February 15, 2026
Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC
Have you ever felt like you were out of your element in a big way?
Many of you might not know this piece of personal trivia but I used to take organ lessons when I was in elementary school.
Do you remember those days when it seemed like every shopping mall had an organ store? Well, every Friday, my parents would drive about twenty minutes to a nearby shopping mall to make an organist out of me.
Pat was the name of my organ teacher. I remember her having really dark hair and she had the patience of an angel. She would ask me about my day, about school, and how things were going. I liked Pat a lot.
She had me practice and practice a particular piece of music that I was to perform for an upcoming organ recital.
The name of the piece? None other of course, then the classical piece entitled, “Go tell Aunt Nancy, the Old Gray Goose is Dead.”
You see, my organ teacher could tell talent when she saw it, and that’s why I was playing songs like “Go tell Aunt Nancy” so quickly in my organ playing career.
The lyrics of this beloved piece of music begins with: “Go tell Aunt Nancy, go tell Aunt Nancy. Go tell Aunt Nancy, the old gray goose is dead.”
I’ve contemplated long and hard about those lyrics, but they continue to be a mystery to me.
Penny tells me that she learned this song a bit differently. Instead of Aunt Nancy, it was Aunt Rhody. But she was from a different region of the state where they used a different name.
So anyway, I practiced and practiced this classic piece for hours and hours, and Pat patiently helped me week after week to get the notes just right. I mean, after all, this song had two sharps. I don’t remember what sharps are, but I remember them being quite a challenge to play.
Well…it was now time for the organ recital. Pat was just one of several organ teachers at this organ store. And so, it kind of surprised me as the organ recital was about to begin, that there were all of these other students packed into this little organ store, and most of them were a lot older than I was.
We were all waiting until our names would be called to play our musical pieces for what seemed to be about a hundred people who were seated out in front of the store in this shopping Mall. It was a Sunday afternoon and they had reserved this large seating area for this recital.
I was somewhere in the middle of the program, nervous as anything, when I heard my name called. “Robert McDowell will now play ‘Go Tell Aunt Nancy.’”
I nervously walked out of the organ store to just outside the store and proudly jump up on the organ bench placing my “Go Tell Aunt Nancy” sheet music on the sheet music stand. I look intently at the score and collect my thoughts.
It was a very good thing that I collected my thoughts, because, I noticed that my feet were dangling in mid air. My toes could not reach the organ pedals.
And then I notice that this organ had a whole lot more keys than what I had been using for my Friday night lessons. And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out which of the three manuals to play.
And so there I sat…just kind of helpless and not knowing what to do.
And after a few awkward moments, I feel these hands reach underneath my armpits. And my organ teacher, Pat lifts me from this giant size organ, and carries me over to the little organ. And honestly, I can’t remember much after that. It’s all a blurr to me now.
All I know was that I was out of my element that day, because later in that recital, I heard the bigger kids playing more advanced pieces of music. And that’s when I realized that there was a whole lot more to organ music than Aunt Nancy and a dead goose.
What do you do when you are put in a situation where you are clearly out of your element?
That’s why I feel for the disciples of Jesus in our scripture reading this morning. Those poor guys! They probably figured that something extraordinary was about to happen when Jesus singled them out from the other followers to follow him up a high mountain.
“What’s Jesus going to do? Where are you taking us? Will we be back by lunch? Hey, this climb is pretty steep! Slow down Jesus. We can’t keep up.”
And just like that, Mark tells us that Jesus was transfigured right there in front of the three of them.
Transfigured. I’ve often tried to get a mental picture of what this probably looked like for the disciples. Mark tells us that just like that, Jesus’ clothes became dazzling white. Dazzling. The Greek word is “stilbo” which can be translated as dazzling, radiant, shining.
And if that wasn’t enough, Elijah and Moses, these ancient figures and heroes of the faith from many centuries ago, appear out of nowhere and they are talking to Jesus.
What are the disciples to make of this strange and glorious scene?
Mark tells us that the disciples were scared out of their wits. I can understand why. This is a life shaping event and it just kind of happened. No advance warning. No hints or clues that this was going to happen. It just happened. To them.
Peter, not knowing what to say that would make any sense, offers to assemble some sort of dwelling places for each of these individuals, a request which goes unheeded by Jesus.
I really feel for Peter in this situation. It was kind of like his feet were dangling on the bench of a three manual organ, not knowing how to play the music that was given to him. He was out of his element.
Can you imagine the disciples trying to describe what happened up there on that mountain?
“Well, it’s like this. We were hiking up the mountain, when we stopped for a rest. And all of the sudden, there was this ‘white-out.’ We looked around to see if everyone was OK. But when we looked for Jesus, that’s when we realized that he was the one causing the white-out.”
If you were one of the disciples, would you even dare to mention to your friends that you also saw Moses and Elijah? How would you ever explain that?
And what about the voice we heard from the cloud? Don’t even go there. Try explaining that to someone.
