No one likes change. Actually, we don’t mind change. It’s loss we dislike. People change things about their lives everyday. They look forward to it. They celebrate it. They get married. They have children. They get a new job or a new house. What we fear is loss. We look forward to getting married, but not the change in old friendships. We look forward to a new home, but we miss all the familiar things about our old one. We look forward to the birth of a child, but not the loss of sleep.

         Lately we are troubled by the changes we see around us. We say that we don’t like change but perhaps we are really suffering loss. The way to get through loss is not to deny it or to pretend that it can be avoided. We bear our losses when we see the benefits of change. The new home is in a better location, or it is more affordable. The new marriage is work, but it is a more rewarding relationship than older friendships. The work of parenting is very difficult, but children are a joy and a blessing.

         Change is often not something we choose. All that we can control is how we respond to the changes that happen around and to us. The economy goes bad, or we get a diagnosis of an illness. There is no choice to go back to a time when things were not so bad. We only have a choice to live the best way we know how or to give up to whatever happens. At the most basic level we are faced with the choice to live or to die.

         This Sunday we remember the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop. We remember who Jesus is. We also remember the journey of Jesus from the beginning of his story to its end. There is a glorious vision and there are limits placed upon the glorious vision. Peter wants to set up tents. There will be no pause on the mountaintop. As soon as the vision vanishes, Jesus takes the disciples down the mountain, and reminds them of his path to Jerusalem where he will die before he will be raised.

         Our faith is not static. Our God is sure and dependable. The belief statements of our creed are absolutely firm and unchanging. The promises of God will certainly be fulfilled. However, we will not remain the same. We may prefer to have a self-understanding that is unchanged, but God seeks more for us. We may prefer to have a spiritual community that stays the same as we have always remembered it, but God knows we need people around us who are growing as we are growing in our faith. It would be nice if this church could be a haven from all the confusing changes we see in the world. Instead, God wants our community to equip us to face the changes that trouble us. God would have us guide and support each other through the troubles of life.

         Elijah is about to depart and Elisha, his disciple and spiritual son is following him. The story is a little hard to follow, but they travel in stages from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and finally to the Jordan River. They are following the path the people of Israel took as they entered into the Promised Land. The company of prophets, the official religious leaders, supply the facts about what will happen. “You master is going to leave you.” They know the facts but they have no hope. Elisha knows that things will change, but he hopes for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit – that double portion means the blessing of the first-born son. When Elisha sees the vision, it is proof that he will continue the work given to Elijah. His master is gone, but God’s work continues.

         Jesus is transfigured before the disciples. They are terrified. Moses and Elijah are talking with Jesus. Is this everything they hoped for? Peter suggests they preserve the moment. They hear a voice. “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

         No more visions. No more clouds of glory. No conversations with the great prophets. Now they only have the flesh and blood Jesus with his difficult words and troubling suggestion that he might have to die. Why can’t we stay in that great place on the mountaintop? Why can’t our faith give easy answers that are easy to live up to? Why does it have to be so difficult?

         Our faith is not based on ease and comfort. Jesus makes a literal life or death decision. He knows he has to sacrifice himself so that we can live. Every follower of Jesus has to make the same choice. We have to make the hard choices that lead to life. If we don’t we will only die.

         We will soon begin our journey with Jesus through lent. Part of that journey is to examine our hearts and to discern the things in us that must die. We may take on a discipline of giving something up so that we can practice letting go of things. We may take on a discipline to learn to add good things to our lives. As we journey together as a congregation we will be learning how to live with the changes all around us. We will be well aware of the things that are dead or passing away. We will also need to look for signs of life.

         We have not been brought to this place to perish on the edge of a vision. We have traveled here to see what new thing God can do. We may no longer be a great cultural or civic center for the community of New Milford – but we can be a faithful congregation. People no longer come here because of our prestige, but now it may be easier to be a community without boundaries and expectations. We really can invite anyone. It no longer matters how we are dressed or whom we know – we’re all on the journey together.

