Post General Conference 2019 Sermon (Transfiguration Sunday)

Luke 9:28-43a

“In the Valley”

Preached March 3, 2019 at Vermilion Grace United Methodist Church

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday of Epiphany before Lent begins. Every year on this Sunday, we hear from one of the Gospels how Jesus went up a mountain top with his disciples and they saw him transformed - transfigured - which I learned means to transform into something more beautiful or elevated. Transfigured - what a beautiful word, how beautiful must the sight of Jesus been, his divinity on display. Dazzling, filled with glory. That same dazzling beauty that made Moses hide his face, that, according to Exodus, made the skin on his face shine. It is the kind of beauty that would make you want to stay awhile to appreciate the view - not just the view of a mountaintop, God’s glory - that which I see and stare at and appreciate when I am at the top of a mountain! Like this mountain view that made my heart just want to burst forth with “How Great Thou Art!” but also to see God, God’s self, in beauty and glory and splendor that we cannot imagine.

This is what we remember this Transfiguration Sunday.

But for me, there is only one problem -

Friends, I feel so far from the mountain top.

Last week the General Conference of the United Methodist Church met in St. Louis and in what was, for me and many, a heartbreaking decision, voted not only to keep our current exclusive language surrounding LGBTQ inclusion in the church in matters of ordination and marriage, but we also strengthened our penalties for pastor’s who have charges filed against them and tightened Board of Ordained Ministry requirements.

My friends, this valley is low and dark.

The pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in America shared an article this week where he said he would have doubts about getting through the ordination process with our new rules - let along young, called, and equipped LGBTQ leaders who are trying to follow God’s call to serve their church.

I can’t even see the path to the top of the mountain.

Another leader in the denomination, Tom Berlin whose “Defying Gravity” sermon series we studied last October, said that the passed Traditionalist plan is a virus that we are injecting into the system of The United Methodist Church and will make us very sick.

The sunlight is hard enough to see through the trees, let alone the glory of God shining bright.

And this vote was not just a vote for the Traditionalist plan, but a vote against the One Church Plan, the plan that allowed conservative pastors and churches to remain conservative and hold their stance on same-sex weddings and ministers while allowing progressive clergy and pastors a way forward - the only way many believed that United Methodists could stay united. A plan that it is reported, over 70% of U.S. United Methodist Churches supported.

God! Do you hear me in this valley?

And even if you agree with the Traditionalists Plan’s and The United Methodist Church’s stance on same-sex weddings and LGBTQ ordination - and I want to say that I WANT to be in Church with you all still, I WANT The United Methodist Church to be a big tent Church where all are welcome, and those who disagree can sit down and talk and listen and love one another...But even if you agree with General Conference’s decision, which I know there are people in our church who do -

I want you to not tune this sermon out. I want you to not get angry with me and spend the rest of the time thinking about how you will give me a rebuttal. I want you to listen to my grief. To listen to the grief of our fellow LGBTQ United Methodists. I want you to open your ears and your heart to what God has to teach us at the intersection of this week’s Gospel lesson and the events in our denomination. Friends, please, stay with me. Let us work through this TOGETHER as a church.

And I want you to recognize the harm we have done and the blow to the witness of the Gospel and our Church that we have done to ourselves.

This past week, at one point over 35,000 people were watching our livestream. Newspapers and news channels, national and local aired stories and clips of the infighting in the United Methodist Church. On a National level, people saw how we the people call Methodists treat each other (and we know it can happen at the local level too) and how we treat those who are asking to be loved and accepted - and a whole lot of people saw this, saw us, our congregation representated, and said, “No thank you.”

We want to be a church with young families? How can we expect them to darken our doorstep after the General Conference? Social media was filled with young people who were eyeing the United Methodist Church and now want nothing to do with us. During General Conference, in about 12 hours, over 15,000 United Methodists under the age of 35 signed a petition imploring the Church to listen to our voices and accept the One Church Plan. This statement was then read from the Conference floor. These voices were ignored. Why would any young person want to go a to a church where they weren’t listened to, respected, and loved for who they are?

