Sermon – Mountaintop and Valley Experiences Rev. Sandy Lacey Transfiguration of the Lord – 021526
This week I have been thinking about what it means to be transfigured. This Scripture passage or one like it in another Gospel always is read the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent. We could speculate on the reasons why – anything from this is the day we understand more clearly God’s revelation of the majesty and wonder of who Jesus really is. Or perhaps we need to see all of the glory and splendor of Jesus right before Jesus “sets his face toward Jerusalem” as the Scriptures tell us. Maybe we need to see a little of the majesty before we take the long Lenten walk toward betrayal and death. Maybe we need the mountaintop experience to help us through the valley of the shadow (and the reality) of death. I don’t know why the Transfiguration passage is needed at this time. Maybe we need the dramatic pause. So what happens here? Jesus takes three of his disciples up with him to the mountain, just like Moses used to go up the mountain to talk to God when he brought the people out of Egypt. And something happens. The word used is transfiguration. God reveals something. Jesus is transformed before the disciples’ eyes into something larger than what they have known. Moses stands with him. Elijah stands with him. He is revealed to be something larger than what is easily seen by the naked eye. The three disciples now see that Jesus is in the line of the prophets. Like Moses, he will free his people from slavery and like Elijah, he will call them to holiness and obedience. It is as if Jesus’ plan and ministry explodes before their eyes and his purpose/their purpose is clearly revealed. And our friend, Peter, is shocked, so shocked that he blurts out something inappropriate for the moment: “Jesus, let’s stay here.” When I think of transfiguring moments that I have seen, I think of the time after 9/11 when our Muslim friends were being targeted because of their faith or in more recent days when our Jewish friends are being harassed and threatened with violence. It is a transfiguring moment when Jesus followers decide to be brave and form a circle around them during their time of prayer so that they could pray and worship in peace. It is a transfiguring moment in which followers of Jesus reveal God’s truth that we are all children of God and loved by God. Peter with his inappropriate response of “let’s stay here and build some booths” indicates a kind of “I knew it! He is the Messiah! Isn’t this glorious?!” response. According to Matthew, it was only just 6 days ago when Jesus asked him and the other disciples who they thought he was. And Peter had the fortune of blurting out the right answer – “you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” Jesus had been pleased with his answer, but then Jesus went on to say, “Oh and by the way, being the Messiah means that I will struggle, suffer, and die.” Poor Peter – he couldn’t just keep his confusion to himself. Instead, he blurted out that surely Jesus was mistaken: “you know, Jesus, Messiahs do not suffer.” He went from the sublime to the valley in just two breaths, it seems. It would have been better for Peter to have kept his mouth shut – instead, he was chastised by Jesus and called Satan, an Adversary – just 6 days ago. And now, today, he witnesses something extraordinary – and what does he say? “Let’s make some sort of dwelling for you Jesus. This is where you live and this is who you are. The extraordinary has come. The extraordinary is here. This is where I want to live. Let’s stay here.” Peter is always going from the valley to the mountaintop and back again, it seems. When I think of other transfiguring moments, I think of a shooter in an Amish school several years ago who shot and killed several school girls before he killed himself. The transfiguring moment was when the families chose to forgive him and care for his grieving family while they grieved their own loss. Likewise, in Charleston, S.C. when a white supremacist killed their pastor and several church members at a Bible study, many family members chose to stand up and forgive that young man even while he showed no remorse for his violent action. And these days I remember a Presbyterian woman in the city of Minneapolis who was shot to death in her action of standing alongside her Hispanic brothers and sisters. Their actions were transfigured before all of us as we listened to them on the news. Where have you seen transfiguring moments? What has communicated God’s love in so powerful a way that it changes everything for you? How does God communicate to you that you are truly free to live the life you were created to live? How does God convict you to be holy, set-apart from the culture that seems to thrive on pointing out differences and inciting violence when you do not get your way? What is (or what will be) your transfiguring moment? Our lives are often so filled with the mundane and ordinary that we forget to notice when the extraordinary breaks through. When is the last time you noticed something truly extraordinary? What “mountaintop experiences” have captured your attention recently? Over the years, I have heard “mountaintop experiences” described as “thin places”, places where the distance between God and us becomes thin and we catch a glimpse of who God is, of