Luke 9: 28-45 (links validated 2/5/25a)

C.S. Lewis is often-quoted as saying that he didn’t pray to change God, but to instead change himself. Actually, he is depicted as saying it in the biopic film, Shadowlands, but there is no proof that Lewis himself ever wrote or said the words. All the same, I wonder if it might give us a window into the Transfiguration. Jesus’s appearance changed while he prayed. It seems to me that prayer might make us think and feel like God has changed—just as Peter, James, and John saw Jesus’s face and clothes change. In fact, I hope that our idea and sense of God changes when we pray; it would be a sure sign that we have learned more about God, experienced more of God and God’s glory, and been drawn closer to God. Of course, such an experience would change us—even if it takes a while to come to terms with, as it did for the disciples.

The word transfiguration means a change in form or appearance. Biologists call it metamorphosis (derived from the Greek word metamorphoomai used in Matthew’s Gospel) to describe the change that occurs when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. As children we might have curiously watched the process of the caterpillar turning into a chrysalis and then bursting into a beautiful Monarch butterfly. Fr. Anthony de Mello tells the story of such a metamorphosis in the prayer life of an old man. “I was a revolutionary when I was young and all my prayer to God was: ‘Lord, give me the grace to change the world.’ As I approached middle age and realized that half of my life was gone without changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: ‘Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come in contact with me; just my family and friends and I shall be satisfied.’ Now that I am old and my days are numbered, I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is: ‘Lord, give me the grace to change myself.’ If I had prayed for this right from the start, I should not have wasted my life.”

So much that Shakespeare wrote simmers with meaning. Take this little passage from “The Tempest.” The play itself is a fantasy, full of magic, monsters and spirits. At its end, Shakespeare reminds us that theater is fantasy. What we witness is unreal, and soon enough actors must take their leave. Come the curtain, we must awake from fantasy and go home. Shakespeare’s genius is that he uses his play’s closing to remind us that life itself is but a dream, something from which we are destined to awake. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep...

When I first began teaching theology, I fantasized about writing a book about the hiddenness of God. Why does God remain hidden and invisible? Why doesn't God just show himself plainly in a way that nobody can dispute? One of the standard answers to that question was this: If God did manifest himself plainly there wouldn't be any need for faith. But that begged the question: Who wants faith? Wouldn't it be better to just plainly see God?...

("On November 10, 2008, Eben Alexander was admitted to the Lynchburg General Hospital emergency room with excruciating back pain. Within four hours he slipped into a deep coma that lasted seven days. At the end of those seven days, he opened his eyes and thrashed around in bed. After the doctor removed his ventilator, Alexander took his first unassisted breath in a week..." and other quotes)

includes lots of Greek exegesis!

("John Lennon's Beautiful Boy appeared on his album Double Fantasy, released in mid-November of 1980. I suspect the right-before-Thanksgiving date was market strategy, a plan for hitching a ride on the Christmas sales. Three weeks after the record hit the stores, Lennon was murdered. And a beautiful boy became a fatherless child..." and discussion of interruptions)

(excellent exegesis with several quotes)

("One evening, a week after our master had asked us who we believed he was, we were all slumbering in a grove of trees outside Cesarea Phillippi. The night had the chill of crisp air and I had not yet drifted into sleep...")

("'Where can I see God?' It was a question Eliezer asked everyone he met, as he wandered the world in his quest to meet God, to actually see God face to face. But in response to his question, Eliezer received few answers. Most people had no answer at all for him; many scoffed at him for even asking such a question, and undertaking such a quest...")

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In her book No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear), Kate Bowler tells about getting a break between the grueling treatments for her cancer. She and her family decide to go to the Grand Canyon, and on the way she had a moment of illumination. “Just off Route 66, I found a tiny chapel surrounded by ponderosa pine. No towns for miles. Curious, I tried the door and, finding it unlocked, tentatively walked inside. The room was a miniature sanctuary, unheated and inelegant. The floor was loose gravel, and someone had nailed together some benches to face a chunk of stone serving as an altar. But the light of the setting sun — an incandescent orange — poured through the windows and lit up the walls, which were covered with graffiti both fresh and faded. I ran my fingers along the black ink covering the altar and the pen marks gouging the soft wooden walls. Almost every inch of it was covered with words. I miss you every day. Please let my daughter be the way she was before.” She looked up to see hundreds of papers stuffed into the cracks in the walls, and the rafters. Her husband came in to see where she had gone, and he, too, looked up at the ceiling. He tipped his head up, looking at the wealth of prayers, neither of them speaking. “I used to think we were the only ones,” he finally said. Kate Bowler decided to add her own prayer. Taking out a pen and a scrap of paper, she wrote down a phrase, and stuffed the slip of paper in the wall. “What did you decide?” her husband asked, when she got back to the truck. “It was something Mr. Boothe used to say,” she replied, recalling “I love thinking about him at the chalkboard, goading us into advanced math problems as he publicly suffered from the disease infecting all good teachers — too much faith in humanity. Dum spiro spero, he would say, shaking his head. While I breathe, I hope." Illumination keeps coming.

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Writer Susan Cheever, who wrote a biography of Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, recalls that Bill W.’s sobriety began with a dramatic experience of light. As she tells it, “There’s no question that in his story he was a man desperate to stay away from a drink. And over this period of about 10 or 15 years he put together, one piece at a time, trial and error — mostly error — the things that helped him stay away from a drink. So he would get, for instance, that if he spoke to another alcoholic he had a better chance of not drinking. And then he would think, “Oh, now I have it,” and then he’d drink again, right?” Then an experience sealed him in his path to recovery. During his fourth hospital stay, he had “a direct, extremely dramatic experience of God, where… feeling helpless and hopeless, [he] fell to his knees and cried out, “God help me.” And…the room was suffused with light, a divine light. And he said, “So this is the God of the preachers.” I mean, for him, there’s no question that he had, like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, that he had a religious epiphany and that after that experience he never drank again.” And just like with the disciples, for whatever reason, Bill W. “understood that that wasn’t going to happen to everybody.”

After an exhausting overseas trip, Tracy Cochran reached into her bag to find that her wallet had been stolen at the airport. Wanting nothing more than to crawl into bed, instead she spent the night making phone calls to alert credit card companies and banks. She recalls, “I lost the wallet during the darkest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, days before the Winter Solstice, the day when the North Pole is tilted farthest from the sun. Our ancient ancestors noted that darkest day, watching the stars and noticing the shortening days, patiently abiding until one day, they noticed a shift: the darkest day was followed by a little more light.” Then came a modern moment of light. “Lying in bed in the dark, watching my iPhone light up, it dawned on me that the meaning of life, the real purpose of our presence here, is being attentive, being willing to go on seeing and keeping our hearts open — not just for our sake but for the sake of others. We make ourselves available to life, opening our hearts to the passing flow of it, knowing we will blunder and get it wrong but sometimes right. We do this even knowing that those hearts will inevitably break because life is uncertainty and change and loss. But sometimes when we are open, light floods the darkest chamber.” God keeps sending us the light, in so many different ways.

