Exodus 24.12-18 12The LORD said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction. 13So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. By the Rev. Eric O. Ledermann February 26, 2017 Transfiguration/Dimanche Gras Sunday RCL Year A 14To the elders he had said, Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them. 15Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. 2 Peter 1.16-21 (NRSV) 16For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. 19So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one s own interpretation, 21because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Matthew 16.13-20, 17.1-9 (NRSV) 16.13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? 14And they said, Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. 15He said to them, But who do you say that I am? 16Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 20Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. 17.1Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him! 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, Get up and do not be afraid. 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. Page 1 of 5
Oh that mountain top experience! How many of us have been to summer camp or been on some retreat, high in the mountains, and been overcome by the majesty of it all? How many of us have gone up a mountain and had some profound experience of God s presence? Maybe we didn t see Moses or Elijah, maybe our faces didn t glow and our clothes did not turn dazzling white, maybe there was no cloud, but we knew in those moments that something extraordinary was happening. I remember going off to summer camp, growing up in Southern California, whether in the mountains of Big Bear or on Catalina Island where the Synod of Southern California and Hawaii ran their summer camps. There was something special when a couple hundred Christian kids came together, sang together, broke bread together. Sure, we did some of the usual summer camp things: we played games, there were summer camp romances, there were some pranks played, there were the mid-week meltdowns. But usually by Thursday night we all knew something special was happening. As we sat around a campfire, singing songs, listening to scripture, our arms around each other, and looking up at the stars, we knew that we were connected to and a part of something so much bigger than us. It was awesome and overwhelming. We carried that feeling into Friday, that last full day of camp. By Friday night, we were all so overwhelmed. The Friday night camp fire was special. Graduating seniors would give their farewells and thanks. People would cry and laugh and sing. The counselors would always have trouble getting us to go back to our cabins at the end of the night because none of us wanted to leave that moment. We wanted it to last forever. We wanted to sit there together, basking in the glow of the fire on one another s faces, until the sun came up the next morning. But alas, at some point, we had to leave. We had to go back. We had to pack our things and prepare to re-enter our lives back home. When I attended camp on Catalina Island, just off the shore of Southern California, we had the extra gift of an hour or so long boat ride. It was a wonderful gift that gave us time to make the transition from camp-life to home-life. Kids who barely knew each other just six days before and who barely talked on the way over, were now huddled together, laughing, screaming, and crying together, and sharing what we were going home to. Some kids were going back to broken homes, parents who didn t seem to care, sisters and brothers who were in and out of rehab, neighborhoods that were crumbling. Others of us were going back to what felt like the façade of perfection it didn t matter what happened inside of the walls, so long as outside everything looked Page 2 of 5
perfect and presentable. We talked a lot about being real on those boat rides. We talked about the struggle of talking and sharing in our real lives like we did at camp. Some of us tried. We came back from those mountain top experiences on fire with the Spirit of God, and determined to take our experience of God back into the world. It usually lasted a few weeks at most. Before we knew it, the schedules and demands of ordinary life took hold and seemed to squelch that fire. What we didn t realize was that every time we went away, we came back changed people, and all those experiences stacked up and, before we could even realize the changes, by the time we graduated from high school we had been transformed by the love of God. Summer camp and church life changes us in ways of which we are not always aware. We were looking for the big and the fancy, we were looking for that transfiguration experience, the big cloud of smoke. What we didn t realize was in the absence of all that, in the ordinariness of it all, God was speaking into our hearts God was still changing us and transforming us. When we look closely at the stories in our scriptures about people going up mountains, there is one thing we need to notice: they always come back down. And they never come back down empty handed. Abraham goes up a mountain to offer a sacrifice to God because he believes that is what God wants. He hears in his heart that he must sacrifice Isaac, his first born. In that time, sacrificing to a god one s first born was not unheard of. It was a way of paying homage to a god. But the God of Abraham wanted to make a point this God, the true God, is not like the gods people create in their minds to satisfy their fears and desires. This God does not require the kinds of sacrifices these other made-up gods do. At the last moment, Abraham notices a ram nearby, and the message becomes clear: God is for the people, not against them. Abraham comes down the mountain with the blessing of a new understanding of God, a blessing that is to be shared so that others may be also blessed. Moses goes up the mountain to listen for God s Word for his people. He comes down with a gift for the community: the ten teachings that will guide their lives so they might experience God more deeply day-to-day. Jesus goes up mountains many times in order to re-connect with God, and to be guided by God s Holy Spirit in his work of reconciliation and hope in an otherwise fairly depressing state of affairs. He always came back, energized and ready. Page 3 of 5
When he takes Peter, James, and John, and Jesus is transfigured, and they see Moses and Elijah, Peter is like us at summer camp on Friday night he doesn t want to leave. He wants to stay up there. But God interrupts his zealous and almost mindless babbling, and speaks these words: This is my Son whom I love. Listen to him! They have received a gift on this mountain. Now the real work begins as they try to discern how to embody that gift so that others might also experience it through them. Jesus tells them not to say anything until after the Son of God is raised. In other words, you need to process this for a while. Don t go telling everyone about this just yet. The time will come. The zealousness I had coming home from camp was probably so overwhelming for my parents. And they probably learned the pattern after a few years, knowing it would only last a few weeks. But I imagine the first time was probably bewildering. I was on fire for God, and I wanted everyone to know it! Well, there s the problem: I took the gift to be about me. Most gifts received from God are not for us personally they are for our communities; they re for the world. And they are not always straight forward. Even Moses tablets with the ten teachings on them had to be unpacked there were nuances that had to be discovered, there were below the text meanings that had to be discerned. In Matthew 5 Jesus unpacks the sixth one: You shall not murder. Jesus broadens and deepens this teaching with, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council In other words, it s not just about murder, it s about anything that can disrupt the sacred relationships into which God calls us it s about being faithful in the big things, but even more importantly, it s about being faithful in the ordinary, every-day things. When Jesus asks his disciples, Who do you say that I am?, it is a question for us. Is Jesus just a righteous dude, or something else? Is Jesus our teacher and our example of what a faithful life looks like? And, if Jesus is our teacher and our example, how do we unpack that for our everyday lives? It s easy to say, Well, I m not Jesus I can t heal people. Well, what if God was calling us to be more Jesus-like in our lives, what if we did have the power to heal. Without taking the time to discern those gifts, we may never know. Maybe you can t physically heal people, but you can bring healing to this world through your compassion for people who are hurting or suffering. Maybe you can t walk on water, but you can take water to those who are thirsty. Maybe you aren t the marching and protesting type, but you could find out how to be a pen pal with someone in prison and bring healing and hope to their lives. Maybe you can t take on the Roman Empire, but you can write letters to those in need or those in power. Page 4 of 5
The mountain top experience is rarely about having some extraordinary revelation from God. It s about taking time out of our regular lives to listen for and pay attention to the patterns of God s presence and work in the world, and asking how we might be a part of it all. It s about hearing Jesus question: Who do you say that I am? And if our answer is, The Messiah, the savior, my teacher, my lord, my example, then spending the time back down the mountain unpacking what that means for our lives. So, may this Lent be a time of unpacking for you a season of looking back a the stacks of experiences and changes that we ve experienced. May it be a season spending some time with scripture and discerning how God is calling each of us to use our gifts for the sake of the world. And may we be blessed in our endeavor, in the name of God, our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sustainer. Amen. Page 5 of 5