Transfiguration of Our Lord
Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-43; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Ahhh, mountain tops. 1As I read our lessons for this morning I couldn't help thinking of all the great views I have had of the world. As many of you know, Chris and I were in Arizona this past week. We flew into Phoenix a week ago this past Wednesday (yes, the temperature was 74 degrees the day we arrived) and then the next day drove north out of the Sonoran Desert into the mile high "red rock" country around Sedona. Everyone had told us the scenery would be spectacular. I had seen the pictures, but the truth is that the great rising red rock cliffs were truly stunning. I know Pastor Chris cautioned us in her sermon a couple weeks ago against anticipating awe and wonder, but I need to tell you that there were several occasions this past week when words failed to capture the visions we were offered. (These were far more than just another pile of rocks.) We did a lot of hiking and viewed the towering red rocks from the valleys and from the heights. We drove across the Verde Valley and wound our way up the Black Mountains to the old mining town of Jerome built on the 30 degree slope of the mountain side. From there we looked back down across the valley at the red rock wall and the plateau country. Off in the extreme distance, some 50 miles away, we saw the ancient snow capped volcano peaks of the San Francisco Mountain range. God's world offered to human eyes, creating visions of power and filling us with awe. The proof was in the clicking of camera's, our too human attempts to capture and hold for a few moments more the vision before us for later reference. But you had to be there to really feel it.
I couldn't help but think of the other views I have had of the world. Two years ago we stood among the summer glaciers at the top of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. The view was that of snow capped mountain peak after mountain peak that shrank human presence to pencil lines of roads cut into the face of the mountain's mass and might. I have hiked trails in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where the dense forest limited your view to the sight of soaring hawks and eagles high above us. Chris and I have stood by the shore of the cold clear waters of an alpine lake in the Karwendel Mountains of the Bavarian alps. Felt the glacier cooled breeze sweep down the valley to refresh us from the summer heat while we looked down on the village of Mittenwald a mile below us. The only words that come to mind are the poet's, "The world is filled with the grandeur of God"
There are so many places from which to view the world. Some have extraordinary meaning by their very name or location. I have stood on the Mount of the Beatitudes near Capernaum in Israel, where Jesus is believed to have delivered the Sermon on the Mount. I have stood where Jesus might have stood and looked out across the Sea of Galilee where fishermen even today still cast for catch. I have stood on the heights of the ancient Roman fortress of Massada, site of one of the most historic stands against the Roman might in all of history. I have walked among the battle ruins of ancient civilizations and looked from the heights across the lowest point on the planet earth known as the Dead Sea.
There is something about the heights that does more than simply lift the human spirit. The chance to see something from above. I could never resist the open air observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City. All of my relatives who come to visit, sooner or later had to join me for the stunning panoramic views from the Sears and Hancock towers in Chicago.
It is as if to see from on high brings us closer to God. To see as God might see with power over all that is viewed or maybe it is to be captured by that power. To be filled with the power of the vision before us or by the One who gives us the vision. And occasionally the high place becomes something almost too powerful for us to handle. I have stood on Mount Moriah, also known as the temple mount in Jerusalem and looked out across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives, where I also stood when I had my first view of the Holy City. This is a place of visions that polarize the religious communities, divides Moslem and Christian and Jew as each group strives to control a gift greater than any one faith can contain.
There are some moments, some places, from which we view the world with a renewed sense of the holy. A sense of God's presence in the world. Today our gospel lesson takes us to the mount of the transfiguration and our Old Testament lesson has us heading up Mount Sinai with Moses to meet God. Six weeks ago we left the Sundays after Christmas and entered the season of Epiphany. The purpose of this season, as we have been reminded in sermons, lessons and children's musical is to discover the ah-ha moment when we recognize Jesus as the one sent by God. To recognize him as the one who comes with gifts of miracle and grace. From the vantage point of this Sunday we can look back on the baptism that began it all with a mighty voice from heaven. We can recall his wonder years in the temple, his first miracle of water to wine, the calling of the disciples, and his teachings. On the transfiguration mount we close a chapter of Jesus' life and are led to join him now as he turns toward Jerusalem and the cross. Today the epiphany is complete. The transfiguration is the midterm exam. The disciples who witness it are faced with the fact that the final exam is all that lies ahead. Of course they don't realize that yet. Peter thinks they have just discovered the ideal vacation spot. Let's build a place right here. The view is spectacular and the neighborhood is great. Moses, Elijah, who could ask for more?