Working with college students, it’s not only rewarding spiritually on a personal level – but it’s also incredibly hysterical. And Lent opens itself to a wide variety of examples to prove that point. There was a year when one guy who was a missionary and working at our Newman Center had decided to give up eating meat for the entire season of Lent. I don’t think he realized at the time that there was a “Men’s Night” scheduled that – the non-religious aspect of the night was a 5-course meal that featured bacon (the men’s night was called “Bacon Night” – real original). When I out of compassion purchased a box of tofu bacon (I think it was made out of tofu…) So he could still feel included, as he took a bite of this fake bacon, he looked at me like he was going to cry and said something about how this just had made everything worse. Or – one of my first years working with these characters, one student couldn’t wait to tell me how seriously he was taking Lent. That this being his first year he could legally drink alcohol that he was giving it up for Lent. Which, suffice it to say, I can attest was a tremendous sacrifice for him. Knowing his Irish heritage and how in previous years he had gone into NYC with his fraternity brothers I said “wow, that’s impressive, your first legal St. Patrick’s Day and you’re going to be sober.” The eyebrows went up as did both hands “Oh, St. Patrick’s Day doesn’t count” – “Really?” I asked – by my calendar March 17th falls during Lent. “Yeah, but that’s one of those you know days you get a free-bee” he pronounced – “you mean you’re dispensed from it?” “Yeah that’s it… dispensed” – well who told you that??? This literally went on for a good 5 minutes, where I threw in a few bombs like “heaven’s not for everybody” “I must’ve missed that part of the passion narrative when Jesus said he was tired of being on the cross, so he was going to climb down…” Who says Catholic guilt doesn’t work anymore – he was completely dry that St. Patrick’s Day...

In one of my seminary classes, I read an excerpt from Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022). Symeon recorded the story of a young man who had had an experience of the “uncreated light” come upon him. I believe that the experience will be familiar to some of us, while it will probably make others more than a little uncomfortable. However, even in my research of English Puritans, I have found a number of examples of people sharing their experiential knowledge of God’s love. (It might help to know that words like “ecstasy” didn’t necessarily mean the same thing as some of our more fantastic modern definitions.) Here’s the young man’s account from 1200 years ago:...

This brings us back to the Olympic games and how moments of transfiguration allowed those of us watching to see the face of our living God. When we speak about the Olympic games there are often talks of spirit, comradery and friendship. Transfiguration moments from the Olympics include Erin Jackson being the first Black woman to win a speed skating medal at the Olympics. What is so special about this moment is the fact that Erin Jackson should have never skated that event. If it were not for her teammate Brittany Bowe, who qualified for three other events, giving up her spot in the event after Jackson failed to qualify after a stumble, Jackson would have never made history. Bowe giving up her spot so that Jackson could race in her stead was not out of guilt or coercion. Bowe knew that Jackson would win gold, she was her friend, and it was for the best. Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, who won gold in the cross-country skiing event, waited almost twenty minutes for Carlos Andres Quintana of Colombia to cross the finish line. Quintana finished 95th out of 95 competitors. It might seem like a hollow gesture to some, yet to others, Niskanen waiting for the event to be complete so that he could congratulate his fellow competitor who struggled as hard as he did, speaks to the miracle of embracing one’s true self and the potential of others...

("I heard an amusing story about former heavyweight boxer James (Quick) Tillis. He was a cowboy from Oklahoma who also boxed in Chicago in the 1980's. He remarked about his first day in Chicago arriving from Tulsa. 'I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, 'I'm going to conquer Chicago.' When I looked down, the suitcases were gone. The term 'faded glory' caused a number of images to come to mind, none of which are very positive...")

There is a story about a Parisian who went for a walk to the outskirts of the city when he heard hammering and chipping coming from a large home. He was bold enough to walk across the large front yard and peer into the door. It was the studio of the famous sculpture, Auguste Rodin. You know Rodin as the sculptor of the piece we call The Thinker, maybe you know his work the Burgers of Calais; he had many, many wonderful works of art, my favorite is his Hand of God. Anyway, the man had the nerve to walk into the studio and interrupt Rodin at his work. “Excuse me,” he said, “but how exactly do you do that?” “Do what?” Rodin asked, somewhat perturbed. “How do you create such beautiful works?” the man asked. “I’d love to be a sculptor myself.” Rodin was perturbed, his work was interrupted by this uninvited stranger. He was about to explode in anger, but he calmed himself and just said to the man, “Well, let’s say that you wanted to do a sculpture of an elephant.” “Yes,” said the man, “how would I do that?” “It is simple,” Rodin said, “You just get a very large block of marble, you get a set of chisels and a few hammers, and then you chip off everything on the block that doesn’t look like an elephant.” Rodin was being sarcastic. But the method of creating a masterpiece described in the story is not that far away from the work the Divine Sculptor does on us...

Calvin & Hobbes have a truly wonderful set of comics where Calvin has a transmorgifyer where he is changed from a little boy into a tiger — the thing is, he is exactly himself as a tiger. Becoming a tiger just changes him from himself, into a more real version of himself. This is how Jesus is transfigured, or transmogrified on the mountain.

and two more

Something I note about Jesus in the Gospels is his keen observations. He sees things where others are unaware, not because of supernatural gifts, but just being genuinely aware. Only Jesus notices the poor widow dropping her two pennies into the offering, giving all she had, and he brings it to the disciples’ attention that her gift is more significant than all the others. Jesus notices Zaccheus up in the tree in the crowd and asks him to come down. He feels the woman’s touch, who reached out to touch the hem of his garment in a great crowd hoping to be healed from her hemorrhage. Jesus watched human interaction and often seemed to see things upside-down from everyone else. The disciples tried to keep the noisy children away from Jesus, for they were not important people, but Jesus said, “Let them come to me, for if you want to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be like a child.” (Maybe in part because children are great observers!) Jesus observed nature, paying attention to mustard seeds, lilies, fig trees, and how seeds grow in soil; he seemed even to know where to fish. Jesus paid attention. He watched, he observed, he saw. The essence of spiritual life is to see, to experience illumination, to notice the light of God within reality. We must also attempt to see with the eyes of Christ when we watch the news of war in Ukraine...

What makes you fully awake and frightened? Friday afternoon – a group of members from Newman Catholic at Montclair State and I were driving back from an area of Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky where we had been on mission all week – helping an organization called Christian Appalachian Project in rebuilding homes for people struggling to make ends meet in one of the poorest, neediest areas of our entire nation. One (of many) blessings was the partial “social media” and “regular media” fast we were on. I don’t think any of us realize how the 24/7 news cycle with one horrific, outrageous, gross story after another – with people being able to amplify or share those things with their opinions – the effect that has on us mentally and spiritually. . . A week away from that was incredibly refreshing. But with 12 hours on the road in a van as we made our way back to New Jersey – very quickly we got all caught up from the week as we shared stories with each other: “Oh my God – there was a terrorist attack in New Zealand at a Mosque where 49 people were killed.” “Did you see this story about the scandal of how people got into college?” “Wait a minute… when was there a plane crash?” “Did you hear about this athlete, this celebrity who killed themselves…” So much senselessness, hatred and evil, So much sadness – so many things that can cause you to feel fully awake and frightened...

I once heard a sermon in which the priest spoke about a very strong childhood memory: his parents had taken him to visit a church and he was overwhelmed by the beauty of a stained-glass window which depicted the communion of saints. He asked his parents ‘who are these people?’ His parents replied: ‘they are the saints.’ And as a small child this priest got the idea that the saints are people who are filled with light. I like this story: it rings true to me. When I think about the holy people that I have met in my life it does seem like there was a kind of light shining out from them...

