August 17, 2014 Mark 9:1-13 A strange scene in a strange passage. Four men on a mountain or was it six? A mysterious, mystical experience. But what actually happened? Nothing we can put our finger on. Four men came back down the mountain and went on about their business. A strange interlude. For all we can tell, nothing really happened. What is this story doing in Scripture? What does it mean? If it were dropped from the New Testament, would anybody miss it or be the poorer for its loss? What is a transcendent moment and what is it good for, anyway? Many years I read this passage shaking my head, or simply letting it drop back out of sight. Over the years, a few (very few) people have asked me about its meaning. I had to confess that I did not understand it either. Looking back, I think my problem was in trying to make the transcendent moment too ethereal that is, too remote and removed from what was going on in the life of Jesus and His disciples. I certainly have had some transcendent moments of my own. I suspect we all have. I am now certain that we all need them. I have also discovered over the years that the normal reaction to a transcendent moment is to deny it, pretend it didn t happen, try to explain it away, try to forget it. We try to bury such experiences in the dim recesses of our minds as quickly as possible. They take us out of the normal experience range, and that makes most of us uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we do encounter mystical moments. Some are simple, almost ordinary. Like coming into a child s bedroom at night and suddenly feeling the wonder and the miracle of life sensing the potential and beauty and power that lay so peacefully asleep there... so precious, so unaware. For just a moment, it is like catching a vision of something beyond words, beyond emotions, beyond expression. We come away with a strange, lingering taste of God s presence and purpose. Music; starry nights; mountain ranges; rolling surf; a city at night; a loving embrace; encountering a person who loves truth too much to let the fear of death control them yes, I suspect that we have all had our transcendent moments. Some are simple, almost ordinary. Some roll back the boundaries of our lives, showing us things we did not know sometimes even showing us things we are afraid to know. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 1 OF 8
But what are such moments good for? When they are over, has anything changed? It is the same old world with the same old problems. And pretty soon our eyesight returns to normal, if we let it. Yet deep inside we are a little more dissatisfied, a little more lonely, a little more disillusioned feeling more longings and confusion than even before, which is the last thing in the world we need. Or so we think. The disciples react as if in a trance. They will build shelters shrines for worship. They will become monks stay on the mountain from now on to enjoy the beatific vision. How much more peaceful and lovely here than back in the raucous push and fever of the normal world. And so the mundane life is forgotten... But NO! This kind of escape is NOT ALLOWED. Even so, the moment ends with a command to keep quiet about it. Do not try to tell people what they cannot yet hear or understand. Wait for the Spirit s timing. So it is back down the mountain and back to work in the same old world. All the crowds, needs, accusations, and impossible demands are waiting there at the foot of the mountain. It is ever so. Then what good is the special, magical moment? If we cannot keep it if we cannot stay up on the mountain why does God bother us with it? Why does Jesus lead His disciples up the mountain in the first place? Nevertheless, if we can find it and understand its purpose, there is one clear and powerful statement at the center of this transcendent moment. Even by itself it is reason enough for the whole experience. I suspect there is always such a practical purpose in every transcendent moment, but I will leave that for you to decide. In this instance in this scriptural story there is a dramatic purpose indeed. The disciples do not know it yet, but this experience on the mountain signals the beginning of the great ordeal. They will come down the mountain and head for Jerusalem, where Jesus will die. After that, the mission of Christ on earth will be theirs to carry. This moment on the mountain is the last oasis before the onslaught, before the terrible loss, before the nearly impossible challenge. God does not grant them the beatific vision for nothing. They are going to need it! I suspect we are well advised to remember this when we long or pray for clearer spiritual experiences. How stupid can we be? Of course, it is not really stupid; we just want to be more faithful. Nevertheless, a BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 2 OF 8
transcendent moment is always forerunner to a dramatic/traumatic responsibility. Test it out in your own experience. The core of every conversion is a new assignment. The more dramatic the spiritual experience, the more dramatic the change and challenge we are coming into: like the calm before the storm; like God giving us last-minute supplies and instructions before a great journey. When you get strongly touched by the Holy Spirit, it is a good time to be thankful. But it is also a very good time to stay alert, check supplies, get organized, be ready. The storm is coming. Doubtless in the long run we will like it that is, we will like what it is about and why we are involved in it. Nevertheless, the storm is coming. With the physical Jesus out of the picture, the greatest tension and turmoil and challenge of the early church will descend upon His disciples. All but one of them will die because of this issue. And the issue will be: What is the true authority of Jesus? It would be nice if the disciples in an easy, natural, and friendly way could convince everybody of the place and importance of Jesus. It would be nice if there did not have to be all the anger and disagreement and division all the mayhem and murder. But people who think that the Christian Life is a soft and easy Way a LIFE full of love and understanding, where