Becoming a whole human being

 

Luke 9: 28-43a
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
March 2, 2025

Photo of a small sourdough round loaf on a white cloth next to a brown glazed ceramic chalice, both on a wooden surface.

I love the juxtaposition of these two stories. On the one hand, we have Jesus in all his literal glory, conversing with Moses and Elijah, two other prophets who experienced rejection, and a voice speaking from a cloud commanding the disciples to listen to Jesus. On the other hand, we have Jesus losing his patience, his savior-sized ago getting the better of him. I find it amusing that in the lectionary the verses for this additional story are in parentheses, as in we don’t have to read this if we don’t want to. We could just stay on the mountaintop with Jesus and Peter, never mind the immediate demands of ministry and our all-too-human feelings of powerlessness.



It reminded me of the genie in the Disney movie “Aladdin” describing his predicament: “Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty-bitty living space!” Jesus being both human and divine is like linking freedom with responsibility—neither are complete without the other. Power needs limits if it is to be life-giving and sustaining. Responsibility would be overbearing without the joy that freedom brings.



It also reminded me of an original Star Trek episode entitled “The Enemy Within”. Due to a transporter malfunction, Captain Kirk is split into two distinct people: one is kind and compassionate, the other is cruel and ruthless. Both are shadows of the captain, neither of them capable of commanding the Enterprise without the other. Only when both halves are reunited is Kirk able to be decisive and to put his crew first.



The other day I gave to someone one of those little slips of paper that comes in a fortune cookie. I had been keeping it in my wallet where I would see it every day, but now it needed to inspire someone else. It read “Courage is found in your ability to become comfortable with yourself.” And that’s hard work. Almost any day we’d rather not face ourselves—the worst nor the best—or the truth that will set us free, because first it will piss us off (to quote my good friend Rev. Corey Fields at Calvary Baptist Church, that’s a theological term) but it will also shatter the safe, sweet way we live (Sue Monk Kidd).



There’s a very good reason why we have a prayer of reconciliation or a prayer of confession before we come to the Table for communion. At this Table we do not reminisce about Jesus or attend his memorial. At this Table we encounter the very real presence of Jesus—made known to us in the bread and the cup as love, mercy, healing, forgiveness, and the willingness to disrupt life for these things. We come to this Table not because we must or because we may but because we need to. We need love, mercy, healing, forgiveness, and the acceptance of our whole selves, and we can find all of that here. Jesus freely gives us unconditional love that we would be shaped and transformed by that love and then share it with others, what my seminary professor Mary Luti calls “communionized”.



We confess all of who we are that we would accept all of who we are, so that we would recognize Jesus in all his glory and all his humanity. Because we need our whole selves if we are going to love the way Jesus loved, if we’re going to be merciful as Jesus was merciful, if we’re going to disrupt our lives as Jesus disrupted his life for his disciples and for us.



Which also means feeling all the feelings we’re having right now. I’ve said to not give up your joy but I also say to you now, not at the expense of your grief. What we are witnessing in our country right now, and have been for some time, is our inability to face ourselves and our actions as a nation, which is the toxic legacy of White supremacy and Christian nationalism. It’s one thing to be human, to do wrong, to cause harm. It’s quite another to dig in one’s heels and defend one’s actions or to deny that any wrong or harm was ever done. It’s one thing to be mortal and to refuse to accept one’s mortality. It’s quite another to hoard wealth for one’s own survival to the exclusion and detriment of most of the planet.



There are some people in American churches who say that Jesus is weak when he says blessed are the poor, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the gentle, because they have split Jesus in two and what they worship is power. I think Jesus would say they need to spend more time with him at this Table, this Table where power looks like welcome and food for those who betray and desert him and Jesus loves them anyway.



Where do you need to face yourself today? What have you been avoiding or ignoring? Your beauty and your flaws, your glory and your shame. This Table won’t fix everything, but I can tell you this. Whatever it is, Jesus is here to meet you, embrace you, and give you something to eat, so that you would be able to do the same for the poor, the gentle, the merciful, and those who are rejected and despised. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com


May God’s face shine upon you from every other face,
every bare tree branch and tiny, first daffodil sprout.
And may it make you bold. Amen.