Sermon on Luke 9:28-43a

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

I always resonate a lot with the disciples’ confusion at Jesus’ Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John followed Jesus up a mountain to spend time in prayer. By the time they got up there, they were tired from their hike. Then, they were roused by the sight of Jesus’ face and clothes changing—the Gospel of Luke says it was like lightning!

As the disciples blinked their eyes, trying to figure out what was going on, they saw Moses and Elijah chatting with Jesus. Their minds barely had a chance to catch up with the conversation when the prophets were leaving. Peter blurted out that they should set up sacred places to commemorate the moment, which was apparently not the right suggestion, because then a cloud rushed in, and a divine voice told them to just listen to Jesus already!

That’s a lot! And as much as 2,000 years have gone by and plenty of people have studied the Transfiguration, I still don’t feel like I get it much more than the disciples did.

But here are a few things that help me try to make sense of the Transfiguration:

First, Jesus has just started predicting his death and resurrection, which is what the first line of our reading refers to when it says, “eight days after these sayings.” Peter named Jesus as the Messiah, and now that his disciples recognized him as more than just a rabbi, Jesus started preparing them for what was to come, and the news was tough.The Transfiguration reassured them that God was powerful and active in the world.

Second, the divine voice says almost the exact same thing as it said at Jesus’ baptism. His baptism grounded Jesus in his ministry throughout the first half of the Gospel of Luke, and his Transfiguration grounded him in his mission through the second half—to the cross and beyond.

Third, Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus about his “exodus.” It’ll sometimes be translated as “departure,” but the word “exodus” gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ mission. Just as God liberated the Israelites from Egypt, Jesus liberated us from sin and death in his death and resurrection.

And fourth, when we look at this story through the lens of liberation, we can see that the exorcism story that follows is a microcosm of the healing Jesus brings the world:

1.    Jesus came down from the mountain to where people were hurting, just as God became human with a humble beginning in a difficult time when a lot of people were hurting.

2.    When people couldn’t fix things on their own, Jesus came and “healed the boy, and gave him back to his father,” just as Jesus came to heal us and reconcile us with God.

In the Transfiguration, Jesus showed us his divinity but immediately came down the mountain to free us from what’s holding us captive.

What’s holding us captive today?

What’s distracting us from God?

What’s cutting us off from our neighbors?

What are our idols today?

It can seem strange to us when we read Bible stories about people worshiping idols. We can think that doesn’t apply to us because we don’t bow down before statues, but there are plenty of idols today.

One is money. It’s easy to become consumed by acquiring more and more stuff. It’s easy to trust our money to get us out of difficult situations instead of trusting God. It’s easy to enjoy the dopamine rush of buying something new instead of seeking what truly satisfies.

Another idol is comfort. Our drive for comfort can cause us to compromise our morals to keep us feeling secure. It can keep us from taking action for the sake of our neighbors because it would inconvenience us or might even put our safety at risk.

A deeply entrenched idol in our society is individualism. It’s not a bad thing to work hard or be proud of what we accomplish, but if we buy into the illusion that we can truly be self-made individuals who pull ourselves up by our bootstraps (a metaphor that’s literally impossible), we can forget that we’re dependent on God and interconnected with our neighbors.

Another idol is tribalism. Human brains like to categorize people. It’s something that kept us safe when we were identifying friends who could help us survive and threats like lions and tigers and bears (oh my!), but it can lure us into us/them thinking. We can become suspicious of others, mistrusting people of a different race, class, political party, or even who root for a different sports team. At its worst, it even causes us to dehumanize other people, which can fuel violence. We can see the consequences of that throughout history.

These and other idols can hold us captive.

As we prepare for Lent, which starts this Wednesday, what can we ask God for liberation from?

Maybe instead of giving up chocolate for Lent, maybe we can spend time praying for someone it feels hard to pray for as we grapple with the idol of tribalism.

Or we can write thank you notes to remind us of the people who have helped us become the person we are as we reckon with the idol of individualism.

Or we can challenge ourselves to get out of our idolized comfort zone for the sake of our neighbor—calling out a sexist, racist, or transphobicjoke, introducing ourselves to someone who lives by us, or calling your political representatives about an issue you care about. (Can you tell I’m an introvert when all my examples involve talking to people?)