everybody likes the Message of God s love well, they have never read the New Testament or very much of church history. How long is it before Stephen is stoned to death and Paul approves of it? How long is it before Paul and Barnabas get so angry that they split up their friendship and go their separate ways? How long is it before Paul and James (the brother of Jesus) are trying to lead the young church in opposite directions? Jesus followers are struggling with issues, disagreements, confusion, anger, and divisions from the get-go from the earliest days of the church until now. Do any of us suppose that the Tri-Faith Initiative is the first time Christians have had to face a hard decision or the first time Christians did not all agree with each other? Jesus has always been controversial! His peace is not of this world. His PEACE is peace with God not with this world. Sincere followers have always been coming down on opposite sides of the fence. We are not being picked out for special punishment, nor are we confronted with problems no followers have ever had to face before. What is the hottest issue in the early church? It is about who has true authority: Who is the truest representative of God? Do we follow Jesus, or do we follow Moses? Nearly all the earliest Christians were BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 3 OF 8
Jews, and Jews had been following Moses for over a thousand years. But if Jesus is the promised Messiah, this is a huge faith crisis! Jesus is saying and doing things that disagree with the way we have been following Moses. Now what?! Only a few of the disciples (Peter, James, and John) know that Moses and Jesus are on the same team. They know this is true because they have seen them together on the mountain. But most of their friends and relatives have not had the experience of this transcendent moment. The disciples will be forced to stand against all the traditions of their nation against all the traditions they themselves have grown up with and still believe in. Over and over they will be challenged to decide: Do they really trust the authority of Jesus? Do they really believe that God has revealed himself in Jesus? Is Jesus truly the Messiah? And is the Messiah bigger than, beyond, and more than what anybody had expected? They will face this dilemma again and again, and often at the risk of their lives. It is either that or forsake Jesus abandon the truth and the movement He has begun among them. Oh yes they are going to need this transcendent moment! For the disciples, and indeed most Jews, Moses and Elijah represent the great authorities of Judaism. They represent the power and authority of God, and the will of God on earth. On the mountain it is clear that Moses and Elijah and Jesus are friends. They know each other and converse with each other. They are all on the same team, part of the same purpose. These three disciples now know it, but back in the normal world almost nobody knows it. We suspect that Moses and Elijah are also encouraging Jesus and supporting Him for the ordeal they know He is about to go through. That is the benefit of the transcendent moment for Jesus Himself. But we do not hear that side of it. That is guesswork. In any case, on earth, Moses and Elijah have a thousand years of heritage and history backing them up. They have the greatest reputations in Judaism. Jesus has only just arrived. However glorious, the past can still be a horrendous problem to the future. The practical, pragmatic meaning of this transcendent moment begins to come clear. The true impact for the disciples will not emerge quite yet, but it is given to them now so they will have it, know it, and trust it when they need it. With Moses and Elijah and Jesus all present, the voice of God says: THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, LISTEN TO HIM! If you get confused, if you have an authority problem, if you cannot figure out who to believe or trust or go with LISTEN TO JESUS! If it BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 4 OF 8
comes to a struggle in your mind between Moses or Elijah or Abraham Lincoln or Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. or your favorite teacher or preacher LISTEN TO JESUS! Sometimes the days are easy and everybody can cooperate. But sometimes things get really hard, and you cannot serve two Masters. LISTEN TO JESUS. This is my beloved Son, LISTEN TO HIM! Do all Christians have to be circumcised? Do we have to be kosher to believe in grace? Can we worship on Sunday in honor of the Resurrection, or will God be angry if we do not keep worshipping on Saturday? Can you be gay or black or female or Republican or wealthy and still love Jesus? Do you have to convert a Muslim or a Jew before you can truly love them? Can any of you eat pork or lobster without fearing for your souls? Some things seem obvious to us now. But they were not always obvious. And many, many things are still not obvious to all of Jesus followers. All the fights and divisions and arguments are not over yet. Where do we think we are?! If your friends or relatives are listening to somebody else, or even just to themselves, how can we remember that they are loved by God that God is working all the time to save them? We know this because of Jesus not because of whomever they are listening to. That does not mean we turn everything over to them or pretend to agree with them. Because of Jesus we know they are children of God and infinitely precious to God. And God will use more ways than we can imagine or comprehend to support them and love them and bring them home. So we try not to forget that every other day, or indeed on any day. But we also do not forget who we really listen to. This is a very powerful assurance from God to Jesus disciples, and to Jesus followers in all ages. Especially to those who are troubled by conflicting passages of Scripture; those struggling with conflicting instructions from parents, friends, mates, or children; those troubled by the expectations or demands of nationalism or of the success motif; those who wonder about the conflicting truth of great precepts from psychology, Eastern religions, the Zodiac, the stock market, new movements, or the mandates of our educational system. THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, LISTEN TO HIM! That is the message. Now, what about the experience? There are only a few words given to hint at what the disciples see on the mountain. That is why the meaning of the passage is elusive. If only we could have BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 5 OF 8