I did learn there is a Spongebob Squarepants episode of the same name. Wikipedia describes the show in detail! In the episode, our protagonist (Spongebob) sets off with plans for the BEST DAY EVER but instead, his friends keep needing big favors from him. In his kind and compassionate way, Spongebob puts his own plans on hold and comes to the aid of Sandy, Patrick, and Squidward. Feeling sorry for himself at the end of the episode, Spongebob prepares to give a speech about how his friends had taken his BEST DAY EVER and turned it on its head. Instead, his friends remind him that the perfect day may not exist, instead he spent the day helping others. Spongebob wraps up the episode singing his song, “The Best Day Ever” over and over again. When Squidward asks Mr. Krabs how long they have to keep up the performance, Mr. Krabs replies, “Just ’til his little heart gives out, Squidward. Just ’til his little heart gives out.”

Frederick Buechner once mused that maybe the oddness of the Transfiguration is not so odd after all. It is interesting to note that although Luke tells us that Jesus’ garments shone as bright as a flash of lightning, we are not told that Jesus’ face shone, only that it “changed.” In the Greek this is literally that the EIDOS of his face changed, the image, the appearance, of his face was altered. How so? We’re not told, but it seems that maybe the true image of God, the image of the Son, the spittin’ image of the Son who was his Father all over again—maybe this is what shone through in a way the disciples managed to miss seeing most days. But then we all often miss seeing this in each other as often as not. Scripture assures us that we were all created in the image of God, but as we hustle past people in the malls, as we jostle next to them on the train, as we get annoyed with them when they crowd us in our airplane seat, we miss it. But as Buechner says, there are moments of transfiguration in all our lives. No, not exactly on a par with what happened to Jesus but still...

Back in November of 2015, my Mom, who lives in Vancouver, fell. The fall was the cumulative effect of years and years of ill health, which for all sorts of reasons my Mom was unable to face; ill health that my family has fretted over and worried about. But no matter how hard we tried, it took a fall to get my Mom into the hospital. Many of you know the pain of living thousands and thousands of kilometers away from loved ones. The telephone rings and suddenly your life is turned upside down as you anxiously try to decide if you should book a flight, pack a bag, and rush to the bedside of someone you love. As I was agonizing over whether I should or shouldn’t rush out to Vancouver, my brother called and said that I needed to come right away. The sound of my brother’s voice cracking in mid-sentence convinced me to move heaven and earth in order to race to Vancouver, in order to sit at what we were now convinced would be my mother’s deathbed...

Desmond Tutu tells the story of a so-called colored woman who was driven from her home and ostracized by her family because she had HIV/AIDS. She came to live in a home for people who suffered from the disease, and there were white men there who would help her because she couldn’t do anything herself. She was all skin and bones. They would carry her like a baby and wash her, bathe her, feed her. Then they would put her in front of a television set and hold her. And this was during the apartheid years. I visited this home and said, “What an incredible lesson in loving and compassion and caring.” It was transfiguring something ugly, letting something beautiful come from a death-making disease. When God sees that, a smile breaks forth on God’s face and God smiles through the tears. It’s like when the sun shines through the rain. The world may never know about these little transfigurations, but these little acts of love are potent.

The poem “In a Country Church” was penned by the Anglican priest and poet, R. S. Thomas. A man enters an empty church. It is a cold day in the start of winter. He is seeking God. The same act is repeated countless times each day in churches all over the world, ever since there have been churches. Here is a question to bring to the poem. Does the one who comes to this empty church seeking God find his Lord? To one kneeling down no word came, Only the wind’s song, saddening the lips Of the grave saints, rigid in glass; Or the dry whisper of unseen wings, Bats not angels, in the high roof. Was he balked by silence? He kneeled long And saw love in a dark crown Of thorns blazing, and a winter tree Golden with fruit of a man’s body. Was something of God’s glory seen in this empty, wintry church? “To one kneeling down no word came.” Yet this seeker has come, most likely, many times before. Was he expecting to hear a voice from heaven?...

In The Silver Chair, we meet Jill, who almost immediately makes a series of mistakes. Beyond mistakes, actually. She does some things that are hurtful. But nonetheless, she finds herself in the magical land of Narnia on a high, high mountain, and face to face with Aslan, the Great Lion, who is the Christ-figure in the series. Aslan overwhelms her. She barely knows how to be or act around him. But she wants to be there, with him, on the mountain. But instead, Aslan sends her down to the land, with a mission, actions she has to take to undo some of the harm she has caused. Aslan gives her careful instructions to follows, and Signs she will encounter to help her carry out her mission. As she is traveling, floating down off the mountain into the world, Aslan speaks these words to her. "I give you a warning," he says, "Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the Signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the Signs and believe the Signs. Nothing else matters."...

Sometimes a child falls down and skins a knee or elbow, then runs crying to his mother. The mother picks up the child and says--in what is the oldest myth in the world--Let me kiss it and make it better, as if mother has magic saliva or something. She picks up the child, kisses the skinned place, holds the child in her lap, and all is well. Did her kiss make it well? No. It was that ten minutes in her lap. Just sit in the lap of love and see the mother crying. Mother, why are you crying? the child says. I'm the one who hurt my elbow. Because you hurt, the mother says, I hurt. That does more for a child than all the bandages and all the medicine, in all the world. So what is the cross? It is to sit for a few minutes on the lap of God, who hurts because you hurt . . . I have to preach that. Peter . . . I have to do this. Without this journey, the world will never be healed.

Many years ago, at a 12-step recovery meeting, I saw someone transfigured. The recovery group met in the basement of a church in an urban neighborhood on the East Coast. It was a midday meeting not far from several treatment programs and halfway houses, and some of those in attendance were there by court order. One young man had attended every day for nearly a month. He spoke to no one, sat cross-armed the whole time, and kept the visor of his baseball cap pulled down low. As soon as the meeting was over, he was out the door. He kept to himself with such skill that, after a while, I stopped noticing him. The winter that year was particularly cold, and in addition to those seeking recovery, the meeting space housed several homeless people to whom the church had given shelter. One day, an elderly homeless man stood up, cried out and grabbed his chest; he was having a heart attack. The young man, who had never so much as twitched except to race to the door, immediately leapt to his side and began C.P.R. He took control of the situation and alternated calmly between caring for the stricken man and sending someone to call an ambulance. As I learned later, the young man had been a paramedic before drugs took over his life. When he saw a life in danger, his training took over and he acted to save it. As I reflected on the incident later, I realized that—for just a second—I had caught a glimpse of that young man as God sees him: a confident paramedic, skilled in his calling, a rescuer of others...

