Today is the first Sunday in Lent. In a time when certain stories about Christianity are being used to cause harm and when people are very much in need of some foundational support to guide them towards right action in this world, Lent, with its emphasis on discernment, listening to the Spirit, and walking alongside Christ into the greatest of challenges could not have come sooner. Acts of discernment are rarely efficient and often done best in community. Despite the common practice of adopting a particular discipline during this season, Lent is not actually something we do alone. We do it together with Christ. And, this Lent, we will consider the Christian stories being told right now, and the good stories we actually need to hear.

     According to scholar Sharon Fennema, this story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness is probably the basis for the whole season of Lent. We spend 40 days listening because Jesus spent forty days listening. Though, to be fair, this time in the wilderness is likely not the beginning of Jesus’ attentive listening to the Holy Spirit. In Matthew, he has already been baptized, which can be recognized as a sign of his following the Spirit, especially when the Spirit affirms his belovedness by God. That same Spirit, is what led him to the wilderness. He is out listening in the wilderness because he listened at his baptism. As he is in the wilderness, he realizes that he must decide who he’s going to be listening to, because an additional voice began speaking in his ear.

     Many of us have come to think “being in the spiritual wilderness,” as being in a time of confusion or a time when one feels adrift or far away from God. That is not what is happening in this text and it is not the spirit with which we should go into Lent. In her commentary on this text, Aubrey West reminds us that Jesus is not being punished and is not lost out in the wilderness. He is exactly where the Spirit wants him to be to discern his next steps in ministry.  The wilderness, a marginal, in-between space that many thought to be dangerous, was a place of connection to the Spirit for Jesus. How many of us have gained important insights on God in uncomfortable spaces? The same is for Christ.

     This first time we see Jesus in the wilderness, we are told that it is a test. The Tempter will show up. According to Scholar Melinda Quivik, we can learn something about Jesus, and about the God we know through Jesus, in paying attention to Jesus’ response to temptation. One thing we learn is Jesus’ relationship to power. One thing we learn is Jesus’ relationship to power. These tests, like many tests from antagonistic conversation partners, are from the start, obviously not in good faith. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Imagine saying something so callous to someone who is hungry. Jesus had been intentionally fasting for days and days. This question was intended to be real provocation. Thankfully, Jesus had the resources within himself to see the provocation for what it was: an invitation to use his power to make himself more comfortable. And, that’s not what his power was for. He responded with a scripture that defines his understanding of power: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

     The next two temptations are increasingly goading, with the Tempter, having heard Jesus use scripture, chose to tempt him with scripture. The tempter took him to the high point of the temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’, and ‘On their hands they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Isn’t it interesting to have a literal interpretation of Scripture as a temptation for Jesus? Melinda Quivick calls this the temptation to “abandon deep-reading of God’s word by taking it literally.” I think there is also the temptation to use literal reading to shore up an excuse to use power for personal gain. In a devotional we used a couple years ago, one of the authors, Danielle Shroyer calls this the temptation to use his gifts as a “parlor trick.” Jesus does not fall for this temptation. He does not choose to use the scripture to justify a misdeed.

     The final temptation is to have a kind of power that comes as the cost of allegiance to one who does not share the same values as God. Jesus is offered all the kingdoms of the world and all they have to offer if he will shift his allegiance away from God to the Tempter. Imagine what good he could do with the power? It is in his response to this temptation that we might see Jesus most clearly. When given the opportunity to have tremendous power over people at the low, low price of all of his devotion and loyalty, Jesus declines. His mission is not about his ego or his ability to dominate creation. That’s what Quivik and Shroyer, in their commentaries, argue this question is about. Will he choose ego and domination or connection and justice? The Jesus we come to know in this passage chooses connection and healing, as Rev. Shroyer says, every time. “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

     In a commentary on a different text in that devotional we used a couple years ago, Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, who had suffered greatly from a covid infection and had long covid, spoke of that time, three years into the pandemic, as a time that was revelatory in the fullest sense of the word. Our personal response and larger communal responses to the pandemic revealed and continue to reveal some things about us and about our communities: some positive, some negative. With these revelations came the opportunity for us to consider, as Reyes-Chow puts it, “who we can be and become.” In this particular moment, when many Christian voices are using scripture to justify all manner of cruelty, particularly to immigrants and transgender people, Sharon Fennema, in introduction to her worship series on Lent, invites us to do what Jesus did and define our faith according to God’s sense of love and justice.

