As the veil thins between the divine and the everyday, we find ourselves on the cusp of Lent, a season ripe with potential for transformation. Imagine shedding the weight of shame and negativity, the way one might peel away layers of old paint, to reveal the original masterpiece beneath—that is the invitation of this episode. Through a tapestry of stories and reflections, from the awe-inspiring Transfiguration of Jesus to the simple yet profound lessons gleaned from a child's empathy at Disney World. We're not just talking about abstaining from chocolate or social media for Lent; we're discussing the release of those habits that no longer serve us, making space for a deeper communion with the divine.
Have you ever wondered what it truly means to listen—to God, to the world, to your own heart? This episode is a symphony of such inquiries, where the biblical moment of Transfiguration harmonizes with the Beatles' seismic impact on music, teaching us the value of discerning the divine inspiration in human creativity. It's a journey through which we confront our impulse to react out of fear, and instead, learn to respond with understanding and compassion. As we explore these narratives, you'll discover how embracing stillness during Lent can amplify the voice of God within you, and how aligning our prayers with Jesus's intercession can bring unparalleled comfort and guidance.
Finally, we traverse the poignant themes of mortality, love, and resurrection. By sharing tales of personal detachment and the liberating act of letting go, I offer a fresh perspective on confronting our ego-driven desires and past attachments. We'll talk about what it means to embrace death in various forms, not as an end, but as a door to resurrection and rebirth within our very souls. With ashes upon our foreheads, we'll remember that through love's ultimate victory, we find the hope that sustains us. Join us on this path of self-discovery and spiritual renewal, where each step leads us closer to wholeness and reconciliation through the love of Christ.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
As the veil thins between the divine and the everyday, we find ourselves on the cusp of Lent, a season ripe with potential for transformation. Imagine shedding the weight of shame and negativity, the way one might peel away layers of old paint, to reveal the original masterpiece beneath—that is the invitation of this episode. Through a tapestry of stories and reflections, from the awe-inspiring Transfiguration of Jesus to the simple yet profound lessons gleaned from a child's empathy at Disney World. We're not just talking about abstaining from chocolate or social media for Lent; we're discussing the release of those habits that no longer serve us, making space for a deeper communion with the divine.
Have you ever wondered what it truly means to listen—to God, to the world, to your own heart? This episode is a symphony of such inquiries, where the biblical moment of Transfiguration harmonizes with the Beatles' seismic impact on music, teaching us the value of discerning the divine inspiration in human creativity. It's a journey through which we confront our impulse to react out of fear, and instead, learn to respond with understanding and compassion. As we explore these narratives, you'll discover how embracing stillness during Lent can amplify the voice of God within you, and how aligning our prayers with Jesus's intercession can bring unparalleled comfort and guidance.
Finally, we traverse the poignant themes of mortality, love, and resurrection. By sharing tales of personal detachment and the liberating act of letting go, I offer a fresh perspective on confronting our ego-driven desires and past attachments. We'll talk about what it means to embrace death in various forms, not as an end, but as a door to resurrection and rebirth within our very souls. With ashes upon our foreheads, we'll remember that through love's ultimate victory, we find the hope that sustains us. Join us on this path of self-discovery and spiritual renewal, where each step leads us closer to wholeness and reconciliation through the love of Christ.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Welcome to the First Love Church podcast. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised common lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, florida. The spirit of Christ in us greets the spirit of Christ in you and, for those of you who are online, thank you for joining with us. Again, the spirit of Christ in us greets the spirit of Christ in you. I remind you that God is a spirit and that when spirit is describing spirit self to us, in the Gospels, but also in the letters from the Apostle John, it says God is love. God does not just love, god is not just loving, but the very essence of God is love. And so when we gather together, we are reminded of that love, that that is the very source of us, that we were made in the image of love and that the word that has been spoken. In fact, in the very beginning it says the spirit of God was brooding over the chaos, and then God said let there be light. And in this light, in this illumination, this is where we, as followers, practice, and Thomas mentioned earlier that this is the last Sunday of epiphany. So focus in brothers and sisters beloved. This is not your last chance for understanding, but it is in this season that we come to this final Sunday where we recognize this is the transfiguration of Jesus Sunday, where we look at this miracle and some of the apostles believed this to be the greatest of the miracles that Jesus did. So we'll pay attention to that and so I'm grateful that you're here on this day.
Speaker 1:Dennis was reminding me about something and our practices of gratitude, and we're always trying to expand them and find ways to make them more ingrained in everything that we do. And we were listening to something this morning. It was talking about how, when you hold a thought of gratitude, it actually does something to you in your, in your, the makeup of your body, and it causes more blood to go to your heart. And when you get more blood in your heart, beloved, just, you're just, things are going better for you, because then more blood can get to your brain and then all of the it just can change the way that you're thinking about everything. And so, as we gather together it is one of the practices that we do sing. I'm grateful for you, I'm grateful for the light of Christ that is in you, I'm grateful for how things are magnified because you are here and we come really close this week to the season of Lent coming up.
