Have you ever had a “mountain top experience,” when your faith was so real, whenGod was so close, when everything was so clear that you felt that your life could never again be the same? Perhaps it was at a retreat, the birth of your child, a special Christmas Eve service, a hike in the woods or being the undeserved beneficiary of an act of charity.
BUT . . . then you had to go back home, to your daily routine and to your ordinary church where the altar guild makes mistakes, the choir can be off key, the pastor can preach boring sermons and people can behave badly.
That was the experience of the disciples in today’s Gospel. Jesus takes his inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John, to the mountaintop. There they, like so many other characters in the Bible, have a “mountain top experience,” a miraculous encounter with the very presence of God. In today’s Gospel it is on a mountain that Jesus is miraculously “transfigured.” He glows a brilliant white light. Other mountaintop-heroes,Moses and Elijah, also appear and converse with Him.
The disciples are stunned! Peter, the impetuous one, wants to hold on to this “mountain top experience.” He offers to build three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Perhaps a religious shrine can preserve this moment in time. This placecould become a religious retreat center. They could invite tourists, sell tickets, offer T-shirts promoting a trip to the Mount of the Transfiguration. The “mountain top experience” could be relived again and again.
We treasure our mountain top experiences. We wish that all of life would be this way. BUT . . . just like Jesus and his disciples we must go down into the valley and on toJerusalem. The Transfiguration of our Lord is about the future. That is why our color today is white. The large white banner portraying the risen Jesus reminds us that theTransfiguration of Jesus is about what lies ahead. It is a sneak preview of Easter and the glory of the resurrection to come. BUT . . . in the meantime we must go through the season of LENT. We must first make our 40 day walk to Holy Week and the cross. We cannot stay on the mountain top. We must go back to the real world where, as Psalm 23 reminds us, we must live “in the valley of the shadow of death.”
Jesus leads his disciples off the mountain, because they cannot stay there. They must go on to Jerusalem where Jesus must fulfill His mission. We too must go into the real world . . . into the valley. There life can be insanely random. There seemingly trivial choices can be a matter of life and death. There simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time can be deadly. There a suddenly discovered lump in your chest changes everything. There shortness of breath becomes chest pain and a loved one is gone. There a missed phone call ends your career. There the one you thought you could always trust cheats on you. There suffering and hurt lurk around every corner. There in the valley we wonder “What if?” and ask “Why me?”
And, if we are really daring, we will ask the God question. If we do not, the Scriptures will. What about God? What kind of a God is it that permits a world afflicted with so much insanity and so much suffering . . . and the crucifixion of an ordinarycarpenter’s son of Nazareth who dared to love outcasts and befriend undeserving sinners in the name of God?
Jesus doesn’t flinch! He embraces life in the valley. He befriends the wounded and excluded. He loves the victims. He hangs out with the great unwashed. He forgives perpetrators, tax collectors, crooks, sinners of all kinds and confronts the critics who say, “You can’t do that . . . in the name of God!” He even confronts the righteous frown of his own father who was dismayed with a world captivated with its own rebellion. He dares to oppose his own father’s righteous judgment of sinners . . . all the way to the cross. There he suffers the consequences of choosing to live in the valley . . . with all of us sinners.
But he doesn’t stay dead! On the “third day,” his father is so impressed that he raises him from the dead and declares “That’s my boy and he did exactly what I wanted him to do!”
That day on the mountaintop sustained Jesus through the valley all the way to the cross. That day on the mountaintop also would sustain Jesus’ disciples through their valleys long after Jesus had departed from them. They would no longer SEE Jesus, but they would always HEAR Him. The voice from the cloud said, “Listen to Him!” Jesus would continue to speak to them . . . and to us . . . and through His Word sustain us as we journey through the valley. Jesus speaks to us at the font, at the table, through Scripture, through the words, deeds, smiles, hugs and love of those around us.
When Jesus speaks, we hear His amazing promise. That promise makes something marvelous happen. It is as if we are there on the mountaintop. We see the very face of God, Jesus in all His transfigured glory, . . . surprisingly . . . in the faces of the very ordinary people around us!
A young husband suffering with cancer, wasting away before my very eyes, once said to me, “Pastor, I don’t need a Jesus who can walk on water, but one who can walk on dry land . . . in the valley of the shadow of death . . . with me.”
That is the Jesus we get! We cannot SEE this Jesus like Peter, James and John did that day on the mountain. However, when we LISTEN and hear that good news . . . (“I forgive you. I love you. This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you,” when we are down and out and a friend smiles, puts his arm on our shoulder and asks, “How are you today?”) . . . we are there on the mountaintop. There is Jesus . . . in all His transfigured glory! We can believe . . . and we can have the faith to sustain us as we live life in the valley.
Christ Church, the Lutheran Church of Zionsville
Rev. Dr. Steven E. Albertin (Click to E-mail)
