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Would you bow your heads with me? God has returned to the scriptures. Let us have open hearts , eager minds and the desire to live according to your word, let each person have an encounter with

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a divine and let none of us leave this place unchanged. Amen. This is a reading from the Gospel according to Matthew vs chapter 17 verses one through 9. Let's listen for the word of the Lord

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. Six days later, Jesus took with him, Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and

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his clothes became bright as light. Suddenly there appeared to them, Moses and Elijah talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus Lord. It is good for us to be here. If you wish,

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I will set up three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said,

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this is my son, the beloved with him. I am well pleased listen to him. When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched

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them saying, get up and do not be afraid . And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone as they were coming down the mountain. Jesus ordered them tell no one

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about the vision until after the son of man has been raised from the dead. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. In today's passage, Jesus is transfigured up on a mountain

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echoing Moses on Sinai and talking to Moses and Elijah . The entire scene seems to be a blur of confusion in which nobody exactly seems to be talking to one another. The central message on the mountain is

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listened to Jesus a message that echoes the baptism of Jesus early in the gospel. And the passage takes place in the middle of the fore, tellings about Jesus's impending death. I would like to do something

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a little different. I would like to focus on the transition of Jesus and the disciples walking down from the mountain to earth again towards that end, I'm going to read verse seven again. But Jesus came

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and touched them saying, get up and do not be afraid. Verse six tells us that when the disciples heard God's voice, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. So Jesus rejoins the

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disciples at this point and they're down on the ground in fear, literally trembling, no wonder they aren't able to understand the message that God gives them from the mountain. So in the sermon today, I'm

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gonna focus on that seemingly small transition between the disciples being terrified, laying on the ground and then coming back down to rejoin Jesus's ministry and to continue to learn from him. I think it's important that Jesus

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takes their fear seriously and does not scold them for it. He attends to the human needs of the disciples after the transfiguration vision for several reasons. And I'd like to explore them both theological and practical this

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matters for several reasons. On the one hand, it's impossible to really integrate a message when we're afraid , the psychologist Daniel Siegel describes how fear activates earlier structures in the brain associated with fight and flight that

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make learning very difficult. In other words, simply because they were on the ground, face down and terrified because of a voice they were hearing, they were literally unable to follow the command that the voice

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issued. And then I was thinking some of us might need permission to challenge particular fears related to our faith, making the objects of our religious faith that are more comforting, more accessible to us and close

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to our hearts and addressing those older images from our faith that no longer seem to have staying power that might have violent or punishing imagery associated with them that might literally scare us. Commenting on the idea of

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a fearful and frightening God pastoral theologian Donald Capps says , and I'm gonna paraphrase and mess with us a little bit. But um here's his quote, there are religious ideas which reflect and exacerbate fears for one's

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very survival. And there are religious ideas that help us fall asleep at night and help hold us together . We should focus on the ladder and take time to deconstruct. The former cap suggests and cap says

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that these personal images of Jesus, these kind of ideas might quote, enable us to lay down and sleep at night secure in the thought that we shall live to see a new day. 1st 7 tells

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us that Jesus came and touched them saying get up and do not be afraid. In this moment, Jesus's touch and his words go together. His touch communicates deep care and blessing. While his words convey

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reassurance, his touch says you belong and what you're feeling is real and his voice confirms that I am in control. And that's why you do not need to fear in Matthew's gospel word. Indeed always go

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together. What he says in the book matches perfectly with his actions in Matthew. Indeed, they're meant to be read together. What Jesus says about who God is and who He is always goes together with

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his miraculous action. What does it mean to be touched? Recent psychological science is underscoring our profound need for touch which decreases the stress hormone in the body primate groups with higher rates of grooming for example,

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had higher social cohesion and were larger, higher rates of hugging meant less susceptibility to colds and 15 minutes of touching a night. Help Children grow considerably faster on the human level touch conveys belonging. So you

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ready for the cheesy pastoral care moment. Let's take a minute right now and just give ourselves a hug . Letting the message of the sermon sink in here . Don't be afraid y'all can do it. I'm

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gonna try to do without harming my mic. You got this, you can do it any time. A recent study has shown that we can identify other people's basic emotions based on how they touch us.