Speaker 1:And Lent reminds us of something, particularly this Wednesday.
Speaker 1:This Wednesday, at church we're going to have Ash Wednesday service to begin the Lent, and Lent reminds us that we are all going to die I didn't know if you knew that. None of us is escaping this, but this is and then it teaches us how to live well before we die, how to learn what love is teaching us, and it gives us an invitation into practices that are not for perfection, because maybe when you were told about Lent, someone said you had to do things perfectly and then that was a good Lent for you. Lent is about wholeness, is about embodied practices of peace and of true love. And Lent, in its fasting and in its prayer and in its generosity, lent teaches us to listen for the hunger for the things that we truly want, not the distractions that have happened, not the obligations that someone else gave you, but Lent is a time of uncovering your true desires, the desires that are made in the image of love, the desires that are uniquely you and how God calls us into this newness of life.
Speaker 2:There's about a million things you just said there that I want to preach about. I don't know, did I turn this on? Ok, good, all right, but that was. That was really good, hurray for Lent?
Speaker 1:No, it's. Sometimes. A lot of people need some motivation for why we should give up something, and it's not just the giving up. It's a practice in generosity toward yourself, toward others, it's a practice in prayer and really what it does for us is allows a freedom to come to us to really just. It's time for self reflection. It's time to come back in and to take care of the hurts that we've been ignoring. Our brokenheartedness gets dealt with in Lent. We receive the goodness of God in Lent and we just. There's so much slowing down and it's just such a beautiful invitation. I also you wanted to say something.
Speaker 2:I think that's how he would say a lot of things.
Speaker 1:But I want to just encourage you with one. I'll hold on to it, I'll remember it, you go OK.
Speaker 2:Here's why.
Speaker 1:I want to tell you Sometimes people have said to you because I have a lot of things to say about it I've heard people say Lent, find something that you really love and give it up. I think that's ridiculous. There is nothing in the scripture that tells you that you are not doing this to impress God. That is not what fasting is about. God is already impressed with you, god already delights in you, god already loves you. You are not doing this to impress God.
Speaker 1:It actually comes from the practice of being brokenhearted. Have you ever had such a bad day or such a bad event that you just can't eat? You feel so badly about something I just can't even eat? And it is this practice of paying attention to our hearts, our souls, that the practice of fasting actually came from. God was saying to the people listen, do you know what it's like to be brokenhearted? I'm brokenhearted that way Often, by the way that you treat each other, and this practice of fasting that Jesus practiced.
Speaker 1:In fact, in Matthew, chapter six, jesus said this is what you'll do when you pray, when you fast, when you give. These are all the pillars of Lent for us as followers of Jesus. We come into this, but what I'm proposing, or what we're proposing, is that you give up something that's not helping you. What if you gave up shame? What if you gave up negative self-talk? What if you gave up something that you have been doing or carrying that is slowing you down from the life that you really want to live? What if that was the practice and we had a discussion and we said what if, as a church, as a family of believers, we would have this practice? We would always let love get the last word. Thank you, miss Carol. Yes, glory, because I think glory would be evident in us If love. What if we gave up getting the last word and we let love have the last word during this practice of Lent? That's hopeful.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a couple of things I want to talk about here, but one, I think, is I just for my family, and I wonder if anyone else has had that experience where, like you know, maybe something's on TV or something on the radio or something, and they talk about death and and, and you might want to say to your family, well, you know, to your parents or grandparents, well, how do you want to be buried, or how do you want your funeral to go, or you know, and then immediately somebody goes we're not talking about this. It's almost like I see everyone, everyone said we don't want to talk about that. The problem is, if someone doesn't talk about this, this inevitable day comes, sadly, but guaranteed, and we've never approached that issue because it made us uncomfortable. And I would challenge you that maybe, in part, this season of Lent could be for us, helping you find some understanding and experience death. And you say, pastor, no, no, all God came that we'd have life and have it abundantly.
Speaker 2:You're preaching heresy here. I want, before you say that which you were going to say, tony, but I got you, I've caught you just in time is that I've noticed in scripture there's always one thing that precedes resurrection. What is it, thank you. And so if I really want to be a follower of Christ and experience resurrection, I gotta die. I gotta understand that. I've got to consider it, you know. And so there really becomes things in our life that for me, the recent idol that's being approached by the spirit of God is this particular collection I have. I have all these guitars right, and I love them. And people ask me which one would you take out if the house run fire, I would do whatever it takes to put out the fire while dragging all of those. They're my babies. We talk, and then I have been known to say things like what a great thing I'm doing, amassing this collection so that, when I pass away, my children can sell all these and take a trip around the world. The real thing I'm doing is leaving my children with a burden, because they don't know what all these guitars are worth. But they know if they were to sell them for too cheap, I would come back from the grave and haunt them. So I wouldn't really do that. But I'm just saying you know there's an anxiety or pressure that I'm putting on my kids. You know now they've got to be guitar salesmen upon my death.
