YOU, THE EVERLASTING INSTANT

Luke 9:28-36

St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church

Rev. Gary Paterson

February 14, 2010

Well, it’s been a difficult week,trying to shape the sermon for today – there are so many possibilities to explore. It’s February 14th – Valentine’s Day just happens to fall on a Sunday this year; so Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you, especially to Liz and Gilbert Glass, there in the second pew – they’re celebrating their 40th anniversary, today, a wedding that took place in the Chapel of St. Andrew’s-Wesley, where later we will have a brief blessing – forty years, and hopefully many more to come. Mind you, the Roman Catholic church has eliminated Valentine’s Day from its list of religious celebrations, because truth be told, nobody really knows what St. Valentine actually did, and who he really was. I know, I know, a billion cards, tons of chocolate and bushels of roses can’t all be wrong. But hey, we spent all last Sunday talking about Love and Marriage…. sort of a “get-ready-for-Valentine’s-Day” approach.

So maybe I should concentrate on the fact that it’s New Year’s Day – Chinese New Year’s; well and Korean, and Vietnamese and Thai… for almost a quarter of the world’s population, and a whole lot of Vancouver. The Year of the Tiger is upon us, and right this very moment there’s a great parade dragon-dancing its way through Chinatown. (Thank you for choosing to come here instead!) I thought it might a good time to preach about making life-changing resolutions, if only to encourage you to dust off the ones you made a month and a half ago, the ones that seemed so fine in early January and that proved so difficult to follow through on, by the end of the month. But hey, Kathryn did a great job of preaching on this several weeks ago; no repeat is needed, it would leave you feeling guilty, not inspired.

In any case, I try to be a Biblically-rooted preacher, and do my best to honour the appointed Scripture readings for the day and the ongoing flow of the Church year. So, let me remind you that Lent is arriving in three days – hard to believe, isn’t it, in the midst of our city-wide celebrations? And that means that today is Transfiguration Sunday – you know, that very well known church festival that we know and love so well. Oh… not so… I see a lot of puzzled expressions… Transfiguration Sunday? Indeed….. that moment when Jesus shone oh so brightly on the mountain top, with Moses and Elijah on either side of him, and a mysterious voice booming through the mist, “This is my son, my Chosen, my Beloved, with him I am well pleased; listen to him.” It’s the kind of moment that can knock disciples to their knees – Peter, James and John back then; maybe you and me, nowadays.

Transfiguration – like the middle panel painting in a Jesus triptych, part of a three-fold revelation of who Jesus truly is. First painting, the Baptism, at the beginning of the story, when we catch an initial glimpse of the deep identity of this rabbi from Nazareth… water, doves, and once again a voice that declares in similar phrases, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Then, at the end of the gospel, the third painting, the Resurrection. And in the middle, this moment of Transfiguration, a revelation of who Jesus is, a reminder to listeners that yes, he is a preacher, healer, teacher, prophet… all of that; but at the same time, he offers us a glimpse of holiness, of who God is, or at least, how God is… here, in our midst, in the flesh. Now that’s worth a sermon or two.

However, all week long a fourth concern has been clamouring to get into the sermon; you know what I’m talking about, right?.... Yeah… the Olympics! Well, I have been doing my best to politely ignore the Games, trying to keep the door closed, saying to myself, what does all this hoopla have to do with church, with God? And, of course, many of my friends are very ambivalent about the Olympics…. the over-professionalization of sport, and the commercialization of same; the multinational corporations with their logos, eager to make a buck (when I attended one event, I had to open up my umbrella just in case I was trying to sneak in an illegal logo – maybe something like “Come worship at St. Andrew’s-Wesley!” – hey, you never know!) So many Vancouverites are worried about a never-ending debt, and it’s simply true, we are spending an awful lot of money for a two-week party, while the poor and the homeless continue to go without. Over a billion dollars on security alone, I’ve been told. There are a lot of days I feel ambivalent myself.

