Dare to Be Different

We’re all aware of people who have had a spiritual experience. Indeed, many of us have had such an experience; a moment when we’ve been profoundly aware of the presence of God. It’s not uncommon to think of humans as physical beings who have spiritual experiences. But what if we’re really spiritual beings having a physical experience? That’s what someone has suggested: we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. If that’s so, then our true nature is not that of finite creatures with limited potential, but beings with boundless potential and infinite possibilities.

We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Our true nature – or, perhaps better – the fullest expression of our nature, transcends the boundaries of time and space, and the limitations of here and now. We can imagine new possibilities and then turn them into reality. We can move into a chaotic mess and realize its creative potential. We can boldly go where no one has gone before, and we don’t even need a starship to do it! We are spiritual beings having a physical experience, and there are infinite possibilities before us.

The story of the Transfiguration is about the revelation of Jesus’ true nature: this spiritual being, this creature of light, this one who knew that all things are possible. But if it’s about Jesus’ true nature, then it’s about our true nature. The Church has always taught that Jesus was like us in every way, except that he did not sin. We haven’t quite figured out how to do that; or maybe I should say “how not to do that.” Jesus was transformed, and the only thing that holds us back from being transformed is this tendency to protect ourselves, to preserve ourselves, to keep ourselves safe. And it’s that inordinate concern with ourselves and our own preservation which is the root of sin.

Jesus didn’t have that concern. Jesus was always willing to be bold and creative and push the outside of the envelope. He allowed himself to live not in the limited way that conformed to other people’s expectations; no, he lived with the boundless energy of his true nature. He allowed himself to be transformed, and in so doing he pointed the way toward our transformation.

Dare to be different. Dare to be the person of infinite potential whom God made you to be. That’s what the Transfiguration is all about. It’s not so much about Jesus as it is about you. You are called to be transfigured. We as a congregation are called to be transformed.

If you have any doubt about our infinite potential, about our transformative possibilities, about this human ability to see beyond the horizon of our immediate experience – consider the successful mission to put a man on the moon in the 1960’s. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the selection of the original seven Mercury astronauts, and Friday was the 47th anniversary of John Glenn’s historic orbit of the earth. Months before Glenn’s three orbits, President Kennedy set that goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely before 1970. Didn’t have a clue how they were going to do it. I mean, yes, there were competing theories; but they didn’t know which theory to run with and if any of those theories were going to work. Do you use one rocket or two? Do you rendezvous and dock in earth orbit or in lunar orbit? And how exactly do you rendezvous when no one has yet created anything like the computer program which will enable you to do it? Didn’t have a clue how they were going to get to the moon. But they said, “We’re going to do this. Don’t know how we’re going to do this, but we’re still going to.” In that decision, and in the subsequent work to realize that decision, humanity was transformed. We are people of infinite potential. To live as if that is so is to be transfigured.

Dare to be different from the way you are now. Go to places where you’ve never been before; places where people think it’s impossible to go. But, be prepared for things to get messy along the way. Because, you know, if you dare to be different, if you dare to be transformed, if you dare to say that this community can be transformed, then people are going to push back. People are going to say, “You’re crazy.” People are going to say, “It can’t be done.” Every major invention in modern times has received that kind of pushback. Alexander Graham Bell had this crazy idea called the telephone. “Can’t be done.” The Wright brothers had this crazy idea of flying. “Can’t be done.” Tommy Douglas had this vision of universal health care. “Can’t be done.” The people who have a vested interest in you staying the way that you are will tell you, “You can’t change.” The people who have a vested interest in keeping the community the way that it is will tell you, “It can’t be done.” It’s not that it really can’t be done, it’s that they are afraid of the transformation that is about to occur. So they’re going to push back, and it’s going to get messy.

It’s like when Harriett Tubman and other conductors on the Underground Railroad would show up at plantations in the South during the days of slavery, and they’d start to sing spirituals; except they weren’t just spirituals; they were also code songs that told people that folks were going to run away from the plantation that night; folks were going to free themselves from slavery. All day long they’d be working in the fields and singing:

“Steal away, steal away,
steal away to Jesus.
Steal away, steal away home.
I ain’t got long to stay here.”