Speaker 2:I have not provided any blessing at all. I have just disguised my greed and my love in a way that makes it sound good for a blessing, you know. And so I'm looking at that going. Well, how can I die today? And I'm working backwards, you know, when I have three of pretty much the guitar that is the exact same thing I think, well, maybe I could die and just have two.
Speaker 2:Now, despising at small beginnings, stop your mockery of me, because turning loose of those treasures are difficult for me and easy for you. But what if dying to yourself becomes things real, practical like that? What if, instead of just hoarding that up, you let somebody else have that blessing? And what if you can? Then, well, I'll take the money from that and I'll put that in some kind of an investment or savings, and then that way it'd be real easy for the kids to cash a check. They don't have to figure out how to become brokers of musical instruments, you know.
Speaker 2:And so I say that in all vulnerability and because this is something that's very difficult and it's very present and it's happening. But if I'm not aware of even my own mortality, I will put off that idea. But the one thing for sure is I am gonna die and there is gonna be that issue, and if I can become so aware of that, and then what is important to me? I'm dead. So those guitars hanging onto those things isn't the last thing that I wanna say. The last thing I wanna say is I love you children, and you've met the world to me, and so here's something that can remind you that your dad cared about you more than stuff you know.
Speaker 2:And so real dying, I believe before resurrection comes, there's dying that has to happen. So I'm on the quest to die a million times before I die, so that by the time I die, I'm gonna be super good at it. Do you understand what I'm saying? And it's those moments of no where. Okay, thomas, take the map and tell us where we're going at Disney today. That is a sort of dying If all week long you had a schedule that you had to meet and all this stuff, and now it's your day off and you just wanna wander aimlessly. But because you love that person more than anything in the world, it is your honor and joy to be following a map in the happiest place in the world. Am I making any sense?
Speaker 1:The ancient Celts, in their tradition of understanding Jesus, is the ancients or the mystics in particular, would say it in this way the same exact thing. I have found a place of my resurrection, and we recognize that resurrection comes through the spirit of God. It is nothing of our doing, but our surrendering to death that is our doing. And so to be able to say, whoops, I found a place of resurrection means I have to die here. I have to give up, not my true self, not the self that mirrors Christ, the self that is full of love, but ego, yes, but things, my own desires, things that keep me apart from the world. And in thinking about our deaths, we don't only think about burial, but we think about what have we left? What kind of legacy of love have we given to the world? What kind of energy have we produced in our transformed bodies to be able to say this is the light of Christ, it is how I have lived, it is this intention. And so, if all these practices seem like weird and strange, we just invite you into a weird and strange time called Lent. And in this weird and strange times, may the teachings of Jesus, who is our rabbi, who is the person that we are following, and not only in the following of what he did, but in his embracing of his own humanity, beloved. Your body and your humanity is beautiful. It is made in the image of God and we do in no way dismiss our humanity, but we train ourselves, and this is what the invitation of the church is to train ourselves in love. And we remember this as much as we find places to die. We remember this truth love conquered death. So when you talk about you dying, you are remembering, you are returning to love, you are returning to the source of divine love. And we read this morning in 1 Corinthians, where it says that God has allowed Jesus to be the open door that we would all be reconciled to him. And now it is our job, or our invitation, or our hope that we would reconcile the world to Christ Beloved. It is not gonna be another sermon that reconciles anyone to Christ. It is love. Now, sermons may help us learn how to love each other better, but love is what conquers death. And in this practice of paying attention to Lent, paying attention to our brokenheartedness, paying attention to pain, I was thinking about this the other day, and we didn't plan two Disney stories, but it was helpful to me.
Speaker 1:I think that I need to at some point do a whole blog or a whole writing on what my children have taught me about God, because children are incredible teachers. My children were very little and when you go to Disney in the summer, it's hot and I don't always think a place that is very fun. It's like maybe some kind of penance. It's a sort of hell at 92, 7 degrees and a bunch of people crammed in the same thing.
Speaker 1:And we noticed as a small little family that there was a child and a parent, and this child was not only acting a fool, it was the most dramatic and almost horrific. I kept looking away because I was embarrassed. I don't know. It had a parent there so it didn't need my attention, but it was awful. And I noticed everybody's uncomfortable around us and my own children's uncomfortableness, and I thought, oh, this is a great teaching moment. So this is a part of me where I will die, but I wanna just tell you that I'm busy with the teaching all the time. It's not always the right thing, but that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that is true.
Speaker 1:The scripture says confess your faults and you'll be forgiven.
Speaker 1:So I'm here, we're all here. My kids are uncomfortable, I'm uncomfortable, everyone around me isn't comfortable. This kid is throwing this fit. And I said to David, who is very uncomfortable with this and he's very little. I said what do you think about his behavior? Because I'm going to encourage him that he's made the right decision or he's evaluated something, or there's a wisdom.
