Don’t you love before and after pictures? Whether it’s kitchen remodels, landscaping updates, or even abs, it’s great to see progress.

If you’re like me, there’s probably something in your life you’d like to change. It may be as basic and personal as your physical fitness. It may be something more idealistic like being quicker to forgive, growing more deeply in love with God, your spouse or neighbor, taking a bigger role in your community, or speaking out for the poor and marginalized in a more profound way.

Several weeks before his crucifixion, Jesus gave his closest disciples an unmistakable image of change when his very visage transfigured before them on the holy mount. The Church marks this event on the last Sunday before Lent because this is a time we, too, look for transformation.

This Lent your parish is inviting you to change. Together we will read Gretchen Rubin’s book, ‘Better than Before’ which is a really good guide to changing habits (we have copies for sale on the back table in the Narthex).

So in the few days before Lent begins (on Ash Wednesday, March 1) let’s take some time to consider what habit we’d like to either start or stop. In general, Rubin writes, there are seven areas of habits we look to – here’s that list, maybe it can help you discern what God is calling you to change:

1) Accomplishing something more and ceasing procrastination

2) Eating and drinking more healthfully

3) Exercising regularly

4) Save, spend, and earning more wisely

5) Rest, relax, and enjoying life

6) Simplifying, clearing, cleaning, and organizing

7) Engaging more deeply in relationships, with God and others

Throughout Lent, during our liturgy and adult forums, we will be talking about habits with hopes that God can help us change our lives and our world for the better. Next Sunday you’re invited to write down the habit you’d like to start or stop and place it on the altar as a way to more deeply commit to change throughout this holy season.

Collect for Lent 2017

O Transfigured One, help us change. Show us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the direction you desire us to go and give us the will to desire change. Help us be patient with ourselves as we go about this kingdom work and assist us in adopting and shunning those habits that do not bring you glory. We ask this in the name of the One who gives us strength to do more than we could hope or desire, Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Kwame and Kendra lived in a small village in Africa where they had been married for ten years.

Unfortunately, during the course of their marriage Kendra was unable to become pregnant. So Kwame went to the village elder and asked for a divorce.

The village elder said, ‘You were married ten years ago with great celebration and you will split up the same way!’ So the elder hosted a big party where there was much singing, dancing, and drinking.

During the party Kendra gave Kwame more than his share of drink, and at one point he turned to her and said, “Kendra, when you leave, you have my permission to remove the thing you love most from our home and take it back with you to your parents home.”

A few hours later when Kwame had passed out in his bed, Kendra asked some of the village men to carry Kwame and his bed to her parent’s house, where Kwame awoke surprised and confused.

She turned to him and said, ‘I have taken with me what I love most - you.’ Soon afterward, Kendra became pregnant.

Chances are you and I have been offended, insulted, or slighted this week – just like Kendra. Maybe it was by a family member, co-worker, or politician.

Of course, our first reaction is to strike back, get even, or just plain cut and run. But Jesus asks us to go another way – and return offense, insult, and attacks upon our dignity, with love and kindness.

So let’s admit our first reaction is rarely our best reaction. Take a moment before sending that retaliatory email. Hold off on sending that flaming text message. And imagine for a moment what it would look like to tap into who you are at the core: a person who holds love in their hearts, a person who tries hard to live a life of love.

This is what Jesus asks us to do amidst our disagreements. How do we go about showing this love? How do we answer offense with kindness, knowing that the world cannot be saved any other way?

“You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5)

At first blush, this headline may have taken you aback. After all, it’s no secret that I am deeply troubled and disagree with many of our President’s policies around immigration, national security, abortion rights, and economic policy. I think they are uncharitable, unwise, unchristian, and deeply threatening. So maybe you thought this title was a type-o or simply click bait. However, I hope to articulate in this short snippet, and much more so in this coming Sunday’s sermon, why I do love the President, and why it is so important for Christians to take seriously our belief in the ultimate nature and work of God in the world as love, a love embodied in the ‘light’ within each of us, and what that light demands of you and me in the midst of a our anxious lives in a divided America.

So first, let’s talk about love.

Christians believe that God is love. We believe that from the inside out, through and through, within and without, God is absolute love. And this love, when embodied in human hearts, makes us lovers. Love becomes our supreme trait, it is our greatest attribute, and our highest goal. You see, Christians believe that love saves us, that love saves the world, indeed, that love is what will save civilization. Love, and nothing else – even, and especially, love for our enemies.

In seeking to embody this love we can have no place for hatred – not even for those who threaten or harm us (more about this Sunday). We believe Jesus was not joking when he told us to ‘love your enemies’ but was imparting to us a critical key of his plan to redeem the world and make the Kingdom of God real in our midst.

I believe Jesus told us to love our enemies because to do anything less would betray the light within us and be harmful to our community, our world, and us.

First of all, we are to love because to do otherwise would only intensify the tension, bring things to a boiling point, and cause an eruption, which would help no one.

