Sermon Excerpt: As followers of Jesus, we can seek the light of Christ in this world. In the faces of all we encounter…the poor…the suffering…the enemy. And if we find ourselves feeling skeptical that this is possible we can let ourselves be shaped by the testimonies of the gospel and of people like Thomas Merton, Mother Teresa, Francis of Assisi and others who lived with a profound sense of God’s mysterious presence among and within us.

Because that’s a thing, too.  “There’s no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun,” said Merton. The light of God dwells within others. And that light dwells in each of us…waiting to be seen and sensed; waiting to have us each begin to let go of the layers of cynicism and doubt and weariness that obscure Christ’s light within.

We can be a transfiguration people, aware of divine wonder and glory and mystery in this world.  We can be a transfiguration people, faithfully seeking that light and wonder in others, no matter who they are.  We can be a transfiguration people, pursuing the spiritual practices that make us more aware of…alive with…the light “shining like the sun” within each of us.  A light that can’t be captured and contained and kept in one place.

And as we enter Lent, may we be people who make room, more and more, for the light of Christ through shedding the ways of destruction and distraction.
We would be changed entirely.  And the world with us.

-Rev. Ruth Moerdyk