Speaker 1:And David looked at me. He said I look at that and I think to myself where does he hurt? Oh? And then I thought, well, now I have to repent. And he said now I just have to give it up, because I was telling him that was a bad way to behave. And David said to me no one acts like that unless they're in pain. He's about four years old when he told me this and I thought you're right. What if his clothes are itchy? What if he's hot? What if he's hungry? What if he has to do this? But I was just thinking to myself like I have to go back then and reach, okay, this whole big thing on wisdom, how we're not going to act like that, because how it makes everybody feel. David looked at him and said I wonder where he hurts. And so I wonder if an epiphany for all of us could be the same thing.
Speaker 1:If you see someone who is acting horribly, if you could first say I wonder where they hurt. And in that place of hurt, how do we give the comfort of the Holy Spirit who is here? Sometimes it's through gentle understanding. Now, in this situation, we didn't need to intervene. That person had a parent who was loving and attentive to them and, yes, we should learn from other situations.
Speaker 1:But our demeanor as a family all changed. We had such compassion and we were brainstorming how this little person could be hurting. Do we have snacks or juice box that we could offer, like what could be wrong, that we could do something? And it just changed this unbearable being with someone who is misbehaving to. I wonder where they hurt and sometimes, especially in the practice of Lent, when we find a behavior that we have in ourselves, that we have been trying to get over. Maybe a better question would be I wonder where I hurt. I wonder where this pain is coming from. I wonder where this misfire is happening in this beautiful engine that is being propelled by love. What can I do to attend to this kind of pain?
Speaker 2:You know that's that deep work and if you're willing to go there with God, he'll bring you through it. Amen. But sometimes we would rather you know. One of my favorite movies are the Matrix the series, and I got to tell you that movie just if you first time you see it, you're just what is going on. But he's offered this one pill that'll let you go back to the normal and forget any of this ever happened. Or yeah, I can't remember if it was a red or blue at this point, but you could take the one and you could know.
Speaker 2:You know how deep the rabbit hole goes. You know, and I think to myself that you know, there is a place that so reflects our relationship with God, where we can really look at spaces that you maybe have ignored for a long time, that God wants to infiltrate and bring healing to, and there's a brokenness there. You know why do I act? Heather and I have a question that we've learned to ask each other and our children, and it's a question of our response to something. If it's disproportionately, something that seems disproportionate in your response of anger to not getting a parking space, it's a parking space. There's other people on the planet and they take them from time to time, but you are absolutely losing it in the parking lot now. It's disproportionate and often you know, okay, son, you lost the game, but it's disproportionate for you to throw it across the room.
Speaker 2:Well, I learned that from you, dad, this disproportionate behavior, it comes from families of origin, but it's disproportionate nonetheless. And when you can ask those questions, what is and there's probably a hurt in that little boy or that little girl and we want to pretend like it's not there, we want to shield it or whatever, or would you be willing to let the God of the universe end, to wrap God's arms around that little broken child and bring a healing that's transformative, because, I get it, it's frustrating when you want it in your parking spot, but to make everyone in the car suffer, you know that's where we've crossed the line and I think so many times people that we love in our lives are suffering because we won't face that death. And what I promise you is, when you face that death, when you come to that end, that's when resurrection power brings transformation. Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, and in this beautiful season of Lent that we're inviting you into a practice. You don't have to practice with us, but if you would like to practice with us, we begin with the Ash Wednesday service and then Pastor Dennis will impose the ashes. For us it's a very different service. We read a lot of the scriptures and some liturgy. There is no music because it is a time of death and not of celebration. And then Pastor Lee and Ms Carol will anoint people with a blessing, because we like to pay attention to the blessing and to the power of anointing for ourselves. And then Lent is a time of fasting, where we pray, where we give generously, particularly to the poor. But then it requires us to understand this that is six days of this, and then on the seventh, when church mothers and fathers set this up, they said there'll be no fasting, there'll be no suffering on Sundays. That's the resurrection day. We cannot possibly combine a feast and a fast. And so every Sunday there is this joyful celebration during Lent, reminding us this is not all death, that love conquers death. The greatest thing is love beloved, and that's what we're being called into, and so I'm grateful that you might begin with us that together as a church, we'll pay attention to the thought. Am I allowing love to get the last word here, at least for these entire months? And look at the beauty of what it means to pay attention to heartbreak. And if you feel like you are walking in embodied wholeness and your heart is so perfectly put together by the reconciliation of Christ, I remind you that there is heartbreak around you, there's heartbreak in the world. So not only do we pay attention to our heartache, but we pay attention to the world around us.
Speaker 1:Some of the Psalms, in fact one third of the Psalms in the scriptures that we use, our songs of lament, our songs of paying attention to. I know you are God everywhere, but why do I feel alone? Why do I feel like you listen to thousands, but my voice is mute to you? And so we listen to these things and we pay attention to how the ancients before us have found a ways to reconcile both and and then beloved, we are resurrection people. This is our big day, I mean. Then we get to Easter. So the way that we get to the resurrection in any area of our life is first passing through death, and passing through death not in fear, not in worry of judgment. But like the Psalmist said to us, even if I have to travel through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil because you are with me. This is the promise of Emmanuel God with you, no matter where you find yourself, not separate from God, fully connected to the source of love. So we're going to just do a little prayer together.