     Fennema asks, “How might we, like Jesus, re-story our faith with new interpretations and understandings of scripture rooted in liberation and flourishing for all?” One way is to take time to consider what stories about Christianity and within Christianity are being use for harm. She invites us to take them up in our hearts and imagine releasing them, like sand trickling through our fingers. In the same way, consider the scripture that guides you toward a braver, more generous, and move loving faith. Imagine taking it into your hands and holding it to your heart. Our devotional for this year Tell Me Something Good might be able to give you some inspiration for faithful stories if you find yourself coming up a little dry.

     May this season of Lent, in the midst of our own wilderness, be a place where we can hear the Spirit in the midst of our discomfort. May we follow the model of Christ and use our faith to build loving systems, not simply systems to make our lives easier. May we hear something good... that we are called together... that Christ is with us... that we can love each other in the midst of trial.

     May the words of Sharon Fennema’s prayer be our prayer:
     In the wilderness and the wandering and the weariness, lead us, Holy Spirit.
     In the hungering and the holding and the humbling, accompany us, Holy Spirit.
     In the tempting and the testing and the turning, move us, Holy Spirit.
     In the resisting and the refusing and the recognizing, guide us, Holy Spirit.
     Ground in us, as we ground in you.
     Breathe with us, as we breathe with you.
     Turn with us, as we turn toward you.
     As the new way emerges, we pray. Amen.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Melinda Quivik: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/first-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-matthew-41-11-5
Audrey West: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/first-sunday-in-lent/commentary-on-matthew-41-11-2
Seeking: Honest Questions for a Deeper Faith, a devotional developed by Sanctified Art (2023)
Tell Me Something Good, a devotional developed by Sanctified Art (2026)
Sharon Fennema: https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/lent-1a-february-22/
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     I looked over the last couple sermons on this scripture, and I realized that when I preach on this Matthew’s version of the transfiguration, I end up starting with questions. This year: who am I supposed to tell? In 2023: So, when do we tell? In 2020, I didn’t use a question as the sermon’s title, I did wonder, at the beginning of the sermon, just what was going on. Today is a day in the church year called the Transfiguration. According to Carolyn Brown, that word is only really used in church circles and only really used for this day. It is to indicate a day that something about Jesus’ form changed, or at the very least, show us a moment that changed how three of his disciples understood him. It is interesting to me that with that change, we don’t see a ton of clarity. In fact, the end of our reading includes an instruction to secrecy.

     I read a commentary from the Salt Project that points out that the period of the church year after Christmas but before Lent is full of things rightly called revelations, events that make something clear that was once less so. It begins with Epiphany, the celebration of the Wise Ones journey to Jesus. The wise astrologers had seen a bright star that showed them the way to a child who would be a new kind of leader for his people. Then, there was Jesus’ baptism, where he, and probably the people gathered, experienced the Holy Spirit descending upon him as a dove alights on a branch. They also heard the voice from the heavens affirmed that Jesus was a Beloved Son.

     From there, as Jesus passed through the temptations in the wilderness and into his public ministry, we learn of more everyday revelations, particularly healings and wise teaching from Jesus that show people more and more clearly who he is and what he is about. Even his conflicts reveal something about how God has come into the world anew in him. His disciples are confused a lot of the time, but he continues to drop epiphany after epiphany, and they keep following him, even if they don’t totally understand what is going on. Their confusion in much of the Gospel is mirrored by their confusion in the Transfiguration story. They want to understand more clearly, but they just don’t yet.

