Focus

Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
February 19, 2012

Year B: The Last Sunday after Epiphany
2 Kings 2:1-12
Psalm 50:1-6
(2 Corinthians 4:3-6)
Mark 9:2-9

Focus

Lately I’ve been having trouble with focus.

Part of my problem, frankly, has been a reluctance to admit that I’m getting older and that just as my hair is getting grayer and grayer, my eyes just aren’t working as well as they used to.

So, really out of vanity, I had resisted getting reading glasses until finally last week Sue got tired of watching me struggle to read tags on clothes or to read the small print on restaurant bills and dragged me not quite kicking and screaming to the drugstore to buy…these.

I noticed my sharpened focus right away when I read the newspaper. Then, after Sue left for her class, I picked up the book I had been reading in fits and starts – usually able to get through a few pages before my tired eyes would lead me to put it down and maybe turn on the computer or TV instead.

When Sue came home hours later I was still in the same spot on couch, happily reading away – with a renewed focus on my book.

But, usually it’s not that easy to solve the problem.

It’s hard to focus, isn’t it?

There’s so much going on – so many distractions.

First, there’s all that’s going on in the world and in our country. It’s hard to know what’s really important, what’s worth paying attention to and what we can safely ignore. How concerned should we be about the financial collapse of Greece or the possibility of Israel launching a preemptive strike on Iran? How much attention should we really be giving to a presidential election that’s still many months away? How much time should we spend trying to make sense of whether the economy is really improving or if statistics are really telling the full story? And then there’s all the time I spent this week reading about the sad life story of Whitney Houston…

Over the years I’ve occasionally made pastoral visits both in homes and hospitals where the TV seemed to be permanently set to cable news. I’m reminded of my grandfather who after he retired spent much of the last decades of his life sitting in the kitchen listening to round the clock news on 1010 WINS.

I wonder how he could really focus on what was most important when he kept hearing over and over about the terrible traffic near the Elmhurst gas tanks …just like I wonder how any of us can focus on what’s most important, when we’re distracted by the steady drumbeat of crisis that’s pounded out day after day by cable news.

It’s hard to focus, isn’t it?

It’s hard to focus on what’s most important because there’s so much stuff going on in our lives – and in the lives of the people we love most. When I hear about the complicated and demanding schedules of families in this church I’m amazed that parents and children don’t just collapse under the weight of so much to do. Then there’s all the stuff we worry about – for ourselves and others. There are the worries about health and employment. And there are the worries that somehow life has passed us by or is passing us by. There are the worries that somehow we’re missing the boat – that somehow we were meant to be more than we seem to be.

It’s hard to focus, isn’t it?

And then there’s so much going on here in church. I remember when Grace Notes was simply printed on a single tri-fold piece of paper. Don’t look at it during the sermon but today Grace Notes has evolved into a twelve page magazine jam-packed with information about all the good stuff coming up in Lent!

I’m glad to be at a busy church but it doesn’t always make it easy for me – and maybe for some of you – to stay focused on what’s most important.

I wonder if Jesus sometimes found it hard to focus.

Just about everything we know about Jesus’ earthly comes from the four gospels. This year we’ve been reading the Gospel of Mark, probably the earliest of the four, completed around the year 70.

Apparently Mark doesn’t know about or isn’t interested in Jesus’ birth and early life. Instead he jumps right in with John the Baptist preaching repentance in the wilderness.

You may remember near the start of the Epiphany season we heard what happened next: one day a grown-up Jesus appears and is baptized by John. And you may remember that Mark tells us that as Jesus came up out of the water “He saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

And then Mark describes a dizzying series of events for Jesus: temptations in the wilderness, the calling of the first disciples, exorcisms and healings, debate with the Pharisees, teaching with parables, the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes, and finally a growing realization that Jesus would pay for his mission with his life.

With all of that going on, I imagine at least sometimes it must have been hard for our brother Jesus – and certainly for the disciples - to focus on what was most important.

Fortunately, God wants to sharpen our focus.

And I think that’s what God was up to that day on the mountain when Peter, James and John saw Jesus wearing clothes of dazzling white - transfigured – transformed – before their very eyes.

I think that’s what God was up to that day on the mountain when Peter, James and John saw the transfigured – transformed – Jesus standing beside Elijah and Moses.

That day on the mountain God sharpened the focus of Peter, James and John – and maybe even the focus of Jesus. That day on the mountain God reminded them – and reminds us today – that God’s mission is transformation.

God’s mission is the transformation of the world into what it was always meant to be.

God’s mission is the transformation of all of us into what we were always meant to be.

God transforms us and transforms the whole world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

At the Transfiguration, God now speaks so everyone can hear, “This my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

Jesus’ work began at his baptism.

And then after his Transfiguration – after his transformation - Jesus comes down off the mountain and takes up his difficult work with a new focus – a focus on the betrayal and suffering ahead – and a focus on the ultimate transformation that awaited him after his sacrifice on the cross.

All of these centuries later, and maybe especially in this time and place, there are so many distractions that make it hard for us focus on what’s most important.

We are coming to the end of the Epiphany season and are about to start Lent, but no matter the season, God wants to sharpen our focus on what’s most important.

God wants to sharpen our focus on our work that began – that begins – at our baptism.

God wants to sharpen our focus on what’s most important: God’s mission of transforming us and transforming the world.

So, I think that’s what God is up to when suddenly we get the urge to come back to church after having been away.

I think that’s what God is up to when something in a Scripture passage or a hymn or a prayer touches our hearts.

God wants to sharpen our focus.

That’s what God is up to when we know about people in need, like say those who are fed every day at a soup kitchen, and are moved to give and to serve.

That’s what God is up to when we realize that we love someone – a parent, a friend, a spouse, a child – more than we ever thought we could love anyone.

God wants to sharpen our focus.

That’s what God is up to when a person we’ve wronged forgives us or we’re able to forgive someone who has hurt us.

That’s what God is up to when we find the strength to love and the courage to hope.

God wants to sharpen our focus.

God’s mission is the transformation of the world into what it was always meant to be.

God’s mission is the transformation of all of us into what we were always meant to be.

God transforms us and transforms the whole world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

And God continues that mission – God’s mission of transfiguration - God’s mission of transformation - right here and now, when we put on our spiritual glasses… and focus.

Amen.