Transfiguration Sunday comes just at the
right time on the church calendar. It’s the perfect bridge between the Sundays
following the celebration of Christmas and the more reflective and somber
season of Lent.
Transfiguration Sunday is considered one
of the more special Sundays on the church calendar because this is the day that
we celebrate when Jesus was transfigured and the glory of God shone upon him.
And spoiler alert…Jesus’ transfiguration
serves as a little hint of Easter when God’s glory will surround him as he
emerges from the tomb in his resurrected body.
When Jesus was transfigured, he was
showing us that God sent him to be a shining example of God’s love for the
world. Transfiguration Sunday invites us to think about how we are to be God’s
shining examples with the people we meet.
The Kappa Phi Club is a national
sisterhood for college women that began in 1916 in Kansas.
The Phi Chapter here at Ohio University
was started in 1928. There are chapters at over 25 colleges across the country.
Our church is privileged to be a host church for Kappa Phi.
They meet every week here in our church. The
Kappa Phi ladies are shining examples of God’s love in our university
community.
I have asked them to take a few
minutes to share how they are serving as God’s shining lights in our community.
The members of Kappa Phi are a shining
example of what it means to live out God’s purpose in our community. They also
provide the “best baked potato with all the toppings” fundraiser this side of
the Hocking River. They will be offering lunch for us again on Sunday, February
21st as part of our upcoming Capital Campaign Vision Preview meeting
that day.
On this transfiguration Sunday, God wants
each of us to be his shining examples. One of the best ways to be shining
examples is by participating in a small group where we can share our faith with
each other. I have found that when I am in a small group where people share
their faith, it encourages me to be more of a shining example for God.
We are offering seven new small group
opportunities during the five weeks of the season of Lent and they will all
begin meeting next week. Before leaving today, consider signing up for one of
these small groups. These groups are designed to help us grow in what it means
to be shining examples for God.
Thankfully, the church has been blessed
with a long history of people who have been shining examples for God. One of
these shining examples was the Christian saint, known as Antony.
Athanasius, who also was himself a saint
and a shining example of God’s love, wrote a biography on the life of Antony.
In his biography, Athanasius summed up Antony’s
life in a beautiful way by asking this very simple rhetorical question about
him, “Who has ever met Antony grieving,
and failed to go away rejoicing?”
I love that rhetorical
question. May that question refer to all of us!
· Who has ever met Dave & Sally Bayless grieving,
and failed to go away rejoicing?
· Who has ever met Michelle Shively grieving, and failed
to go away rejoicing?
· Who has ever met Wendy Merb-Brown grieving, and failed
to go away rejoicing?
· Who has ever met Helen Slater grieving, and failed to
go away rejoicing?
· Who has ever met Giles Lee grieving, and failed to go
away rejoicing?
Sorry that I don’t have time to insert
four hundred names into that rhetorical question, but I think we all get the
point.
On this Transfiguration Sunday, may all of
us be Christ’s shining examples, so that when people come to us grieving, they will
go away rejoicing, because they are able to see the love of Christ in us.
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