Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
February 18, 2006 - Transfiguration Sunday
Exodus 34:29-35
2nd Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36

Breathing with God

WE are a people who love conspiracy theories! Think about the rumors about the CIA's involvement with the assassination of President Kennedy ... concerns about fluoride in our drinking water ... a UFO base in the desert South West ... the popularity of the Da Vinci Code.

The recent media circus / frenzy regarding the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the parallels between her life and that of Marilyn Monroe has spawned amazing rumors about the "real story" behind her death ... and we remember the hint that maybe the CIA was involved in the death of Marilyn Monroe herself.

The word conspiracy carries such a negative connotation: it is almost always thought of as something bad. Last summer the British uncovered a plot to blow up ten or so commercial airliners as they flew over heavily populated cities in the U.S. That's what we think of when we think conspiracy.

But, literally, the word conspiracy doesn't have that overlay. Literally, it means to breathe together. We can imagine people in secret "breathing together" to plan something destructive.

I would invite us to think about what it might mean if we decided to conspire with God ... if we decided to breathe with God.

Think of Jesus on the mountain top, breathing with God.

Think of Moses and Elijah breathing together with God.

Think about Peter, James and John ...confused by what they are experiencing, but beginning to breathe together with God.

When people breathe together with God, it becomes sort of a divine conspiracy!

Imagine for a moment, what it would be like for us to be a divine conspiracy -- a group of people meeting for the express purpose of breathing together with God. Conspiring to change the world in a dramatic way - by the way we love!

There are several ingredients: the first is prayer. At the beginning of the Gospel story, Jesus has gone up to the mountain top to pray. What better way for us to begin to breathe with God than to spend time alone in prayer. I'm not talking about the kind of prayer that is asking God to do things for us, but the kind of prayer that opens us up to hearing God: a true conversation between two parties -- not a monologue where we get on Santa's knee and give him our list.

When people begin to breathe together, their faces change -- there is a glow. We've seen it with couples about to get married ... they are so connected that it actually changes their faces. On the mountain, Jesus' face shines. Moses came down off the mountain with a face so bright, people could hardly look at him.

Once we start breathing with God, our appearance changes. Our face softens; we become more kind, more understanding, more forgiving, more loving. We are transfigured by our intimacy with God.

Now an element of discipline and self-denial creeps into our lives. As Jesus began to look toward Jerusalem, there was nothing that was going to stop him from doing what God had asked him to do: lay down his life that the world might know of God's love.

We think of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., who knew that continuing to work for justice for ALL people would likely end in his own death ... and it did ... but he never stopped or wavered from his calling.

AS we begin our own Lenten journey, we might well decide to impose some sort of discipline on ourselves ... as a reminder that when we breathe with God, we change how we live.

This week we begin the Lenten season ... a time for us to conspire ... a time for us to decide whether we are going to be among that group committed to changing the world in ways that Christ taught, the only question is: To what extent are we breathing with God?

NOTE: Today's sermon is credited entirely to Homiletics, Vol. 18, Number 1, pp. 57-61.