A second reason, is because when we hate, it changes us – and not for the better. Therapists can outline the mental and emotional impacts of a persona that dwells on hatred. We become bitter and angry. Our personalities shift and change. Our blood pressure rises. The book of Proverbs eloquently asks, “Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?” (Prov. 6:27)

And perhaps the most important reason is because of love’s redemptive nature. We simply cannot hope to effect positive change in a situation in which our oppositional convictions has forced us to remove ourselves. A little known but critical aspect of the civil rights protests of the 1960s was that of loving the oppressor because in doing so lay the only real hope to change the situation.

How we do this, of course, is no easy matter and I look forward to outlining more about that on Sunday as well. But let me end by saying that I am well aware that I share the pews with people who are on the opposite side on these issues. I count many as friends who voted differently than I did – and I thank each one of them who has read this far. And so my final, and perhaps most important point, is that I believe God created us with distinctive personalities, opinions, and differences that are crucial to obtaining the fullness of human life and building a just and peaceful society. I see those who stand on the opposite side of issues not as the decadent, despicable, and despised, but as humans in need of the same kind of redemption I need. We are all equal before God, and God created us differently because in the harmony of our dissonance lies truth, growth, and health. I love Donald Trump because he is my brother and teacher with whom I share high respect for this nation and its wellbeing. We can find some common ground. We can work out some differences. And it takes love. The deep divides in our pews, and in our national life will never be spanned by insults and threats, but through the creation of safe spaces founded on love. Let us speak up, cultivate our opinions, yet always do so in the name and pursuit of love.

The research is in.

And now we know the one, surefire way that leads to fufillment: giving. Research says givers are hands down happier, healthier, and more prosperous than those who hoard and make less of a habit of being charitable toward others.

Jesus knew this, even gave us ways to understand it more deeply in his most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. When we give, we’re blessed, so here’s how he describes the ideal way to be a giver:

“Blessed are the poor… Givers are willing to give of ourselves, to be ‘poor’ so that others might prosper.
“Blessed are those who mourn… Givers are empathetic, sharing the sorrows and heartaches of others.
“Blessed are the meek… This means we do not live for the spotlight, we let others go first when it comes to taking the credit.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… This means we hunger less for possessions and experiences, and more for doing the right thing.
“Blessed are the merciful… We’re first to show mercy and forgive others.
“Blessed are the pure in heart… We approach God and others to seek forgiveness, immediately, to remain ‘pure.’
“Blessed are the peacemakers… Givers are the first to give in after an argument, and the first to say we’re sorry (hard to do).
“Blessed are those who are persecuted… Givers aren’t afraid take the flak for others; to stand against injustice.

In our search for contentment, let’s consider these ideals, for to truly live is to truly give.

When the call to pitch for the New York Yankees came to a AAA player in Toledo, it was a no brainer.

When the call to play lead actor in a Broadway show came to the understudy, there was no indecision.

And when the call to follow Jesus came to a group of fishermen in Galilee there was a similar lack of hesitation, they simply dropped everything and left. The disciples had found something so attractive, so enticing they couldn’t resist.

For some reason, I have a much harder time doing so. Do I see what they saw? Have I grown callus or indifferent?

Maybe there’s too much stuff in my way - buildings and budgets and staffs and offices and routines and rituals and 2,000 years of an extremely checkered past that make it really hard to see what those first disciples saw: an irresistible invitation to pursue a path of personal challenge and fulfillment unequal to anything else life has to offer.

Lord, grant us an epiphany to see what they saw. Open our eyes anew to your beckoning presence. Help us make the space for God to matter.

When I lived in England I regularly had opportunity to walk by the spot where students said Isaac Newton famously saw an apple fall from a tree.

As the story goes, this is how gravity was discovered. Of course, gravity had been around much longer than that, but the moment Newton noticed fruit falling from a tree has been credited with kicking off the research into the theory of what gravity was and how it works.

In that moment, Newton noticed, paid attention, and pondered. It led to an epiphany of the highest order.

It makes me wonder what would happen were we to make noticing, paying attention, and pondering bigger parts of our lives.

I wonder if there are epiphanies happening all around us.

And it’s up to us to simply notice.

During my first year of seminary I visited just about every church in Southern California.

I was looking for the path God had chosen. Thankfully I found the Episcopal Church, and a parish that welcomed me and my gifts. And within a few days God made it clear that this was home, this was where I was supposed to be. I had taken the risk of leaving my career, moving to a new city, and now God had provided. It was an epiphany.

The church season of Epiphany, which also marks the end of Christmas, is January 6, and is celebrated on the following Sunday.

This 7-week period is our time to remember what God has done in our lives. It’s to give us faith for today, to remind us that the world IS in God’s hands, that everything DOES have a purpose, that our work for justice and equity IS NOT in vain, and that we NEED NOT worry.