who Jesus is and who we are in relation to God. These are moments in which the extraordinary breaks through into the mundane. There are many transfiguring moments in life that point to God’s amazing works and God’s amazing grace. And we cannot help but be forever changed by those moments . . . My pastor friend in KY, Chuck, reminded me a few years ago that not everyone got to go to the mountain with Jesus. It was just Peter, James, and John who accompanied Jesus and had this wonderful experience. The rest of the disciples were in the valley wrestling with demons and experiencing defeat. We know this because the passage immediately after today’s text tells us that when the three disciples and Jesus came down the mountain after this extraordinary experience, they are confronted with the other disciples’ failure to heal a man’s son who struggled with demons. Apparently, not all of us are fortunate to experience the sublime at the same time. Many of us battle demons day in and day out. Some of us are dealing with devastating news of cancer and some of us are dealing with horrible addictions to alcohol or drugs. Some of us wonder if there will EVER be an end to gun violence in our culture and we wonder if politicians could ever work together to benefit the common good, instead of trying to pit us against one another. And many of us worry about our continued pollution of our environment and the consequences we are reaping – from earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, flooding, etc. And many of us wonder whether we can ever be known as a compassionate, caring country again. Many of us cannot even see the mountaintop for all the demons we are battling in both our personal lives and in the life of this nation. But we are not alone – Jesus is with us in this place too. You see, apparently, Jesus lives in both places – the tough and gritty places as well as the sublime places. And you never really know where a transfiguring moment will be. And as we learn by looking at Jesus’ entire life, the journey of discipleship is not rosy and conflict free; it is the way of the cross. It is wrestling with the demons of our personal lives, and it is wrestling with the demons of what we find together in our community life. But today, this day, is Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday. It is an extraordinary day today. It is a cause for celebration and wonder. It is a day for amazement. We get to see and hear who Jesus and who God really are. And we are reminded that God can take the ordinary action of everyday people to work through them to make something truly transforming and extraordinary. I have just one more question: Who might be looking at you today to see what God will reveal?
This week I have been thinking about what it means to be transfigured. This Scripture passage or one like it in another Gospel always is read the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent. We could speculate on the reasons why – anything from this is the day we understand more clearly God’s revelation of the majesty and wonder of who Jesus really is. Or perhaps we need to see all of the glory and splendor of Jesus right before Jesus “sets his face toward Jerusalem” as the Scriptures tell us. Maybe we need to see a little of the majesty before we take the long Lenten walk toward betrayal and death. Maybe we need the mountaintop experience to help us through the valley of the shadow (and the reality) of death. I don’t know why the Transfiguration passage is needed at this time. Maybe we need the dramatic pause. So what happens here? Jesus takes three of his disciples up with him to the mountain, just like Moses used to go up the mountain to talk to God when he brought the people out of Egypt. And something happens. The word used is transfiguration. God reveals something. Jesus is transformed before the disciples’ eyes into something larger than what they have known. Moses stands with him. Elijah stands with him. He is revealed to be something larger than what is easily seen by the naked eye. The three disciples now see that Jesus is in the line of the prophets. Like Moses, he will free his people from slavery and like Elijah, he will call them to holiness and obedience. It is as if Jesus’ plan and ministry explodes before their eyes and his purpose/their purpose is clearly revealed. And our friend, Peter, is shocked, so shocked that he blurts out something inappropriate for the moment: “Jesus, let’s stay here.” When I think of transfiguring moments that I have seen, I think of the time after 9/11 when our Muslim friends were being targeted because of their faith or in more recent days when our Jewish friends are being harassed and threatened with violence. It is a transfiguring moment when Jesus followers decide to be brave and form a circle around them during their time of prayer so that they could pray and worship in peace. It is a transfiguring moment in which followers of Jesus reveal God’s truth that we are all children of God and loved by God. Peter with his inappropriate response of “let’s stay here and build some booths” indicates a kind of “I knew it! He is the Messiah! Isn’t this glorious?!” response. According to Matthew, it was only just 6 days ago when Jesus asked him and the other disciples who they thought he was. And Peter had the fortune of blurting out the right answer – “you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” Jesus had been pleased with his answer, but then Jesus went on to say, “Oh and by the way, being the Messiah means that I will struggle, suffer, and die.” Poor Peter – he couldn’t just keep his confusion to himself. Instead, he blurted out that surely Jesus was mistaken: “you know, Jesus, Messiahs do not suffer.” He went from the sublime to the valley in just two breaths, it seems. It would have been better for Peter to have kept his mouth shut – instead, he was chastised by Jesus and called Satan, an Adversary – just 6 days ago. And now, today, he witnesses something extraordinary – and what does he say? “Let’s make some sort of dwelling for you Jesus. This is where you live and this is who you are. The extraordinary has come. The extraordinary is here. This is where I want to live. Let’s stay here.” Peter is always going from the valley to the mountaintop and back again, it seems. When I think of other transfiguring moments, I think of a shooter in an Amish school several years ago who shot and killed several school girls before he killed himself. The transfiguring moment was when the families chose to forgive him and care for his grieving family while they grieved their own loss. Likewise, in Charleston, S.C. when a white supremacist killed their pastor and several church members at a Bible study, many family members chose to stand up and forgive that young man even while he showed no remorse for his violent action. And these days I remember a Presbyterian woman in the city of Minneapolis who was shot to death in her action of standing alongside her Hispanic brothers and sisters. Their actions were transfigured before all of us as we listened to them on the news. Where have you seen transfiguring moments? What has communicated God’s love in so powerful a way that it changes everything for you? How does God communicate to you that you are truly free to live the life you were created to live? How does God convict you to be holy, set-apart from the culture that seems to thrive on pointing out differences and inciting violence when you do not get your way? What is (or what will be) your transfiguring moment? Our lives are often so filled with the mundane and ordinary that we forget to notice when the extraordinary breaks through. When is the last time you noticed something truly extraordinary? What “mountaintop experiences” have captured your attention recently? Over the years, I have heard “mountaintop experiences” described as “thin places”, places where the distance between God and us becomes thin and we catch a glimpse of who God is, of who Jesus is and who we are in relation to God. These are moments in which the extraordinary breaks through into the mundane. There are many transfiguring moments in life that point to God’s amazing works and God’s amazing grace. And we cannot help but be forever changed by those moments . . . My pastor friend in KY, Chuck, reminded me a few years ago that not everyone got to go to the mountain with Jesus. It was just Peter, James, and John who accompanied Jesus and had this wonderful experience. The rest of the disciples were in the valley wrestling with demons and experiencing defeat. We know this because the passage immediately after today’s text tells us that when the three disciples and Jesus came down the mountain after this extraordinary experience, they are confronted with the other disciples’ failure to heal a man’s son who struggled with demons. Apparently, not all of us are fortunate to experience the sublime at the same time. Many of us battle demons day in and day out. Some of us are dealing with devastating news of cancer and some of us are dealing with horrible addictions to alcohol or drugs. Some of us wonder if there will EVER be an end to gun violence in our culture and we wonder if politicians could ever work together to benefit the common good, instead of trying to pit us against one another. And many of us worry about our continued pollution of our environment and the consequences we are reaping – from earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, flooding, etc. And many of us wonder whether we can ever be known as a compassionate, caring country again. Many of us cannot even see the mountaintop for all the demons we are battling in both our personal lives and in the life of this nation. But we are not alone – Jesus is with us in this place too. You see, apparently, Jesus lives in both places – the tough and gritty places as well as the sublime places. And you never really know where a transfiguring moment will be. And as we learn by looking at Jesus’ entire life, the journey of discipleship is not rosy and conflict free; it is the way of the cross. It is wrestling with the demons of our personal lives, and it is wrestling with the demons of what we find together in our community life. But today, this day, is Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday. It is an extraordinary day today. It is a cause for celebration and wonder. It is a day for amazement. We get to see and hear who Jesus and who God really are. And we are reminded that God can take the ordinary action of everyday people to work through them to make something truly transforming and extraordinary. I have just one more question: Who might be looking at you today to see what God will reveal?