     In his commentary on this text, Eric Barreto points out that important things happen on mountains. Moses’ interactions with God on Mt. Sinai come to mind, but so do other important hills and high places where the people remembered vital parts of their history and worshiped their God before the temple was built in Jerusalem. Barreto points out that in the chapter just before this one, in an encounter in Caesarea Philippi that happens 6 days before the transfiguration, Peter demonstrates a clear misunderstanding of who Jesus and what he’s supposed to be doing in the world. He gets that Jesus is the Messiah, but when Jesus explains that he expects to have to go through significant suffering in this role, Peter admonishes him. He basically says, “God forbid you be killed.” Jesus calls him Satan for his trouble.

     Jesus goes on to say that if he were to do what Peter wanted, and protect himself, he would limit his ability to follow his mission. The Messiah is not here just to amass power. The Messiah is here to bless those who God bless and hold the powerful to account. You cannot prioritize your own safety and do those things. Jesus says that Peter’s fear is a stumbling block for him. Barreto argues that we need to remember this encounter to better understand the important encounter on the mountain. Peter is missing something when he observes Jesus. He needs something more to help him understand Jesus and his mission clearly. As Barreto states, suffering and glory are not opposed in Christ.

     So, up the mountain Peter, James, John, and Jesus go. As they climb, something wild and unbelievable and incomprehensible happens. Peter, who thought he had Jesus all figured out, realizes he very much does not. I am sure you’ve seen someone’s face shine in love and in pride and in ferocity and in joy. I imagine that shine turned up beyond measure. While Moses encountered God’s mystery in misty, smokey darkness, Peter, James, and John encountered in blazing light. Within this numinous light, Moses and Elijah enter.

     I’ll clue you in on a little interpretive shorthand: When Moses and Elijah show up, holy things are happening. Peter, doing the best he can in the moment, offers to build some tents for the three holy ones. I mean, when faced with two of your most important prophets hanging out with your beloved friend and teacher, hospitality is a pretty reasonable impulse. But, it’s the wrong one, in a similar way that Peter’s impulse to protect Jesus was wrong six days prior.

     More brightness shows up, a cloud so bright it obscures. The cloud may be hiding God or may actually be God, and is here to affirm Jesus in ways similar to his baptism. A voice comes from a bright cloud that says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased.” The voice adds, “Listen to him!” The disciples are right to be terrified. This is all terrifying and incomprehensible. What even had they just seen?

     In a very normal, very human act of kindness, Jesus touches his cowering friends, saying “Get up and do not be afraid.” When they look up, everything is back to normal... except nothing will be the same for them ever again. Scholars think that the author of Matthew carried some stories from Mark over mostly whole cloth. Mark is known for Jesus telling his followers and people he heals not to tell anyone else about what they saw. Matthew does that here, too: “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” What a strange piece of instruction with an unclear time frame.

     Epiphany brought clarity to the Wise Ones. And, the Baptism seemed to have brought clarity to Jesus and maybe John and possibly a bunch of strangers in the woods. The regular healings brough clarity to the healed. And, the teaching helped many people understand God’s covenant better. There is a presumption that everyone who received those revelations will then share what they have learned. So, why are the disciples asked not to share anything yet? Why is this revelation different?

     Ronald Allen, in his commentary on this text, suggests that it is because what they have seen is supposed to help explain something that will happen much later. The Transfiguration is the preparation for the Resurrection. They are getting a preview of what is to come. The preview is intended to help them talk about the Resurrection when it finally happens. There’s going to be a lot of hard stuff between the transfiguration and the resurrection. Jesus needs his followers to be prepared for the hard parts. It seems like the transfiguration is the “foretaste of glory divine” that might help them get through the coming weeks. Jesus hopes that in the same way that he transformed before their eyes, this experience will transform within their hearts over the course of the coming weeks and months, eventually guiding them to a clear understanding of the Resurrection. The Transfiguration is a key for a door they haven’t yet walked through.

