Listen & Be Transformed…

In early April of 2013, Denise and I went to Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina for the first class in Columbia Theological Seminary’s Certificate in Christian Spiritual Formation program. It was the immersion course and also my first visit to Montreat. Denise had been talking about Montreat ever since we first met in 2009. She had spent over 20 years going to Montreat as a Youth Leader and Worship Leader in her old church (Central Presbyterian, Mobile, AL). As we drove from Alabama to North Carolina, she worried that she had talked up Montreat so much that I would be disappointed. She couldn’t have been further from the mark! As we drove through the gate pictured above, it felt like I was coming to a sacred place… a thin place.

The course was phenomenal as we had a chance to meet folks who would later become very dear friends. When Carl McColman spoke about the mystical experience, Denise was thrilled to find her tribe, her peeps! Carl also touched my soul in a very deep, personal, and wonderful way. When Jim Dant shared his love of Scripture and study, along with his incredible spiritual journey both of us felt an immediate kinship with him. In subsequent courses with both Jim and Carl (along with a very special afternoon on the Florida Gulf Coast with Carl and his wife Fran) we have experienced a deepening of the spiritual bonds established at the Immersion Course.

Besides taking a LOT of pictures, we also spent some time walking the grounds and experiencing the Labyrinth (this was my first time to walk a Labyrinth). Of course, we spent a fair amount of time (and money!) in the Montreat Bookstore! One of my purchases was a T-shirt with the Montreat Gate on it and this quote from John Muir — “The mountains are calling and I must go.” Montreat is in the Smokey Mountains and the elevation is 2,615 feet above sea level. Considering that Mobile is at its lowest, 10 feet above sea level and DeFuniak Springs (where I lived and served at First Presbyterian Church) is 190 feet above sea level, we were at a much higher elevation!

Fast forward from April 2013 to June 2015. Denise and I flew out to Estes Park, Colorado where the elevation is 7,522 feet above sea level.  When two members of the Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies (PCCR) pastor search committee drove us up to the Trail Ridge Road Visitor’s Center (elevation 11,796 feet above sea level) I saw a T-shirt with a picture of the Rocky Mountains and the same quote from John Muir that I had on my Montreat shirt.

Yes, I eventually bought that T-shirt too!

When I talked to my son, our oldest, Alec before his Thanksgiving visit (he and his roommate Ryan had the honor of being our first guests 24 hours after we signed for our Condo and moved in!) I asked him if he could hear the mountains calling. He said, “I hear them whispering, Dad.” The thing is, when I look out my office window or the front window of our Condo, I hear them whisper as well. It took us a long time to get the final details finished on the Condo (with the exception of the blinds in the living areas which remain to be hung up) because when we had some free time to work, Rocky (a nickname we locals have for the Rocky Mountain National Park… listen to this song by our friend Brad Fitch Cowboy Brad – Rocky) more times than not won out. Hang pictures or go hiking or snowshoeing… yep, the pictures remained stacked against the walls!

So Padre, what does all of this have to do with Transfiguration Sunday? Good question and now I will get to that. Yes, it was when Jesus took Peter, James, and John (the inner circle of the disciples) up to the mountain that they saw Jesus transfigured (transformed) before their very eyes. Just like Moses long before had been transformed after his meetings with God on Mount Sinai, the glow and the glory was incredible!

In past years, I have focused on the mountaintop experience and how Peter wanted to capture and keep the “Mountain High” alive by building booths for Moses and Elijah to stay as if that could capture the experience. I have also remembered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s last speech (I have been to the mountaintop and have seen the promised land) in Memphis, TN the day before he was assassinated in April, 1968. This year, however, something else has struck me. “Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!'” (Luke 9:35)

Ever since 2014 when I heard God call me to begin the process of searching for a new call, listening has taken on a whole new level of meaning. Much like I listened in October of 1980 when God called me to ministry and in April of 2010 when God re-called me to civilian ministry after 21 years of as an Air Force Chaplain, I listened intently and deeply. When we walked the labyrinth at Montreat in 2013, Denise and I were beginning to discern how God was calling us to serve as a couple. Listening to that call helped us to build a strong foundation as spiritual partners in serving the Lord. We walked other Labyrinths during the discernment process of seeking a new call. As we walked together, we intentionally sought the Lord’s direction for us. And when we first arrived in Estes Park for the initial face-to-face interview with the search committee we listened intently for God’s call. While we immediately fell in love with mountains and the area, we listened very closely to see if it was more than the mountains calling us. Needless to say, we not only heard Rocky calling to us, we heard very clearly (as did the search committee) the Lord calling us to come to the mountains and to PCCR.

So what does this story from Scripture that we hear every year on the last Sunday before Lent say to us? As PCCR and their new Padre (and his partner in faith, Denise) walk into the new year (2016 is the year of New Beginnings for all of us) we are beginning the careful discernment process and listening for God’s direction and guidance. Just as Moses listened to God and was transformed… just as God in the transfiguration told the three disciples to listen to God’s beloved Son… we are being called to listen and be transformed as we begin this new journey together as shepherd and flock.

It is easy to listen for the call of God when you are surrounded by the beauty and wonder that is Rocky, Estes Park, and PCCR. It is easy to sense God’s presence when you walk almost daily with Brother & Sister Elk, Brother & Sister Mountain Deer, Brother & Sister Rocky Mountain Longhorn Sheep. Just as we found it easy to sense the presence of the holy in the Thin Places in Ireland, we can sense the presence of the holy in the Thin Places in our new home. But what do you do with that? Do you simply enjoy, treasure, and even hoard these experiences? Or do you truly listen to the voice of the Lord and what the Lord is calling you to do?

Each of us, dear reader, is called by God. We are called to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God in the words of Micah 6:8. We are called to love God with all that we are and to love EVERY neighbor, including our enemies, as we love ourselves in the words of Luke 10:27 and Luke 6:27-36.

Are you willing to spend the time listening for and discerning God’s call in your life? Are you willing to let that call transform you? God knows the world needs more people to do that in the face of hatred, bigotry, fear, every -ism in the book, violence, warfare, and greed. Do you hear Christ calling? Do you hear God’s command, “This is my Son, my chosen, listen to him!” (Luke 9:35)