The Last Sunday after the Epiphany - Transformation and Attentiveness

The seasons after Epiphany and after Pentecost are elastic.  The longer the season after Epiphany, the later the date of Easter, and the shorter the season after Pentecost.  This happens because the date of Christmas in our Christian calendar is fixed and the date of Easter moves around—controlled by the lunar calendar.  Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the vernal or spring equinox.  According to an ancient church computation the vernal equinox for the church always comes on March 21. So the earliest Easter Day  is March 22 and the latest is April 25.  So this year the season of Epiphany which stretches from the coming of the Magi until Ash Wednesday is as long as it could ever be—9 Sundays.

Vestments and altar furnishings for these two seasons are green.  After this Sunday you won't see green again until after Trinity Sunday, June 19^th this year.  Then our liturgical color will be green until Christ the King Sunday, just before Advent begins.

So the arrangement of the church calendar has a practical aspect of fitting things in between fixed Christmas and moveable Easter.  But there is also a theological aspect as well.  From Advent, through Christmastide and the date of Epiphany we focus on the coming of Jesus into our world—the Incarnation of God.  Then from Lent, through Eastertide until the day of Pentecost—we focus on Jesus life—his ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and his sending the Holy Spirit to empower his disciples.

But during the “Green Season” —Ordinary Time—we focus on what it means to live as followers of Jesus Christ.  Green is the color we associate with the growth of plants. Jesus, in a parable, compared our faith to seed.  Seed appears dead until green sprouts are sent up from where it is buried in the ground., nourished by water and sunshine.  We are asked to reflect during the green seasons on how we are growing in our relationship with God and how we are expressing our Christian faith in our lives.

The word “metamorphosis,” a word from Greek that has come directly into English, can be used to describe how a seed changes form and structure to become a plant.  Metamorphosis could also be used to describe what Peter, James and John witnessed on the mountain when Jesus' face shown “like the sun” and his garments become “dazzling white,”  Metamorphosis might also be used to describe what happened in the lives of the apostles and the other followers of Jesus when the Holy Spirit empowered them to leave their fear behind and go forth to witness to the good news of Jesus Christ.

The question for us becomes how do we understand our encounters with Christ whether through worship and prayer, in the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, through service to others, or through encounters with others whose lives may attract or scare us.  Are we aware of the metamorphosis, or transformation, that God encourages in each of us in many different ways?   And through this transformation we will see Christ more clearly, love Christ more dearly, and follow Christ more nearly.

Missionaries are folks who have embraced God's encouragement to lived transformed lives. Today is World Mission Sunday on our Episcopal calendar, and we are blessed to have Maria and Canon Joseph Tucker worshipping with us today.  Mission can be defined as ministry across a dimension of difference.  Sometimes that dimension of difference is cultural.  Maria and Joseph became refugees from their home country of Sierra Leone because of war.  In becoming part of the life of our diocese and of our parish, they have offered us a chance to be grow in our faith and be transformed by widening our view beyond Delaware and beyond our shores.  They have participated as representatives from the Diocese of Delaware in the Global Episcopal Mission Network.  They have returned twice before to Sierra Leone as Volunteers-in-Mission, being a connection between Delaware and Sierra Leone that has led to many baptisms and commitments to follow Jesus Christ there.  On Tuesday they leave for one last mission trip.  May God bless them and their mission, and may God bring them safely back to us.

Perhaps in each of our lives we can point to moments of transformation when something happened and we changed.  Usually only recognized in hindsight, these can be either positive or negative moments, but after them we became someone we had not been before.  An emotional religious conversion experience, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one—we are different now because of these moments.  Usually, however, transformation happens more gradually.  Look back at a yearbook from your high school days or photographs from your childhood.  How much has changed?  How much has been transformed?

Are you more aware of God's glory, the light of Christ in your hearts than you were when that picture was taken?  In reflecting on his experience in seeing the Transfiguration of Jesus with Moses and Elijah, St. Peter wrote: “You do well to be attentive to this [God's voice in this experience] as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  Are we responding to God's seeking us—seeking to transform us—by our attentiveness in worship, in prayer and in the sacraments?  Are we responding to God, as we look for Christ's image in those folks with whom we share our lives?

Perhaps this should be our Lenten discipline—not giving up chocolate or the internet per se—but ordering our lives, so we may be more attentive to God's seeking us—more attentive to how God may be calling us to live transformed lives, as we endeavor to follow the example of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord.