Sunday we will hear the transfiguration account from Mark 9. It is a passage about change. You might not know this from the evidence in our churches, but within the Christian faith is a fierce insistence on the possibility (no, the expectation) of change. People change. People have a right to change. There is an expectation that the world around us will change. Forgiveness is the number one, chief and primary Christian secret and truth. You are forgiven. I am forgiven. We are forgiven. This means that we need not carry the past with us. This is the first principle guiding a Christian pilgrimage of life. As the spiritual song says, We’re marching to Zion, the beautiful city of God. As citizens of the City of God (we are made citizens by our Lord Jesus) we needn’t prove ourselves worthy or pass a test. We’re in and accepted in full, papers in order. Jesus sponsors our citizenship.