And I’ve read many of those articles (see Doug Todd’s weekend piece in “The Vancouver Sun”) that suggest that sports has become a replacement for religion – “has ritual, builds community, provides purpose, has codes of ethics,” requires faith in the home team despite the evidence… All this “integrated into a patter of mean that stirs the heart.” I saw an advertisement for the new Molson Canadian Hockey House that seemed to clinch the matter: “If you worship hockey, your cathedral is ready.” Enough said… me, I’m sticking with the Transfiguration!!

However… and I’m not going to say this is the work of the Spirit… but during the past three days something else has been happening. Because of family connections, I have had the opportunity of attending a couple of Olympic events, and my heart has been moved.

It started last Thursday night, when I slipped away early from a Church meeting (thank you Caroline.), just in time to join the crowd for the arrival of the Olympic torch at the Live Centre, down at David Lam park. Thousands gathered, filled with pride and patriotism to be sure, but also something else… a magic in the air, a people coming together to affirm and be glad in a vision of possibility, hope, courage, a dream. Something like a transfiguration event, when we caught a glimpse of the deeper possibilities in the Olympics. Although I had not followed the movement of the torch from coast to coast to coast, nevertheless, somewhere the story had gotten through…. A journey of 45,000 kilometres, a longer torch journey in a host country ever, taking over a hundred days, visiting a thousand communities, and with twelve thousand different torchbearers! How many saw the torch across this country? … millions they say, millions. And here in Vancouver, hundreds of thousands gathered along the streets. It was as if the torch embodied our dreams and hopes for a better world, and ourselves as a better people; across the country those torches invited and inspired - we believed in a country of acceptance, inclusiveness and unity; equality and freedom; we followed the Flame with its dream of hope.

What clinched it for me was to suddenly discover that the final torchbearer, the one who ran onto stage and lit the central flame, was none other than Ken Lyotier… one of the great hearts of the Downtown Eastside, one of the great heroes. I knew Ken over twenty years, and witnessed his struggle through his addictions, and then how he chose to give back, without stint. Ken’s the guy who started “United We Can,” the recycling centre that gathers the city’s bottles and cans; who demanded dignity for the men and women who worked in the dumpsters; who is often the conscience of the Downtown Eastside, and its prophet. Well, he was the one carrying the flame; he didn’t need to say anything – he embodied the truth that this torch-dream will be real only when everyone is included and cared for. And boy, was he shining bright that night.

And then, there was Friday night, the Opening Ceremonies, the most watched TV show in Canadian history; some twenty-three million, along with about three billion other people around the world. How many watched the Opening Ceremonies?

Yes, there was lots of rah-rah Canada, and in truth I don’t remember when I felt more patriotic, but at its best, the Opening Ceremonies helped us see ourselves more clearly and deeply, as a country, as a gathering of individual dreamers. It began with a sincere honouring of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, with Salish words of greeting, the rising of the Welcome Poles, and with dancing that went on for hours, as the First Peoples of Canada greeted the nations of the world. Then, it was Bryan Adams singing,

From the East

From the West,

Each of us trying our best

Chasing a dream,

Burning to follow the Flame.

Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin,

Je veux aller encore plus loin.

Peut-etre bien, qu’un peu plus haut,

Je trouverai d’autres chemins.

A little higher, a little farther

I want to go so much farther.

And when I reach the highest peak

I’ll start again, and reach much higher.

It went deeper again, so that each individual caught a glimpse of a richer life, full of more grace and goodness than we believed possible. It started with Sarah McLachlin singing “An Ordinary Miracle”:

The sky knows when it’s time to snow

Don’t need to touch a seed to grow,

It’s just an ordinary miracle today.

Life is like a gift they say

Wrapped up for you everyday

Open up and find a way

To give some of your own.

Birds in winter have their fling,

Will always make it home by spring,

It’s just an ordinary miracle today.

[So] when you wake up everyday

Please don’t throw your dreams away,

Hold them close to your heart

‘Cause we’re all a part of

The ordinary miracle.

That feeling took wing, when a youth started to run through the endless wheat fields of the prairies, while the poignant poetry of Joni Mitchell’s ‘I’ve Looked at Clouds from Both sides Now” floated through the air– and thanks to technological wiring and wizardry, the young man soared into the air, all of us right there with him, flying, transcending the limits of time and space –we are born to fly! And when K.D Laing began singing, time and everybody in that stadium stood still….