Speaker 2:I want to share a couple of things Concerning prayer and fasting. Take this opportunity in this season. There's nothing wrong with fasting, with kind of denying yourself food for a day or half a day or whatever you can do. It's very good for you. And again, it's not like I go oh look it, I made him suffer, I win. But what fasting does is it's for you. When you're used to your body screaming and you go, yes, buddy, whatever you want, I will do that, you're taking that dominion and saying, no, I'm going to choose, instead of taking this meal time, I will take a prayer time or whatever. And so I encourage you and offer that to you to consider. I mean, some people have health issues and they could know way fast for an entire day. But you could fast anything pleasant just to have some vitamins and some like a herbal egg or something, and you'll figure it out. But if you can all day make sure you drink water or whatever, but use some wisdom in there.
Speaker 2:But also in terms of fasting, somebody a few years ago shared some things with Heather Knight. It kind of flipped the whole script on this whole season. And it's what if I decided to fast? Anger for this season. You know what if I decided to fast? Shame or guilt, selfishness or getting the last word? That's why Heather said that you know what if love got the last word? What if? What if I really decided that would be something I would allow God to work on in me? I want you to understand something when we're talking about, you know, prayer or any anything, gratitude is a practice. You say you know what, you know. Instead of those things, I'm going to practice gratitude and what will happen is you'll sit down and you can gratitude for 10 seconds and then your mind's distracted on things and I assure you that is absolutely normal and that's how everyone began.
Speaker 2:I was having troubles, a young Catholic kid praying. I tell my priest, every time I would try to pray, I would either fall asleep or get distracted about the moment, or someone would call, someone would happen, and I would be distracted, you know, especially by my thoughts. And he said here's the thing. He goes. Let's say you're in your prayer time and the minute you sit down to prayer you think of an apple. He said take that apple and go. God, thank you for apples. And you just took that distraction and turned it into a prayer, a prayer of gratitude. So now, any distraction, I can really change that in some way. Lord, I don't want to think about those things. Thank you that you give me the power of control of my own thoughts. Or thank you for that new car that one day I'll get, and I have gratitude for it.
Speaker 2:And it might be something that you can only do for a short period of time. But what if you decided, you know, just in that season that's few weeks that I'm going to commit to stop being sarcastic to my children, or stop, you know, whatever. And then when you do it out loud, oh, I fasted, that, I'm sorry, I won't even finish that burn or that joke, or I won't, I won't finish that and or or. Well, I'm being angry right now and I fast, I'm fastening, and if you can allow yourself the opportunity to die in real time in these issues, I promise you resurrection, power comes to it and I promise you transformation comes in. And I'm telling you, I know, like I know, that there's something if you and I would get good at gratitude, it will change the world that you live in completely, because there's just just enough science to to to give people that doubt confidence, and there's just enough scripture to give those with faith the confidence to to step out. It's just, it is such a beautiful thing and knowing that if I would be grateful and live that life of great, it's going to change my mindset on things.
Speaker 2:And we set around sometimes and we meditate on what we don't have and it puts us in an energy of frequency of just anger and sadness, disappointment, lack, or we can allow ourselves to be moved by God into this place that he has for us, of of where he meets our needs, even in abundance.
Speaker 2:But it's these kind of practices that we've practiced ourselves into, this whole of negative mindset of of of being sarcastic, being mean, being angry. And so I feel like, you know, I would like to have an altar call and go blip, blip, blip, pop you on the head. Some of you had pushed, but you know, and then all of a sudden you're fixed. You know, wouldn't that be great? You'd go to that church. But but I believe the real deal is that if you can understand that God's throwing you these, these lifelines all along, and if I'd respond to them and they seem difficult at first or sometimes they seem to make no traction at first, but if you'll surrender to this down the road, I promise you you'll see success in the results and areas that you and your family desperately need to be Desperately need you to have transformation in.
Speaker 1:What a beautiful invitation to us, I remind you, as we enter this season of Lent. We will talk about transfiguration in just a moment, but we are, I want you to know, eyes full open where we're headed. We're headed into death, beloved. We're headed right into heartache. We're headed right into unrealized expectations. We're headed into things that are not making sense and we're headed into real life and one of the ways that I believe that we had, we had into those things, with these epiphanies, with our eyes being healed. What is our only hope in life and death? That we belong, body and soul, in life and death, to God and our savior, jesus Christ. This is our hope that we belong, body and soul, in life and death, to our Lord, jesus Christ. There is a place of belonging, and so I'm so grateful, with all of you, that we recognize belonging is where we begin. We do not attempt any fasting, any praying, any gifts of generosity just to try to earn favor. We already have God's favor. We already are loved by God unconditionally. This is us allowing love to reform us in places where love that has been missing has deformed us, and so we allow love to change the way that we can view the world. We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg, reminding you to like, follow and subscribe.
