| 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 white, such
as no one on earth could bleach 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 make three dwellings, 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. |
|
| Isaiah 43:18-19, 25 |
| There is a little known place in Arizona that profoundly
shaped my junior high and high school years. The place is called
Montlure Presbyterian Church Camp. Located in Greer, Arizona,
the camp sits at the bottom of a valley filled with Ponderosa
Pine and Aspen trees. It is like a little slice of heaven here
on earth. Montlure sits at the edge of a valley between two
mountains with a creek running through it. The camp is bordered
by State Park Service lands so it is protected from development.
Montlure is a small rustic camp. There were no thrilling rides
or a lake to Jet Ski on. The cabins had no heat and plenty
of bugs. If you had to go to the bathroom in the night you
needed your flashlight to aid your walk down the mountain to
the common facilities. My first year as a camper on my second
day we had the opportunity to take a hike with one of our counselors.
The destination was the top of one of the mountains. Each one
had a wooden cross near the top that you could barely make
out from the lodge down in the valley. I took off with our
leader, a few girls and a huge bunch of boys. It was hard work
for my short legs to keep up with the taller contingent that
were charging straight up the mountain! There were no set paths
and it hadn’t rained in a long while so as we kicked
up dust it clung to our sweaty faces and legs. Each of us made
our own path up around the masses of trees and outcroppings
of boulders. |
| When we had all reached the summit our counselor gathered
us together near the cross. Everyone was out of breath. I was
worn out and wired at the same time. Having pushed it too much
to stay with the pack, my body was actually shaking inside.
I was very proud though of having made it up to that cross
which I could barely see just a few hours before. Our counselor
took out his Bible and read one of the transfiguration accounts
from synoptic gospels. He asked us what our thoughts were.
I needed more breathing time before I could speak. One of the
boys replied, “The difference between us and the disciples
is that they had to go down and didn’t understand it.
There was more to God in Jesus but they thought they’d
seen it all. They thought it couldn’t get better than
that mountaintop experience.” The leader said, “Then
what about us?” Another boy answered “We have been
told the whole story of God and I think people try to use that
to make faith too easy. Maybe that is why we need to wear ourselves
out by hiking up here in search of the cross. We forget how
different God is from us like the disciples witnessed that
day. So God busts in and reminds us to listen and not to act
as though we know everything already. People at church say
just do this and just do that, your faith is fine. But it seems
like faith is supposed to be more radical than minding our
manners. Isn’t belief in God supposed to change us?” |
| A mountaintop experience, as Christians use the term, has
become a code word for all things wonderful and thrilling.
People use the term to convey stories of a conversion or a
transformational moment for the individual, and tend to cling
to the mountaintop experience with joy. But Mark doesn’t
describe the three disciples who witness Jesus’ transfiguration
as bubbling with joy. The presence of a shining Jesus aglow
with the radiance of God, standing with Elijah and Moses made
them feel something else, fear. |
| We tend to forget that on top of the mountain, above the
tree line the air is thin and humans have trouble breathing.
It is a long journey to get up the mountain in the first place.
Not having paced myself for my first hike to the cross, I was
exhausted and my mind was foggy! Peter, James and John, the
disciples that Jesus took to the top of the mountain with him
were not expecting God’s revelation of Jesus as divine
that day. Their hearts were thumping because they were frightened.
They didn’t know what to make or do with this vision
of Jesus. |
| These three, who witness God’s glory fully revealed
in Jesus, were terrified! Their mountaintop experience was
disorienting. In case we didn’t hear the trembling in
Peter’s ramblings or missed the complete silence of James
and John (all of whom forgot to bow down in God’s presence),
Mark is kind enough to give us an editorial note explaining
that Peter “did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” God
pitched a boundary-breaking dwelling in Jesus which was shining
through at them with blinding light. The glory of God, was
no longer contained in the tent of the meeting place or the
temple, it was on the loose in incarnate form. Its incarnate
form shocked them. |
| Both Mark’s original readers and those of us gathered
here today know what the disciples do not; a risen Christ!
For Peter, John and James, Jesus’ words about suffering
faded away on that mountaintop. Here was glory! Maybe they
could stay there forever? Jesus could camp out in a tent with
them and then the glory of God would be present with them always—a
reminder that God was with them like in ancient Israel’s
days. |
| They didn’t quite yet know that Jesus was going to
be with them always, but in a different manner. So God came
to them in a more familiar form, which the disciples could
recognize. A cloud overshadowed and silenced Peter. “And
from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the
Beloved; listen to him!” I’ve always felt this
overshadowing of the disciples was very compassionate on the
part of God. Today we might be terrified of God appearing in
a cloud, but for those three disciples God in the cloud was
a familiar phenomenon pointing back to the way God revealed
God’s self to Israel in the wilderness. |
| God said, “listen to him” and suddenly they were
left alone in Jesus’ presence. Everything else disappeared
and the white light went away. They had seen a sneak peek of
the “not yet” of Jesus’ person and work.
The glory of God is found in Jesus’ actions and words.
We are to listen in Jesus’ journey to the cross showing
us that glory is found not only in bright shiny moments, but
in human weakness as well. Along with the three disciples we
are instructed by God in the overshadowing cloud “Listen!” As
we continue on the Lenten journey surveying the road Jesus
takes after his Transfiguration we will see the radical, transforming,
shaking love of our Savior. |
| For Peter, James and John, the mountaintop held a mixture
of pleasure and pain, of trembling and euphoria, of uncertainty
and comfort. The shock of Jesus’ willingness to humble
himself and come down from the safety of the mountain for our
sake is stunning in itself. His continued journey will assure
us on our journeys that we are never on our own, even unto
death. |
| I went on a lot of hikes to the crosses on the two mountains
during my years of camping at Montlure. I came to understand
each hike as a journey of faith and I was grateful for the
way each hike shaped me and deepened my faith. Winter hikes,
summer hikes, and family camp hikes; no matter which context
my mind would drift to that first hike. How my head was pounding,
and my body was shaking and how the disciples’ bodies
and hearts were doing the same thing when they realized God’s
glory dwelt in human form. |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - February 26, 2006 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
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