Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Epiphany
Mark 9:2-9
February 15, 2015
Calvary - St. George's Church
About 10 years ago, someone hurt me so badly that I thought I would never recover. I had experienced a terrible betrayal. I couldn’t believe that someone I trusted so much was capable of doing what what this person did. I felt like a victim and I was bitter.
A few years ago, the event long behind me, the scars fully healed, my indignation less dramatic, the same thing happened. There was hurt, there was betrayal, and there was a victim. Only this time the shoe was on the other foot. This time I was the one doing the hurting. This time I betrayed someone close to me. And it took me until it was all over to realize that I had done the very thing that I had so vehemently decried only a few years earlier. It was a moment of epiphany; a haunting that stopped me in my tracks. I felt awful and I never wanted to hurt someone like that ever again.
Today is the Last Sunday of Epiphany. In three days—on Ash Wednesday—the season of Lent begins. On this the final Sunday before Lent, the church celebrates the transfiguration of Jesus. Today, I’m here to tell you why the message of the transfiguration is good news for victimizers who are tired of hurting people.