     Allen puts it this way, “God will make good on the promises that God has made, to make blessing possible for the whole human family, including gentiles.” When they see their friend struggles, when they see him argue and be exhausted and be tormented and beaten and ultimately killed, maybe this vision of the light and the accompaniment of prophets who have come before will be enough to carry them through the mourning. Maybe it will set the foundation for them to believe Mary Magdalen and the other Mary when they rush to them saying “He is risen! He is going ahead to the mountain, a different mountain, in Galilee to meet you there!” Peter, James, and John need the light now, but may not understand why yet. Jesus wants them to keep this information close, stored up in their hearts, slowly transforming them into the disciples who will carry on the church without him physically by their side.

     What is the vision of Christ you are carrying with you in these current times of struggle? What experiences have shown so intensely in your life that, at the moment you couldn’t fully understand, but have come to see as pivotal in your understanding of Jesus on this side of the resurrection. Something began anew in the disciples on that mountain that would carry them through their hardest times. What has changed you so that you can better understand new life when it blooms before you? I don’t know yet who we’re supposed to be telling about the experiences on mountains that helped us know Christ more fully. I imagine that can change day by day. But, I do know that what we have experienced can carry us through harder things than we have imagined and help us build beautiful community on the other side. Get up, and don’t be afraid. Resurrection is waiting ahead of us.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Carolyn C. Brown: https://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2016/01/year-c-transfiguration-of-lord-february.html?m=1
The Commentary from the Salt Project: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/2/18/transfiguration-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-transfiguration-sunday
Eric Barreto: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-171-9-5
​Ronald Allen: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-171-9-6

     “Learn to navigate Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat, and you can make anything taste good.” This is Samin Nosrat’s bold claim in the introduction to her cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking. Nosrat, a renowned chef who has cooked and taught cooking professionally for more than 20 years, came to this understanding early in her career while learning from great chefs. As she learned more techniques from more teachers and more cultures and types of cuisine, she began to recognize a pattern. Food that tasted good, from food made at home by regular people trying to feed their families to the highest of cuisine at the most exclusive restaurants, included some combination of those four elements: the right amount of acidity to balance whatever fat was involved, the right about of cook time, at the right heat, and the right amount of salt used the right way. If we learn the basics about each element, we can use them to make our food better, too.

     Our reading for the day includes two of these very same elements as metaphors for how Christians are supposed to be in the world: Salt and light (the presence of light almost always means the presence of heat). In an effort to help those who had listened to what we call The Sermon on the Mount understand the effects of following the priorities of God in our actions in the world, those who are allowing themselves to be shaped by Spirit into the Body of Christ will be transformed and, will, in turn transform this world.

     In a commentary on this text, Warren Carter notes that salt does more than one thing. It is a transformative substance, offering flavoring but also preservation and purification. In the introduction to the chapter on salt, Nosrat when describing the process of refining a dish for customers in the first restaurant she ever worked in, “[m]ost often, when a dish fell flat, the answer lay in adjusting the salt.” The salt could be adjusted in myriad ways: sometimes by adding literal crystals of salt, sometimes by adding elements to the dish that already had salt incorporated: grating some parmesan over the dish, adding a few olives or capers, mixing in some bacon or bits of anchovy. The right amount of salt can make or break a dish.

     As the wife of a geologist, I’ll make sure to mention that the salt we eat, sodium chloride, is a mineral that naturally occurs on earth. Nosrat also notes that salt is essential to human health. We can’t store much salt in our bodies, so we need to eat it regularly just for the basic functions of our bodies to work. Our bodies are “hardwired”, as she calls it, to crave the salt we need to regulate our blood pressure, distribute water around our bodies, get nutrients to cells, and make sure our nerves and muscles work. Would that many other things in our lives be as pleasurable as salt is to taste while also being so useful and necessary for our bodies to function.

     While salt has many uses, Nosrat argues that the primary role of salt is amplification of flavor. She says, “[n]early every decision you’ll make about salt will involve enhancing and deepening flavor.” Salt has a flavor of its own and can also affect other flavors. We add it to greens to cut bitterness. We add it to caramel to balance the sweetness. Salt will even affect how we smell the food we eat. She said that if we’re going to learn only one lesson from her book, it is: “Salt has a greater impact on flavor than any other ingredient.” No wonder Jesus hopes our presence will be like salt in the world. Salt is powerful. Salt is necessary. Salt, when used correctly, makes things better.