Or if you do feel called to give up chocolate or the like, can you calculate how much you would have spent on that during the forty days of Lent and donate that to Lutheran Disaster Response or Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—we’ll be having someone talk to us about their organization in a couple weeks) or of course the Caring Hands pantry?

If you choose to do a Lenten discipline this year, can it help you loosen your grasp on an idol in your life and cling more to God?

And of course, it is God alone who truly frees us. We can practice behaviors that turn our attention to God, but it is God who liberates us.

Transfiguration isn’t about looking down on the disciples who didn’t really get it—I certainly can’t judge, because I still find it perplexing myself.

One thing the Transfiguration is about is reminding us that Jesus is God. Jesus is fully human, so he can fully empathize with our human struggles, and he is fully divine—he’s powerful and good.

And the Gospel of Luke’s version of the Transfiguration story reminds us that Jesus, awe-inspiring as he is, didn’t stay on the mountain with the prophets and the cloud and the divine voice. He came back down to where his people were and brought them healing and liberation.

This story reveals who Jesus is:the long-awaited Messiah, who the prophets like Elijah and Moses paved the way for.

This is the beginning of the second half of his ministry, which leads to the cross and the resurrection. This is the beginning of Jesus setting us free from sin—like the idols that distract us from loving God and our neighbor—and liberating us from death, which cannot keep us from being held in God’s arms forever.

God liberates us regardless of whether we take on a Lenten discipline. There’s nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less. If you decide to experiment with one this year, great! If you’ve done one faithfully for decades, great! If it’s one too many things to worry about this year, great! If it’s helpful, go for it! If not, rest in God’s love for you. It’s enough.

Jesus sets all of us free, and full of that love, we’re able to love God and our neighbors and participate in God’s Beloved Community here on earth.

We, along with the crowds in our story, can be “astounded at the greatness of God.”

Sermon on Luke 6:17-26

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

This is one of those teachings of Jesus where what’s Good News to one person might not seem like Good News to someone else.

Jesus came down the mountain with his disciples to a level place among the people.He took his time and healed everyone.

Then, he began to speak. And what he said was surprising.

The Beatitudes—or these “blessed are yous”—have become familiar, even cliché.We’re most familiar with the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew, which are similar to the ones we read today, but Luke adds “woes” to the “blesseds.”

Even with this slightly less familiar version, it’s hard to imagine what it was like to hear those words for the first time.

When Jesus opened his mouth and said, “Blessed are you,” his audience probably expected to hear something like what we read in Jeremiah today: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.”

But what he said was, “Blessed are you who are poor.”

In what universe, Jesus?

How is it blessed to not be able to feed your family? To be constantly worried about money?

Surely those who have enough and more are the ones who are blessed? Surely God has shown favor to them.

And blessed are you who are hungry, who weep, and who are hated?

How is that blessed?

Nobody aspires to any of these things.

And then, Jesus went on to the “woes”: woe to you who are rich, full, laughing, and spoken well of.

Surely those are the things to aspire to. Surely those are the indications that God has blessed you.

If Jesus hadn’t just healed a bunch of people, I suspect he would have lost most of his audience at this point.

But instead, this has become one of Jesus’ most famous teachings.Why?

Because this is Good News to a lot of folks who haven’t had much of that.

This teaching says that God is attentive and caring to those who are suffering and who have been pushed to the margins of society.

God hasn’t forgotten the poor, the hungry, those who weep, or those who are hated for following Jesus—and remember that Jesus was hated enough by those in power that they had him executed, so Jesus followers could expect the same treatment.

That’s not to say that anyone should aspire to be poor, hungry, weeping, or hated.

God’s still with rich and reputable people too, but they probably don’t need the reminder as much as those who are excluded by society.

This isn’t about excluding those with power and privilege; it’s about including those without.

The Beloved Community that Jesus came to bring about seems upside down—after all, the first shall be last and the last shall be first—but it’s about inclusion, not exclusion.It’s about centering those who have been excluded.

And those who are used to being centered?

They’re not being excluded, but their attachment to the status quo and their own power causes them to exclude themselves from Beloved Community.

When we’re centered by society, we tend to trust ourselves, our resources, and our power to save us and keep us safe instead of leaning on God. We can forget who we are and Whose we are.

But when we’re barely scraping by or are in dangerwe often have nowhere to turn but to God and our community. We’re under no illusion that we can make it by ourselves.