We recall that God delivered the Israelites from slavery and said, ‘See, now remember what I can do.’ God sent Jesus to accomplish great good in the world and said, ‘See, now remember what I can do.’ God sent the disciples to establish hospitals, pass fair laws, and help people live for others and said, ‘See, now remember what I can do.’

Each of us has at least one Epiphany moment – one instance when we felt God’s presence or provision – and God is telling each of us, ‘See, now remember what I can do.’ Can you recall an epiphany moment?

No matter what trial, challenge, or contest, Jesus wants us to hearken back to those stories of provision. He wants to tell us anew, ‘See, now remember what I can do – and never forget I can (and will) do it again.’

One Monday morning investor Warren Buffett opened his newspaper.

He noticed that oil prices were falling. And, upon further analysis, concluded this decline would continue. Warren Buffet decided that this would be very good for airlines.

So Buffet started to buy up shares in airline stocks. And later that week in an interview, shared his opinion. Because Warren Buffett is such a highly respected investor, people followed suit and by the end of the week, airline stocks had increased by 15%. People wisely concluded that if Warren Buffett invests in something, it must be worth it.

During these 12 days of Christmas you and I ponder the Incarnation, which is a fancy word to describe God coming into the world through Jesus. And we can understand this event as God’s investment in the world – that God sees potential in humanity and where it’s all going – and wants to buy into it.

This may run counter to what you and I see all around us - the formidable fears of terrorism, oppression, violence, and conflict. But God doesn’t see things this way. God sees this world as worthy of his time, attention, and investment. So much so that God is all in.

How about us?

The faith needed for 2017 is to go all in. It is to believe that God has things under control and that our best work is investing in the good being done around us. You and I are to try to hand our worries and concerns over to Jesus - and to think seriously about with whom we have conflict and what we can do about it.

Again, God is “all in” in this world. How can we make 2017 the year we do the same?

I have an unmarried friend who wants to be married.

She’s divorced, has a child, and is ready to find someone. The problem is, she hasn’t. And this weighs heavily upon her.

Statistically, the odds are very good she’ll meet someone, fall in love, and marry again. Sure, he probably won’t be who she suspects, and it may be at a time she least expects. But this doesn’t matter because statistics aren’t doing it for her.

Instead, she finds herself regularly lamenting her situation, the roadblock caused by her broken marriage, her hectic job, and her aging figure. She wonders if God is actually listening to her. She wonders if God sees her loneliness. She wonders if God cares and if he is going to work things out.

My friend’s anxiety most certainly mirrors Joseph’s – the man highlighted in Sunday’s gospel who was engaged to Mary. His situation was a mess: his fiancé became pregnant, he fretted about what to do, he certainly considered his reputation, and he too faced the possibility of living the rest of his life alone.

However, Joseph held on.

He was taught then, the very thing he teaches us today: faithfulness.

Somehow the strong and silent Joseph (who never utters a word in the Bible) held on to that notion that God was in control. No matter how confused and complicated his situation, he held out and held on: we can thank Joseph for Christmas.

And we can thank God that no matter how murky and muddled our situations are, God is at work as well.

Hang on. God is in control. God is up to something.

I spent the weekend with a guy who had no place for God.

Alan grew up in church. He had a good experience there. But when his mother died way before her time he got mad at God and never came back.

As we discussed the benefits of church; being part of a community focused on love, the availability of outreach activities, the regular, soul-nourishing exercises of sermon and sacrament, Alan said none of this would outweigh his sense of God’s betrayal to him.

And I wondered if God had really betrayed Alan, or if the Church had done a poor job teaching us that our understanding of God is always different than God.

How much easier might it be if God was the Church! But it isn’t and it isn’t supposed to be. Churches are families of children ‘on the way’ who should constantly be reminding us that we’re not to predict God, but accept God, we’re not to play God, we’re follow God, we’re not to harbor certainty about our opinions about God, but be open to God.

On the third Sunday in Advent we brush up against John the Baptist’s confusion about this and we can’t help but come face to face with our own: in what ways do we get angry and frustrated with God – and in what ways might God not be to blame, but our understanding of God? In what ways are we being called to rethink and rediscover God? How might we open ourselves up to a wider vision of possibility in what God is up to in the world around us?

The first trains could only move in one direction.

Turning them around soon became an issue. So roundhouses were built. These were yards for locomotives that feature a gigantic turntable in the middle that allows trains to change direction.

Like these trains, our lives move in one direction.

We barrel down the track thinking we are who we are, we do what we do, we’ll be who we’ll be, and we can’t change that.

But life also has roundhouses.

One is called Advent – which says our directions can change.

I’ve found this nearly always happens in small ways - we take a baby step to becoming a little kinder, a little more generous, a little more present.

Then we step back, repeat those small changes, and see bigger ones.

Advent, with its emphasis on repentance, preparation, and serenity, wants to be our roundhouse. It wants to be our inspiration and crucible for the kinds of change we sense God calling us towards.

How is Advent your roundhouse?