         We may be counting our pennies, but maybe we can also discover gifts in our community that have not been valued. Every member has wisdom and every soul has gifts to offer. We can’t do things the same way anymore, but now we have the freedom to create a way that works for us.

         The most difficult part of this is that we don’t yet see the end. We are in good company. The disciples had no idea where Jesus was leading them. The path to new life is not clear, but we know we will get there. That’s all we know for now. Until then, we live in hope that the God who has stood with us in all things will guide us to the end.

          During Advent, a little group of us have been studying “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens as part of a bible study. Things got busy this week and we didn’t have time for our final session, but those of us who had a chance to talk about it compared some thoughts about how the story ends. Ebenezer Scrooge is transformed by the visit of three spirits and he is a new man. In our memories of the story, there was much dancing and celebration about his conversion. The original story is brief. Scrooge buys a goose for the Cratchit family and has dinner with his nephew. That’s about it. In our memories we remember him dancing around and buying presents and hanging around the Cratchit household.

         Perhaps our memories of Ebenezer Scrooge are embellished by numerous movie and television adaptations. For Dickens, a transformed life was enough to write about. We seem to need song and dance and the giving of piles of presents. The celebration of Christmas on only one day and mostly consisting of one meal seems to us a little sparse.

         It was not always been so even for us. The grand season we know today has only been true for us after World War II. Only a few generations ago, Christmas was mostly a single day affair. Going back a few more generations, Christmas was subdued and further back to colonial days – Christmas was outlawed as a bunch of catholic nonsense. (You could be fined five shillings for making merry!)

         Tales of Santa Claus, and Rudolf the Red-nosed reindeer enlarge our Christmas. We have the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge and also the Grinch. We remember Charlie Brown and Frosty the Snowman. We have a rich repertoire of tales about giving and about sacrifice. We hear morals about the true meaning of Christmas and think we are preserving something valuable and ancient. They are like the well-preserved ornaments we take down from our attic. In our minds they are old and traditional, handed down from our parents. In reality, they were bought at some five and dime and hung on a tree a generation or two ago and we are only preserving what we’ve been given.

         I enjoy all the trappings of the Christmas we celebrate today. I love the carols and the decorations. I like buying presents for those I love and I love gathering as a family and taking stock of all our blessings. I also know that as good as all of this is, in our rush and hurry to celebrate, not much of what we do intentionally points to God.

         There was a time before Charlie Brown and the Grinch who could steal Christmas. There was a time before Christmas trees and Christmas lights. There was a time before our winter celebration of gift giving and feasting. There was a time before this winter gathering of family around the hearth in the darkest days of the year. There was a time when the only gift that mattered was the one that God would give us.

         The deep truth of this day is that God has come to help us when we most need help. We’d like to think our present difficulties are an aberration. We want to get back to days of prosperity and plenty and we assume those days are normal. God knows that we are always hurting and always suffering. We are always in some sort of want. In truth we need God. We will find no peace or contentment without God. As hard as we try, we keep drifting from the right path and we become prisoners to our own selfishness and fear. The good news is that God comes to us when we deserve it least.

         Two thousand years ago, God entered human existence in a poor village in the middle of nowhere. In doing so, God proclaims that no poor village is ever unimportant ever again. The birth of Jesus proclaims that God is everywhere we find ourselves. God is now with us. God is in every human struggle and in every human want. The baby Jesus feels what we feel and needs what we need and depends upon the love and care of other human hands.

         The Christmas story is a human story. We can’t tell it without remembering what God has done for us. We can’t tell it unless we fit it into the lives we live right now. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but we have heard the good news wherever we have heard it – in our homes, on television, or through Ebenezer Scrooge.

         I don’t believe we need to rescue Christmas from commercialization. I say we should sing every song and tell every story. Every blinking light and every wrapped present tells a facet of the story of God’s love for us and God’s generosity to us. If we must be careful about anything, it would be to remember why God has been so generous. God wants to change us. God wants us to be transformed people, singing and dancing like a transformed Scrooge because we have heard good news.

