Luke 9:28-36 and Excerpts from The Cloud of Unknowing
March 2, 2025
By Rev. Nicole M. Lamarche
Welcome again in whatever shape you are in, with whatever you are
holding or feeling. May this time be a gift and may you hear whatever it is
that you need today. I invite you now as you are moved, to take some
deeper breaths, to let yourself arrive and may we all tune in to the gift for
whatever the Universe has for us today.
I offer this prayer from Psalm 19. God may the words of my mouth and the
meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our Rock and our
Redeemer. Amen.
While Peter was talking to Jesus, a cloud came and overshadowed them,
and they were terrified.
As you heard, Jesus and the gentlemen had gone on a holy hike to have
some time to find the quiet center, to pray alone and together, to dip into
the Great Mystery. And then as we heard from the text in the Gospel of
Luke in our lectionary for today, a cloud came and overshadowed them,
and they were terrified.
And we have this story in Matthew, Mark and in Luke and in all three
versions the cloud comes and they were terrified. They were seeking to
center themselves in the chaos, seeking to get away from the crowd and
whatever they couldn’t control and then the cloud comes.
You might know this story is following the one in Exodus.
And in both of the stories, one with Moses and the other with Jesus, the
realm of the ordinary and the realm of the Mysterious seem to overlap and
intersect and in both of the stories there is a sense of confusion and fear.
In the book of Exodus Moses comes down from the mountain with
blessings from God on a tablet and his face is shining so bright that those
around him “were afraid to come near him.”
In the book of Luke, Jesus climbs up the mountain and then his face
changes, and his clothes become dazzling white. And all around him
become “terrified.”
The Christian story mirrors the Jewish story about God’s glory and
presence, symbolizing the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles which is what
the booths/tents are referencing. The Feast of the Tabernacles included a
pilgrimage to celebrate Israel’s path to freedom and this year, I when I read
this story this week, seeing that the cloud came and overshadowed them
and they were terrified and I was like well that sounds about right.
Even though that seems odd. Here is what I mean. What if this sacred story
is meant to tell us something about how we get to freedom when a cloud
comes and overshadows us and we are all going around worried,
wandering around online and in real life doomscrolling and doomsharing,
as if even if we wanted to escape the cloud, we now bring the cloud with
us. Have you felt that? A clergy colleague told me this week that so many
of her meetings now seem to have doom on the agenda.
When a cloud came and overshadowed…at this moment in the history of
this country and in our lives together, as a parent of a 13 year old and the
partner of a creative and a pastor of a church that includes the whole world,
many of us are afraid.
Because we have people who are hurting already, we have people
connected to the Forest Service and the National Parks, to NOAA and to
research funded by federal grants, we have many who rely on Medicaid.
Did you know Medicaid is the primary payer for nursing home care? We
have people whose work is halted, whose plans are changed, whose lives
are on hold, a chainsaw taken to things that needed maybe needed to
needles to mend.
When a cloud came and overshadowed…
I invite you to say out loud your cloud if you are so moved, in a word or a
phrase, feel free to say it out loud…
But what if this sacred story is meant to tell us something about how we get
to freedom when a cloud comes and overshadows us?
Because do you know what I noticed about this old story?
Before the cloud came, they had tried to set up three tents, one for Jesus,
one for Moses, and one for Elijah. They had tried to pin down what was…
so the meaning I make out of this story right now is that sometimes when
we humans are seeking to escape the reality that awaits us in the valley, so
instead of going forward, we go back. When we know we are on the
precipice of needing to make a change, especially a great change, one of
the very first things we human do is try and live somewhere other than
here. Often when we aren’t sure how to go forward, we try to go back. So
in this story they try to build houses on history to so to speak, we try to
squish things back into something that we thought was good or better or
the best. Oh if we could just go back to how it was? IT seems to me that a
lot of our politics right now is seeking to do this? Can’t we just go back?
Can’t we just build a house on 1955? Get those women back in the house!
Any many of us ask, good for whom? We humans sometimes idolize our
own nostalgia, pining for the past, whether or not what we imagined is what
really happened. Have you noticed that? And especially when we are
afraid? We long for what used to be.
And so I wonder if maybe sometimes the Universe responds by reminding
us that this will never work, the only answering is letting go. Surrendering
so we can see what is.
And part of how we get where we are called to be is to keep going through
this cloud… it says that they go through the cloud. Even though we might
want to stop when it’s a fear filled fog and hard to see, even though we are
terrified, and we don’t know what to do and we want to go back. We must
care for each other in this cloud and we must not forget that love, the name
we give for God is here holding us together, leading us along, helping us
see clearly what matters.
Over 20 of us gathered last month in Estes Park for our now annual
women’s retreat. We explored so many wonderful things together and when
I got home, my husband said, “Well tell me the sorts of things you talked
about…”
I confirmed whether he genuinely wanted to know.
We are shifting to a new thing. We are starting a new cycle. We are
entering a season of great change on our way to the great rebalancing!
I told him you know, that Pluto last transited through Aquarius from 1778 to
1798. What else happened then?
American Revolution
April 19, 1775
French Revolution
May 5, 1789
The cloud is here and it’s okay if at first we are terrified. And then let us
also remember God, Love, Change is singing and shining all around us
ways we might not yet perceive, calling us to something we might not yet
see. But we cannot go back.
As you heard in the words from the Cloud of Unknowing, I wonder if part of
the answer is we need to know is unknowing, unknowing what we thought
let go to see where we are called to go forward now. I know that we
humans sometimes idolize our own nostalgia, trying to preserve something
that was or that we thought was. Or we hold on because of power and
privilege. Or we hold onto old stories because they once served us, once
worked for us, but even though they no longer do, we know those stories
by heart, but now is a time to tell new stories, to be freed, because when
we let go, there is room as we heard from the mystics, “to be filled with the
love and presence of God.” And I think also to be filled with the possibilities
that are here in this place.
What if part of how we will get through together is to unknow, to let go, to
surrender, to be freed from the past?
When a cloud comes and overshadowed, when a fear filled fog finds us, it’s
okay to be terrified but let’s not stay there. Let’s look to each other. I think
this ancient story tells us what we need to know. The way through this
cloud is through it, not around it. We must get through it together. Instead of
denying it’s there or trying to act like there’s another way. It’s really through
it and this is something we can only do together as a community.
Communal Reflection
What keeps you going when clouds come and seem to overshadow? How
can we support one another differently in this time?
Beloved of God, our whole paradigm is being transfigured, it’s okay to feel
terrified but let’s not stay there. Let us hold each other’s hands through this
darkness, making our way toward the light. We can become unattached,
maybe to know what is next, we need to unknow? In new and ever evolving
ways let us let go, not on our own, but together, knowing that the only way
to the other side of this, is through. In this together all of us, me and you.
May it be so. Amen.
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