Off the Mountain
A Sermon on Matthew 17:1-9 and Exodus 24:12-18
By Griff Martin
For the People of First Austin: a baptist community
of faith
On the Sixth Sunday following Epiphany
Feb 26, 2107
(The Sunday before Ash Wednesday/ Joe’s final
Sunday)
Incarnate
God, we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living
and breathing reality we can all together experience. Be present here in this
space and in these words God for if you are present here then nothing else will
matter, but if you are not present here then nothing else will matter. In the
name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter.
It’s
a tricky Sunday. Today is the last Sunday before we begin Lent, which means for
many of us it’s the last safe Sunday for a while because Lent is hard. It’s
about abstaining from things, it’s a time we set aside to focus on spiritual
formation and not the easy 40 Days of Purpose kind, but instead the kind where
no stone in our soul is left unturned. It’s spring cleaning of our hearts. It’s
a time we pull out the words like confession and sin and repentance. And it’s a
journey to the very Cross of Christ and that is a journey that is not easy to
make, no matter how many times you have been there.
And
then on top of that since it’s the Last Sunday before Lent, that means that
according to our liturgical calendar it’s also the Sunday we celebrate
Transfiguration Sunday. And for some of us here, preacher included, this is one
of those Sundays that feels a bit too magical, as if this belongs in the world
of Dumbledore and Hogwarts or the town Hawkins, Indiana from Stranger Things.
This whole event is completely other worldly, it’s almost science fiction, and
it’s not something many of us can readily relate to. It does not make sense to our
science and fact based culture where we want things to conform to the world we
know and understand. Even for those of us here that are a bit more miracle
prone, this is a hard day because this is not a miracle Jesus performs, this is
a miracle that happens to Jesus.
And
then on top of that, for our community today it’s the day we are celebrating
Joe and Charlotte Bumbulis and their journey thus far with us. It’s a day we
honor the work Joe has done here at First Austin as our Minister to Students
and Missions Minister. It’s a day we celebrate all they have meant to us and
the gifts they have given us over the last 9 years and we grieve their leaving
but we celebrate their goodness and presence.
So
when Joe set the date, I immediately thought I had been given the golden
ticket. “Great Joe, don’t you really feel called to preach one more time here
at First Austin?” to which he responded, “Transfiguration Sunday, no thanks….”
(Thanks a lot Joe)
So
what are we to do on this day? We go on up the mountain because that is where
Jesus has called us, that is where Scripture is calling us… up to the
mountaintop.
Which
is exactly what Peter, James and John do this morning. It’s important to know
where we are in the Gospel story. Jesus and the disciples have just returned
from a visit to Caesarea Philippi where Peter has declared that Jesus is the
Lord, a most important confession, words that change everything… the first time
this is revealed aloud in Matthew’s story. However that is all that happens
there, it is a very long journey there and back, days of traveling for Jesus
and the disciples. Long, hard days traveling on foot.
So
Peter, James and John might not be all that excited after a long journey and
days of travel when Jesus starts off this day with the request they go on a
hike with him. They might even be thinking, “well you often escape to the
mountain to pray by yourself, you sure you don’t want some alone time?” in
the same tone that early in the morning I say to Jude, “don’t you want to take
the ipad back to your bed and watch movies for a few more hours?”
And
just like Jude insists that no he really needs to be with me, Jesus insists
that he needs these three to go with him, to be with him. Now we always assume
these are the special three, the inner circle, the one’s who get it the most….
But teachers know better, think about it: who does a teacher pull aside? A
teacher pulls aside the students who are ahead of the class and the students
who are not quite keeping up. Your best learners or your slowest learners.
These might be the brightest, but they also might be the slowest. So they are
us.
Up
the mountain they go and once they reach the top they witness something that is
most miraculous and mysterious and confusing. Jesus is praying and suddenly in
that prayer Jesus transforms. Barbara Brown Taylor describes it like this: “And there he is: someone you thought you knew really
well, standing there pulsing with light, leaking light everywhere. Face
like a flame. Clothes dazzling white. Then, as if that weren't
enough, two other people are there with him, all of them standing in that same
bright light. Who are they? Can't be. Moses.
Elijah. Dead men come back to life. God's own glory, lighting up
the night.”
Radiant light and then in the midst of that, Moses and
Elijah, which is strange for several reasons: First, they are both long
gone from our story…. Both with rather mysterious deaths that are more
disappearances, but nonetheless they are not around anymore and second: If some
Old Testament figures are going to appear, these two don’t make any sense…. It
should by Aaron the High Priest who interprets the law and King David who
defends Israel… it should be symbols of royalty and ritual… but instead it’s
these prophets who said difficult things to those in power and led Israel from
dark places into freedom.
So
the disciples after a long hike are fighting to stay awake and suddenly staying
awake is not a problem, Jesus is dazzling white, two ghosts from the pasts are
with him and then a heavy cloud comes down and covers them all and a voice,
“this is my Beloved, listen to him!”
The
disciples see something very few get to see… the very glory of God. Even Moses
on the mountain has not seen the full glory of God. The disciples get to see
the glory of God… they see as Paul will later write, “with unveiled faces.”
They see the full glory of God. And it is Good.