Dear Lord - I am hurting today. I am mourning. I am angry. I am sad. I am raw. And I know a lot of United Methodists - gay, straight, whatever - are in this valley with me! Are you in this valley? Or if you’re not hurting over THIS - have you ever been in a valley? Have you ever lost something or someone you loved dearly? Have you ever been mourning? Have you ever wondered if you would ever make it to the mountain top to see the glory of God again? Have you ever had the only thing that reminds you of your baptism been the tears that you’ve cried? Have you ever been lost or afraid? Sick or hurt? Dismayed and angry? Have you ever prayed that God would take your valley and transfigure your pain into something beautiful?

Well, here is the Gospel message for you today. Here is the Good News.

Jesus did not stay on the mountain top. He came down to the valley.

I find it interesting that in this week’s lectionary reading, it is an option to read past verse 36. That is, we could, if we chose, end today’s reading on the mountain top. As readers, it’s optional to stop at the top. But we know in life, we have peaks but we spend most of our time in the valley, it is not optional for us, we have to come down - and Jesus joins us here.

Jesus comes down from the mountain, goes into the valley, and immediately encounters the world’s pain:

Great crowds seeking direction.

A man pleading for his son’s life

A child, sick and helpless

A generation, faithless and lost


And yet, Jesus chooses to not stay on the mountain top, but comes down from the peak and all it’s glory and worship and he comes down into the valley and he heals this child and Scripture says “all were astounded at the greatness of God.”

I like the Common English Bible translation here that says: “Everyone was overwhelmed by God’s greatness.”

If we just took at that last sentence: “Everyone was overwhelmed by God’s greatness” and polled people - does this take place on the mountain top or in the valley? I bet a lot of us would vote “mountain top.”

But the Gospel, the Good News, is that this takes place in the valley!

In the valley we can be overwhelmed with God’s glory - in the valley we can catch glimpses of the transfiguration that happens on the mountain top - in the valley, in the midst of sickness and grief and our day to day world with its divisions and exclusions and pain - Christ does not abandon us but brings us healing.

Just as those in the valley saw the glory of God in Jesus, so we in the valley catch glimpses of what the mountain top is like, we catch glimpses of the Kingdom of God. We catch glimpses of what it will be like to meet God face to face - indescribable beauty. We catch glimpses of what it will be like when all of our WORLD is transfigured! When our Churches are transfigured! When the pain and hurt and trauma and sin is removed from us and we are all made dazzlingly beautiful before God! - but we can’t stay on the mountain top. We live. We breathe. We are in relationship with each other in the valley, in the midst of the grief, pain, and suffering of our world.

The Church exists in the valley. We are not called to ministry and mission on the mountain top - no! We cannot stay there! We cannot pitch tents there to worship God! We must come down from the valley - we must leave the doors of this building - and go into a generation that is lost, seeking meaning! Into the crowd of those who are weeping! Into the crowd of those who are crying out for love and acceptance! Into our broken world AND our broken churches!

AND it is our job as followers of Christ in the Valley to share glimpses of that beautiful transfiguration, of the Kingdom of God to everyone else down here with us. WE are called to be the mountaintop. WE are called to view each other, to view EVERYONE, as Christ views them - beautifully transfigured. WE are called to help the world see the Church transfigured! Not to be a church of exclusion, clergy trials, punishment, and schism - but a church transfigured into something so beautiful that it overwhelms us with the Glory of God.

I want people to come to know Christ not in spite of the church but because of us!!

And so once again, I come to today’s Good News:

Christ is with us in the valley.

With the help of Christ, we will, one day, reach that glorious mountain top and stay there…

Christ views all of God’s children, including you and me, including those who feel so far away from God, and including beautiful, fabulous LGBTQ children of God - in the shining light of his love and glory.

And Christ invites all of us to this table - a shining reminder of the Mountain top in the valley - a table that no one is ever excluded from - a table where all are equal at the feet of Jesus, a table that know no limits, no boundaries, it knows no dividing lines of age, race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, class...it only knows love and acceptance.

And so as we, in the midst of our valleys, as we come to the table today, let us catch a glimpse of our lives, the Church, the world, transfigured - and then let us leave from this table with a vision to make it so.

Amen.