Several times a day, my grandfather used to go to the kitchen sink, take off his glasses, and wash them with warm water and dish detergent. While washing and drying, he was fond of saying, "Clean your glasses. You'll see things you've never seen before."

In the church year, the day of the Transfiguration of Jesus is a day for us all to clean our glasses so that we might see things we've never seen before! Things that have been there all along. On this day, Jesus gives us the ability to see things we'd been prevented from seeing for one reason or another. "Clean the glasses of your mind. Clean the glasses of your heart, today," he says. "Clean the glasses of your soul. You who are my disciples, he says, there's much that I want you to see."

The main emphasis of this day, of course, is the transfiguration of Jesus himself. It's the day we might say that Jesus cleaned the glasses of Peter, James, and John, and they looked and were able to see that their friend, their teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, was, in fact, the Messiah. In a scene befitting Hollywood, he takes them up the mountain and they pray together, and a light brighter than the Star of Bethlehem shines from within him so that they can see that he is the prophet Elijah and the law-giver Moses all rolled into one. So that they can see that God is in him, that he is of God in a special way, and that, underneath and all through, what their eyes see at first glance is life in the Spirit. That's what this story is all about. Seeing that Jesus is the Christ.

Clean your glasses. You'll see things you've never seen before.

This day of Transfiguration takes us further on down the path of discipleship. For it's not only about Jesus and how we see him, it's about how we see ourselves and our lives because of him. It's about how we know that we're called to life in the Spirit, that we're each called to live lives of beauty and joy and commitment and faithfulness. It's about how he helps us clean our own glasses so that we can look in the mirror and see past the surface to the heart and know that just like him, we are each a beloved child of God destined for greatness.

I am so grateful that Ron Theile and the City of Bell Ringers could help lead our worship service today. I am in awe of the dedication of these kids and the adults who lead and support them. I give thanks to God for the transformations in their lives that have been made possible by their participation in this group. They probably don't talk about it much in these kinds of terms, but I bet that, through their involvement with this group, each student has been empowered to look at their own life in a new way, to see within themselves possibilities that they otherwise would never have seen, to find courage in the face of apathy, to find hope in the midst of despair, to rise above a harsh environment to create and insist on beauty and value, to go forward into life with confidence and determination. And to do it not just for yourself . . . but for everyone in the group, together. These kids have preached the sermon today, by being who they are, by growing into more than they might have been, by the promise of who they have determined to become.

I should probably just sit down and let them play, but there's one more thing I want to say on this day that we receive new members, with a bunch more just waiting in the wings, lest we take for granted their commitment -- and ours -- which church membership signifies.

It used to be that joining a church was the thing to do-especially joining one as large and beautiful as ours. People now ask more questions, I think, in considering membership. On the one hand, there's the kind of church-shopping that goes on before a particular congregation is chosen. It's always fascinating to hear why folks choose this one as opposed to another one in the area. We'll learn something about ourselves by asking our new members why they chose to affiliate here.

On the other hand is the question of what "membership" means. What's being asked of me, in becoming a member? What's the difference between being a member and worshipping here every week? I want to suggest that what we've long called "membership" is really about taking another step as a disciple of Christ. It's about making a commitment to go deeper, to risk a little more, to commit to learning more about Christ through study and prayer and worship and life together in the community of the church. The decision to become a member, the decision to remain a faithful member, is like cleaning our glasses and seeing beyond the surface of our lives to our true identity as children of God.

It's about knowing that we are more than parents, grandparents, children, or youth. More than workers or professionals or volunteers. More than citizens or students. More than whatever role we might currently fill in this life, we are first and foremost children of God, disciples of Jesus Christ, who have seen the light shining in him and know that the light shines within us. And we choose to follow and to grow and to risk and to change and to let our lives be transformed and transfigured into something beyond our imagining.

Membership is not the end of the process anymore than a wedding is the end of a marriage. It's a step along the way, the beginning of a new chapter in the life of faith, a public commitment to serve and to grow. Let me refer here to a few phrases from our Book of Discipline, our United Methodist organizational book, which are thought-provoking for us and which beautifully hold together the relationship between membership and discipleship: "Faithful membership is essential for personal growth and for developing a deeper commitment to the will and the grace of God. . . . Faithful discipleship includes the obligation to participate in the life of the congregation . . . bound in sacred covenant to shoulder the burdens, share the risks, and celebrate the joys of fellow members . . . each member is to be a servant of Christ on mission locally and in the wider world. To be a witness for Christ in the world, a light and leaven in society, and a reconciler in a culture of conflict. Each member is to identify with the agony and suffering of the world and to radiate and exemplify the Christ of hope. . . . As members involve themselves in prayer, worship, the sacraments, study, Christian action, systematic giving, and holy discipline, they grow in their appreciation of Christ, their understanding of God . . . and an understanding of themselves."

On this day in which we give thanks for the Transfiguration of our Lord, we also lift up our lives, that we might be transfigured into members of the Body of Christ, disciples of the Risen Savior. That, like the Bell Ringers, we might see beyond the apparent confines and delimitations of life to a deeper reality within us, a more profound truth about who we are meant to be and who we might become. Christ calls us all to a spiritual mountaintop this day and cleans our glasses so that we might see more clearly who he would have us be.