been there to see it too. But we have only hints of the experience: Living men, long presumed to be dead, yet they are alive and conversing with Jesus as if they have previously known Him. And beyond all words, the feeling of awe and majesty and wonder. Whatever the disciples see or sense, it is beyond all normal expectations: a taste of the beyond a preview of coming attractions. After the moment has passed and the trance is broken, there follows a serious discussion. The topic of the discussion is Rising from the dead. And this is before the Crucifixion and Resurrection. After a transcendent moment, the subject at hand is always the Life beyond death. Transcendent moments awaken us to the realms and dimensions beyond this one. Moses and Elijah, long dead, are alive and talking with Jesus. After the discussion of Life beyond death, Jesus speaks of the suffering and the work at hand, and of the world which must be endured lived in and lived through between where they are and the place they have seen. There is a strong urge a great desire to skip the rest of life here. But no! God s assignments have top priority. There is a job to be done here a life to be lived before we move on to the higher realms. When your loved ones die, some of you struggle with grief. I struggle with jealousy. You think Omaha is a nice place to live? Well, so do I. But more and better is coming. Far more and far better! The transcendent moment is a preparation of hope and faith, as if God worries about the ordeal the disciples are being sent into and knows that they will not survive it without some taste of the purpose behind and beyond it. So God provides additional strength and vision the strength of faith and hope through spiritual experience. I suspect we all have our transcendent moments. God is trying to provide us with the strength we will need. If we feel compelled to reject, deny, or repress such moments, we are not going to survive or endure very faithfully in the challenges and tasks awaiting us. That is the only point of this sermon. When the visions (or whatever you call them) come, do not throw them away. You are going to need them. God is trying to tell you something and give you something to hang onto something that will keep your faith clear and strong in the challenges and ordeals ahead. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 6 OF 8
Over and over I find myself talking to people who are trying to operate out of a Christian Faith minus the Resurrection and eternal Life. That is an impossible assignment. It is not going to work. It may be an impressive humanism, but it cannot get even close to the Christian Life. You cannot fly an airplane without wings, no matter how many brilliant, famous, or wealthy passengers you put onboard. We cannot live the Christian Life without Jesus or minus the hope of Heaven, no matter how many good deeds, social concerns, high ideals, or sensible morals we take onboard as cargo. Once we get it clear in our heads that nobody said anything about eternal vacation, then it comes clear that people either believe in Life or they believe in death. Death is the great illusion, the comforter, the opiate of the people. If things get bad enough, we can always kill ourselves. Are we so sure? What if it doesn t work that way? Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. No accountability, no more problems, no more challenges, no more having to learn or grow up. How comforting. Don t you sometimes wish we could really believe that?! The theory of the nonbeliever is that we have invented God to please and comfort ourselves. Only, this God is disturbing beyond human endurance: demanding what no person can abide or achieve; asking the impossible; requiring what no human wants to give; leading where no human wants to follow; giving commandments no human wants to obey; making promises no human can easily believe in; designing a life no human thinks is possible to live. The God of the Scriptures is a God nobody wants! At least not in the beginning. And everlasting Life is never our idea. It is God who keeps insisting, reminding us, putting its awareness before us. Anyway, from the second chapter of Genesis on, the story is about God The Rejected: It is about people running away people trying not to perceive, to know, to obey, or to believe. It is about people trying every trick they can dream up to get free, to get loose, to get away, to escape God. And it is about the God who follows relentlessly, tracking us down over and over, to bring blessing and love and healing and resurrection despite everything we can do to drive God off and turn God away. It is not that people make up ideas about Heaven so they can comfort themselves. People make up ideas about there being no personal or caring God, no Heaven, and no purpose so that they can go on doing things their own way, in greed and pride and self-centeredness, BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 7 OF 8
pretending there is no account to be rendered, no truth to be measured by, no God to be worshipped more than life or self. Trying not to believe in Life and LIFE beyond death is the all-time greatest EXCUSE humans have for living the way we already do and for going on with life the way we are already going at it. God grants us transcendent moments to break us out of that to give us a touch or glimpse of the purpose God has for us and of the Life that is still to be. Transcendent moments do not come from nowhere. We do not make them up; we are not that smart. Hang on to them, be thankful for them, and believe in them. You will need all the strength and vision they can give you. They are God s gift for that very purpose. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2014 All rights reserved. PAGE 8 OF 8