On the Mountaintop by Rev. Kathy Sides (uses some of An Explosion of Glory by Timothy Peck) Preached at Fort Des Moines UMC

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1 On the Mountaintop by Rev. Kathy Sides (uses some of An Explosion of Glory by Timothy Peck) Preached at Fort Des Moines UMC The day before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated he preached what would be his final sermon. It was a sermon in support of sanitation workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee. When you read that sermon from April 3, 1968 you get the feeling that Martin Luther King knew that his death was drawing near. Listen to his words from the conclusion of that final sermon, I ve been to the Mountaintop : "I don t know what will happen now. We ve got some difficult days ahead. But itdoesn t matter to me now. Because I ve been to the mountaintop. And I don t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God s will. And He s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I ve looked over. And I ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I m happy, tonight. I m not worried about anything. I m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the Lord" Rev. King had a mountaintop experience that showed him what was to come, and that mountaintop experience filled him with peace as he faced his future. Mountaintop experiences are like that. In the ancient world, people believed that mountains were special places, places where heaven and earth intersected. The ancient Hebrews believed that mountains were places where godly people encountered God in a special way. I ve had a few mountaintop experiences myself. Some of my most memorable mountaintop experiences have literally been mountaintop experiences, on backpack trips to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. There, surrounded by the vastness and beauty of creation, I ve felt so close to God. And I ve felt such a sense of wonder that the God that created such grandeur should know and love me; one such seemingly tiny and insignificant speck of God s creation. And in the peace and quiet of the mountains, I ve felt a peace in my heart and soul; such peace that it seems to me that nothing in all the world will ever be able to shake it. But the problem with mountaintop experiences, both literally and figuratively, is that you eventually have to come down from the mountain. Martin Luther King had to come down from his mountaintop experience and face the reality of a bullet that would take his life. Maybe, like me, you can remember coming down from mountaintop experiences to the rude awakening of having the hustle and bustle 1

2 and worry of life in the real world to steal away the peace you thought would last forever. After the profound experience on the mountaintop, we come back to the normal routine, and the two seem to collide. As one person once said about coming down from the mountaintop, "After the ecstasy comes the laundry." And it s kind of hard to get excited about the routine things of life. But we know we can t stay on the mountaintop forever. That isn t reality. And, there is work to be done and life to be lived down in the real world. Billy Graham once said, "Mountaintops are for view and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys." Today s Gospel is an account of the ultimate mountaintop experience. An experience that Jesus shared with three of his closest followers. Christ s glory was revealed on the mountaintop for his disciples to see. And they would have been more than happy to have stayed on the mountain, to have basked in the glory. But they were expected to follow Jesus back down the mountain to what lay ahead in the valley. And what lay ahead was more than just your every day valley. It was the valley of the shadow of death. Because from the mountaintop, Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. Toward betrayal and hatred, and death on a cross. There must have been something in that mountaintop experience that gave Jesus the strength to follow his father s will, to set his face toward a future that he knew contained suffering and death. So, let s take a look at it and see what happened there that day on the mountain. Luke 9:28-29 says: Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Christians call this event the transfiguration. To "transfigure" something is to "change" its appearance, and Christ s appearance was radically altered in the full view of Peter, James and John. By the way the event is described in the Gospels, the writers want us to know that this isn t a vision, but that this is actually happening for this inner circle of Jesus disciples to witness. Jesus has taken Peter and James and John apart to a high mountain to pray, and suddenly his clothes became dazzling white. And then as if that wouldn t be startling enough, all of a sudden the disciples see Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. Moses and Elijah are ancient characters from thousands of years earlier in Hebrew history. Both Moses and Elijah were heroes of godliness and passion, both of them long since joining God in heaven. Yet here they reappear for a brief moment, speaking with Jesus on the mountain. There might be several reasons for the appearance of these particular men. 2

