“…up to a high mountain…”

(Mark 9:2-9)

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling bright, such as no one on earth could brighten them.  And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.  Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.  Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”  Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.  As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

I got some inspiration for today’s message from reading a daily devotional that is called exactly that, Daily Devotional, featuring one of their writers, Rev. Phiwa Langeni.

So, Jesus was taking a quick break from all his work with the crowds.  He retreated to a mountaintop with Peter, James, and John. Jesus most definitely would’ve been dusty and musty after the extended periods on the road that were hinted at in our last week’s reading about the healing of the leper.  By the 9^th chapter of Mark, that you heard read this morning, Jesus had been quite busy not only teaching but doing lots of healing.  As you heard in the reading, what must have been his dingy garb and appearance after days on the dusty roads, his clothes and his countenance all got changed into the sparkliest and brightest white that could ever be imagined.  As if that wasn’t stunning enough, Elijah and Moses also appeared out of nowhere, chatting it up with Jesus.  

            Engulfed in awe, Peter, then, offered to build shrines for the three holy ones, Jesus, Elijah and Moses, right there on top of the mountain. It IS easy to understand Peter’s desire to put on the back burner that weirdly amazing, transformation that he had just witnessed. Peter may have felt a bit awkward.  Or he may have thought getting busy and putting up three tents would give them something to do while the 3 heroes chatted with each other, something to do while they lingered. 

So, Peter decided to make an event of it.  Okay guys, Peter must have been thinking, we’re gonna set up three tents for these three heroes, then we’re going to have a gala.  It’ll be great!  

So, instead of just being quiet and taking it all in, they decided they needed to plan a program.  Instead of just accepting the beauty of the scene they were part of, they thought they would try manipulating the sacred moment they had witnessed.  Instead of trusting God to reveal the wonder of it all, they thought they would turn it into something of their own making.

Instead of letting God have God’s way with this revelation, the disciples didn’t know what to say because they were scared, so, what did they do?  They kept talking.  So many of us do this very thing every day.  Don’t know what to do or say?  Keep talking!

Now, there is no doubt that there was more work to be done back down the mountain. As things are now, so they were then, the world has an urgent need for us to share our gifts by working for the Kingdom of God.

Perhaps though, everyone needed to take a beat. Maybe those disciples needed to claim space for the awe to wash over them.  Perhaps they needed to just relax into this unexpectedly holy moment before getting themselves back into their labor, their duties and responsibilities, the worries and decisions of their daily lives. Maybe they needed to take a moment to create space for the divine within them and to acknowledge the divine around them.

…So what is the lesson for us in this kind of odd, transfiguration story?  What can we learn by imagining what it might have been like to be on that mountain with Jesus, Elijah and Moses?  What message to us is there in the transformation of Jesus?  Is it possible that we could learn to celebrate the holiness of this scene by being quiet, by seeing Jesus as he really is, transfigured before our very eyes, by holding at the same time, the Jesus who walked around Galilee, preaching and healing and the Christ whom God had declared to be the Son, the Beloved, the One that nobody could have imagined. 

And, in that experience, is it possible for us to imagine that we ourselves could be both/and?  On the one hand, we are the workers trying to spread the Gospel of love in this broken world, the folks who are creating programs in which people are drawn into the church and all that that means to us.  On the other hand, at the same time, could we be people who have been transformed to contain that divine spark within us?  Could we be beings who can imagine a world in which good can conquer evil, a world in which love prevails over self-centeredness, a world in which the Jesus in me can connect with the Jesus in you?

…Sometimes I despair for the disciples in the Gospels.  I get disappointed when they are stuck in their own selfish needs and desires.  I wonder if they are ever going to “get it.”  In this story this morning, I have decided to give Peter and James and John the benefit of the doubt.  I challenge you and myself with the possibility that, just as Jesus is transfigured, transformed, changed, could it be possible for us to undergo such a change? 

For this really is the heart of the Gospel message, the true meaning of dying and rising with Christ.  It is that which we talk about in baptism, that because of Jesus we are changed, we are saved from lives lived in self-centered struggles, changed to beings who are drawn toward the light of Christ, toward lives of peace and simple joys, lives in which we feel forgiven and able to move on when we make mistakes, even when we do the wrong thing purposefully.

Well, I think this sets us up for our Lenten prayer work because, as we all know, change rarely happens instantaneously.  It happens little by little, slowly, two steps forward and one back.  It requires us to hold the vision of Jesus shining dazzling bright before us.  We must keep God’s voice echoing out of the cloud introducing us too.  “Behold, these are my children!  You can trust them, and you can listen to them!”  It’s amazing to think that God might be able to say that about us.  Wouldn’t that be something?!  Amen.