         Christmas isn’t about the size or beauty of our tree, or the abundance of our presents. Christmas is about the gift of Jesus. Jesus is given to make us into new people. So instead of asking one another, “What did you get for Christmas?” Perhaps we should be asking, “How are you different this Christmas?”

          How do people describe Jesus? How do you describe Jesus? We have many titles for Jesus that we use every Sunday. Jesus asked the disciples and they gave a list of what people were saying about Jesus. “Some say John the Baptist, but other Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” We know the right answer because Peter gives it. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Behind all of these answers is an assumption about how Jesus relates to us. We think of Jesus in certain terms because of what we expect from him.

         We know Jesus is our messiah. He is the chosen one who will save us. We call Jesus friend when we are lonely or isolated. We call Jesus our Lord when we want to be reminded that God is in charge and we want the comfort of following the rules. I’m wondering why we cling to certain definitions of Jesus. We have ritualistic formula as part of our worship. We have traditions and bible texts. We cling to Jesus the Good Shepherd and friend. But what does any of this have to do with our faith?

         Jesus praises Peter for his insight. He has proclaimed a new way of defining Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” This is not just a new name. Peter is describing a new way of relating to Jesus that says as much about Peter as it does about Jesus.

         This discussion is happening in a place called Caesarea Philippi. It is an entirely Roman town. It is named to give honor to Caesar and the local ruler Philip. It is also very near a pagan holy place; a spring found in a cave (that eventually becomes a source for the river Jordan.) The Romans believed that caves were entrances to the underworld – the abode of the dead or Hades. The spring gave spiritual significance to the water. In this place was a shrine to Pan and there is evidence that human sacrifice was practiced there.

         Jesus doesn’t just commend Peter for having correct theology. Jesus goes on to attach much significance to Peter’s confession. Jesus says that he will build his church on Peter the rock (either his work or his faith statement.) The gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Jesus gives Peter authority to bind and to loose. This is a way of saying that like an authoritative teacher he has the authority to interpret the law in such a way that binds obligations on others or looses obligations on others.

         Peter did more than say a clever thing or gain a brilliant insight. Peter has seen the world in a new way. Peter has discovered just how God is now dealing with the world and just what God wants us to do to work with God. Peter’s brilliant discovery is that God is saving the world through Jesus and that we are called to work alongside Jesus.

         It’s not enough that we know the truth. The difference is in knowing how the truth changes us and in how knowing the truth calls us to live differently. Next week we will hear the rest of this story. Jesus will tell the disciples that he will have to suffer and die. Peter rebukes Jesus and then Jesus rebukes Peter because he has not understood what this truth will cost him.

         Before we get to that, the apostle Paul gives us a helpful insight. “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of you minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Paul urges the Christians in Rome to discover how God has called them and gifted them. We are all blessed with gifts – which only become gifts when we give them back to God to be a blessing to others. We grow as a body when everyone offers their gift.

         Our challenge is not right understanding or even right belief. Our challenge is to give ourselves to God. We are always tempted to try and figure things out for God. We try and fix things in the way we think is best without first asking for guidance from God. We think we know what we should do next, when the first thing we should do is to stop and listen to God.

         Our task is not to apply best advertising practices to our church to attract new members. It is not our task to micromanage our investments to get the best return. It is not our first order of business to create healthy self-esteem in all the broken hearts that walk through our door. Our first task is to put ourselves in a place where God can work in us. Our job is to be transformed.

         It is not the popular path. John the Baptist was a celebrity. Elijah was a beloved prophet. Jeremiah was scary but he knew how to challenge people in power. The answer Peter gave was blasphemy. Perhaps in order to save the world God has to sweep aside all our precious sacred objects. God needs us to sweep away everything that is in the way of the path we must take. God wants to change us so that we can participate in the transformation of the world.

         Who do you say Jesus is? Are you being transformed by what you believe?