Sermon--in the style of "Just One Thought"-- for Transfiguration Sunday, 2/19/12
Preached at St. Paul's-on-the-Green, Norwalk, CT, 7:45am Holy Eucharist.
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. --Mark 9:2-9
The Gospel reading today takes us up a mountain; into a whirlwind of light and cloud, thundering voices and Heavenly visitors. It qualifies as a mystical experience for the disciples. But unlike a mysticism in which one simply goes around with her or his head in the clouds, the transfiguration event--this mountaintop event--shows us a 'practical' mysticism. The momentary encounter with the glory of God ends with the disciples following Jesus back down the mountain...Back to the real world...and back to the work to which they were called.
Let us imagine for a few moments what it may have been like to be Peter on the mountain that day.
Peter, Jesus, James, and John break off from the other disciples to go up the mountain. Peter, on the way up, may have been thinking about a conversation he had with Jesus earlier in the week. Jesus had predicted his own death for the first time and Jesus made this prediction right after Peter had proclaimed his belief that Jesus was the Messiah.
Peter had questions. He would have been wondering why Jesus said the ‘Son of Man’ must die. What does Jesus mean when he says that he’ll rise again? And what did Jesus mean when he said we must take up our cross?
But Peter’s thoughts are interrupted by a flash of bright light. Jesus was transfigured, changed, before his disciples...made luminous..his robes an unearthly dazzling bright white. And two heavenly beings appear to talk to Jesus. The disciples recognize them as Moses, the Law-giver, and Elijah, the Prophet taken to Heaven in a similar whirlwind of fire, light, and cloud.
Peter and the other disciples are terrified, but Peter is at least able to ask for permission to build something permanent for Jesus and his guests. A dwelling for each of them.
When I think of what was going through Peter’s mind, I can’t help but think that he thought he was witnessing the end of the world as he knew it. Here was his Rabbi, his Messiah, Talking(!) to the heroes of his faith. God’s decisive act in the world was upon them. The work of the Messiah would begin. The world would be upturned in dazzling light and fire! And Peter could help make it permanent! Next, the climax. A voice from the cloud.
"This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"
But then.
Everything goes back to normal around them. It is just the four of them on the mountain. Jesus starts walking back down the mountain. Along with James and John, Peter must have been confused. He may have hung back, and tried to linger at the spot where God spoke to them. But it was time to go back down the mountain.
Peter is again left with his thoughts. He might have been asking what was next. He might have been asking how the messiah was supposed to announce God to the world. What would become clearer to Peter over time was that the work of the son of God was not going to be on a mountain, but among his people.
In Jerusalem.
On a Cross.
On the mountaintop, something important yet mysterious happened. The disciples are left with questions. Peter had wanted to make something of the experience permanent by making dwellings, which would have become monuments to Heaven on Earth.
Yet they could not stay where God appeared. They had to follow God’s beloved son on his own mission, which they scarcely understood. Instead, they trusted the experience.
I think we have mountaintop moments in our own lives. We have experiences of God in a variety of ways. The experience could be a dramatic work of God in our lives-- the transformation of the ordinary
into something special or sacred. It could be the hand of God that pulls us out of the depths to a height we didn’t expect. Or perhaps the still, small, voice persistently calls us into greater light and clarity.
But, like the disciples, we can’t stay on the mountaintop. This is a practical mysticism. Those moments of communion with God are preparation for the work God has given us to do. They are moments of strength and solace so that we may experience the real love of God.
And they are moments which set us on our path so that we may bear a light to the world that struggles to see what is of true value: the value of a world where the love of God which passes all understanding is available to all. A love that serves as an antidote to apathy, to hatred, and to all manner of oppression.
The disciples left the mountain with questions.
Perhaps we should leave here with some questions, too.
Have you ever had a mountaintop experience?
Where have you felt the presence of God in your life?
How do you bear the light of God to the world?
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