Speaker 1:And so this morning, I offer you the text in Mark, chapter 9. After six days, jesus took Peter and the two brothers, jacob and John, and hiked up a high mountain to be alone, and Jesus' appearance was dramatically altered. Pay attention to that, too. Anytime you see something that is dramatic or being happening, this is what we are being called to pay attention to. Jesus' appearance was dramatically altered, for he was transfigured before their very eyes. I want to remind you that transfiguration happens in the sight of other people. Jesus did not need to be transformed, because Jesus was ultimately sinless, perfectless. He needed no transformation. This was a transfiguration. It's a gift to those who see, not to the person that is there. It is how someone else experiences you this transfiguration, and his clothing sparkled and became glistening white wider than any bleach in the world could make them. And then suddenly, right in front of them, moses and Elijah appeared and they spoke with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now I would like for you to enter into this story and realize that Moses and Elijah's appearance to a Jew, to a person in this culture, would have been incredible. Now this is a rabbi that they are following in the flesh. They have seen Jesus, but now they get to see Moses and Elijah. This is unbelievable To them in their lore and in their way that they understood their history. Moses and Elijah didn't die.
Speaker 1:Moses, they could never find his bones. In fact, god said that he buried them himself. I mean, talk about a good relationship with the Lord. Who was attending your funeral was God, and God did the burial. And then Elijah taken up to heaven in this vision of a chariot with fire. So in the practice of these particular people, they revered so much the teachings of Moses and Elijah, and then to see Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus, I mean their minds would have been unbelievably excited about. Look, I got to see Moses and Elijah, jesus there in the middle. And then again we see the equality that they would have seen. At this same time Peter blurted out. Pay attention to that too. Anytime you blurt out, it might not be the best time, I think, to say. I mean, people are maybe remembering you later Help me Lord.
Speaker 1:With the blurting. Pay attention. Maybe you're going to give up blurting for Lent, but Peter blurts out Beautiful teacher, this is so amazing to see the three of you together. Why don't we stay here and set up three shelters One for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah? All of the disciples were in total fear, and Peter didn't have a clue what to say. Also, whenever you are afraid, try to stop talking, because in fear we say a lot of things, that we try to make sense of things, but there's an obscure reference here that maybe we don't get in our particular time, and so I want to bring your attention to this.
Speaker 1:In the prophet earlier in the first Testament, zachariah Zachariah says during the Feast of Booths, which is this is the season of time, this is what the Jewish calendar was happening, this was right there. During the Feast of Booths, elijah and Moses will return, and then God will return with Shalom for the whole earth. So Peter sees this and Peter is like well then, I know what's happening, I know the prophecy. I know when Moses and Elijah return during the Feast of Booths, god's Shalom is going to come. I know this is how it's going to happen. I know what the prophecy says I know what it looks like. This is a great idea. We're just going to skip all the things that you have told us earlier and we're going right on to how I know anti-prophesy is happening.
Speaker 1:And he starts blurting things out. And I remind you he's panicked, absolutely panicked. Just then, a radiant cloud began to spread over them, enveloping them all. I love that. Just sometimes we need to not so much pay attention to what we see and hear something powerful. God's voice spoke from the cloud, saying this is my most dearly loved son. Always listen to him.
Speaker 2:You know, when we look at these passages of scripture, try to see yourself instead of quickly judging Peter as a goofy. You know, there's a sense with all of us that we want to build temples and monuments to what happened before. You know, I was thinking about this the other day that I realized that the Beatles were Ringo was 29, paul was 28, paul was 27, john was 26, and George was 25, or I might be off a year. The last time they ever played music or did anything creatively together is the four of them, you know, and so by that time they had had over 300 songs in their catalog and arguably any modern musician that you heard of in the past 50 years has said that my inspiration, the reason why I got into it, was I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, you know. So there was something that happened with the Beatles where God showed up with them. There's this divine spark, this inspiration, that actually changed the world, you know, and anyone, and even Paul McCartney, would say you know, let it be, he goes. I wrote that song so fast I was convinced I stole it from somebody else. He kept looking around trying to find who sung that really was. He said it himself.
Speaker 2:You know what a prayer to God that song is, and you can't hear it even today and just be moved. But the truth of the matter is just like that moment in music or the Renaissance, through the painting and the music of that era. There's these moments when God comes in and shows up in such a mighty way and he touches us. And then what do we do? We worship the creation. The Beatles are the greatest things that ever. How about the God who showed up in those writing sessions with Lennon and McCartney? There's the spark, there's the thing to celebrate, but you don't hear about that, do you? You hear about the inspiration that birthed the Renaissance, you know, and it is God. And so what happens is we tend to go oh, I'm just going to focus on the catalog of the Beatles and what you do and there's nothing wrong with those are great songs, but they're an echo of where God once was In the Renaissance. It's a shadow. But what about the real Amen? And so here they are, doing what all people do man, the Beatles are the greatest. Let's build a. These are the in that day, the Beatles.