Don’t you feel a bit awkward and out of your element when you encounter those moments when God is so unmistakably present? I know I do.
As a pastor, I have always encouraged the people in my churches to be alert to these transfiguration moments that happen to us more often than we may realize. These are commonly referred to as God moments, closest to Christ moments, or as Celtic Christianity likes to refer to them as, “Thin Place moments.”
Thin places refer to those times when heaven and earth overlap in our daily lives and God is made present to us in a very real way.
Most of the time, these thin place moments do not appear to be overly dramatic or life changing events, but if we take the time to notice them, they remind us that God is closer to us than we may realize.
One of my “closest to Christ” moments occurred when we were driving back from dropping off our daughter at college. I was feeling a little down and a little tired as we began our two hour journey home.
As I continued driving on the interstate toward home, that’s when I had a one of those “thin place” moments. Along the interstate was a large billboard that said, “Jesus Is Real.”
I had seen that billboard many, many times before that day, but this time, it became something more for me, because one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen for quite some time, was shining from behind it.
It was so beautiful. It was like God was saying, “Just like this beautiful sunset, remember that I am with you during these transitions in life. I’m right here for you now in this moment.”
God works in mysterious ways. There are transfiguration stories like this all around us. And like the disciples, we are reminded that heaven is a lot closer than we may think.
I wonder how many of these transfiguration moments I miss. And yet, when I do have the eyes of faith, these ordinary events all of the sudden become dazzling spectacles of God’s presence.
Several years ago, around this time of year, a pastor called me to see if I would be open to the possibility of working on staff with him at a large United Methodist Church. He invited me to pray about it and give it some thought.
A few days later, I called him back and told him that Penny and I wanted to learn more about this new opportunity and so he invited us to come for the day to see the church and have lunch with him.
On the day that Penny and I were to leave to visit this pastor and his church, we prayed together that morning, asking God to show us a sign of what we should do. Even our Upper Room devotional reading that morning talked about being open to God’s presence and that God would help us in making the right decision.
We had a two-hour drive ahead of us. It was a strange kind of day weather-wise. Early spring, somewhat cold and overcast, and to the west during our drive were these very dark and ominous clouds.
We were about another 30 minutes away from the church, when Penny and I noticed this large rainbow up ahead of us. It was in the direction of the church we were going to visit, this wonderful, dazzling rainbow contrasted by the dark gray clouds.
This dazzling display of God’s presence took us both by surprise.
It was like the heavens were telling this young and naïve couple, “Jesus is real.”
Friends, these transfiguration moments happen all of the time.
In 2018, my 94-year-old aunt passed away. She represented the last family member of my parents’ generation. She was my dad’s sister-in-law.
Her death really impacted me because when I would visit with her, she always had a story to share about our family that I had never heard. She was like our family historian, and I loved to hear her stories about my parents and my other aunts and uncles.
She was also a woman of great faith and I will always cherish those times that we got to pray together.
As I started the long drive from Ohio where we were living to attend her funeral in Pennsylvania, I said a prayer in the car for God to give me a little sign of his presence in the midst of our sorrow. As I was driving through Maryland, my GPS wanted me to take a route that was different than what I normally take on my way back to see my family.
It was near rush hour and instead of having me go into the Baltimore rush hour traffic, it wanted me to save time by turning north a little sooner. I debated in my mind if I should take this new route, but I did since it said it was going to save me some driving time.
Since this was a new route for me, I was still a little skeptical if I made the right decision. Instead of being on a highway, I was now on a two-land road. “I should have stayed on the highway,” I thought to myself. To make matters worse, it became a very curvy and hilly road.
Before too long, I was now in what seemed like a state park where I was now only going about 35 miles an hour and navigating through sharp curves. I was now regretting my decision.
It was about that time, that the miracle happened. I suddenly realized that I was taking a route that was running alongside the Appalachian Trail. As I drove through this heavily forested area, it was one of the most scenic drives I had ever experienced.
The fall leaves were unbelievably vibrant, and the sun was so beautiful as it made those autumn colors become even more alive.
And for what seemed like the next several miles, I was driving along a clear stream that meandered through that beautiful park. It was just unbelievably breathtaking. Honestly, it was like I was all of the sudden driving through heaven.
I started to think of Aunt Dot and wondered if this was what she was now experiencing in the heavenly realm. A smile came to my face when it finally dawned on me that this was the sign from God that I had prayed about several hours earlier when I left for the trip.
A peace flooded my soul as I continued on that drive. About a couple of minutes later, I found myself back on a highway that took me the rest of the way home. That portion of my unexpected detour was a thin place moment for me.
Like the disciple Peter, we don’t always know what to do when we experience these holy moments as we go through our day to day living. These dazzling displays of God’s presence will often times leave us speechless.
So if you ever feel a little out of your element because of these transfiguration like moments, and you kind of feel like your feet are dangling in mid-air, don’t be surprised if you feel someone lifting you up, and a voice offering these reassuring words to you, “Get up. Don’t be afraid.”
Happy Transfiguration Sunday!