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Even when separated by a curtain touches such a powerful communicator. When Jesus touched the disciples, what additional emotions were conveyed with his touch? What basic emotions was he feeling? I think joy at being with

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his disciples, tremendous happiness that he was sharing this time with them. And this communication of emotion through touch is central to the incarnation of Jesus. He wasn't a robot for us, but a human able

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to touch and be touched and just his word conveyed the content of his feeling. So did his touch and with his disciples that he was closest to. It was profoundly safe touch in pastoral care. Touch

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has a more ambivalent history. Pastors touching parishioners can frequently, I don't want to say be misunderstood. It matters more what the other person thinks of it . Even the hug of someone in your ministry can

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be confusing. In his book, Just Ministry, Richard Gula, the ethicist writes about a hug after the service that just goes on for too long as people are leaving the church and everyone in the parish

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is scandalized. As this example shows the presumption is is kind of against pastoral touch in ministry. But given our deep need for touch, given the ways that the comforts of touch help move us through difficult

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times and allow us to face hard realities. We can't either afford to avoid the need for human touch . We have to do something with it. So maybe a question for good pastoral care is not whether

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you can touch someone who's your parishioner. But whether they have someone that they can hug or if they have ever tried hugging themselves or giving themselves compassionate touch , Jesus attends to the human needs of the disciples

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after the transfiguration through touch and reassurance because they needed it. The fear they felt was debilitating. It kept them from listening to the comforting word that God is with us. And it may have been at

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a deeper level, incompatible with a God who loves us and with which who's perfect love keeps driving out fear over and over again. Jesus was an incarnation of this fear, driving out love as he walks

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the disciples down the mountain, touching them and reassuring them likewise, we should care for one another when we're afraid. So that we can be more fully receptive to the voice of God that assures us that

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God is in control and God loves us. We might need to care for our own season of fear and anxiety before we're ready to fully hear the message that God is trying to speak to us from the

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cloud. The reassurance that Jesus offers them inward indeed is going to become very important in the days ahead in the passage that follows Jesus predicts to the disciples several times his own crucifixion. Okay. You ready

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for a pastoral care definition? Here we go. It's definition time. He addresses what's called anticipatory grief , the grief that takes place before an expected loss with the kind of tenderness by touching them and reassuring

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them. There's a tenderness in this passage that we dare not miss. And I think it's a tenderness that's all through. Lent it bolsters us so we can respond to the invitation to take up the cross

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and self denial. Jesus cares for the disciples and he wants to comfort them because he knows that losing him will be quite painful for them. He uses his own body to reassure them, communicating joy,

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happiness may be bittersweet love and longing through his touch . And with his words, he states that they do not have to be afraid. Ultimately, when Jesus reassures the disciples that they do not need to

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fear, it's the signal promise of Matthew's gospel stated at the beginning and end of the gospel. I will be with you even to the end of the age that rings out in this encouragement. Not to

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fear. The reason why the disciples do not need to fear is that Jesus's very presence goes with them . This means that we have a unique opportunity in our ministry. We should care for one another,

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especially those who are afraid. So we can be more fully receptive to the message that Jesus shares with us. Since those who are afraid, maybe more isolated, we should try to find ways to help

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them experience the comfort of caring, touch and reassurance . Though, I guess we should be cautious about providing this ourselves. And fundamentally, we should try to restore people who are struggling to community when they

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are overcome by fear rather than adding to their burdens in some way. The moment of connection when Jesus touches and reassures the disciples is a profound moment of pastoral care in Jesus's own ministry. And it means

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even more because of the setting of this season of lent, being touched by Jesus, the disciples could continue the journey to the cross. Likewise, when we are overwhelmed by fear and need human touch,

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we have to integrate this need, comforting ourselves and getting comforted by those close to us might be a precondition for hearing the gospel more fully. So I'm recommending in addition to whatever you're taking away this lent

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that you practice directly addressing what's making you afraid this might mean including self care practices which could range from healthy touch to sacred conversation, good hydration and nutrition , whatever helps you through that barrier of fear and

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maybe then getting touch from people close to you, those not in your ministry and also touching yourself compassionately as a regular practice of care, holding yourself in a gentle hug in this sense, what the incarnation

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means might become clearer to us all. Thanks be