David was an active elder in his church, the chair of the PNC, and a respected teacher in the community.  In conversation one day he proceeded to tell me of a tragedy which occurred in his family.  His younger sister, who was in her early twenties at the time, was killed in a car-train accident less than a mile from their home.  It devastated him!  He had many sleepless nights as well as confused thoughts of how God could have permitted this to occur.  He and his sister had been very close, and he shared her hopes and dreams for the future.  All of that was wiped out in the rush of a speeding train.  For months he was tortured with his memory of the life taking accident.  Then, he said, one night he had a dream.  It was as vivid as daytime meeting with a friend over coffee.  His sister appeared to him in a dream and told him that she was ok.  He needed to let her go.  He said from that moment on he was at peace with her death.  He is convinced that his dream was a message from God. 

A few years ago I was making a pastoral call on a long time member of the church.  He was approaching death and wanted to talk.  Among the number of things he wanted to discuss was an occurrence that happened many years before.  He was awake in his bedroom alone when he felt the presence of someone else in the room.  He looked up and saw someone at the foot of his bed.  He did not recognize him, but the person was reassuring, and the atmosphere in the room was of warmth and comfort.  The person spoke to him (I don't recall what he was told, but it put him at  ease),  and  then  he  disappeared  as   quickly  and mysteriously as he arrived.  He believed it to be an angel.  But it was so unusual that he was afraid to tell anyone.  I was the first person he ever mentioned it to.  He couldn’t even tell his wife.

My own father saw two men in white at the foot of his bed a few hours before he died.  My sister-in-law who was with him at the time saw no one.

An Executive Presbyter was seen by a third party at his own funeral as he was giving comforting messages to his grieving wife.  This person identified him in clothes, which no one ever saw him wear in public (which he wore around his home during leisure times.)

These are not the only mysterious sightings I have been made aware of, but they are representative of occurrences to ordinary respectable people.

Yet they do not get talked about very broadly because we begin to wonder about such people . . . . I dare say that some of you sitting here this morning have had or have heard of similar kinds of experiences.  Is there a world out there beyond the rational?  Is there a world of communication that occurs between our daily living and the unexplainable?

Both our scripture passages this morning, and our celebration of the Lord’s Supper today suggest a way of being connected to God that goes beyond the ordinary.  Listen to Matthews account once again: (Read Matthew 17:1-3)  Is it no wonder Jesus says in verse nine, tell no one about the vision . . . .  But this wasn’t all.  The passage goes on to describe something else… suddenly a bright cloud over shadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him.”  I can’t imagine how scared I would have been.  An ominous looking cloud, a dazzling white appearance of Jesus, and two other men suddenly appearing, and then a voice coming out of the cloud.  Any one of these strange occurrences would be enough to make one uneasy, but put all together, it is understandable that fear would overcome Peter, James, and John.  This sure was a mysterious and frightening sighting!  They hadn’t seen Jesus like this before.  There was something different about him.  And all this other strange occurrences, and THE VOICE! Where did that come from, and what did that mean?  They had never experienced anything like this before!

One of the reasons the Session met yesterday was to address some of the fears that some of you have expressed.  This time of transition, this time of change carries with it some anxiety or uncertainty.  Where are we going, who are we becoming?  Some of you expressed the fear that we are going backwards.  Let me assure you that this Session and the church leadership remain totally committed to our mission to be a welcoming and affirming congregation for gays and lesbians, for bisexual and transgender persons.  There is NO RETREAT from that mission.  And yesterday we also affirmed that we need to and want to expand that welcoming and affirming mission.  And we want to communicate that in every aspect of our life together.  That means we need to practice greater acceptance of the variety of folks who are presently here. 

We do not need to all look and think alike.  Can we be welcoming and affirming to people who may differ with us, or are we only accepting of those who look, sound and act like us?  We all come from various ways of experiencing God.  Only three of the disciples experienced God on this mountaintop in our scripture lesson today.  Nine of Jesus’ closest disciple did not have this experience.  But all were welcomed at his table.  You and I have differing experiences and consequently different ways of expressing our relationship to and with God.  Can we value that in each other rather than insisting on one way as the only way?  Your Session is committed to expanding our world of being open and affirming. 

It is important for us to note that all of this takes place in the context of Jesus once again going up a mountain to pray.  While Jesus was praying Matthew says: and he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun . . . .  Now that is bright!  We have all had that experience when we have unexpectedly looked directly into the sun.  This meeting of God on the mountaintop was radically different than Jesus’ usual times of prayer.  So why was this so different?  We are not given any explanation outside of this text, but the passage itself holds some clues.  First, Jesus is beginning to face his death.  Does he need some extra advice or support from Moses and Elijah, who themselves had mysterious endings to their lives?  The text tells us they were there to talk about Jesus’ impending departure, which would occur in Jerusalem.  Moses and Elijah may be representing the law and prophets, but that is only conjecture.

Second, Jesus and his disciples hear God’s affirmation of Jesus as being the one chosen to once again communicate  God’s  desire for humankind.  Listen to him.  God once again steps out of the ordinary for us humans to try to get our attention.  Isn’t it easy to try to explain away all of this as just another story, or someone’s dream or fantasy?  We are reluctant to believe that God, the creator of the universe, the one before time began, would actually invade our daily normal living.  And yet if we look we can see God in the breaking of the bread.  We can be called to God’s presence in the drinking of the cup.  God uses the mundane – bread and wine - and the mysterious - in efforts to let us know how much we are loved!  For God so loved the world that God gave the beloved son, not to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved…LISTEN TO HIM!

Listening is not completed when you hear what it is said.  “Listen to your mother” doesn’t not mean simply hear what she has to say, but you had better be about doing what is said!  And the good news is that just like Peter who didn’t get it right all of the time; we too can be mistaken about what is important, but still be embraced by our loving God.  Peter, the rock, wanted to build a tabernacle up on the mountain, but was used instead to build the church.  Upon his confession of Jesus the church has stood solid through the centuries as it spread its arms open to Jew and Gentile alike.  God uses all who listen and follow.  Come to Jesus’ table and sit with him and he with you.  Discover the glory of the beloved one!  Jesus invites you to sit at table and break bread, and at the breaking of bread recognize him.

God’s gift to us is that God is there – waiting to be seen.  Beyond the bread and the wine, beyond the bright  light  and  mysterious   cloud – God   is  there – waiting to be heard.  And beyond it all God is there for us.  THAT IS THE HEART OF THE MATTER!