Sermon Transfiguration 2017: Transforming Moments, High and Low Introduction: Faith not Feelings

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Beverly Anthony
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1 Sermon Transfiguration 2017: Transforming Moments, High and Low Introduction: Faith not Feelings This Sunday is the last Sunday in the Season of Epiphany; This season of stories for our souls that give us some idea of who Jesus is And the promise of life that He offers everyone. And on this last Sunday, we go to the mountaintop where Jesus is transfigured; Where Jesus is revealed in His heavenly glory as the Son of God; And where some of His first followers Have the first New Testament mountaintop experience; An experience of such spiritual heights that they are changed In their view of life and of God; It s an experience that shapes their souls. Mountaintop moments are one of God s showier tools For letting us know that He s really there; for letting us know how much He loves us; But it s a moment that always passes, however significant it may seem at the time; Because the life with God is lived not only on the mountaintop, But in the depths of life and everywhere in between. Like some of you, I didn t come to the faith through a mountaintop experience; I had a kind of up and down experience of Christianity growing up; Baptized as a baby, we always went to church and Sunday school Youth group was optional, but since my friends were all there, so was I. It was a pretty normal, teenage Christianity, Meaning there was a lot of hit and miss moments; Moments when I seemed to get this Christianity thing like paying attention To the unpopular kids at school and eating lunch with them; And moments when I missed it like getting into a fist fight After choir practice one Wednesday night. 1

2 I had a kind of regular faith by the time I was a junior in high school; During the spring of the year I got talked into going on a Christian retreat With about fifty teenagers and some adult leaders and clergy; We spent an entire weekend together listening to talks and talking together About God and Jesus and the presence of God in our lives; And it concluded with a big communion service Sunday afternoon. During the singing at communion, I felt this strange warmth start to fill me up; I started to cry in public, not a good thing for a football blockhead like me; And I knew that God had touched me in some new, but quiet way; I had a sense of unbelievable elation that I hoped would never go away. One of the adults who was helping to lead the weekend saw my tears and my smile And after the service she drew me aside and asked what was going on; I told her as best as I could and she smiled and said she was so glad for me; And then in the softest, most gentle tone of voice; She said that the elation I was feeling wouldn t last forever. She said, You may want these feelings to be with you always, but they won t be; Because being a Christian isn t based on feelings; You re on the mountaintop now, but someday you ll be far away from these feelings You may even wonder if this ever happened at all; Your Christian walk, she said, is based on faith, not feelings. I looked at her as only a teenage know-it-all could & thought it would be different for me But even though the feelings lasted a long time, they did go away; And it seems like there ve been a lot more valleys and low places since then And I now know what she meant; Mountaintops and valleys come for all of us, But whether we know it or not or feel it or not, God s always here with you and with me; And the mountaintops are more like moments of clarity than the everyday life with God. 2

3 Faith on the Mountaintop Sometimes our faith is a mountaintop faith; Jesus took Peter and James and John with him and led them up a high mountain; There they would be away from the crowds that were always pushing in against them There they would have time for prayer and for some reflection; And there Jesus changed right before their eyes and in the process changed them. Peter was so impressed with what he saw that he wanted to remain on the mountaintop And said, Lord, it s good for us to be here, I can make some dwellings for you all And we can just stay here and continue this great experience indefinitely Or at least for a while longer who could blame him; Seeing Jesus in all His heavenly glory And the two most important figures of the faith, Moses and Elijah. Anyone who has ever had some kind of mountaintop experience can sympathize. Ah, that each of us could have that kind of mountaintop faith and hold onto it forever; That certainty of God s goodness and presence; That sense of being surrounded by light or love or grace we don t deserve. But God never meant for us to always stay on the mountaintop in this life; And sometimes we meet God in the deepest of valleys; In the darkest moments, when we face struggles beyond our abilities. I think that s why Jesus asked his followers to keep this mountaintop moment quiet Because by comparison to His death and resurrection for all people; This was a fleeting moment and secondary to Good Friday and Easter Day. Or perhaps Jesus wanted them to set the moment aside So that they would live in the valleys of life and know God was there too. Pastor and writer Frederick Buechner recalls one very low time in his life A low and dry valley when God broke through in an unusual way; 3

4 He writes, I remember sitting parked by the roadside once; Terribly depressed and afraid for my young daughter who was very ill; And wondering what would happen to our family. As he was sitting there thinking about his daughter s illness, He noticed a car that seemed to come out of nowhere; And a message from God, the word he most needed to see at that moment; Was printed on the car s license plate. And the word on the license plate was TRUST in capital letters. He didn t know whether to laugh it off as a joke life plays on us every once in awhile Or whether it was a word directly from God; Buechner decided it may have been some of both, But in that moment everything changed, he changed and trusted. His daughter recovered,the owner of the car turned out to be a trust officer at a local bank And after reading about the incident somewhere, The banker showed up at Buechner s church and presented him with the plate Which bore the word he so needed to see that day, TRUST. Buechner says it s rusty around the edges and a little battered, But it s also as holy a relic as he has ever seen. i Anyone of us who have met God in the valley knows how precious the experience is; Whether it comes with the death of someone we love And God s promise of life beyond the door of death finally takes hold in our souls Or when someone we love is very sick and we remember that God is with them Or when we reach the end of our abilities to deal with the challenges of life And let go, so God can carry us through; We come to a deeper conversion as God touches our souls And brings a light to our darkness. Mountains or valleys, God is always here for you and me. 4

5 Pressing On Sometimes we look for the mountaintop experiences of life and God And sometimes the mountaintop experiences seek us. Few of us actually seek out the valleys of life, but they come anyway; And whether they be physical mountains and valleys or spiritual ones We are changed by our experience because God is there in both places; And it s not only a matter of feelings, but something in our souls. The promise of the readings for this last Sunday after the Epiphany; Is that God comes to people like you and me; Not only on the mountaintops we seek or the valleys that come our way; But in every place of God s choosing. God comes to us and makes His love and presence and power known; Sometimes in ways beyond our imagining and sometimes with a softly warmed heart. We are changed by these moments with God; And if we will allow the Spirit to open our eyes, our hearts, our souls, We will become more and more aware That God s presence and grace and power are all around us, always. On Wednesday, we begin the Holy season of Lent, A time of reflection and self-denial and penitence, A time of giving something up or taking something on To allow God more space in our lives to change us To develop our faith, to deepen our trust in God And to learn to let God touch our souls every day. I want to encourage you this Lent to climb the mountaintop to God Or walk on through the valley; Set aside some part of your life, some space for God to enter in, 5

6 So that you may catch a glimpse of God s presence with you every day; And be changed by the presence and love and grace of God in your life Today and always. And I invite you to take someone with you on this journey; Someone you know who used to come to church or who hasn t ever come; Invite them on the journey with all of us this Lent; So that on the mountaintop or in the deepest valley; They may come to know the love and grace and presence That we are coming to know. Amen. i Frederick Buechner, Telling Secret (San Franciso; Harper and Row Publishers, 1991), pp

Going Up the Mountain

March 2, 2014 Exodus 24:12-18 & Matthew 17:1-9 Pastor Betty Kelsey Creekside COB Going Up the Mountain Mount Lyell, at 13,000 feet, is the highest peak in Yosemite National Park. Some years ago, three