It's the glory moments that really get our attention.  I know what it's like to want to hang on to a perfect moment.  I think it is pretty much human nature to want to capture the good times, cling to them as long as possible, live in them if we could.  Look through your photo albums; they are usually full of the highlights aren't they?  You would never know about the family fights, the silent nights where each partner in the marriage turned to the wall, the chaotic afternoons where the kids were just out of control, the moments that were mundane, or dull, or filled with pain.  We aren't too interested in clinging to those.  People refer to their mountain top experiences --- they are the highlights.  We know what it is to be dazzled by the moments of glory, to want to capture and preserve, and hang on for all time.

          Peter sees Jesus and Moses and Elijah in all their shining glory and he is ready to set up camp.  Let's make three dwellings, let's hang on to this, call it good.  But of course, that brief moment was just that, a brief moment.  Peter, James and John are living proof that no matter how many times we are told, no matter how close we are to the situation, no matter how present God is, we just don't quite get it.  In the verses before the transfiguration, in all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus has been telling his disciples about the fundamentals of following him.  HE told them that whoever wanted to follow him would have to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow.  He told them, whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.  He had also told them about the journey he was about to make where he would die on the cross and in three days be raised from the dead.

          But, as was typical of the disciples, no matter how clear it was, they just never quite caught on to what was really in store, to what following Jesus was all about.  Can you blame them? Aren't we a little more interested in the glory of Christ than the suffering of Christ?  Doesn't everyone want to follow a winner??  And don't we sometimes want to pin God down to the glory moments?  As individuals and communities of faith, we have often tried to settle in, to put a fence around our experience, build a dwelling place, and hang on to the glory of a particular time and place.  The vision of the dazzling brightness of the transfigured Jesus, the voice of God coming from the cloud --- now this is how God should be --- bright, shining, powerful, majestic, mysterious, speaking in a loud voice.  Why can't it just stay this way?  It sure would make evangelism easier, who wouldn't want to get in on something so spectacular?  We could make a shrine, maybe even sell tickets, come and see the glorious Son of God, watch as he converses with Moses and Elijah, the Big Three all in one spot.  Listen as the booming voice speaks through the clouds.  It would make Disneyland look puny!  Now that's the sort of glory that can sustain a person, that can build a whole church.  That's what Peter thought, and isn't that sometimes what we think?  Isn't that sometimes what we want out of this life of faith?  Just take me away to the mountain of glory, let me just observe you Jesus in all your splendor.  But Jesus and the disciples came down the mountain; the moment of glory was a transforming moment. 

          God is here.  We often refer to this as the Lord's house.  It means that we know that God is present, that it is God who calls us and gathers us.  It does not mean that this is only place where God lives.  I once walked out of the church in Phoenix and got into my car in the parking lot as two little girls walked by on their way home from school.  One little girl looked at me and sighed and said, "I sure wish I lived in a church."  I said, "Well, I don't live here, I work here.  Nobody actually lives in the church."  "UH Huh," she said very smartly, "God does."   Once again, trumped by an 8 year old!  But the Christian story is that Christ did not choose to live in a little booth on the mountain top, Christ did not choose to be defined by his moment of glory, but rather, by the road of suffering and death that he was about to undertake, and the glory of resurrection that set him loose in the world.

          What does it mean to be transformed by the power of God?  The church is the place and the people.  If you can't understand how we could be both, I have two words for you ---Optimus Prime.  Some of you might not have a clue who that is, and I don't blame you --- it's sort of like learning a foreign language.  Do any of you kids have Optimus Prime, or some other transformer with you?  So, here's the short course.  He is a robot, a character in the Transformers universe, the commander of the Autobots, a faction of heroic transformers from the planet Cybertron who wage their battles to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons for control of their home world, and peace in the universe.  Optimus Prime is a heroic, brave, compassionate character who uses his talents to improve the world around him. He has a strong sense of justice and righteousness, and has dedicated himself to the protection of all life, particularly the inhabitants of earth.  The original guy transforms into a semi truck, the truck's cab transforms into the robot made of Prime himself --- it gets even more complicated, but that's enough for one day.  My grandson, who was Optimus Prime for Halloween has tried to explain it to me, but I'm usually dizzy by the time he finishes.  Optimus Prime is a warrior and a truck.  He transforms to do good in the world.

          We are the church at 21^st and Lake of the Isles Parkway, and we are the church in many different places all over the city throughout the week.  We gather here, but we don't live here.  The church is the building, the church is the people.  We come together so that we can celebrate and give thanks, and get strength for our assignment for the week, the assignment of being the body of Christ at work in the world.  We don't cling to the glory moments, we are transformed by them.  We become the people that God is creating us to be, and we too are given the job of working for justice for all people.

We celebrate the Transfiguration, and then we move into Lent, a reminder that Jesus and the disciples came off the mountain with a job to do, they left the moment of glory to walk the path to the cross.  Sometimes we will be as obtuse as Peter, James, and John --- concerned with hanging on to glory, concerned with our place of honor.  The light of the Epiphany will grow dim, the Alleluia will be put away, our journey will take us to the cross of Christ.  We will walk back down the mountain because the glory of the Son of God is a suffering love that will not be contained, not by a dwelling place on the mountain top, not by the cross, and finally, not even by a tomb.  There is no standing back to admire the transfigured Lord, the glory of God is set loose in the world.  There is only the path, the way, the life of a follower.  Amen