Pastor Darren: So I have a confession to make.
Pastor Darren: I am 57 years old and I still get giddy when I see famous people.
Pastor Darren: Am I alone on that?
Pastor Darren: No, you know.
Pastor Darren: You see floating around.
Pastor Darren: You know my famous story actually is I'm going to slide this too, because I got elbows, that would be terrible.
Pastor Darren: My famous story is Brenda and I were walking down at Doheny Beach in Dana Point.
Pastor Darren: Anybody know that area at all?
Pastor Darren: That's kind of my stomping grounds, that's where I grew up in Doheny Beach and we're walking along.
Pastor Darren: Just her and I, on some weekday morning Didn't have things to do.
Pastor Darren: And who did we see?
Pastor Darren: But Karch Karai.
Pastor Darren: Anybody know Karch Karai?
Pastor Darren: Right?
Pastor Darren: Some of us know Karch Karai, all right.
Pastor Darren: Those of you who know volleyball know Karch Karai is like the Babe Ruth of volleyball.
Pastor Darren: No, Karch Karai is like the Babe Ruth of volleyball, like he is that conquered indoor, conquered outdoor, and I think he's still the coach of the women's national volleyball team.
Pastor Darren: Anyway, I played a lot of volleyball.
Pastor Darren: I lived near the beach.
Pastor Darren: That for me, was pretty cool.
Pastor Darren: It was like oh, you know, and I still talk about the time that I went to the beach with Karch Karai.
Pastor Darren: I did.
Pastor Darren: I also talk a lot about the time I had lunch with Travis Kelsey, the tight end of Kansas City.
Pastor Darren: Yeah, we had lunch together when we were in Pacific Palisades, Brenda and I.
Pastor Darren: There's famous people who live in Pacific Palisades, brenda and I.
Pastor Darren: There's famous people who live in Pacific Palisades prior to the fire.
Pastor Darren: You'd see people all the time so we'd always be bubbling up.
Pastor Darren: Oh, this is so exciting.
Pastor Darren: But I have had one experience out here in Westlake Village.
Pastor Darren: We call them brushes with greatness in our family, him Brushes with Greatness in our family.
Pastor Darren: Brushes with Greatness oh, I saw a famous person.
Pastor Darren: I saw Jamie Foxx over at Finney's.
Pastor Darren: One day Am I the only one seeing Jamie Foxx out here?
Pastor Darren: I don't know, maybe he lives out here and you see him.
Pastor Darren: Famous actor.
Pastor Darren: So it's kind of fun and you have these moments and you get all excited.
Pastor Darren: And so we've been walking this journey, talking about setting a course, setting course as people, setting course as a church.
Pastor Darren: And here we have this experience in this scripture in which the disciples see something awesome.
Pastor Darren: And the question is, how does this relate to us?
Pastor Darren: How does this relate to our journey as people, setting a course to a better life?
Pastor Darren: So it is an important scripture.
Pastor Darren: Like I said, it gets read every single year, one of the few that actually is in every year in the lectionary.
Pastor Darren: A quick summary again, Jesus heads up the mountain to pray.
Pastor Darren: He's taking Peter, James and John.
Pastor Darren: We tend to understand them as the kind of closest to Jesus kind of people and while there, his whole appearance.
Pastor Darren: Well, it changes.
Pastor Darren: Then Moses and Elijah appear and Jesus is together with them.
Pastor Darren: Now you need to know Moses and Elijah.
Pastor Darren: That's like the Michael Jordan and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Hebrew faith and really, in our originations, the Christian faith.
Pastor Darren: These are the big hitters.
Pastor Darren: They're hanging out with Jesus, the disciples who were sleeping.
Pastor Darren: They awake to this and Peter offers to build three tents for them, one for each Jesus, moses and Elijah.
Pastor Darren: Then a cloud comes over and it overshadows the whole event.
Pastor Darren: The voice of God sounds out.
Pastor Darren: This is my son, my chosen.
Pastor Darren: Listen to him.
Pastor Darren: As it all ends, they all keep quiet, seemingly tacitly agreeing not to talk about it as they head back down the mountain.
