” It is like when you hear a joke and you don’t get it- until a couple hours later, and then you start to laugh. It is not that you are stupid; it is just you didn’t get it at the punchline; you needed to work it out. Epiphany is the season right after Christmas and in the Bible most of the people in the story don’t understand the meaning of the birth of Jesus and they have to work it out for themselves, in order to work on going deeper in the time of Lent to prepare for a life of resurrection. Let me give you an example of an epiphany. It’s Christmas and your old maiden Aunt sends you a sweater. You look at it and you say; “Well; (putting on a smile) That’s nice”.You write the thank you note and you put the sweater away. But then one day in January, it gets cold and your mother says; “It’s cold, why don’t you put on the sweater my sister gave you. “ You sigh, and then as it gets even colder, you break down and dig up the sweater. And you put it on. And, it feels so good, not to be shivering. The longer you wear it, the more you like not being cold, the more you think kindly of you aunt. Then your mother takes a picture of you smiling wearing that sweater and sends it to your aunt. Epiphany is the time when we start to have some idea of the gifts in our lives. Especially what this gift of Jesus is all about and how do we faithfully live into it.. This is the Last Sunday of Epiphany, so that means that this Wednesday is the beginning of the Season of Lent. Lent is a time when we look at our lives and realize how blessed we have been, and we make a decision that we can start seeing about how we might make a difference in the world we live in. Is there someone who we need to help? Is there some difference we need to make in this world? Jesus makes his way into Lent to fulfill his destiny in Jerusalem. We all have a destiny. One of the themes for today, seems to me, is about how we are changed when we have an encounter with the Holy. In the Hebrew Testament lesson, Moses is changed physiscally; his face is shining because he had a conversation with God. In the Psalm, people tremble because they have heard God is present and God has a loving concern for Justice to be done. In the Epistle, Paul writes to the Corinthians:”And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; “ In the Gospel lessonm Peter, James and John see Jesus transfigured; he becomes a Holy light shining in the darkness, as he is talking with Moses and Elijah. The disciples want to stay on the mountain and make a living off building a shrine. But Jesus is telling them that the hard work is to done, not on Mountain Tops - but in the embracing of the crosses in our, and others’, lives. There can be no Easter, unless we first embrace our crosses, giving ourselves away. Changing likenesses! Likenesses are the personas we have; what we allow people to see. What we spend our energy projecting to the rest of the world. What are the likenesses that you have had and used in your life? I had an older brother, Paul, who was a year and four days older than I was. He was tall dark and handsome, I was shorter, red haired and dumpy. He was cool and an extrovert. I was socially awkward and an introvert. For years, I wanted to be him, but I could never pull it off. . Going away to college was one of the best things that happened to me, because I did not have to compete against him, I started to learn who I was and learned how to better live into my likeness, instead of trying to fit into his. When I graduated from college, I became a Social Worker, then a therapist and then a Professor. I was doing all right, but I came to realize there was a spiritual dimension that was being negleced in my work with people. I went to seminary to explore what it was to help people, and myself, deal with a life as a Person of Spirit. You are here, in this place, for many reasons, but my hope is that you have come because you have found your need to grow deeper in spirit, and you join with other people who are doing the same thing. When you are here, take a look at some of the other people and see if you can help them claim their spirit, or if they can hele you claim God’s spirit, shining through you. Changing Likeness Day in, night out, searching for light. A light to shine into our deepest time, to help make sense, reason or rhyme, of a hopeful meaning in darkest night. Turning to see persons in nereby pews, questing for what might be hints of soul, allowed to escape and try to score a goal, by touching other livea with good news: that life is not something to be borne as a heavy burden each day and night, but as precious gift to hold on tight, then given away before time to mourn. For lives are too short to hide away, a joy of love that can be ours today.