"Transfiguration", March 2, 2025

 

Transfiguration
By Rev. Jamie Green Klopotoski
March 2, 2025
St Paul Lutheran Church, Gloucester, MA

  

My husband and I just adopted an 11-week old baby kitten. He is literally this small. And unbelievably adorable. His name is Eskel. We already had two cats at home. Bernie, our 20-year-old ginger, has warmed up nicely and quickly to little baby Eskel. But Fela, our 10 year-old black cat, has not. He is not taking this change to his lifestyle well. He is hissing and growling and very upset. The last few days he’s been sitting up on the top of the stairwell in our living room; sticking his head through the balusters and staring down angrily at us playing with the new kitten.

 

I know that it’s going to take some time for Fela to get used to this change, but I am trying to ease the change by showing both him and the kitten love and affection, especially when we are all in the same room. I want Fela to know that this foreign creature who smells different and looks different and sounds different is a part of our family now. I show love to the kitten, in hopes that one day soon Fela will also show love to the kitten. 

 

It reminds me of this quote you may have heard: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It is often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, a champion of nonviolence and human rights. As much as I love this quote, Gandhi never actually said those exact words. But there’s this great story about a time when he lived those exact words.

 

One day, a young mother and her son were waiting in a long line to visit with Gandhi. When it was their turn, the woman asked Gandhi if he could please speak with her son to get him to eat less sugar.

Gandhi considered her request, and asked her to come back in two weeks and he would talk to the boy then. She wondered why he didn’t just speak to her son right then and there, but she complied. In two weeks they returned, and after waiting a couple more hours in line, she was able to approach Gandhi once again.

 

Gandhi spoke with the boy for quite awhile, and got him to agree to begin working to eliminate sweets from his diet. After thanking Gandhi for his wise and encouraging words, the mother asked him why he had wanted them to wait two weeks instead of just offering his advice the first time.

 

Gandhi replied, “Upon your visit two weeks ago, I too was eating too much sugar.” He explained that he could not encourage her son to limit his sugar intake if he himself had not taken that journey.

 

The message behind this story is clear: Whatever changes we would like to make in our world have to begin with changes in our own lives. It’s like the saying, “Practice what you preach.” We have to BE the change we want to see in the world.

 

Another word for change is transfiguration. Today is Transfiguration Sunday, when we celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus, this moment high up on a mountain when Jesus’ appearance was physically changed by the radiance of God’s light. And just like the moment of his baptism, the voice of God comes from the heavens to declare again, “This is my Son, my Beloved; with whom I am well pleased.”

 

What I think is most important about this story is not the fact that Jesus’s appearance changed, but that this change signaled a change in the disciples. The disciples, especially Peter, had been struggling with what it meant to follow Jesus. I wonder if Jesus thought, maybe if Peter sees me literally transform next to visions of Elijah and Moses, then maybe he’ll finally get that the scope of my ministry is bigger than all of us. Peter needed a transfiguring moment in his life to finally have the courage to make the change needed to step up and be a leader. Jesus’s transfiguration sparked a transfiguration in Peter. Jesus’s transfiguration can spark a transfiguration in us too.

 

Just like Jesus radiated the light of God on that mountaintop, we can radiate the light of God in our own lives. We can be a beacon of God’s brilliance and love. God’s light can shine brightly in our lives for all to see. We can live a life of peace and hope and love to show the way of the kingdom of God. We can respond with kindness. We can treat others as God sees all of us - as children of God, whether stranger or friend, persecutor or disciple, poor or wealthy, sinner or saint. We are all beloved Children of God. And we are called to treat each other as such.

 

If we want peace and kindness and understanding and justice and equity and inclusion in the world, our lives need to reflect those values. When we are commenting on social media, waiting in line at the grocery store, or sitting in traffic, we can practice those values. We can be calm and patient, we can act with peace and love and understanding. We can be giving and sharing and forgiving and full of grace.

 

What gives me hope about the story of the mountaintop transfiguration is that even though Jesus was asking a lot of his disciples, he never left their side. Up the mountain, during the transfiguration, on the way down and back into his daily ministry, he never left them. On the night of the Last Supper, and Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, and even after Easter Sunday when he reappeared to the disciples, he never left them. Change is hard. Being a better person is hard. Giving up our selfish ways is hard. But it’s easier when we remember that Jesus is with us every step of the way.

We are about to embark on a six week journey of Lent leading up to Easter. One of the traditional Lenten practices is making a commitment to change. Some people choose to abstain from something they normally do that’s not good for them— like giving up meat, or social media, or television, or complaining, or chocolate or sugar. Some people choose to add something to their lives – setting aside a time each day for prayer, meditation, or exercise, sending a thank you card to a different person each day, donating money each day to a good cause, doing a good deed or a random act of kindness each day.

 

A change in your daily practice can give you a new perspective. It can get us to stop and think. To look again. To try something new. To act differently. To let go of something we should have gotten rid of a long time ago. To wonder if maybe we’re not as smart as we think. To ask if we are not as right as we think. To admit we are not as in control as we think. The break in routine and the awareness it can bring can help us make a change in our lives for the better.

 

As I look out into the world right now, I see a lot of disagreement, negativity, hatred, disunity. More than anything else, I want to change people’s minds and hearts and behavior.  But Rabbi and psychologist Edwin Friedman reminds us of the truth that we can’t change anyone else, as much as we might like to. We can’t change other people’s minds or behavior. We don’t have that power. What we can change is ourselves. Friedman writes, “If you want your child, spouse, client, or boss to shape up, stay connected while changing yourself rather than trying to fix them.” Me getting angry and yelling at my cat Fela when he hisses and growls at the kitten is not productive. Me showing love and kindness and understanding is what will spark change. When we change our own behavior, when we act with love and with integrity, that has the potential to affect positive change way more than our anger or our arguing does. Instead of arguing about who is right, we can work to be in right relation with others.

In every moment, in every encounter, in all our daily interactions, we have a choice of how we are going to engage: will we act with peace and understanding, or impatience and anger? Are we encouraging health and growth or stifling it?  How are we going to live this day? Theologian Rebecca Parker answers this question in a poem: “Choose to bless the world.” She writes:

 

Your gifts—whatever you discover them to be— can be used to bless or curse the world.

The mind's power, the strength of the hands, the reaches of the heart,
the gift of speaking, listening, imagining, seeing, waiting.

Any of these can serve to feed the hungry, bind up wounds,
welcome the stranger, praise what is sacred,
do the work of justice or offer love.

Any of these can draw down the prison door, hoard bread,
abandon the poor, obscure what is holy,
comply with injustice or withhold love.

You must answer this question:
What will you do with your gifts?

Choose to bless the world.

 

This is my hope and prayer for us: that we will be people who daily choose to use our gifts to bless the world. Let Lent change you. And may that change inspire the change we so desperately need in the world. Amen.