Russell Schweickart was an astronaut, who flew the lunar module for the Apollo 9 mission. Like many of his fellow astronauts, he discovered that his life UNCLIMBED MOUNTAINS11was changed by the experience of looking down at the Earth from outer space. Here’s what he said about it:“Up there you go around every hour and a half; time after time, after time, and you wake up in the morning over the mid-East, and over North Africa. You look out of your window as you’re eating breakfast — and there's the whole Mediterranean area, and Greece and Rome, and the Sinai and Israel. And you realize that what you’re seeing in one glance was the whole history of [humanity] for centuries; the cradle of civilization. You go across the Atlantic Ocean, back across North Africa. You do it again and again. You identify with Houston, and then with Los Angeles, and Phoenix and New Orleans. The next thing you know, you are starting to identify with North Africa. You look forward to it. You anticipate it. And the whole process of what you identify with begins to shift.When you go around it every hour and a half, you begin to recognize that your identity is with that whole thing. And that makes a very powerful change inside of you. As you look down you can’t imagine how many borders and boundaries you cross —again and again. And you can’t even see them. Still, you know there are thousands of people fighting over some imaginary lines down there that you can’t even see, and you wish you could say, ‘Look at that! Look at that! What’s important?’”...

One of my favourite Pearl Jam songs is called Man Of The Hour. At one point in the song, the lyrics read as follows: 'The road the old man paved, The broken seams along the way The rusting signs left just for me; He was guiding me – love – His own way.' The song describes the relationship between the young man and his father in terms of signs which someone who has gone before has left behind them: things that point to other things, that point to other things that ultimately point to the father's love for his son..."

When one of my best friends, Charlie, was in seminary in Louisville he and a friend were driving guest lecturer Morton Kelsey to his hotel. Kelsey was in the passenger front seat and asked Charlie, who was in the backseat, what he was doing while at seminary. Charlie replied that he was just beginning a student pastorate. Kelsey immediately turned completely around in his seat so he could face Charlie fully, looked him in the eye and said, 'Young man, evil is all around you. You will not survive without daily contact with the Risen Christ.'...

"In an amazing turn of events, some of the newest scientific advances use other viruses to kill cancer cells. Recently, scientists have exposed the polio virus to a cold virus, then used it to attack cancer cells in the brain where it is too sensitive to operate. Turns out the polio virus isn't harmful to healthy cells once it catches a cold, but it appears to be quite harmful to cancer cells. A new treatment for leukemia involves changing a donor's white blood cells so that they act like an attack dog and go after the leukemia cells..."

"For me, I guess, the disciples in this chapter seem to resemble members of an old, established congregation who really love the worship experience, but just can't seem to wrap their brains around the call to witness to a hurting world. They want to pitch that tent in the garden with Jesus, but they just don't want to talk about it or deal with any of the aspects of the faith which might be troublesome or confusing..."

('just for fun a few days back--- I pulled out my phone and decided to ask "Siri" just what the 'meaning of life' is. As you can imagine, 'her' answers ranged from the ridiculous to the humorous to the surprisingly profoundly practical. For instance: Life: a principle or force that is considered to underlie the quality of animate beings. I guess that includes me. And then, contradicting 'herself': I find it odd that you would ask this of an inanimate object..."

"Just by looking at Jesus the disciples could see a change, a transfiguration; something was certainly different about him. Transfiguration is not a word we use very often. But author J.K. Rowling made use of it in the Harry Potter series of books. If you have seen the movie, you will remember the scene in which a large but seemingly normal tabby cat jumps off the desk at the front of a classroom but before landing on the floor the feline becomes Professor Minerva McGonagall, the teacher of transfiguration..."

"In his book, Bread for the Journey, Henri J.M. Nouwen writes: 'To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept.' The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves..."

The English writer, and ardent Anglican, Charles Williams was a member of the Inklings, an informal, and deeply Christian, discussion society, composed, in large measure, of Oxford dons. Like so many of his fellow thinkers and friends, C.S. Lewis among them, Williams loved the Church of England. But in addition to her liturgies, he was also fascinated by the occult, particularly the teachings of Arthur Waite, who created the Tarot cards that still bear his name and founded the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross.

"As I've shared before, I work at a hospice. Much of my time is spent checking on families after a beloved's death. I made a recent call near the end of the workday. Frankly, I was hoping the person wouldn't answer and I could leave a message or call back later. The brother of a woman who'd just died answered the phone. He was driving on rainy day and had to maneuver to the side of the road to safely talk. And talk and talk he did..."

Transparent is the title of Amazon's hit TV series, a series the Atlantic Monthly called a very 2015 work in a review by Spencer Kornhaber, Dec. 14, 2015. The show is about a family in which the father becomes transparent in his transition from Mort to Maura, bringing to light what had been in him, but hidden, all his life. The show is now in its second season..

In the valley, a boy writhes in the dust. He drools, he cannot hear, and his eyes — wide-open, feral — sees nothing but darkness. Around him a crowd gathers and swells, eager for spectacle. Scribes jeer, and disciples wring their hands in shame. "Frauds!" someone yells into the night. "Charlatans!" "Where's your Master?" the scribes ask the disciples an umpteeth time. "Why has he left you?" "We don't know," the disciples mutter, gesturing vaguely at the mountain. Panic wars with exhaustion as they hear the boy shriek yet again — an echo straight from hell. He flails, and his limbs assault his stricken face. A voice — strangled, singular — rends the night. "This is my son!" a man cries out as he pushes through the crowd to gather the convulsing boy into his arms. Everyone stares as the father cradles the wreck of a child against his chest. "Please," he sobs to the stars. "Please. This is my beloved son. Listen to him."...

Mary Oliver had a transformative spiritual experience one day and tried to write about it later: 'Once, years ago, I emerged from the woods in the early morning at the end of a walk and - it was the most casual of moments - as I stepped from under the trees into the mild, pouring-down sunlight, I experienced a sudden impact, a seizure of happiness. It was not the drowning sort of happiness, rather the floating sort. I made no struggle toward it; it was given. Time seemed to vanish..." and other quotes

On April 3, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King delivered one of his most famous speeches. In his speech, Dr. King talked about the struggles of the Civil Rights movement. He talked specifically about the struggles against perceptions. He talked about dreams. But this speech was not his “I have a dream” speech. This speech talked about the realities of 1968, not about the hopes and dreams of a better future. And in this particular speech, Dr. King makes reference to how we—as Christians—sometimes get caught up in our own mountaintop experiences. In his speech, Dr. King quoted a phrase from an old spiritual. He said: “It’s all right to talk about ‘long white robes over yonder,’ in all its symbolism.” With that quotation, Dr. King is referring to the promised rewards in God’s heavenly kingdom. But he goes on to say: “But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It’s all right to talk about ‘streets flowing with milk and honey,’ but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God’s preachers must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.”...

("Faded Glory. When I first saw that brand name on a pair of jeans, I thought to myself, 'Who is going to want to wear something called Faded Glory?' Of course perhaps Walmart aren't aiming their range at me! Nevertheless I think it a pretty counterintuitive kind of name...")

("Intersections is a permanent, multi-faith initiative of the Collegiate Church of New York. Our mandate is to bring people together who differ, to forge common ground for justice, reconciliation and peace. There's a great hunger out there to find places where our voices can be heard, our stories honored, and where we can make authentic connections that deepen our experience of community and citizenry...")

("There once was a Native American boy who, at the age of 16, as was the custom of his tribe, sent out into the wilderness - alone for 30 days. Throughout those 30 days, the young man would have to take care of himself, make his own shelter, find his own food, defend himself against wild animals. After the thirty days were completed, the men of the tribe would search for the boy out...")

