We can only assume that they dropped important things to be with this wandering teacher. If you dropped everything to follow Jesus now, who would pay the bills? Who would remember to feed the cat? Who would take the car for an oil change? Our lives get cluttered with the things we think we “have to do.” We have to save in our retirement accounts so we can live comfortably past age 65. We have to eat right, exercise regularly, reduce stress, and brush our teeth two times a day. We have to pay our insurance premiums so that we can drive, seek medical care, own property, and have enough money to cover our own funerals. And none of these things guarantee a happy or fulfilling life.

Ken-Jo markets have an advertising slogan on radio that announces, “When you see the running Indian, we want you to think about convenience, not inconvenience.” That’s the strategy, isn’t it? Make everything convenient so you can fit all those little annoying tasks into one day. I make mental checklists of what I need to do before work, during work, after work, after the laundry gets done, and I sometimes even rehearse those mental checklists as I’m falling asleep. I don’t know if that qualifies as insanity, but if it does, there are a whole lot of insane people out there these days!

Where is the time to follow Jesus? Can we fit 3-minute-a-day discipleship in between going to the gym and fixing dinner? How does God possibly fit in between all the details that consume our day to day lives? It seems to me that there’s got to be something more. The old slogan is true, “Whoever wins the rat race still ends up being a rat.” Seeing how many plates one can spin is only cool at the circus. In real life, it’s just plain tiring!

Here at church – even more so than beyond these walls – I’d like to think that we’d have a respite from the hectic pace of our otherwise crowded lives. We’d have time to sink deeply into the comfy couch and sip tea with God. But sadly, more often than not, church time is not all that different from real world time. It’s more full of the “have to’s” than the “want to’s.” I suspect that in the conversations you have with people today, one is more likely to hear “I have to go to church,” but “I want to see the game tonight.”

Church for many has become obligation more than passion. Movements change the world. Institutions have a hard time changing anything. Which is the church to be – a movement or an institution? Fans of the Oprah Winfrey show seem to talk about being uplifted spiritually more than some Presbyterians I know. What’s up with that?

I think Oprah is on to something that the church has tended to forget. It has become her recurring mantra that she wants to help people “live their passion.” She does that through weight loss and good haircuts, but also through philanthropy and helping the disadvantaged. She provides education and communication across a wide spectrum of people. She’s not “religious” but she never quits talking about faith and hope. For one of the wealthiest people in one of the wealthiest nations – she is generous and encourages generosity in others. I’m probably not Oprah’s biggest fan – but I am amazed at the inspiration she provides to a whole lot of people.

Jesus has a fan base too – a rather large demographic. He may be one of a few people better known than Oprah. But much of what is done in Jesus’ name still falls into my category of the clutter in our lives. We try to do the right things by saying “yes” to everything we’re supposed to be doing – finishing our taxes, being on time for work, driving in the carpool… Those are fine things, but I dare say that it’s a brave person who does live out his or her passion beyond the walls of expectation. It takes courage to act on inspiration. So often it takes time that we don’t have, money that we haven’t earned yet, and more than a little bit of crazy to jump into the deep end of life’s pool of possibilities.

Jesus’ disciples did just that. They jumped off the deep end. My father-in-law recently gave me a book that he thought every pastor ought to read. I get recommendations from him like that from time to time. It’s called “The True Believer” and it’s a 1950’s treatise by Eric Hoffer on what makes a person join a cause of any sort – be it religious, political, or nationalistic. I’ve not read very far into the book yet, but it agrees with many other analyses of large scale change in that movements require passion and engagement. They frequently follow on the heels of crisis. And neither the very well off, nor the very destitute are willing to take part in a given cause because one is too satisfied to want anything different and the other is too stuck to see that any difference could bring about positive outcomes. It takes regular people who live regular lives to want change to happen.

Change is the buzzword of this election year campaigning so far. I guess when the sitting President can’t be elected, it makes more sense to bring out this word. But is it what the American people want? Well, according to the polls, about half do, about half don’t and we haven’t even asked the question – “what kind of change?” yet. Asking the question of change in the church is just as tricky. Some want it. Some don’t. And we haven’t even figured out what kind of change we’re talking about either.

I’m talking about change and movements, passion and inspiration today because today is Transfiguration Sunday, and the scripture lesson is turned to Jesus’ own mountaintop moment. God is pleased with who Jesus has become. Jesus is radiant with his connection to the past and his hope for the future. The disciples are awe-struck, then quickly overcome by fear. When Jesus touches them, everything comes back to normal. It’s just Jesus, and he’s not glowing or hearing voices anymore.

The disciples are instructed to wait to tell this story. Why? We’re not really sure. It’s one of the stranger stories in scripture that we still don’t know exactly how to interpret. I do think it’s notable however that Jesus had a couple of big “aha” moments like this to feed his spirit, but then he always returns to normal people in their normal lives to give inspiration and encouragement. He discourages building little mountaintop huts for he and the other glowing prophets. He goes up to the mountaintop, sure, but he returns to the valleys where the people are.

What I am curious about is if we are praying for this kind of transformation to happen in us. The disciples made a conscious choice to follow Jesus, but I wonder, were they praying for more meaning in their lives? Did they cast out their nets thinking – there’s got to be more? Did they hear God’s nudge that this was the “right” thing to do even when everyone else thought they were crazy?

The serenity prayer is about change from within. Funny how serenity and change are linked together! The prayer says, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” I think this is a transforming prayer. It helps us become renewed. It allows the unimportant things to fall away while the truly important things become more clearly in focus. It takes courage to pray for God to change us. We don’t exactly know what God will do. The Holy Spirit may nudge us in an uncomfortable way. But the firmer we try to stand on our own, the more we need this kind of prayer in our repertoires.

Those people who are natural educators – and I’m married to one – will remind you that people are either growing or dead, learning or stagnating. Growth and learning are just other words for change. Maybe they’re better words than change. They imply positive outcomes, whereas change can go in any direction. I pray for myself, and I pray for us as a congregation, and I pray for the nation that I live in and call my home to grow and learn in God’s love. Just recently I was taught that there are two kinds of learning. There’s the learning that is simply the accumulation of knowledge – facts that we can regurgitate, but then there’s a second type of learning called “double loop learning.” In double loop learning, you learn information that changes who you are. It loops in once as information, then a second time as transformation.

More often than not, when we are faced with a transformative moment, it’s frightening at first. The disciples were trembling on that mountain. Jesus was different. He heard the voice of God. His all too human friends were cowering – until he touched them. Jesus touches us in those moments to remind us that when we follow him – out to the outer edges and off the deep end – we are not alone. The moment that once scared us becomes our new identity and we thank God for revealing a little glimpse of the divine to fragile human beings like us. We were designed to be molded by our potter. Allow yourself to yield to God’s artistic touch. God brings beauty forth from our very willingness to pray and offer our lives as part of this good creation.

Amen.