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Transfiguration March 6, 2011 Matthew 17:1-9 I suspect that nearly everyone here has had what we often call "mountaintop experiences," where things work out so well that it is hard to imagine that it could get any better. Now having lived in both California and Montana, I have also experienced some actual mountaintop experiences. Having a snowball fight over 6,600 feet up on Logan Pass on Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park was pretty awesome. Taking a ski-lift during the summer months, to about 6,800 feet on Whitefish Mountain near Whitefish Montana, then hiking around, was pretty awesome. Coming down from the Lake Tahoe area on a clear day and seeing Sacramento and in the distance much of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, was pretty awesome. Then there are those mountaintop experiences that do not actually involve mountains. Any time I get to do a baptism is a mountaintop experience. Doing weddings are mountaintop experiences. Of course, my weddings usually involve 12 hours of premarital counseling that really stresses the reality of married life, that the newly married couple will come down off the mountain and find plains, and even valleys that they must work through together. We find that much as we would like to stop on the mountaintop experiences, much as we would like to stay there, we cannot do so, because life, everyday life, intrudes. We have to go back to work, we have to get the kids off to school, we get colds, or the flu, or worse. We have a spat with our spouse, we lose our spouse maybe through divorce or death. We come down off the mountaintop whether we want to do so or not. This morning, we have Peter, James and John going to the mountain with Jesus. Did they know they were going to have a mountaintop experience? I doubt it, but I have no doubt they were expecting something good, something special, simply because they were with Jesus. Then something happens, something more special than anything they could have imagined. Jesus is transfigured before them. Now the Greek word translated as transfigured is often translated as transformed as well. As in the Apostle Paul telling us to "be transformed by the renewing of your minds," from his letter to the Romans. Jesus is transfigured, he is transformed, Peter, James and John are privileged to see him in clothes that are dazzling white with a face that shines like the sun. This account makes me think that perhaps they got to see a foretaste of Jesus' glory in heaven. Then Moses and Elijah appear. Not that it matters, but at this point, I always have to take a few moments and ponder how did Peter knew who those two figures were? Now we often make much of Peter's seemingly innate ability to put his foot in his mouth and babble, usually citing this account to illustrate what we mean. Peter tells Jesus that it is good for them to be there and suggests building three dwellings for them. But once again I have to wonder what I might have said had I been there. Imagine the awe, not only the awe but the fear, almost terror, that they might have felt, then imagine what you might have said, assuming of course you could say anything. But in spite of his fear, he does not want this mountaintop experience to end. Now the Greek word translated as dwellings in our text also means tents, or tabernacles, and this reminds me of John's Gospel in the first chapter where he tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled among us. As God led his people through the wilderness after they left Egypt, so Peter, James and John get a foreshadowing of what John later writes about in his Gospel; that God has taken on flesh and lived among us. The voice of God the Father tells them from the bright cloud, "This is my Son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" Now I think that this is your day for Greek lessons, because the last three words there "listen to him" are directed to you, to you collectively, the "you" is plural, meaning all of you listen. This is what we call a present imperative; it means listen, and keep on listening to Jesus. Why? Because God said so which should be quite enough for any of us. But Paul also tells us, again in his letter to the Romans, that "faith comes from hearing and what is heard comes through the word of Christ." Peter, James John are facedown on the ground and Jesus touches them as he touches us, even as he touches us in the water of our baptisms, in the bread and wine, his flesh and blood. He tells them and he tells us to not be afraid; of mountaintops and valleys or the plains where you live. He tells them to get up; in effect to get up and follow me. To pick up your cross because I will give you the strength to do so, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might, to love your neighbors as yourselves, to love as I have loved you. They get up and they see no one except Jesus himself. And that is the key for you and me, we see no one, we see nothing but Jesus himself. We see our treasure, we see Jesus and it is there where we find our hearts, in no one or nothing except Jesus. And we are transformed. AMEN Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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