Pastor Darren: Pretty powerful story, right?
Pastor Darren: An amazing story.
Pastor Darren: I brought some pictures because I think I invited Kallie to set up some pictures for me.
Pastor Darren: Here's some ways that this has been depicted.
Pastor Darren: You can see the disciples there at the bottom, Jesus in the middle, Moses and Elijah.
Pastor Darren: That's the aura, the energy, the feel that people are trying to grab from this.
Pastor Darren: I think that Luke was trying to get us to feel I've got another one here right.
Pastor Darren: And this one I kind of liked the way it was a little bit hazy like it was.
Pastor Darren: They were just adorned with this cloud so much so they almost couldn't see it was too powerful.
Pastor Darren: I found a couple more artful looking ones too.
Pastor Darren: Do you like that look?
Pastor Darren: I kind of like that.
Pastor Darren: You'll find as I'm picking artwork.
Pastor Darren: I like the stuff that's just a little bit abstract, isn't quite so on the nose.
Pastor Darren: And I found one more that I think we went one more step.
Pastor Darren: I even like that a lot more, I guess, because I feel like the mystery of faith is always enhancing to me.
Pastor Darren: It's exciting to me.
Pastor Darren: I know a lot of people don't like that mystery.
Pastor Darren: They want answers, they want it decided.
Pastor Darren: I like this stuff because I haven't found that there's that many absolutes in faith and so that I walk in that complexity and enjoy it.
Pastor Darren: Anyway, we're trying to capture the moment just a little bit here, get you to understand what Luke wants us to understand how important it was.
Pastor Darren: We are particularly fortunate, today we are blessed.
Pastor Darren: As we know, Peter, James and John were there, as was Moses and Jesus.
Pastor Darren: So was Elijah and Elijah's here this morning.
Pastor Darren: Elijah, can you stand and tell how was it?
Pastor Darren: You know, was it big, was it?
Pastor Darren: You know, were you astounded?
Pastor Darren: I asked him coming in.
Pastor Darren: I said are you a good sport?
Pastor Darren: And he looked at me and he said I guess I'm a good sport.
Pastor Darren: So now we know he is, anyway.
Pastor Darren: So, first of all, what's interesting is you got Peter again trying to capture this moment.
Pastor Darren: He recognizes this event for what it is, this holy moment.
Pastor Darren: Unfortunately for Peter, that day he forgot to bring his cell phone and so he's up there, right, and I mean I would have told him just put on, Do Not Disturb.
Pastor Darren: That's just as good, I bet you.
Pastor Darren: I bet you they weren't getting any bars up there anyway, right, but he's stuck.
Pastor Darren: He can't take a picture to capture the moment.
Pastor Darren: So what does he do?
Pastor Darren: He says we'll build three tents.
Pastor Darren: This is how we'll capture this moment.
Pastor Darren: We're going to sit in this moment, we're going to hold this moment, we're going to live here a bit.
Pastor Darren: You ever had that spiritual moment where you wanted it to just linger, you wanted to just stay there and maybe, maybe, maybe it would just hold out, such an overwhelming experience.
Pastor Darren: You wanted to hold it in your hand and have it never end.
Pastor Darren: We tend to have these experiences and when we read into that event, we kind of wish we were there.
Pastor Darren: You want to see it right, maybe partly to witness it.
Pastor Darren: It seems like this amazing event.
Pastor Darren: I want to actually see it right, maybe partly to witness it.
Pastor Darren: It seems like this amazing event.
Pastor Darren: I want to actually see it for myself.
Pastor Darren: Maybe another layer is I'd finally get some proof about this thing.
Pastor Darren: You know, Jesus really is the guy.
Pastor Darren: I saw it in front of me.
Pastor Darren: God was talking, I don't know.
Pastor Darren: For all different reasons, we kind of wish that we were there.
Pastor Darren: We want that assurance of having seen this.
Pastor Darren: But here's the irony of that desire, of that wish.
Pastor Darren: Hasn't God already done this for us in some way?
Pastor Darren: Haven't we all been awakened in some way?
Pastor Darren: Haven't we all been awakened in some way to the divinity in Christ?