And
their reply is simple: “It is good for us to be here, so let’s build some
shelter and stay here forever.” This is a pinnacle moment for them, the
fullness of Jesus revealed, a place of Divine Wholeness, this is the place the
heart aches for, this is the place where all is well. No wonder they want to
stay here forever.
And
Jesus replies: “No we are not to stay here on this mountain, let’s get going
and head to Jerusalem.”
And
they hike down the mountain, away from that sacred and good place where they
had just been standing, and they hike down into a crowd of people who are
fighting and arguing with one another, into a crowd where the center of
attention is a father who is at wit’s end and has brought his boy to the disciples
to see if they can heal him of the demon that is robbing him of life. A scene
of intense tension, worry, fear… things are out of control and it’s a bit
scary. It’s life as most of us know it.
As
I sat with the text this week there was a temptation to see it through the
typical lens. Typically when we hear this story we think of the disciples as
the Three Stooges in this tale. But as I sat this week I was really drawn to
the disciples. To begin with the “mistakes” they make in this text are
interrupting God, not understanding the things Jesus says, struggling to be
present in a moment, asking the wrong question, making an improper demand… and
the truth is those are things I do daily, if not hourly.
And
then I realized something else about the disciples that I had never seen
before. These three who have dedicated their lives to following Jesus and to
knowing God better, on top of this mountain they finally experience it, the
very fullness of God. They experience God in a way no one else does, so Peter’s
comment, “Let’s make tents and stay here forever” is a completely valid
thought, this makes sense.
What
doesn’t make sense is that when Jesus calls them to follow him off the
mountain, they follow. They who have experience the Divine Present, head back into
life, following Jesus. Off the mountain and into the valley…. Back to life.
It’s
the very call of Jesus, to leave the high place and go instead to the valley
where God’s very heart is broken. And that is what Jesus has been saying to the
disciples over and over and over: this path- My Way- includes heading straight
for the place where you will be broken. And then it all started to come
together for me.
You
see this is exactly what I see you doing this day Joe. You have been on a
mountain, the place where your whole life was preparing you for, a place that
has a fair amount of safety and security, a place you probably envisioned
staying for the rest of your life in full time vocational ministry, a place
where hopefully at some point you have experienced God’s fullness and presence
and yet Jesus is calling you to more…. Jesus is calling you to a place that is
mysterious, where control is gone, a place where fears are real, this place of
life where there is heart ache and you are obediently heading there, knowing
with full confidence that what you have experienced will sustain you, that you
are following the voice of Jesus and that Jesus is present with you.
And
maybe this is your final ministerial role here, to show us all how to walk off
a mountain and straight into Lent… to call all of us to look around and see if
we have made home in a place of safety and security, maybe a place we have
envisioned staying the rest of our lives, a place where we too have hopefully
experienced God’s presence and to leave that place to go to the place where
God’s Kingdom is most needed, we all know God is calling us to more, Jesus is
calling us further… and maybe it’s time for us to make that journey as well.
Maybe
this Lent is about…..taking the time for us to honestly look at the safe places
where we want to camp, the places where we make shelter and try to make
permanent homes, the places where everything feels right and good and secure…
and these places are all over our lives from the way we as a community do church-
it worked once, this makes me feel good, this programming provides me security,
this is where I feel God’s presence, this mission is not too risky… to the ways
we individually commune with God which is often less relationship and more
routine… to the ways we follow Jesus, think about how many of our ministries
and missional activities are actually about us, think about how often our good
deeds fill our egos and don’t even touch God’s will or how often we only do
that which is safe or ask how often we truly engage with life in terms of the
hard and wholly broken places in our world.
Our
Lent this year might need to be hearing the words of Sir Francis Drake’s
prayer:
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
This
Lent is an invitation to look at the places we are camping and to remember that
we serve a Jesus that never made camp. A Jesus who once said, “Foxes have
dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Which makes sense because for Jesus the journey of faith is a journey of
progress, of forward movement, and he can’t get comfortable and make camp
because there is a world to save and because God is one step ahead of us. So he
goes up the mountain to experience God’s presence and then back down the
mountain to life because that is the journey of faith, to head straight into
the place where God’s Kingdom is most needed, in our own hearts and in the
world.
Maybe
this Lent is about us finding ways to escape to the mountain to be filled and
then to enter the world where God’s very heart will be broken. To find ways to
live a rhythm of contemplation and action, listening and doing, being and
following.
But
let us not forget, as the disciples left the mountain, they did carry that
moment with them. And the light from the mountain gave them enough light to see
by each and every day.
It’s
the words the Lion, the King, Aslan gives in Narnia novel The Silver Chair,
his final speech before entering the Land of Narnia: “Here on this mountain,
I have spoken to you clearly. I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on
this mountain the air is clear and your mind is clear, as you drop to Narnia,
the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And
the signs which you have learned here will not look at all like you expect them
to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them
by heart and pay no attention to appearance. Remember the signs and believe the
signs. Nothing else matters.”
Joe
may you continue to meet Jesus and experience the fullness of God on the
mountain and may you continue to follow Jesus off the mountain and into the
world that needs salvation.
And
may we continue to meet Jesus and experience the fullness of God on the
mountain and may we continue to follow Jesus off the mountain and into the
world that needs salvation.
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