But other folks would be saying, “You can’t get out of here, man. You can’t get to Canada. You don’t even know if there is a Canada. You crazy, man. They’re going to catch you and whip you and they might even kill you. Why don’t you stay here; at least Master’s going to feed you.”

When you start to say that things can change, there’s push back in the community; there’s conflict in the community. But those slaves who dared to be different, those who dared to be transformed, those who dared to be free; they ran away that night anyway. And then they were other signals; there were other spirituals that doubled as directions. It was better to walk not on the dry land but in the shallows of the rivers because then the slave catchers and their bloodhounds couldn’t pick up your scent. So people were singing:

“Wade in the water.
Wade in the water, children.
Wade in the water.
The Lord’s gonna trouble the waters.”

Trouble up those waters so they can’t follow you. The Lord’s going to trouble those waters as you wade through the shallows. Troubled waters mark the route to freedom and transformation.

Last Wednesday our Pastoral Care Minister, Paul Neary, talked about transformation with our Church Board. As he did so, he spoke of something called the “quantum theory of chaos.” Which means that when subatomic particles start flying lose and banging into each other, energy is created, and that energy opens up creative possibilities. Out of chaos comes creativity. The quantum theory of chaos. Seems to me that’s a fancy way of saying, “The Lord’s gonna trouble the waters.” If you want transformation, you have to risk chaos. If you want freedom, you have to risk troubling the waters. In order to make us free to be the people and the community whom God made us to be, the Lord’s going to trouble up those waters. God says through the prophet, “I am about to do a new thing…I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). But a river in the desert means troubled waters indeed; I mean, the rivers that I know about in the desert are the torrents of water that you get after it rains in the desert and the dry gullies are suddenly great rivers raging through the wilderness. But is this not the kind of transformation that God calls for? I mean, yes, Psalm 23 talks about God leading us beside still waters, and there’s a time to be still; but God also says, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). A flash flood in the desert is a mighty stream. Out of chaos comes creativity. If you want transfiguration, you have to let God trouble up the waters.

To summarize: Transformation is possible because we are creatures of unlimited potential. Transformation is possible when we’re willing to trouble the waters. And, transformation is possible when we give ourselves permission to imagine it. Who we are and whom we become both as individuals and as a community is limited only be our imagination. We are and we will be what we imagine ourselves to be. If we imagine that we’re an older congregation, with small numbers and limited potential, then that’s exactly what we’ll be. But if we imagine that we’re a growing congregation, with a Church School bursting at the seams, with new and gifted people joining us, with a vital ministry reaching beyond these walls and into this community; if that’s what we imagine ourselves to be, then that is what we’ll become. Imagine it into being. Intention can make it so.

It’s kind of like a goldfish. If you put a goldfish into a little bowl, then the goldfish will stay small because that’s the only size that the bowl can handle. Put that same goldfish into a big pond and that sucker is going to grow! Our imagination is kind of like that goldfish bowl; keep it small and you can’t expect much transformation out of this or any other church. If we think of ourselves as a small, intimate family church, then that’s what we’ll be. But if we think of ourselves as a large, multi-faceted, intercultural congregation, then that is what we’ll be.

Our potential is restricted only by the limitations of our thinking. It’s like what Satchel Paige once said: “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

Someone has said, “Those who say something can’t be done don’t understand those who are busy doing it.” You see, life is not static. That was one of the great contributions of the Hebrew people to the history of ideas. In a world that figured that things pretty well remain the same, the Hebrew prophets said that life is not static, because God is not static. They said that individuals and institutions and nations are called to be transformed. Someone said, “You’ll never know God until you’ve tried the impossible.” You’ll never know who you really are – a spiritual creature of unlimited potential – until you’ve climbed the mountain, and you’ve looked over the horizon, and you’ve dared to be different. Amen.


Text: Mark 9:2
Preached by Bruce D. Ervin
22 February 2009