("Dr. B.S. Brown was pastor of Lutheran Chapel in China Grove, NC from 1945 to 1960. I was pastor there from 1984-1985. I found one of his old, hand-written sermons in the archives. It was about his first car, which he got in 1920, while pastoring near Johnson City TN, deep in the Smokey Mountains. He talks about going on a trip to Knoxville. Often times he had to drive along in creek beds because there was no road, backing up hills because his Model-T had a gravity feed fuel system...")

("A few years back, I read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, a wonderfully funny story about the author's attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail. Early in the book Bryson described his first day of hiking, which began on the gently sloping access trails that lead to the trailhead on Springer Mountain in north Georgia...")

Some of you will remember Dr. Joseph Campbell, author of books like Myths to Live By, and known around the world for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. He was perhaps the 20th century’s most quoted authority in these subjects. In the mid 1980s he sat for a series of televised interviews with Bill Moyers which eventually led to a book called The Power of Myth. I recall a statement from one of those interviews, when Dr. Campbell offered a reflection on the middle-class protagonist of the 1922 novel Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis. Through a character he named George Babbitt, Lewis drew a satirical portrait of the power of conformity in mundane early twentieth century values. Dr. Campbell said, “Remember the last line (George Babbitt uttered in the novel)? ‘I have never done a thing that I wanted to in all my life.’ Well, I actually heard that line when I was teaching at Sarah Lawrence. Before I was married, I used to eat out in the restaurants of town for my lunch and dinners. Thursday night was the maid’s night off in Bronxville, so that many of the families were out in restaurants. One fine evening, I was in my favorite restaurant there, and at the next table there was a father, mother, and a scrawny boy about twelve years old. The father said to the boy, ‘Drink your tomato juice.’ “And the boy said, ‘I don’t want to.’ “Then the father, with a louder voice said, ‘Drink your tomato juice.’ “And the mother said, ‘Don’t make him do what he doesn’t want to do.’ “The father looked at her and said, ‘He can’t go through life doing what he wants to do. If he does only what he wants to do, he’ll be dead. Look at me. I’ve never done a thing I wanted to in all my life.’” Dr. Campbell, reflecting on this brief encounter from many years before said, “And I thought, ‘My God, there’s Babbitt incarnate!”...

("One woman laughs about the time she took her 14-year-old daughter and her daughter's best friend to a Peter, Paul and Mary concert. When they returned home, her daughter said, 'During the show, we looked back and saw hundreds of little lights swaying to the music. At first we thought the people were holding up cigarette lighters. Then we realized that the lights were the reflections off all the eyeglasses in the audience'...")

("Today is Valentines Day. Now science can explain why most men are attracted to women and vice versa. It's an evolutionary, biological, hard-wired need to preserve the species perhaps. Or it's hormones. Or it's a psychological predisposition. Or it's social or cultural training. Or it's some combination of those realities. Science can explain sexual attraction...")

("Frederick Buechner once mused that maybe the oddness of the is not so odd after all. It is interesting to note that although Luke tells us that Jesus' garments shone as bright as a flash of lightning, we are not told that Jesus' face shone, only that it 'changed'...")

(includes several quotes and sample sermon)

Dr Fredrik Schiotz was president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the American Lutheran Church. Once he was visiting New Guinea and noticed that when he said the word "Jesus," the people's faces would light up and they would smile. He asked them why they loved Jesus so and one man answered, "It is easy to answer your question. Before the missionaries came to us, we lived a life of fear. For us it seemed as though evil spirits were everywhere: in the woods, in the grass and the stones. If we built a new house and someone said that an evil spirit had moved into the house, we would not dare spend the night in it. Then the missionaries came to us. They taught about God and about Jesus. And when we opened our lives to him, our fears disappeared." And then he beams, "That's why we love Jesus!" Dr. Schiotz added, "I could see the whole congregation supported his witness. It was worth going to New Guinea to hear this Christian proclaim his love for Jesus whose presence displaces fear."...

("Billy Wilder's movie The Lost Weekend, about the suicide of an alcoholic author, won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Picture. Wilder also garnered that year's Oscar for Best Director, and Ray Milland won Best Actor, portraying the final days of a binging alcoholic. The film gained a fourth Oscar: Wilder and Charles Bracket won for best screenplay...")

Once upon a time in a land far away there lived a young prince who was enamored with a young princess in a neighboring kingdom. He wanted to meet her, but he was afraid if she saw him up close she would be frightened. That's because his face was badly disfigured. One day he went to the king's tailor to be fitted for a new suit of clothes, and the tailor asked him, "Why are you so sad?" The prince told him that he wanted to meet the princess and win her affection, but he knew she would never find him attractive, as hideous as he was. The tailor smiled and said, "No problem. I'll make a mask for you. Then she will see you as the most handsome prince who has ever lived." And he did. Sure enough, when the prince put on the mask, he was, indeed, the most handsome prince you can imagine. The prince then journeyed to the neighboring kingdom to meet the fair young princess. And wouldn't you know it? It was love at first sight. He was, without a doubt, the charming young prince of her dreams. They courted day in and day out. He brought her gifts, wrote her poetry and sang songs to her. In return, she gave him her heart. But with one condition: That he take off the mask. The prince thought surely her love for him would die when she saw how ugly he was, but then, what else could he do? Slowly, he peeled back the mask. She smiled all the more and kissed him on the cheek and said, "Oh, you are even more handsome than I imagined." Astonished, he reached for a mirror, and when he looked at the reflection of his face, he saw the image of the mask he'd been wearing. His muscles and skin had so conformed to its shape that he had become the very person he had so hoped to be. They were married shortly thereafter and soon had children of their own, every bit as beautiful and handsome as they...

An eleven year old boy named Landon stood in front of his Mom one day and said, “I wish I could write a letter to Luke.” The mother could see the tears her son was trying not to shed. Nine months before, Landon’s friend Luke had died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage. Landon’s grief was deep, unreachable. His mother longed to ease his pain, though she could do nothing except hold him as he wept. Maybe, she thought, writing a letter was a good idea. She handed Landon paper and colored pencils. “Tell Luke how much you miss him and how much you love him. Tell him you haven’t forgotten him.” Landon wrote the letter; a long one. The completed paper was a work of art. He wrote each line in a different color and carefully drew an elaborate border around the edge. It was a love letter…a message from earth to heaven. Landon folded the paper carefully, and together with his Mom asked God to give Luke its message. But it wasn’t enough. “What I really want to do is tie my letter to a balloon,” said Landon. “I know it can’t really get to heaven, but…” He left the sentence unfinished. His mother drove him to a party supply store. There, Landon chose a neon pink helium balloon to carry his letter...

("I heard an amusing story about former heavyweight boxer James (Quick) Tillis. He was a cowboy from Oklahoma who also boxed in Chicago in the 1980's. He remarked about his first day in Chicago arriving from Tulsa. 'I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, 'I'm going to conquer Chicago.' When I looked down, the suitcases were gone. The term 'faded glory' caused a number of images to come to mind, none of which are very positive...")

