September 10

My day started with a burst of energy as I spent some time reviewing accounts of the Houston Texan’s win yesterday and The Advocate newsmagazine’s recounting of the tremendous progress that has been made on the human rights front over the last 40 years. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good by the time I sat down for my time of daily devotion. And then it hit. First I read Ezekiel’s account of the coming of the end (7:10-27), and then I read the author’s vision of the woman and the beast with seven horns and ten heads contained in the book of Revelation 17:6-18. Before I knew it I found myself a bit overwhelmed. At first, I thought I would fall prey to my first instinct (my head) and try to answer the question that drives me most days: how do I make sense of this? After sitting with that question for awhile in relation to the texts from Ezekiel and Revelation, I eventually found my way to this morning’s Gospel passage (Luke 9:28-36) and I found an answer that helped me. Not a head answer, but a heart and spirit answer. The passage is the account of Jesus’ Transfiguration. What struck me was the Peter’s response to the holy moment. His first response was almost exactly like mine: how do I make sense of this. He couldn’t; so he immediately tried to fake it by offering to build three shelters – a response that was so bizarre that the author(s) of the text couldn’t help but comment in verse 33: “[Peter] did not know what he was saying.” I guess the lesson for me in today’s lectionary is to quit trying to force responses to things in ways that don’t make sense. It’s okay to sit with those holy moments and experience them on their own terms, not mine. Til next time…