Back Down

Back Down

Rev. Dr. Tom Sorenson, Pastor

February 7, 2016

Scripture: Luke 9:28-36

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

It must have been quite an experience. For Jesus’ three disciples who went with him, I mean. Jesus took his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John, up a mountain with him to pray. Jesus frequently went off by himself to pray, or tried to. A good example for us actually, but this time he took the inner circle of his inner circle with him. I wonder if they wondered why, but none of the three Gospels in which this story occurs tells us that they did. So they were up on what our text calls a mountain, although there really is nothing in Galilee that is all that much of a mountain by our standards. They’re up there, and the most incredible thing happened. As Luke tells it the appearance of Jesus’ face changed, although Luke doesn’t tells us how it changed. It just changed. He does tell us that his clothes changed too. They became “as bright as a flash of lightning.” This story is called the Transfiguration, which means the transformation of Jesus’ appearance, and transform his appearance certainly seems to have done.

But wait! There’s more! Two long gone giants of the Jewish faith, Moses and Elijah, appeared on that mountain along with Jesus and his friends. These men are immensely important. Moses represents the Law. Elijah represents the prophets. Together they represent all of the Hebrew Bible that had become the Bible in the first century CE. They come to Jesus. I think we are to understand this part of the story as a symbolic confession that Jesus is the culmination of the Hebrew scriptures, something the Evangelists certainly believed him to be and that the Christian tradition has believed him to be ever since.

A cloud comes over our three witnesses, which scares them a bit. A voice comes from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” It’s always struck me as really important that the voice of God in this story, for that clearly is who is speaking here, says of Jesus “Listen to him” not “Believe in him.” It’s not that we aren’t supposed to believe in him of course, but God here says listen to him instead. I think maybe we Christians should spend more time listening to what God says here, but that’s a sermon for another day.

Now, I don’t think I can even imagine what having such an experience would be like, but I do know that people of faith often have experiences that they name after the setting of this story. We call them mountaintop experiences. Mountaintop experiences are powerful, extraordinary experiences, experiences outside of our ordinary experience. People describe them as transcendent experiences, as experiences of the presence of God in a remarkable way far beyond our ordinary experiences of the presence of God. People often describe these experiences as being peaceful in a way those of us who haven’t had them can’t even imagine. They can be experiences of great joy as well as of great peace.

The Gospels don’t say that Jesus’ three disciples felt those things, but it hints that they did. The story says that when Peter saw Jesus transfigured and saw Moses and Elijah with him he said “Master, it is good for us to be here.” He doesn’t elaborate, but I don’t think it’s reading too much into the story to think that Peter said that being there was good because he was having a real mountaintop experience full of peace and joy, and a little fear too. In any event he says it’s good for them to be there, and he makes a suggestion. A rather startling suggestion perhaps, but a very telling one. He says to Jesus “Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Now, the story has told us nothing to suggest that those three giants of the faith needed shelters up there on that supposed mountain, but Peter suggests building shelters for them anyway. I’ve always understood that part of the story to indicate that Peter wanted to stay up on that mountain. He wanted to stay in his mountaintop experience. Why else build shelters? They wouldn’t need them if they were only going to be there for a brief time, but they might well need them if they were going to stay there for a while. Peter is saying, I think, I want to stay here. I don’t want to go back down the mountain. It’s too good up here with my Lord and his two great predecessors in the faith. I want life always to be like this, on the mountaintop, having a mountaintop experience.

I think I get why he would want to stay up there. Mountaintop experiences really are wonderful. A powerful sense of the immediate presence and love of God is better than anything else any of us ever experiences. It is the experience toward which the mystics of all faith traditions aspire. Such an experience transcends all of the trials and tribulations of the world, and in those experiences we transcend them too. After such an experience ordinary life seems so, well, ordinary. So Peter, I get it. You didn’t want to come back down.

How did Jesus react to Peter’s suggestion of building shelters and staying on the mountaintop? Well, he didn’t. Jesus didn’t respond to Peter’s suggestion at all. None of the Evangelists who tell this story, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, say anything about Jesus answering Peter’s suggestion. In all three Gospels, Jesus just leads them back down the mountain. He leads them back into the world. He leads them back into the work of his ministry with the lost, the sick, and the suffering. He doesn’t say no to Peter. He doesn’t explain why they can’t stay on the mountaintop. He just leads them off the mountaintop without a word. It seems he didn’t even think Peter’s suggestion was worth replying to. He ignored it, and he took them down off the mountain.

There’s a great lesson for us in the way Jesus didn’t even respond to Peter but just took his closest disciples down off the mountain and back into the world, back into the work they had to do. Sometimes we’d rather stay on the mountaintop. We’d rather bask in the radiance of Christ’s presence in places set apart, in sacred places, in places of worship and prayer. Or maybe places of great beauty, like the mountains and waters in this beautiful part of God’s world. We’ll take marveling at a spectacular sunset over working with the homeless any day, but here’s the thing. Jesus took the disciples back down the mountain. He took them back into the world, not even answering Peter’s suggestion that they stay on the mountain with words, just with actions.

Out in the world is where Jesus wants us. Out doing God’s work. Out serving the poor and the suffering. Out working for peace and justice. Sure. We’d rather stay on the mountaintop. It’s a lot more pleasant there. Life’s a lot easier there. Jesus knew that, but he also knew that Peter’s suggestion that they all stay there wasn’t even worth responding to. He lead them back down. He leads us back down. That’s where God wants us most of the time. Back down off the mountain. Out in the world, doing God’s work. Of course Jesus comes back down the mountain with us just like he came back down with Peter, James, and John, but back down is where we belong. So be it. Amen.