The setting of "God on Trial" is one of the most hellish places ever of human cruelty, a Jewish barracks in the Nazi death-camp of Auschwitz. God’s people, in that terrible setting, are asking why God has apparently abandoned them, so they put God to the trial, so to speak. Near the end, a learned Rabbi of wide reputation finally breaks his silence and speaks. The traditionalist Jews expect him to defend God. But, instead he begins to ask even more troubling questions about their history, the Passover included. “How did the Lord God, Adonai, bring us out of Egypt?” he asks. Plagues; and he recites the first nine plagues. “Finally,” he continues, “God struck down the first born, from the heir of Pharaoh to the slave at the mill. He slew them all. Did he slay Pharaoh? No. Pharaoh was the one who said “No” to Adonai but God let him live and slew the children. All the children. Did the mothers of Egypt think that Adonai was just?” Another Jewish scholar answers, “But Adonai is our God.” To which the learned rabbi replies: “Did God not make the Egyptians. Did he not make their rivers and their crops grow? If not Adonai, then who? Some other god? And what did he make them for? To punish them? To starve, to frighten, and to slaughter them? The people of Egypt, what was it like when Adonai turned against them? It was like this.”

("From 1984 to 2003 Heidi Neumark served as pastor of Transfiguration Lutheran Church in the South Bronx. Her memoir, Breathing Space, is an intimate portrait of the glory and grind of parish ministry. When she arrived, Transfiguration sat amid the devastation wrought by Robert Moses' urban renewal, environmental racism, educational indifference, extreme poverty, the glorification of violence, and the epidemics of drug addiction and HIV/AIDS...")

("There once was a young woman who had a baby boy. Just after the boy was baptized, a ragged old man came to her and offered to grant her one wish. Thinking only of the best of her son, the woman wished that her son would always be loved by everyone he met. The old man said, "So be it," and vanished. It turned out just as he said it would..." and another illustration)

("Nido Qubein tells the story about a business man whose dime store prospered. But, one day he was taken ill and his life would be ending soon. He called his three adult children together and gave them this challenge: 'One of you will be president of my company and to determine which one I am giving you each one dollar..." and another illustration)

("Consider the growth of a bulb into a tulip. Before it is planted, it doesn?t look like much at all, something like a Spanish onion. Yet so much of what is essential to what it is to become is already lurking inside of this inanimate lump. With the right combination of soil, water, light, and weather, there will be a moment when it is transformed from something that seems to sleep under the ground into something that lives and breathes above the ground...")

("Maurya Simon is a poet who sees the God in the ordinary, alive with beauty and power. In her poem 'Vermeer's Women,' she discusses ordinary radiance, the transcendent light amidst every day life. How absent-mindedly they hold the light that bathes them, the light chilled against the air before it warms their skins, Before it enters their calm bodies and Tenderly occupies their faces...")

("There was a famous monastery which once had been full of monks and visitors seeking spiritual guidance. But the monastery had fallen on dry years when their spirituality level was very low. Few pilgrims came to seek guidance, and few young people gave themselves to become monks. At last, there was only a handful of elderly monks going about their work, their prayer, their study with heavy hearts...")

("As our world becomes increasingly aware of climate change, specialists in the field talk of the 'the dial and the switch'. Scientists agree that the mean temperature is rising, and all that remains to be seen is the degree of the change and its impact in each part of the world...")

("Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea was an unlikely hero of the Sydney Olympic Games. The 22-year-old African had only learned to swim a few months before the Olympics, had only practiced in a 20 metre pool without lane markers, and had never raced more than 50 metres..." and another illustration)

("Once there was a scientist who believed in nothing at all. He enjoyed especially putting down those who had near death experiences in which they were revived after they clinically died. It was all brain chemistry, he insisted, an evolutionary adjustment for a species that was conscious of its own mortality...")

("I like the quotation by Henry Drummond, the Scottish theologian when he said, 'God does not make the mountains in order to be inhabited. God does not make the mountaintops for us to live on the mountaintops. It is not God's desire that we live on the mountaintops..")

("Clark Kent would duck off into the bushes or telephone booth, and start to pull off his clothes. Suddenly, suddenly, out from the bushes, out from the telephone booth, would come, not Clark Kent, but would come Superman. Clark Kent transfigured...")

("Al was over at the retirement center, the Good Samaritan, with his wife Cora, demented through Alzheimer's. Old Man Lunde, as I affectionately called him, would come over to the retirement center every day with a bowl of ice cream to give to his wife of many decades...")

Fran Ota is a United Church minister back east. She tells of sharing her own ‘nearness to God’ story with a Buddhist priest . She commented that he was the one person she could think of who would not roll his eyes at hearing such a thing. She said, “I asked him why he thinks these things happen. He said in the Buddhist way of thinking, the experiences happen when we let our guard down—that the mystical is always there waiting for us, but we have erected barriers around ourselves which prevent such things. He also told me not to try to dissect it for meaning, pick away at it or anything else—but just to let it sit. His words were “hold it in your heart. It may be years before you even catch a glimmer of understanding.”

A few years ago there was a film around called “It’s My Life.” It’s a about a couple who learn that the wife is pregnant and at the same time find out that the husband has terminal cancer. Now the husband is a man with a lot of phobias. He’s needlessly afraid of many things. One of them is roller coasters. So in one scene he decides to face his fear of roller-coasters by taking a ride. He sits in the lead car in the front seat next to a twelve-year-old boy. The man’s knuckles turn white from grabbing onto the bar in front of him even before the car begins to move. The boy sitting next to him turns to him and asks, “First time, huh?” When the car almost reaches the peak of the first climb, the boy says, “It’s more fun if you let go.” The car careens downward, the boy joyously reaches upward, but the man holds on even tighter. At the end of the ride the boy jumps out, turns to his seatmate and says, “You can let go now.” Later on in the film, as the man is dying, we see his wife visiting him with their new-born child and then the screen flashes brilliant, blinding white. The husband is seated again in a roller coaster car at the peak of the ride. He joyously lets go and throws his arms upward. It’s a moment of liberation, a moment of transformation, even of transfiguration, and it comes in death...

("The man had lost everything. He had a drug and alcohol problem. At one time he had a great job. He had a wife and family. He owned a nice house in a great neighborhood. His friends loved him and his co-workers thought he was great. When his problems first started everyone thought it was going to be alright..")

(scroll down to this listing) ("Most trails are easy to follow: tracks laid down on a hillside, the bent blades of grass in meadows. These trails are easy to spot and they traveled by does and fawns as they hurry from one protective stand of trees to another. But these aren't the trails traveled by the bucks. They travel alone and are exceptionally wary. They seldom move out of dense cover. ...")

("There is a story of a Swiss traveler who was looking for directions on where to turn to get to his destination. He pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting. 'Entschuldigung, koennen sie Deutsch sprechen?' The two Americans just stare at him. 'Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?' The two continue to stare..." and other illustrations)

("It is said that a young student came to his teacher and asked, 'Rabbi, when is dawn? Is dawn the moment when the last star fades from the sky, or is it when the sun creeps above the horizon?' The wise old teacher replied, 'No, my son. Dawn is the moment when you can look at the face of another and see not an enemy but a friend.'...")