3 The traditional Christian explanation is that Moses represents the Old Testament law and Elijah represents the Old Testament prophets. The presence of Moses and Elijah may symbolize how Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures. Both Moses and Elijah had encountered God in a special way in their own mountaintop experiences. They were also people who had some insight into the kind of rejection and suffering that lay ahead for Jesus. Both Moses and Elijah were leaders who were rejected at times by their own people. Even though Moses delivered the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, they struggled to accept Moses as their leader. Over and over again Moses was at his wits end as to what to do with those people! At times they even plotted his death. And Elijah had to go into hiding during his lifetime because many of the people in Israel didn t like his message. So both Moses and Elijah knew the reality of what was ahead for Jesus. Maybe God thought that made them well-qualified to be the ones to speak to Jesus, to give him some strength and encouragement to face what was ahead. Matthew and Mark doesn t say what they talked about, but Luke s account of the transfiguration includes the statement, They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. I like to think that these two great men of God were saying to Jesus, We know what is ahead for you, we know it s going to be difficult, but we know that you can find the strength to do what you have to do. Your heavenly father will provide the strength you need. Remember in the days ahead, even when you feel that God himself has deserted you, that God is with you, and at the end of the suffering, there will be glory. Whatever the reason for the appearance of Moses and Elijah, all of a sudden they appear before the disciples, talking with Jesus, who is suddenly dazzling white. I think we can understand how the disciples would be a little overwhelmed at such a sight. Most artistic renditions of the transfiguration picture Peter, James and John as cowering on the ground, covering their faces in panic and fear. They must ve been totally overwhelmed by the majesty and glory of the event. Sometimes we sing songs asking to see God s glory, but I wonder what we d do if it actually happened. I imagine we might find ourselves cowering on the ground, covering our faces in fear. Peter blurts out the suggestion of building three dwellings, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. No one really knows what Peter was thinking. Maybe he wanted to make the experience last. Maybe he just got caught up in what we all get caught up in sometimes; the feeling that in the face of something extraordinary, somebody ought to say something! Before anyone responds, suddenly a cloud overshadows them and the voice of God speaks from the cloud. 3

4 Now this is the second time God has spoken in Luke s story. The first time came at Jesus baptism, where a voice comes from heaven saying, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22). At Christ s baptism the voice was directed to Jesus, not to the disciples of Jesus. It was addressed from the God the Father to God the Son. But here the same divine voice addresses Jesus followers, Peter, James and John. "This is my Son, my Chosen;" And then comes the command; listen to him! Suddenly, the experience is all over. The cloud is gone, the voice of God is silent, and they are alone again with Jesus. Luke s account says and they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. So, what effect did this mountaintop experience have on those who experienced it? Did it last? Did it change anything? Or did returning to the valley and the experiences it held make them forget anything they might have learned or gained on the mountaintop? I like to think that for Jesus, the mountaintop experience helped him have the strength to face what was ahead. He came down from the mountaintop determined to do his father s will. He was able to keep his eyes on what God had revealed to him. Jesus could see beyond the suffering of the valley, to the glory on the other side. Now, I m not so sure about the disciples. It would seem to us that maybe the experience of the mountaintop didn t quite have the lasting effect of them that Jesus might have hoped for. You would think that beholding the transfigured Jesus, hearing the very voice of God identify him as his son, hearing God command that they listen to Jesus, would have changed them forever. You would think that they would have had no doubts after that. Yet back down in the valley, faced with their fears and all the confusing events of Jesus betrayal, arrest and crucifixion, we find the disciples scattering, hiding, denying. When we would expect Peter to say, He is the son of God, I have seen his glory, I have heard God speak it!, instead we hear him say, I tell you, I don t know the man! And we might wonder why. Why didn t the disciples get it? Why wasn t the mountaintop experience enough to reveal the truth to them, once and for all? I suppose the answer is that they were human. They were afraid, they were confused. We have to remember that Jesus knew what was ahead. He knew what his father s will was, and what it would take to live and die his father s will. He was prepared, he knew the whole story. 4

5 The disciples were stumbling though the events blind. They didn t know what would happen next. And in the confusion and fear of those events the things Jesus had said, the things they had seen and heard, were forgotten. Sometimes the events that take place in the valley so overwhelm us that we can t remember what it was we learned on the mountaintop. And we have to remember that witnessing something like the transfiguration would take a while for the human mind to process. It s not just an everyday experience. Maybe it s a little like this: A brilliant magician was performing on an ocean liner. But every time he did a trick, the Captain s parrot would yell, "It s a trick. He s a phony. That s not magic." Then one evening during a storm, the ship sank while the magician was performing. The parrot and the magician ended up in the same lifeboat. For several days they just glared at each other, neither saying a word to the other. Finally the parrot said, "OK, I give up. What did you do with the ship?" The parrot couldn t explain that last trick! It was too much to comprehend. The disciples probably didn t know what to make of the transfiguration. It was real, but it must have taken a long time for them to really figure it out. And in the meantime they were faced with other events so extraordinary, and eventually so horrible, that they were too overwhelmed to have it all make sense. In Mark s account of the Transfiguration, Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone about it until he had risen from the dead. Maybe he knew it would take them at least that long for it to make sense to them. Maybe only looking back were they able to figure out what they should have learned there on the mountaintop. Next Sunday we begin Lent. We join Jesus on that journey toward Jerusalem and the cross. We will be reminded of what the valleys of life are full of; confusion, suffering, even death. In the midst of that, let us remember the experience of the mountaintop, and heed God s reminder and command, This is my Son, my chosen, listen to him! May we listen to the words of Jesus. May we commit ourselves to following the Christ whose glory has been revealed to us. May each of us be able to say, with Martin Luther King, Jr., We ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn t matter to me now. Because I ve been to the mountaintop....and I ve looked over. I m not worried about anything. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the Lord" 5