"The average Christian does not expect to meet God when they come to worship."

Now that’s a controversial statement if I ever heard one! A Baptist minister in Texas wrote it.

Is he correct in his claim?

We come to church to worship God, to hear and reflect upon our Holy Scriptures, to seek comfort, affirmation and consolation. We come to pray, to sing, and to join in fellowship with each other. We come for a lot of reasons – some that are satisfied, others that are not. We come seeking God but is that statement correct? Do we expect to actually find God – and if we do encounter God, what is our response? It’s often panic, I think – we don’t know what to do with the experience.

We’re like Peter, James and John from today’s Gospel reading. They had spent a great deal of time with Jesus. They had witnessed his miraculous healings and listened to his revolutionary teaching, but even they, who were so close to him, did not fully comprehend who Jesus was. So, when God transformed Jesus into a dazzling, shining figure, the disciples were overcome and confused. Peter wanted to busy himself by putting up tents. Have you ever been so overwhelmed by an experience that all you wanted to do was bake something or get out the vacuum cleaner or fix something around the house or garage, just to keep busy because you didn’t know how else to deal with the situation? Well, that was the disciples. Their experience of God to that point had been a "head" and a "heart" thing but now it was a "gut" thing, a visual tactile experience, and the mystery and the wonder of God confounded them.

Overwhelmed and unsettled as they were, Jesus’ disciples needed to have that experience. It had to happen because they needed to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jesus was God incarnate, and that God’s power and glory were revealed in Jesus. The days that lay before them would be difficult, almost unbearable. They might not be able to persevere if God remained a distant, almost mythical being for them. If they were to fulfill their calling as Christ’s disciples, empowered and commissioned to spread the gospel throughout the world, they needed to experience God firsthand.

The transfiguration placed Jesus in the frame of God’s glory and power. Peter, James and John knew then, without hesitation, that Jesus was more than a human hero.

We seem sometimes to have forgotten that. We affirm that Jesus is a great teacher, a prophet, and revolutionary. But if we are to be Christ’s humble and obedient servants, people who will make a difference in the world, we need to understand how much more than that Jesus is. We need to glimpse the Christ that the disciples saw that day. And so we come to church craving God’s presence in our lives and fearing it at the same time.

New flash, folks! God knows that. God knows that the power, the glory and the mystery of God are almost beyond our understanding. And so God comes to us in ways we CAN comprehend and appreciate.

God comes to us in the beauty of the natural world, in music, in silence, AND in each other. God comes to us in expected ways and in ways that startle, surprise and challenge us.

Where have you seen the shining face of Christ? Where have you encountered the living embodiment of Christ’s teachings? Was it here in church? Was it in the kitchen of the church hall? Perhaps at the shopping mall, in your workplace, in your own home? Think about it because you have all seen the face of Christ.

For me Christ shines in the beauty of the world God created for us – the beauty I see when I go exploring in my canoe. Glimpses of deer drinking by the waterside, raccoons fishing for their dinner, the eerie cry of the loon at night and the lonely circling of an osprey high in a summer sky. All these things stir in me a closeness to and intense love for our Creator God.

But it is the human side of Christ that blesses me most. Throughout my life I have encountered Christ many times in those around me.

My grandmother modeled Christ’s suffering servant image without ever knowing that she did. She was a woman who sacrificed constantly for the sake of her family and others and she was not alone. Many women I’ve known, some of them here this morning, have lived their lives in that way.

I see Christ’s light shine in the faces of the many workers and worshippers in this congregation. These faces can be found restocking kitchen supplies, teaching our children, welcoming at the door, making tea and coffee, singing God’s praises in the choir, or serving on a committee.

Over the years, I have encountered Christ’s shining face in the groups of Brownies, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Venturers with which I have been associated.

The prophet Micah says,

"What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

In many ways, that’s what Scouting is about – treating each other with respect and kindness, accepting and honoring our differences, helping and welcoming the stranger, caring for God’s world and God’s people. The Scouting movement embodies many of the things Christ calls us to do and to be, and we should give thanks to these young people and their leaders for all they do

Christ’s face shone brightly on the mountainside that day as a symbol to the disciples that God was with him. Christ shines in the faces of these young people here this morning as they endeavor, through Scouting, to learn to be good and responsible citizens of our world.

`"The average Christian does not expect to meet God when they come to worship."

If this is true, then perhaps, to paraphrase an old song, "We’ve been looking for light in all the wrong places."

We don’t need to have the mountaintop experience. Christ’s light and Christ’s love is meant to shine through each and every one of us. We CAN find Christ when we come to worship. We can find Christ wherever we look – even in the mirror.

Christ’s light is shining in the faces I see before me this morning.

Thanks be to God.

Amen