     Carter notes that in describing how God is blessing the world in the Beatitudes, which is the passage just before today’s reading, Jesus also describes the reality of the world. The world of his time and ours is shaped by wealth and poverty, grief and mourning, the relationship between those who wield power oppressively and those they harm, the reality of injustice and the pursuit of justice. Jesus’ followers are directed out towards this world shaped by both war and peacemakers, the merciful and the cruel, and tasked with amplifying God’s grace in it. The presence of these grace amplifiers, like sea salt on an espresso brownie (a dessert Nosrat describes in the book), helps decrease bitterness, enhance sweetness, and offer contrast to the life offered by empire.

     Like the human body needs salt, the Body of Christ needs grace to function. It is the role of the Christian to maintain enough salty grace to share it in this world. A Christian unprepared to bless those who God blessed in the Beatitudes should be as unthinkable as salt that is no longer salty. We must be more than tiny, tasteless cubes!

     And, what of the light? Nosrat talks about flavor as the intersection of taste, smell, sound, appearance, and temperature. Appearance and temperature are where we most clearly connected with light. First, it is light as described in our scripture: literally a force of illumination, making clear and plain what is before us. When we speak of the power of presentation of food, we are reminded of the usefulness and helpfulness of seeing clearly what is before us. For this, we need the light.

     With light, also comes heat. Any of us who have tried to change a recently blown lightbulb were likely quickly reminded of this relationship. Candles, wood stoves, flickers of pilot lights, the backs of televisions, and bolts of lightning... light and heat are right together every time. Getting the heat right with our food is imperative. Nosrat described the best cooks as paying attention to how the heat affected the food, rather than simply the temperature of the food or the amount of time spent on the fire. The sounds of sizzling, the rise of bubbles in a pot set to boil, the tenderness of the meat or the noodles... these are sure signs of the transformative power of heat... the product of the movement of light in the world.

     While plenty of foods do not require being cooked on a stove... ceviche, tartar, and muktuk are meat dishes known for being prepared without heating over flame... much of the food we enjoy is cooked with heat. It makes many foods safer and easier for our bodies to absorb. And, it makes many things more delicious. In order to use heat well, Nosrat encourages us to be clear on what we are actually wanting from the food. Then, we can use heat in the right ways to achieve it.

     Christ ultimately imagines a world where those who struggle are blessed by God. The light within Christ’s followers will shape that which it encounters in the world just as surely as heat applied at a low temperature for a long time can change brisket from a cheap cut of meat into a delicacy I shared with my mom last week. Part of the reason we can smell something delicious being cooked is that heat has broken down the cell walls that contain flavor molecules, releasing them into the air and into our grateful noses. Karoline Lewis, in her commentary on our scripture, described being a disciple as being like the light through which God shapes the world. The next time you smell something amazing, imagine yourself being the heat that releases some of God’s grace into this world, drawing neighbors together for sustenance, fellowship, and joy.

     This is a time that demands salt and light, that demands an amplification of grace, and the melting of forces that cage us in, isolated us from one another, and preventing us having what we need to function as the body God made us to be. May we be forces for light in this world, making it easier to see the truth of the world we live in, but also shaping it for the better. Last week, the Beatitudes gave us the ingredient list for the kindom of God... blessing for those who need it and a promise of change to come. Now, it is our time to go to work in the kitchen, adding a little salt here, turning up the heat there, until we have a meal to share for the good of the world around us. We may not make the recipe perfectly the first time. This kind of cooking is a skill. We’ll keep learning together, novices at the side of the Holy Spirit, who patiently shows us again and again that we can probably add a little more salt to most things, and it will make them taste better.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:  
Samin Nosrat, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, illus. Wendy MacNaughton (Simon and Schuster, 2017) 
Warren Carter: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-513-20-6 
Karoline Lewis: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-513-20-2