Sermon - 2/19/23

<p style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; background: white;"> <strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: #111111; mso-ansi-language: EN;" xml:lang="EN">Matthew 17:1-9; Transfiguration A; 2/19/23<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> <span style= "mso-spacerun: yes;">          </span>Pastor Ellen Schoepf</span></strong></p> <p style= "margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%; background: white;"> <span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> As we gather this morning, I am sure most of us are feeling the trauma of this past week and we are grieving. As I have been reflecting on the tragedy at MSU, I have also been thinking about the ways in which moments of grief, anger, injustice, etc., sometimes become windows into the divine and then, in those moments, we become changed.<span style= "mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> That is what the cross is about and this week we will begin to focus more intently on the cross as we move into Lent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> As we begin our Lenten journey this Wednesday, the inevitability of the cross looms before us, and there is nothing we can do to change the fate of our Lord. Yet, as we face the cross, and as we face those moments in life when grief is so present, as we face the horror of this past week, it can become a window into the divine. I know this happens because I have experienced it.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"> <span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;"> As a pastor, I have the privilege of being with you and walking with you during some of the most difficult times and moments of your lives. Quite honestly, it is in those times that I often find God’s presence to us to be palpable, and I am always changed. There are times when thes