("At age fourteen, Andrea Jaeger won her first professional tennis tournament. At age eighteen she reached the finals at Wimbledon. But when she turned nineteen she acquired a bad shoulder which ended her career. Jaeger had to listen to her body and so she quit playing tennis. She could have become bitter or discontent but instead she turned her competitive spirit into a new endeavor..." and other illustrations)

("I saw the world transformed, this week. Did you? I was driving along the road, a few miles north of here. I rounded a curve, and there I saw, before me, a vision of gleaming crystal. Every part of every tree, it seemed, every branch and twig, glowed with the sun. Did the artists of Waterford craft a huge, crystal sculpture of unbelievable intricacy, and place it by the side of a public highway, for all to see..." and other illustrations)

("History records that during the Civil War, many acts of violence were committed by both the armies of the north and the south. Once such act occurred in October of 1862 in the town of Palmyra, Missouri. According to W. E. Sutterfield, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Palmyra, the town was under military law at the time....occupied by one of the armies involved in this conflict...")

("In his popular book, The Question of God , Dr. Armand Nicholi, a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard, continually speaks of C. S. Lewis before his conversion, and the new Lewis after his transition. This is compared to another great mind of the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud, who never came to terms with basic belief in the existence of God...")

("When I first read our text for today about the dazzling light on the mountain, I immediately decided on the title, "." But after I did a little research, I discovered that I am not the only one to like that phrase. Perhaps you have heard it elsewhere. The Annotated Mother Goose records this little ditty..." and other quotes)

("It happened during the earthquake that struck Northwest Armenia on December 7, 1998. With a 6.9 magnitude* the quake flattened buildings and killed some 25,000 people. In the muddled chaos a distressed father bolted through the winding streets leading to the school where his son had gone earlier that morning...")

("In the movie "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain," two English map makers arrive at a Welsh village to measure the town's mountain. After several days of meticulous calculations, the measurers sadly report to the townsfolk that their mountain is, in fact, only a hill. It lacks the mountain designation by 16 feet...." and another illustration)

("Mountains, you may well know, in Greek, Hebrew, Roman and Asian religious literature, were always places where the human could touch the divine. Sure enough, at the top of that mountain with Jesus, a wonderful thing happened. The apostles began to see Jesus a new way...")

("A man took his new hunting dog on a trial hunt one day. After a while he managed to shoot a duck and it fell in the lake. The dog walked over the water, picked up the duck, and brought it to his master. The man was stunned. He didn't know what to think. He shot another duck and again, it fell into the lake and again the dog walked over the water and brought it back to his master...")

("I went to see Pompeii, and decided to go up to the top of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that had buried the town so long ago. We went up in single seat cable chairs, which ran constantly up and down the mountain like city buses, and seemed perfectly safe and not at all alarming. Everyone was doing it. But I hadn't reckoned on the clouds...")

("Fred Craddock, a well known preacher and scholar, tells the story about a young pastor who visited an elderly lady who was very sick in a hospital. He entered the room and saw person lying on the bed, gasping for breath. He decided to have a short visit, not to tire her. He asked, 'Would you like me to pray for you?' She nodded yes..." and other illustrations)

("A program on the ABC called Universe focussed on the search for other forms of life. Scientists have found microbes living deep in the earth, over 50 km below the surface, well beyond sunlight and normal nutrients. Organic cells, frozen for millions of years in polar ice caps, have been revived. Bacteria have been found living on the cooling rods of nuclear reactors....")

("Do you know what this is? It's a little, plastic rhinoceros. She lives in my bedroom at home. Do you know what it does? Her name is Cleo and she glows in the dark. When we turn out the lights at night, there she sits, shining away like a night light...")

("There once was a little boy who decided he wanted to go find God. He knew it would probably be a long trip to find God, so he decided to pack a lunch, four packs of Twinkies and two cans of root beer. He set out on his journey and went a few blocks until he came to a park. In this park on a bench, sat an old woman looking at the pigeons...")

("My own life is marked by an experience in my later teens when as a member of Montreal West United Church, I became a delegate to a national Young People's Union Conference at McMaster University in Hamilton. I don't even remember what the theme speaker said, except that somehow through the humour and humanness of his speaking or was it the intent way he looked...")

("Do you cry? Sometimes crying hurts. Other times it feels good. In the past four years, since my ordination, I only remember crying three times. One of those times doesn't count. Determined never to grow up, I was acting like a teenager, riding a skateboard. I fell off and broke my leg in three places, and in my pain I reverted even farther and cried like a baby...")

("There is a true story of a 33-year-old truck driver by the name of Larry Walters who was sitting in his lawn chair in his backyard one day wishing he could fly. For as long as he could remember he had wanted to fly but he had never had the time nor money nor opportunity to be a pilot...")

("Dr. Richard F. Ott in a recent article in a medical journal wrote that 'throughout time, myths have provided meaning for the life of the individual and his society. They have also provided the ability for people to experience the mystery of life by participating in the rituals of myth.'...")

("One of the most popular people in the United States right now is a man named John Edward. John Edward is a man who calls himself, according to his website, a psychic medium, a person who can talk to the dead. My guess is that either living people aren’t interesting enough to talk to or people are trying to resolve issues that someone has, I presume, taken to the grave...")

I sat next to the hospital bed and took her hand. With a look that was a curious mixture of anxiety and peace she blurted out, “I need to tell you something I have never told anyone before.” Her life began as a failed abortion. It was in one of those small prairie towns at the beginning of the last century. A typical town, general store, livery stable, and two churches: one Roman Catholic, the other Methodist. Her family home happened to be next door to the Doctor’s home that doubled as clinic and hospital. Her mother was four to five months pregnant and the decision was made that it was either the mother’s life or the babies. And so with forceps ‘Bobbie’ was dragged into the world and left on the bed. The Doctor’s wife, childless herself, scooped up the foetus and took her home. For three months Mrs. Brown fed the infant child on formulae, every hour, on the hour. Kept ‘little Bobbie’ warm with a homemade incubator that was actually a wood stove. And ‘Bobbie’ survived. Back home she was shunned by her mother—this child that should never have been born. Bobbie remembers her grandmother saying that she was the ruination of her mother. “True,” reflected Bobbie from her hospital bed, “she was like a lot of young mothers in those days, too many children, too close together.” She remembered that her mother would put her to bed and hear her prayers, but it was her father who cared for her. To her mother she was the runt of the litter, to her father one to be cared for at all costs. And so the family moved to the city to live next to the hospital where she was a frequent visitor. And now she was back in the hospital again. The doctor had told her that he was surprised she made it this time; they had almost lost her the night before. Bobbie was not surprised. She had been fighting for life all her life. There was silence for a moment. And then she took my hand and said to me “I had a dream last night. My mother was there. She was wearing a blue dress. Her hair was neatly combed. There was a smile on her face and her arms were reaching out to hug me.” You already know what this dream means. ‘Bobbie’ knew. For her it meant that the time of living on this earth was just about over. I knew what it meant. Her life’s deepest longing, her mother’s love, was going to be realized in God’s time...

("It was late one night or early one morning, it is hard to tell the time when wakened at that hour. But the dream, perhaps it was a vision, woke me up. But it was as if I had been awake listening to the three of them talking while the rest of the disciples were asleep. I heard the full details of what Moses, Elijah and Jesus were talking about...")

("Rick Warren tells the story of Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist who grew up under an atheistic communist regime. One day, at 27 years old, 'while riding the metro in Leningrad, he was overcome with a great despair, so bad that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning...")