Pastor Darren: I mean, why else are we here?
Pastor Darren: How did we get here, except that we had some sort of experience in which Jesus Christ was transfigured, the commitment, the confirmation that Jesus in some way connected to the divine held the divine right in front of us and we came here to learn more about that.
Pastor Darren: Maybe it was an experience of how a church can be that extended family in a good way, taking care of each other, having fellowship together, growing together.
Pastor Darren: Maybe that's something you grew up with and it became your time.
Pastor Darren: You claimed it for yourself.
Pastor Darren: But you had that experience of Christ.
Pastor Darren: Maybe it was some deep wisdom, some experience of understanding of Christian love Made real, that brought you here To this space.
Pastor Darren: Or maybe God just reached in and touched your heart in some truly meaningful way and that's how you found your way here.
Pastor Darren: You've seen the glory of Christ in some powerful way.
Pastor Darren: That's why you're here.
Pastor Darren: I think sometimes we fail to recognize God's presence because it isn't as showy and as big as this event, this transfiguration event.
Pastor Darren: But let's think about it, let's face it.
Pastor Darren: But let's think about it.
Pastor Darren: Let's face it.
Pastor Darren: It's not like the disciples got a lot of answers in being there.
Pastor Darren: What does God say?
Pastor Darren: But this is my son, listen to him.
Pastor Darren: We didn't walk away with a book full of rules to help us live life the best way we could.
Pastor Darren: There was no manual for setting a course for a better life that came.
Pastor Darren: It was just God saying listen to him.
Pastor Darren: For those disciples, it was still going to be a journey of wrestling of questions, of discerning exactly what God wants for them, pretty much like it is today.
Pastor Darren: I think the goal of this passage, or at least a goal of this passage, might be to get us to start thinking differently about how we see our lives and how we see the faith we are living out.
Pastor Darren: I think God and Luke, in this case Jesus, are trying to get us to understand ourselves as transfiguration people.
Pastor Darren: We talk about setting course, we talk about going on a Lenten journey, but isn't that mostly about being transfiguration people, people who have seen the wisdom, experienced the wonder of Christ and want to live into it more of Christ, and want to live into it more, maybe by sharing it, maybe by going deeper into it themselves?
Pastor Darren: Do you guys remember that old Packer coach, Vince Lombardi?
Pastor Darren: Remember Vince Lombardi?
Pastor Darren: I know folks in this room.
Pastor Darren: Do I know you do, Vince Lombardi?
Pastor Darren: I know folks in this room.
Pastor Darren: Do I know you do Vince Lombardi?
Pastor Darren: Old school, old school coach.
Pastor Darren: One of his players goes into a touchdown dance.
Pastor Darren: Do you remember what Vince Lombardi said to him Anyone?
Pastor Darren: He said act like you've been there and I heard it with an even extended version.
Pastor Darren: Act like you've been there.
Pastor Darren: No, it's not dirty or anything.
Pastor Darren: Act like you've been there and you expect to be back.
Pastor Darren: Have you heard that phrase?
Pastor Darren: Act like you've been there before and you expect to be back.
Pastor Darren: Have you heard that phrase?
Pastor Darren: Act like you've been there before and you expect to be back?
Pastor Darren: I think there's something for us there.
Pastor Darren: We are a transfiguration people.
Pastor Darren: The face of Jesus has changed for us in some remarkable way.
Pastor Darren: It's allowed us to feel humbled, maybe even amazed, in some really, really meaningful way.
Pastor Darren: Maybe our United Methodist Church of Westlake Village goal and the journey that we take this Lent ought to be to take us to this place of the assurance of God's presence, where we're questioning less but instead recognizing God's presence when it's there, God's presence when we've seen it and owning it in really, really powerful ways.
Pastor Darren: Maybe for us, potentially and ironically, we might even be transformed as well.
Pastor Darren: Maybe we even get transfigured in some amazing way that other people can see it on us.
Pastor Darren: Can we even consider such an amazing thing happened that we could be seen to be transfigured with the love of Christ that God has for this world?
Pastor Darren: Wouldn't that be something?
Pastor Darren: Amen?