Welcome to our second annual Mardi Gras Sunday!  We began our celebration this morning with our familiar Call to Worship, a rousing processional hymn, and our prayer of confession. I thank those of you who are visiting us this morning and offer a special thanks to my friend Amy Liberatore who graced us with a wonderful anthem and will share her talents with us during the offertory as well.

This morning is all about the celebration, not just the celebration of Mardi Gras, but the celebration of all the many gifts and blessings that come to us from God. Through God we have all the gifts of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Now the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans are rarely about self-control, but the true meaning of Mardi Gras is a true celebration of our Christian faith. Mardi Gras is a French phrase which means “Fat Tuesday.” Originally this Mardi Gras festival was scheduled for the three days prior to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, as a means to celebrate the conclusion of the Epiphany season – the season of Light. The Carnival, from a Latin word meaning the “removal of meat” is traditionally a three day period, the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of the end of Epiphany, when the people celebrate the many blessings of God before the traditional period of fasting and reflection of Lent. Those celebrations include thankfulness for the gifts of the Spirit and for all the blessings which come from God.

There are some traditions which celebrate for the entire period from Epiphany until Ash Wednesday, but the more usual celebration is the three day period, or Shrovetide. Shrove is an Old English word which means “to repent”. The Carnival celebration is a time to reflect on the blessings of God’s light, the coming of Jesus and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the world, before we look at the fasting and repentance of the Lenten season.  It is traditional for families and church communities to use the Shrovetide as a time to celebrate all the gifts of their faith: God’s steadfast and enduring love, God’s mercy and justice, Jesus’ ministry of healing and inclusiveness, and the Light that the Word, Jesus, has brought to the world. That is what we celebrate today.

As we heard the Exodus reading this morning, we heard about Moses’ shining face. At first the people were frightened by its radiance. Moses accommodated the fears of the people by covering his face with a veil so the people would not be afraid to come near him and to hear the words he has to share – words that came to Moses through conversations with God. Coincidentally there are times in our own lives when we are said to be radiant. Joy brings radiance to our faces. Pregnant women are often said to be radiant – perhaps it is the miracle of nurturing a child, perhaps the joy of becoming a mother, perhaps just bearing the grace of God through a child is enough. Brides are said to be radiant. Feeling love so deeply, knowing human love which is born of God’s love, brings radiance to the face of many brides and grooms. Love changes things for us. God’s love for God’s people expressed by the ten commandments, commandments which helped the people be in true relationship with God and with one another, is an example of the outpouring of God’s love.

In like fashion, God’s love, God’s incarnation of love in the world, Jesus Christ gave the disciples a glimpse of the kind of radiance that comes through the love of God. Elijah, Moses, and Jesus were all prophets of the living God, those who were in relationship with God and responsible for bringing the message of God to the people – Moses who brought freedom to the Hebrew people and the Law by which they should live; Elijah who prophesied the need for righteousness, the life-giving presence of God, and reminded us that we cannot run away from God, who comes to us as a still, quiet voice in the silence; and Jesus who came to live among us to teach us all that we are children of the living God, inheritors of God’s grace and forgiveness, and benefactors of God’s amazing grace. All three shine like the sun with a brilliance unseen by the disciples before. What a celebration! It is no wonder that the disciples, Peter, James, and John, want to hold on to the celebration, want to provide houses for the prophets so they can stay around a while.

We, too, like to hold on to the celebration moments. Remember some of them. Our engagements, our weddings, our favorite holiday memories, the birth of our children, the hand held in comfort by a friend, the renewal of a promise, or the sharing of a great vacation moment, or a moment of appreciation of creation’s splendor. We want to hold on to the radiance of those moments. Jesus reminds the disciples, and us, that celebration moments pass all too quickly – but God’s love and grace, God’s blessings and peace are with us always. Mountain top moments are great, but valley moment can be managed through the gifts God sends to us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The colors of the Mardi Gras celebration give us clear messages about God. The green color signifies faith. Mardi Gras is about celebrating our faith in God and God’s faith in us to follow the commandments and the leadership of Jesus. The purple color signifies justice. We know that God is a God of justice, and that, thankfully, God’s justice is not the same as that of men. We know that we are redeemed through Christ, rather than held accountable for all our sins. Thankfully, we live as Christians with the knowledge that God is more just than we. The gold color signifies the power of God – God the heavenly King, the Ruler of All. God who is so powerful than God can also be merciful. God’s love is so powerful that changes in the world, and in us, are possible.

Both scriptures provide us with examples of the power and life-giving gifts that come from God – the taking up of the prophet Elijah and the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus. The light of the fiery chariot and the whirlwind of God take Elijah up into heaven. Elisha is left behind, a human witness to the power and promise of God. Surely, he will miss his mentor and teacher Elijah, but Elisha has been called to be prophet in the footsteps of Elijah. He has witnessed the glory of God and the fulfillment of God’s promise of eternal life to Elijah.

As we approach Mount Tabor with Peter, James, John and Jesus, we know that something wonderful is going to happen. Imagine the power of seeing Jesus, their teacher, with the greatest of all Jewish prophets – Moses and Elijah. What power and glory Peter, James and John witnessed! They are so excited that they are terrified. We, too, want to hold on to the celebration moments, to the mountaintop experiences of our faith lives, and our human lives. It is natural to want to be a part of joy, to be surrounded by joy and happiness, to want to hold on to the pleasant feelings and celebrations.

And that is why we celebrate Carnival, Mardi Gras – to hold onto that joyous and celebratory part of our faith. We know that we cannot cling to the mountaintop experiences forever and that there are valleys to come, but we want to celebrate while we can. And celebrate, we will.

So today, on this Mardi Gras Sunday,  which just happens to fall on Valentine’s Day – a day which is used to celebrate friendship and love, pause for a moment and celebrate the blessings of your life – your family, your friends, your faith, this church community, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Celebrate the mountaintop moments of the Transfiguration and the wonder that God so loved the world that Jesus came to walk among us, to teach us, to heal us and to redeem us. Today we are celebrating the mountaintop. We are celebrating our faith and it is right that we do so. May our faces shine with radiant joy!