A Beautiful Mind, winner of the Best Picture Academy Award in 2001, is based on a true story about John Nash, a mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994, and a person who also struggled much of his lifetime with mental illness, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Going into the movie, I knew that it involved mental illness. But that still didn’t prepare me for the way in which the movie pulled me into its world. I kept waiting for Nash to manifest signs of his mental illness. Then, all of a sudden he was being forcibly committed to a hospital. And you slowly begin to realize that you have been seeing the world through John Nash’s mind all along, so you didn’t realize that much of what you were seeing and hearing was a function of his madness. Whole characters and plots were totally figments of his hallucinatory mind. Through the latter part of the movie, then, you the theater-goer have to learn right along with Mr. Nash what has been real and what hasn’t. You find yourself questioning everything you see and hear. Is it real or not? How do you learn to tell the difference?...

The man had lost everything. He had a drug and alcohol problem. At one time he had a great job. He had a wife and family. He owned a nice house in a great neighborhood. His friends loved him and his co-workers thought he was great. When his problems first started everyone thought it was going to be alright. It was just a phase and he would pull out of it. However, little by little his life changed. As time went by he became belligerent. His attitude toward everything changed. His job, his marriage, his children, his friends all took a back seat to the euphoria. The only important thing in his life was his next opportunity to escape reality. He felt he couldn't function without the booze or the drugs. Truth be known, he couldn't function at all under the influence of the booze and the drugs. Furthermore, he wasn't much better off when he wasn't on them. He lost everything. One day, in the shower at a friend's house he realized what had happened to him. He realized what state he was in. He admitted he needed help. He got that help from people and from his faith in God. His life slowly became transformed. He became everything God had ever wanted him to be...

Alfred Nobel had a turning point in his life. His brother had died and a reporter thought it was Alfred and wrote his obituary. Imagine his surprise when he woke up the next morning and read his own obituary in the paper. What was even more surprising was what he read. To the world he was known as the dynamite king. He was the creator of this great explosive which was used in war and construction. The article concentrated mostly on its military application. As a result of reading this article Nobel decided to use some part of his fortune to create the Nobel Peace Prize. This prize is awarded to those who work endlessly for peace among all peoples. Reading the obituary was Nobel's turning point. A young man was working on a farm. He was asked to go to a revival by the farm owner. He declined but the farmer was persistent. The young man asked if he could drive the farmer's truck if he went with the group. The farmer agreed and the young man had an incredible experience at the revival. The young man's name was Billy Graham. Until that day he had no intention of becoming an evangelist. Driving the truck that night was the beginning of a turning point for him...

("Michael McCoy is at home. He's at home and it's 3 in the afternoon on a Monday. Once, at this time of day, he would have been working in a cubicle in a Bank of America office uptown. Instead, he's spent the day in his new cubicle, a corner of his dining room equipped with a computer. On top of the computer he's placed his 'Michael P. McCoy, Vice President' nameplate...." and other illustrations)

("C. S. Lewis writes a delightful children's story centered on the adventures of four children. Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy were brothers and sisters growing up in London when the war began. They were just like of any other children. They loved to read stories about adventures and play imaginary games..." and another illustration about one of Paul Stookey's songs)

("If we say that someone is 'double faced' we imply that they are dishonest or false in their relationships. It is a very serious accusation to make about anyone. If we say that someone is faceless we mean that they hardly seem to exist. The truth is that we have many faces and this is a natural part of being a human being...")

("When I was a senior in high school, my economics teacher, Mary Byrne, was trying to teach our class about the concept of diminishing returns. I still remember the illustration that she used quite clearly. She talked about eating ice cream cones. If you buy an ice cream cone for a dollar, and you eat the cone, and enjoy it very much, you have gotten your money's worth. In fact, you might even want a second cone..." and another illustration from C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair)

("Surely the best known representation of Moses is Michelangelo's great statue in Rome in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, St. Peter in Chains. The church's name comes from the belief that it has two sets of chains, the actual chains which bound Peter when he was a prisoner in Jerusalem and the very chains which bound him when he was a prisoner later in the Mamertine prison in Rome...")

("I'm a Star Trek fan. Indeed I'm one of the originals, for I was among those who tuned in to the very first NBC broadcast of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and crew, way back on Thursday night, September 8, 1966. And I've stayed tuned in to it and to all of the follow-up series...")

("Did you hear the story about the little boy who was riding his wagon on a sidewalk? Suddenly, one of the wheels fell off. The little boy jumped out of the wagon and said, 'I'll be damned!' A minister happened to be walking by, and he said, 'Son, you ought not use words like that! That's a bad word. When something happens, just say, "Praise the Lord", and everything will be all right.'..." and another serious illustration)

William Cleary is a wonderful Christian poet who listens carefully to nature’s song, and then imagines what the words to the prayer might be. Here’s an interesting one called, “The Maggot’s Magnificat”: With all my noble maggot’s soul I magnify you, God, And call your works all wonderful, Though scoffers find that odd. “You legless grub, you loathsome worm,” They shout: “You’re so inferior!” “You have no head, yet eat all day, And breathe through your posterior!” Dear God, how blind! - to criticize The magic of creation, Where maggots raise flesh from the dead Through transubstantiation. How beautifully the cycle spins When beings eat each other, And one loved creature seems to die, Then rises in another. Not only rises, but grows wings And soon begins to soar Throughout the azure sky above And sings at heaven’s door. So with this grateful grubby heart I honor my Creator, Who gives us death so we can then Turn into something greater. Have you ever stopped and listened to nature singing about the Lord?...

("I have experienced many times in my life in which their didn't seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel - lost jobs, lost relationships, death of loved one. The feelings I had were like that expressed by Kris Kristopherson in his song How I Beat The Devil: 'Back when failure had me locked out on the wrong side of the door No one stood behind me but my shadow on the floor And lonesome was more than a state of mind'...")

("One of James Lee Burke's books was entitled A Morning For Flamingos. You get a picture of flamingos standing in the water sometimes on one foot. The meaning of the title of the book doesn't come clear until you read of one of the characters in the book when she was quite young being taken to the zoo to watch the flamingos....")

("The American evangelist Dwight L. Moody told the story about a Christian woman who was always bright, cheerful and optimistic, even though she was confined to her room because of an illness. She lived in an attic apartment on the fifth floor of an old, run-down building. A friend decided to visit her one day and brought along another woman - a very wealthy woman..." and another story about Napoleon)

("In his book The Heart of the Enlightened, Anthony de Mello, tells a story that illustrates the importance of listening. There was a traveler who was lost in the desert in search of water. He struggled from one hill to the other, looking in every direction but without success. He staggered onward, but his foot caught a dry bush and he fell to the ground..." and another illustration from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff)

("Nido Qubein tells the story about a business man whose dime store prospered. But, one day he was taken ill and his life would be ending soon. He called his three adult children together and gave them this challenge: 'One of you will be president of my company and to determine which one I am giving you each one dollar...")

("Recently, I was reading a text I had worked on many times before -- Galatians 2 -- and I noticed something. A little Greek word, eis. Paul says 'a person is righteous not by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ'. But eis can be either translated 'in' or 'of'. Is it the faith 'in' Jesus Christ -- Jesus is the object of our faith? Or can it also be the faith 'of' Jesus Christ...")

("A poem by Wordsworth says: 'I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thought; a sense of sublime Of something far more deeply interfused...")

includes several quotes

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