That’s not to glorify or romanticize poverty. Again, the “blesseds” aren’t things to aspire to—they’re reminders that God is in the margins. And the “woes” are reminders of ways we can turn inward and ignore the invitation to Beloved Community.

This famous teaching can sound like Good News or bad news, depending on where you’re located in society.

It’s a little scary to identify with the “woes.” What do we do with that?

Middle class people in the US are wildly rich compared with much of the world.

I’ve never had to worry where my next meal was coming from, and perhaps it’s the same for you.

I laugh more than I cry. God became human and experienced the full spectrum of human emotion. There are no good or bad emotions—God created us with the capacity for all of it and is present with us no matter what we’re feeling.But as the movie Inside Out illustrated, sadness can help us connect with other people. If we don’t weep with people who are suffering and oppressed, maybe it’s a sign that we’re so insulated fromour neighbors that we’re excluding ourselves from the Beloved Community.

And it feels nice to have a good reputation. It seems like that would be a good thing for bringing a positive image to Christianity in a time when many are understandably suspicious and even hostile toward religion in general and Christianity in particular.

But, seeking a good reputation at the expense of our values, mission, and calling from Godmight suggest that we’re veering into “woe” territory.

Avoiding that requires being grounded in who we are and Whose we are. Studying the Bible can help us figure out what God values. Jesus announced his mission in our reading from a few weeks ago:

1.    To bring good news to the poor, (like the Beatitudes)

2.    Proclaim release to the captivesand recovery of sight to the blind,

3.    Set free those who are oppressed,

4.    And proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

And plenty of other passages and stories help us see what God is up to in the world.

Praying and other spiritual practices can help us discern what God is calling us to and how to participate in the Beloved Community in our daily lives.

It’s also important not to do this entirely alone. There’s certainly a place for silence and solitude in spiritual practice and study, but God also made us for community. That’s why we meet to worship and do life together as a congregation.

Our church council did some great work together at our council retreat last weekend. We spent time discerning our values as a congregation. We narrowed it down to the top three we felt God calling us to: service, compassion, and inclusion.

And we updated our mission statement to reflect these values: “Called to be the heart of Christ caring for our neighbors through service, compassion, and inclusion.”

Don’t worry: we’ll still use our tagline of “the church that feeds people body and soul.” But our mission statement goes deeper into the specifics of how we do that.

Service, compassion, and inclusion all point us to community—not just giving charity to those people over there, but recognizing the image of God in every person, serving our neighbors as we would serve Jesus himself, entering deeply into life with our neighbors, and committing to creating a community where everyone belongs just as they are and not expecting them to conform to a certain mold.

That’s difficult and noble work. It’s work worthy of the Beloved Community, which Jesus is inviting everyone into in his teaching today.

Beloved Community is Good News for the impoverished, hungry, hurting, and excluded parts of ourselves. And it’s challenging news for the rich, full, comfortable, and reputable parts of ourselves.

There’s a saying that originally referred to newspapers but is often used about preaching: that it’s to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Jesus exemplifies that in this teaching.

He reminds those who are hurting and excluded in this world of the Good News that God is with them, and he warns those who are comfortable and privileged in this life of the bad news that they might be missing out on the Beloved Community. And for most of us, we might fall somewhere in between.

So receive the Good News that God is with you, Beloved, and God will always be with us as we figure out how to embody the Beloved Community through service, compassion, and inclusion—together.

Sermon on Luke 5:1-11

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

I’ve never really connected with the call stories of Jesus’ disciples. It seems like they met Jesus and immediately dropped everything to follow him.

Who can just drop everything and change their life in an instant?

But I noticed this time that in the Gospel of Luke, Simon had already met Jesus. He had stayed at Simon’s house earlier and had even healed his mother-in-law. He had been around Jesus and had probably heard him speak in the synagogue. Jesus probably asked Simon for the use of his boat because he already knew him.

This wasn’t necessarily a lightning-bolt moment of deciding to throw his lot in with a complete stranger. It was still a big leap of faith, but not quite as out of the blue as the Gospels sometimes make it seem.

But there was a lightning-bolt moment when Simon went from calling Jesus “Master” in verse 5, which was a term for a tutors and teachers, to calling Jesus “Lord” in verse 8, when he realized that this wasn’t just any rabbi.

