ZCHAPEL--reverend+or+root+doctor



Walking into the church, Rev. Smith is in the pulpit gripping the bible in his hand.

//“Our sermonic texts come from the Old Testament and New Testament. I wanna read Exodus 24:12-18 first. When you have it please say Amen. ////12 ////The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.” 13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.” 15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Now turn to Matthew 17:1-9. ////1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” // //Let us pray. ////O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen. //

//Our sermon for today is titled ‘O ////n the Mountain of Transfiguration’. ////The Transfiguration is the story of a glimpse of glory. Just before the beginning of Lent, every year the church goes mountain climbing. We go, like Peter and James and John did, following Jesus. At the mountain height we see him as he really is. By him and with him and in him the glory of God shines. Jesus, the bright and morning star, shines here on the mount of Transfiguration as the light from heaven shone above his cradle in Bethlehem thirty or so years earlier. But why, why do we climb to see this light? Why do we take valuable time away from our busy lives and devote ourselves to climbing the mountain where God's glory is revealed? Aren't there hungry to be fed? Jobs to be done? Aren't there bills to be paid? Children to be fed and clothed? Sick to be healed? Grievers to be consoled? Why does Jesus take this time away from his mission? Why do we? Mark Twain once said: "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." We climb the mountain of Transfiguration each year before Lent begins for the same reason Moses climbed Mount Pisgah: to see where we ourselves are headed. "Come dance with the West wind, and touch on the mountaintops," wrote John Denver. "Sail o'er the canyons, and up to the stars. And reach for the heavens, and hope for the future and all that we can be, not what we are." When Jesus arrived at the mountain top his figure changed and the outside of him, which had been ordinary and like us, shone as if he was not like one of us. Jesus shone with the glory that caused old Moses to shine that day on the mountain of Sinai, when the holy law from heaven came down. He shone with the glory that carried old Elijah up to heaven's height //// ― ////gone from this world - but alive in the next. He shone with the glory of his own baptismal day, when his Father's voice from above was heard to say: "This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased" - and indeed those words first uttered at the River are repeated on the Mountain Top. //

//Last week at the celebration of life for Sgt. Anthony Bullock, we sang his three favorite hymns. The last verse of the last hymn went like this: // //When we've been there ten thousand years // //bright shining as the sun, // //we’ve no less days to sing God's praise // //Then when we first begun. //

//<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">We take strength from them, Christ's strength, as we prepare to walk our Lenten journey together //// ― ////<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">blessed be his name, now and forevermore. ////<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Amen.” //

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">He says a prayer for Colonel James and his wounded leg. After the quick prayer is over, he crosses his chest and heads into a private room―also known as the study. There he is greeted by a cadet who requests to connect with a family member in the afterlife. The cadet claims that superstitious things keep happening when he listens to the radio and sleeps at night. “Come with me. Quick.” Rev. Smith advised. He then takes the cadet in a room with just a single round table in the middle of the room and two chairs. The neatly polished oak cherry table had a candle stick in the center that was clearly burned multiple times. “Sit,” Rev. Smith said with a firm voice as he rushed and closed the door silently as if he was to not disturb a spirit in the room. “Now hold my hand. Close your eyes and just relax your mind.” <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">//Sermon inspired by Rev. Richard J. Fairchild & Father Martin Lee Foltz// //(//<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">//[|http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/a-tran-foltz.php])//