But no one lives at the mountain top. It is a place away, from which to gain perspective. History is filled with those who went to the mountain. Those who had the mountain top experience. From Moses to Martin Luther King Junior it was a place from which to see the promised land even if they would never enter. To know what possibilities lie ahead. That is what this transfiguration day can mean for us. It is a glimpse of what lies ahead as we enter the Lenten season. Moses found a place where he could meet God. Jesus revealed to his disciples a place where they could encounter the law and the prophets and still walk back into the world accompanied by the grace of God.
Not all the views from above are postcards of beauty. If you look closer you find as you journey back into the world that the vision and dream is tested. Moses returned to the people and found that they could not handle even the residue of God's glory on his face unless it was veiled. Jesus came down from the mountain only to find the rest of the disciples overwhelmed by another worldly crisis of suffering and pain.
Peter could not put into words the meaning of the moment. He responded by wanting to memorialize the occasion with a monument. To attempt to make permanent that which has meaning as part of life is not easy. Every mountain top moment I have ever had was but a part of the journey. Our lives need moments of close encounter with God and glimpses of visions that take us to places we have never been. We enjoy the times when our place in the world and history seem, if only for a moment, to be truly grand and we rise to higher levels of self awareness. These are holy moments. And sometimes they happen even without the great wonder and awe that we think they should have.
It has been more than 30 years now since I visited the highest point in the state of Illinois. Most of you may not even know where it is located. Charles Mound is located in the northwest corner of the state only a half mile from the Wisconsin state line just outside the town of Scales Mound (not far from Galena). I went there with a couple of college buddies one summer. It was a side trip to an adventure on the Mississippi River we took. What I remember is that one of us had read about how close we were going to be to Illinois' elevation high point so we went looking for what we expected to be the Illinois' landmark lookout point. We had gotten used to the bluffs along the Mississippi and anticipated some such dramatic visual perspective for looking across the state. I remember we pulled up to the entrance drive of a private farm where Charles Mound is located. We got out of the car and walked toward the barn where a small sign indicated a dirt road leading towards Charles Mound. We walked about another half mile along side a corn field with a grassy slope ahead expecting to have to begin climbing the mound only we didn't see any major mound.. We had left the road, heading across the grass, when one of my companions stopped and pointed. "Could that be it?" he asked as he pointed to a U.S. Coast and Geodetic Marker implanted in the ground. Without the marker, the land looked like any other field in Northern Illinois or Southern Wisconsin. And the view was corn fields, a few trees and more corn fields. I still remember, just corn fields. Sometimes the vision from on high does not take us out of the world but brings us into the world.
That may be the most important part of the transfiguration story. That Jesus did not stay on the mountain. God does not take us out of the world but empowers us to enter the world. It is tempting to want to find the mountain top moments in each week. I had a friend who told me that he had stopped going to church when he felt he no longer was getting anything from the worship service. I asked him what he was looking for and he said he wasn't sure but he wanted to feel closer to God and not so much a part of the world. I said, "Ahh, then you are looking for a grace moment." He replied, "No, he was looking for a good feeling." I suggested to him that faith was not always a good feeling. That was what a massage was for. He laughed and agreed that maybe that was a bit too narrow a description of what he was seeking. We need to remember that the disciples did not go looking for a mountain top moment. The truth is that none of the Bible figures or people throughout human history who found themselves having such peak experiences were in search of such moments.
Today is February 18. On this date in 1546 Martin Luther died which is why the church chooses this day each year to commemorate his life. Luther was the great reformer who set in motion changes to the medieval world that resulted in the creation of many of the modern institutions and what we would call modern way of thinking that we have today. We know that Luther had mountain top moments when God seemed close enough to touch but we also know that Luther's life was not one of feel good moments. Luther knew that the grace of God's vision comes not from Ah-ha moments in the life of Jesus but from the fact that Jesus did not stay on the mountain but went back into the valleys of life and followed that journey all the way to the cross, and beyond. So we have visited the mountains today. We have seen some of the high points. God comes close to us once more. But we do not stay there. This Wednesday we begin the journey of Lent. If we would really know the power of the vision, we need to follow that vision back into the real world where grace finds its fullest definition and expression. There are more mountains in the world than any of us could ever visit. Faith is not about how many peak experiences we have. As far as we know, Jesus had but one transfiguration experience. That was enough. He heard the voice from the cloud once more claim him. To know that you have been chosen by God is enough. That is what each Sunday is about for each of us. The moment when we are reminded once more that we who are baptized have been chosen by God, marked with the cross of Christ forever. We are invited to God's table of grace to draw near for a moment, to enter into God's presence and the glow of divine glory. We have been to the mountains once more, but the story doesn't end there. Jesus came down from the mountain, healed the child and then turned his fact toward Jerusalem. There he would be lifted up one more time on a cross, on a mount called Calvary. And in that moment God's grace revealed a new vision, a new hope, a new life for us all.
Amen