Speaker 2:So they were going to build three monuments to the Beatles and God's like shh, stop talking, listen to Jesus. And that's what is going to get us out of that pattern of just going to the echo or the shadow Is that you listen to Him because the one who spoke then is speaking now. I can worship what was said then and build a monument to this history, but that is, that's in the past. The past is done, but in the now, in my present, god wants to be and wants to speak, but if I'm busy building tabernacles to what happened, I'm not in the moment of what God is doing now. And God is in the now process of transformation, of resurrection.
Speaker 2:You don't need to hear about what God did for so and so back then. You need to hear God doing in you what he's doing right now Amen. And so allow us to hear in all those words I just said, in all that story, can you hear? Shhh, this is my son, listen to him, amen. And he's speaking to you now, not from a place of historic significance and not out of a history book, but God is reminding us. Hey, I spoke to them then and I'm still speaking. Those who have ears to hear, hear, amen.
Speaker 1:Just then a radiant cloud began to spread over them, enveloping them all, and God's voice suddenly spoke from the cloud saying this is my most dearly son. When you hear those words, it hearkens you back to the baptism, where Jesus hears God say this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And we see the disciples now at this point who are watching Jesus and in its veil. It's kind of cloudy. I love that idea too. We don't see things as clearly as we think we do Sometimes. We're sure we understand someone's motives or what they meant when they said that. This might be a veiled moment, this might be a little bit harder, there might be some complexity here, but these are disciples, these are followers of Jesus, and they understood that Moses and Elijah signified or stood as representatives of the law and the prophets. And God's voice says listen to Jesus. He gives eminence to this understanding that Jesus's words are greater than the law and the prophets, that following the way of Jesus is the way to see what God is doing in the earth today. Always listen to him.
Speaker 1:And suddenly, when they looked around, the disciples saw only Jesus, for Moses and Elijah had faded away and as they hiked down the mountain together. Jesus ordered them don't tell anyone of what you have just witnessed. Wait until the Son of man is raised from the dead. I really would have said I'm not going to talk about this at all, because I don't understand what just happened. I may have heard things, but there's Jesus again reminding them.
Speaker 1:You think that you know the order of things? Right there, as Moses and Elijah appeared, you were sure this was the end, where Shalom was coming. But peace doesn't come in the way that you think it does, and so this invitation is to allow the words of Jesus to be true for us. Jesus had already told them I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, and Jesus had told them that this is not the end of it. And so they're shocked when Jesus is going to die, because they heard it, but they didn't understand it, and I wonder if this process of death and resurrection allows us to understand things differently.
Speaker 1:Wait until the Son of man is raised from the dead. We look at this and we look at Jesus's invitation into pay attention to the death and this invitation of the church. Pay attention, during Lent, to death, to suffering, and not in a way that overwhelms us or makes us fearful, but in a way that we can be reminded in our soul that love is greater than death, that love is what we are all returning to, love is what we came from, and this is the promise Shalom, this is the hope of Christ. God with us.
Speaker 2:You know, and we don't want to mislead anyone, to say that you know God is wanting you to make these death type sacrifices, and how painful and sad that they are. You know, make no mistake, there was such a freedom that has come to me as I've sold some of those guitars. I mean just a joy. There's not a pain and a sorrow and separation, anxiety and a grief, and I need a counselor. Now, joyce, can we make an appointment? You know it's a beautiful thing, and so becoming aware of this death is not that I stay in that place of death, but that becoming aware that if I'll die to these things, then on the other side is resurrection, and that's power and that's life, and so I'm actually experiencing a greater place of life in those areas, as I have identified, a death needs to occur, and so you might have some areas that you have to wrestle with for a while, and there's no problem. God's a great wrestler, and the problem is the longer you wrestle with him, the more likely you might walk away from it with a limp. So that's going to be kind of up to you. But those things are good and kind of show that there's life and things are happening, that you're having a tussle with some stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm questioning, you know, is this something that I love and part of me, or is this part of my ego? I think that there's things that I have held on to that are just because as a little kid I thought they were cool and now I can acquire them. So as a grown man, I've acquired them and so I've made 11 year old Dennis happy. But now, 56 year old Dennis is like what are we doing? Why is the 11 year old kid running the show? Does that speak to anyone? Or am I out in left field here? That's the ego, you know. That's the thing. And if that will die in us, christ is resurrected. Oh, it's so good church.
Speaker 1:What a beautiful, hopeful thought for all of us, because the intention is peace, the intention is resurrection, letting love be just filling our whole personhood. That's the hope for us. Not that we would die into nothing, but that we would so surrender to God and God's way of doing something, that we would remember that we are the agents of change. Here on the earth today, that love is intended. We pray together as a community. We pray together on Sundays as the entire church of Jesus Christ. May your kingdom be done here on the earth, even as it is in heaven. Amen. There are no children that go to sleep. If we sleep there, I don't, that's a whole thing but there are no children who suffer in heaven. There are no brothers and sisters that are distanced. There is no division between families, all of those things in heaven. That's how it's happening, and so our cry let it be done here on the earth as it is in heaven, the restored family of God, where every person knows their value, where every person is reminded of it.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we do on Ash Wednesday is we mark our heads with dust, the dust from Palm Sunday of last year. But it's this remembering that is a sign to everyone who sees you and you when you see your own reflection. I am in need of forgiveness. We have participated in many lengths as a family and it's beautiful as a family to walk around and then see the cross on someone's head and remember they are in need of forgiveness, they are not just being them to annoy you, they are in need of forgiveness.
