"It is Good to Be Here" (Annual Meeting Sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday February 19, 2023

Transfiguration Sunday and Annual Meeting Sunday

Scripture:  Matthew 17:1-9

 

 

(Here at Two Rivers, our annual congregational meetings are woven together with our worship, and my reflection ties in my Minister's Report. If you want to read the Annual Report, you can download a copy from our website.)

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday – the day when we remember the time when Jesus and three of his disciples climbed up a mountain, and Jesus’s physical body was transformed as his disciples watched – his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzlingly bright. His disciples could see that Jesus was still the friend and teacher they had been following and learning from, but in that moment they could also see that he was so much more. They could see God even more fully revealed in Jesus.

 

Peter, being Peter, blusters in and asks if he should build tents there on top of the mountain in order to prolong the experience, but before he does that, he acknowledges, “It is good to be here.”  It is good to be here, here on this mountaintop, here in this moment, here in the presence of God.  And even though Peter couldn’t see the future, I wonder if remembering this moment on the mountaintop sustained him through all of the challenges he was going to encounter when they reached Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week began to unfold.

 

Mountaintop experiences – those moments when we are intensely aware of God’s presence, moments when we are almost painfully aware that we are standing on holy ground – they don’t happen every day, but they can sustain us through our times in the valleys.

 

And I wonder if, as we wander through the valleys carrying our memories of the mountaintop, we might gradually come to recognize God’s presence there as well.  God’s presence isn’t confined to our mountaintop experiences, but God is with us at all times.

 

As you read through my Minister’s Report, you will see that I have highlighted some of my mountaintop times, some of our mountaintop times in the past year – gathering together to worship, opening Ida’s Cupboard to provide food for our community, concerts and musicals, confirmation, weddings, sabbath time.  These were moments when it was easy to see God’s presence in our midst – times when it was easy to exclaim, like Peter, “It is good to be here!”

 

And in my report I also mention some of the valleys of 2022 – the loss of beloved members of our churches, the turmoil caused by the ongoing presence of Covid.

 

But I can be assured that God is present in these moments as well; and in any moment when God is with us, we can proclaim, “It is good to be here.” Whether we are on the mountaintop or in the deepest valley, we can proclaim, “It is good to be here!”  Our whole lives can become a song of praise to God who is always with us.

 

I say this frequently to the Official Board –at every meeting, I think – but I am so very grateful to be here at Two Rivers Pastoral Charge, working alongside all of you.  I don’t say this often enough, but I am so very grateful for all of you, and for your ministry and for your commitment to reflecting the face of Christ to the world around you.  Truly, truly I say, it is good to be here.  Thanks be to God.