The overabundant catch of fish changed Simon’s understanding of who Jesus is. Suddenly, he felt that he was unworthy of even being in Jesus’ presence: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

But Jesus not only didn’t go away from Simon—he called him. He invited Simon into his mission and his inner circle. He turned Simon’s shame into belonging.

The Gospel of Luke was written by the same person who wrote the book of Acts. They’re so closely related that they’re sometimes referred to as a unit, hyphenated as “Luke-Acts.”Simon Peter has a prominent role in the book of Acts and is one of the foremost of Jesus’ first disciples. This is the beginning of the story of a faithful apostle.

The story of the early Church would be very different without Simon Peter.

And Simon’s ministry began when he decided to follow Jesus even though he felt unworthy.

My own call story took a lot longer than even the Gospel of Luke’s more extended version of Simon’s call story, and I too was afraid I was unworthy.

As most of you know, I grew up at St. Paul Lutheran up Harbor Blvd. a few miles. We had several interns at our congregation over the years, and when one was ordained while I was in junior high, Pastor Tom leaned over to me and said, “That could be you someday.”

I decided, though, that ordained ministry wasn’t for me.Surely I couldn’t be a pastor.I was content with that decision and didn’t think much of it for many years.

Then, I went on a New Year’s retreat at the end of 2012 when I was in my twenties. One of the retreat leaders asked me at one point if I had ever considered the ministry. I figured since it was coming up again, I should probably think about it some more, though I still didn’t think ordained ministry could possibly be for me.

I didn’t really talk about it to anyone, because I didn’t think it would amount to anything. But over the next several months, people kept bringing up the idea of professional ministry: people I had known for a long time and people I had barely met. We even had a series that year where the local pastors shared their call stories for our midweek Lenten services.

So, I started praying about it, and one day I felt God saying to me, “I might ask you to do this someday.” I burst into tears, because that sounded terrifying.I felt totally unworthy and inadequate.

I slowly came around to the idea, though, but I thought maybe it would be a long time in the future and God was just telling me so I could start taking classes or something.

Then, I got elected as a voting member for Synod Assembly in 2014, and who did I meet in the opening session in the bathroom, but a representative of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (where I eventually went) who immediately asked me if I had ever considered the ministry.

That was also the year that PLTS and Cal Lutheran University merged, so they did a big presentation on the candidacy process for Synod Assembly. I think everyone from St. Paul who was with me on the trip asked if I was considering becoming a pastor.

I had to admit to myself that God might have been calling me to do this sooner than I had expected.

I didn’t want to end up in the belly of a whale, so I started looking at seminaries when I got home. I still didn’t start seminary for another two and a half years, so I can’t say I followed in Simon, James, and John’s footsteps and “left everything and followed [Jesus].”

My call story took decades, not moments or even weeks like the call stories in the Gospels.And I, like Simon, felt totally unworthy and wanted God to go away from me with that ridiculous idea.

But God was patient and kept calling me in different ways through different people over the years. My call story unfolded, layer by layer.

God closed some doors and opened others, and now I have the enormous privilege of serving this congregation and my hometown.

When I was attending FullertonHigh School, sitting about there, frantically doing English homework and waiting for my turn to perform in the parish hall for our arts program fundraiser, I never dreamed I would be a pastor someday, let alone the pastor of this congregation.

God had better dreams for me than I did. Thank God!And God is still calling me and using me in all my messy humanness.

God is calling you, too, whether to ordained ministry, church council, a political office, a relationship, a profession, a volunteer position, or something completely different.

Your call story (or stories—we’re not limited to one) may look very different from mine or Simon’s or Isaiah’s or Paul’s or anyone else’s. There is no one way to be called nor is there a limited timeframe in which to accept. God has an unlimited imagination. I do hope you’ll eventually say yes to whatever God has in mind for you.

Sometimes when we feel unworthy, it’s because God is calling us to something we need to grow into, and God will be with us every step of the way.

God already loves you unconditionally. There is nothing you can do that can make God love you any more or any less. Calling is not about earning salvation or getting right with God. But I can tell you that God’s dreams for me were better than what I dreamed for myself, and that might be the case for you too.

And I do know that God has called this congregation to be the church that feeds people body and soul.

We’ve been feeding our neighbors for more than 20 years, and God willing, we will do it for many, many more.

God uses us individually and collectively to show God’s love to our community and our world. Let your light shine, beloved!