So Jesus asked the Twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life"....The readings today have a few things in common, but one I want to highlight is loyalty - he kind of loyalty that changes you, even breaks you. But like breaking bread and pouring out wine, it is a transformation that gives life. All the undoing and rearranging that happens when we pledge ourselves to Jesus' way of living and being yields a well-being that makes it worth it. The choice is ours, and the choice is worth it.

Thirty years later I came here to St. Thomas and I began to hear already in my first summer about Jonathan Daniels....Jonathan Daniels has been named a modern day saint in the Episcopal Church....Jon devoted many of his Sundays in Selma to bringing small groups of Negroes, mostly high school students, to church with him in an effort to integrate the local Episcopal church. They were seated but scowled at. Many parishioners openly resented their presence, and put their pastor squarely in the middle.

In today's readings we hear a lot about bread. In the passage from Deuteronomy we hear the story of Moses talking to the people who he's led through the wilderness for 40 years. He recalls that God provided for them during their journey so that they always had enough to eat, including manna which rained down from heaven. Moses reminds the people that because the LORD provided for their needs they should keep the commandments of the LORD and walk in the LORD's ways so that they will live and flourish.  

What is Transfiguration? All three of our readings today highlight a transfiguration event. There is no end of discussion about these passages - like most passages in the Bible. There are those that take the literal route and there are those that take the more metaphorical route. The Episcopal Church, and the tradition residing therein, is one which seeks to encompass both approaches: a place where differences of interpretation can be taken, looked at, studied, argued over and then an agreement can be reached to agree to disagree.