Speaker 1:And then to see yourself in the mirror and then remember I am one in need of forgiveness, sometimes my own forgiveness, sometimes the forgiveness that I am entering into in this promise of this is from the very first testament, where it says that when God created people, he created them from the dust of the earth. And then God says that from the dust that you came, the dust that you will return, and we remember this mortality, remember these words, and we pay attention to death in a way that reminds us that there is a resurrection coming, in a way that is hope. Paul the Apostle reminds us of this. We do not grieve as those who have no hope. We have this hope that love wins.
Speaker 2:One of my earliest memories of church is apparently an Ash Wednesday service, because I remember sleeping on the pew and I woke up and I saw somebody walk past and it looked like they had a big bruise on their forehead. So it looked like to me as a little kid. And then a couple minutes later I looked up and another person walked by and they had the same bruise and I am like what is going on? Are they part of the bruised head family? And so Ash Wednesday had no effect on me, because as a little kid I just thought a bunch of people had got whacked in the head by the priest or something. I did not know what happened.
Speaker 2:And I wonder how many people are just as lost and confused about what this is today. And even though a little kid was way off base, even if you are a little off base, you are off base. And I was thinking about this because there is this particular person that a couple of times in my life, even with years in between them, have wronged me and hurt me, and I let them back in and they did it again and I am like, well, this is becoming habitual. That is it. I have to sever this and I have to. You know, and there is times when you have to put up a wall and you cannot let those people back in your life. I understand that, but I was mixing that with. I just think I am going to hold my forgiveness and grace towards that person, and I was not really intending it, but what I was doing is just really not giving it any mindfulness so that I could just stay a distance from them in my heart as well as physically.
Speaker 2:And recently God said to me you know that person that you have that ought against or that problem. They are going to be with us in heaven for all eternity. They are going to be around everywhere you go. They are going to be up there or down there or around there or wherever heaven ends up being. It is whatever dimension or realm or whatever. And so I got the idea God was saying to me I better reconcile this. And just within myself, I did not have to contact anybody or I did not have to make any grand gestures, put an ad in the paper, but just make that little switch.
Speaker 2:You know what, if and when I see them, I will have no ought against them. I will love them with the freely. And of course I have the wisdom to go. I am not going to go back for a third or fourth burn. You know we are not going to be hanging out, but I can honestly say that if I saw that person I could look at them with the same love I have when I look at Robert right now, who is my family, my brother. And so I know that, because there is a way where you can flip that. I have been forgiven much. How can I not forgive this little offense, and no matter how big it is, when you compare it to a life accumulation of the grace that God extends towards us, that we can extend this grace? And so I just want to remind you of that kind of a thing, because maybe there are areas in your life where, in doing that, you can embrace God's healing for you.
Speaker 1:Together, we pay attention to the fact that we will go to the table of the Lord and before we go there, we want to take a moment to practice this prayer, to practice a type of prayer we look at. I love that. The beauty of Moses and Elijah show us things where Moses hears God and the mountain trembles. In fact, Moses is talking to God and talks to God so much that his face is shiny in reflection. For that Moses comes down and Moses has a shiny face. I mean I want to talk to God so much that my face shines, like because I've been in God's presence and there's this hope. And then Elijah hears God in the sheer silence.
Speaker 1:So sometimes, depending on who you are or how God is speaking, sometimes you use words and other times silence speaks to you. And so in these times of prayer, one of the things that often people have told us is what to say. But one of the things that I think the church has not been as strong on is recognizing what you can do in silence and sitting in silence and in your mind, recognizing that you are being held in God's love, not coming before God to be judged, to be told you're wrong, to be told different. But sitting in silence and in that peaceful place, just centering yourself in the love of Christ, Beautiful things can happen when you center yourself in silence. Often we don't know how to pray. Often we don't know what best to pray for, especially if it is with people that you love and there is a conflict. So sometimes, being quiet in the presence of God, there's such a comfort in that because it says the Holy Spirit has been given to us to make intercession on our behalf.
Speaker 1:One of the prayers and I call this I know the kids love this. I call them kids now because I'm past 50, but they want life hacks all the time. I'll tell you a life hack. This will be eternal life for you too. It says that Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. So my prayer is this whatever Jesus is praying for, whatever it is, my prayer is an agreement with that. I want everything Jesus has for them, because sometimes I don't know, because I'm like David standing in the line at Disney going I don't know what kind of pain they're in that makes them behave like that. Jesus, whatever you're praying for them, it says that we read this two weeks ago that the Holy Spirit super intercedes for us, sometimes with groanings that cannot be uttered, but sitting in silence is a practice of Lent for us and listening to the voice of God who may speak to us not audibly, not from out, but from within. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.