Mt 17:1
Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
Mountains are thin spaces, special connections between humans and God.
At least, that is what the scholars tell me is one reason why Jesus, Peter, James and John go up a high mountain.
But I’ve climbed a mountain (well, not a mountain exactly. Mars Hill Mountain is located in my home town and it is technically a few feet short of mountain, which by the way should tell you something about the stubborn streak of the stock I come from… we still call it a mountain anyway, but that isn’t my point). I climbed an almost mountain, and as beautiful as the view from the summit was, the journey wasn’t easy. And you don’t need any special equipment to climb Mars Hill Mountain. But I did it in the summer and its hot and humid and the mosquitoes and blackflies are out. There are some pretty steep sections. It can be challenging, perhaps not for some of you more experienced hikers, but it was for me.
Today’s first story, Jesus, Peter, James and John, going up the mountain comes AFTER a story we talked about not to long ago; the story of Peter confessing that Jesus is the Christ, but then faltering with the idea that Jesus will have to suffer and be crucified, and in his attempt to wrap his head around that idea (which begins, like most of us if we admit it, with denying that which we cannot yet comprehend) Jesus calls him Satan…
Now my point is this.
The mountain, if you asked me, is the journey of being a faithful disciple
The mountain can be
personal struggles;
the loss of a loved one,
caring for aging parents,
battling addiction,
the constant maintenance of a healthy relationship with our spouse,
just keeping the bills paid.
The mountain is the stuff of life that you can’t avoid,
The stuff that you wouldn’t either, such as raising kids and caring for parents
But the details of life that can swing either way
As moments that can reveal the glory of God
Or that can really weary, discourage and distract us…
Jesus told this parable in Luke 8 about a farming scattering seed…
14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.
This is what I think…
Matthew is telling us a story to address the same issue
Because the mountain, if you asked me, is discipleship struggles
If you call someone fool you are headed straight for hell!
If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek
If someone takes your coat, give your shirt as well
If you don’t forgive, you won’t be forgiven
Following Christ is the decision to climb a difficult, risky path through life…
It doesn’t come easy
It doesn’t seem natural
Or logical even, sometimes
So the mountain is that struggle with the voices in our head that suggest that Jesus
Must have meant something else, something less demanding when he said to
Give generously, forgive wantonly, accept openly…
So the mountain can be personal struggles, discipleship struggles and one more…
We’ve really rehearsed these examples so much that I sometimes fear that they lose their edge
But the mountain is the story of Dietrich Bonheoffer who returned to Germany during Hitler’s rule
To lead an underground seminary, as so many churches drank the Nazi cool-aid and watched as innocent Jews were loaded into cattle cars.
The mountain is the story that I mentioned not too many weeks ago, of Martin Luther King Junior penning letter to a Birmingham Jail, in response to the local white clergy who wanted him to stop causing such a stir in the community. You are disrupting our peaceful existence…
Or John Woolman the 18th Century Quaker who walked around in white because wearing clothes made of dyed fabric would have been depending on slave labor and slavery, Woolman believed was wrong. There were all that many who agreed with him at the time… Not even among the good Christians
My point is that the mountain is not just personal struggles, or the growing pains of our own development of faith, the mountain is also the witness that we are called to maintain in a world filled with violence and injustice. The challenge of being the church God has called us to be even when culture and society will not agree or understand or appreciate what we are doing…The mountain is our hesitation to join Jesus in over-turning the tables of the money lenders…
17:1 After six days
Which could mean six days after Peter’s confession followed quickly by fear, doubt and denial…
But which also points us to two other stories…
The story of Moses on Mt. Sinai, surrounded by the cloud of God’s presence, the presence that made his face shine like the sun…
And also the story of creation in Genesis…
James, John and Peter were lead up the mountain, the mountain of their fears, doubts, and denials
To see, firsthand, what God was doing…
James, John and Peter were lead up the mountain to see the glory of God
They were lead up the mountain for strength and hope…
When all about them would seem dark and dangerous,
This glimpse of God’s glory, in their friend Jesus
Was meant to inspire them to follow him
Taking God’s creative and creating light into the dark places of the world
Reflecting God presence into the lives of those who were denied
That loving forgiving presence
The thing about the transfiguration is that it isn’t something we can practice
We can’t work toward transfiguration
We can’t earn it
We can’t plan it
We can’t control it
Transfiguration is a gift
Seeing God’s glory
God creative presence
Is a rare and wondrous and if we look at Peter’s reaction,
A daunting thing
Peter is shown the transfiguration
So that one day, he will remember it
And realize, when he has returned to his simple, safe life of fishing
That he too is called to follow Christ, no matter the consequences
And that no matter how dire those consequences seem
On the other side of sacrifice… is glory, light, resurrection
The creative presence of God, even in defeat.
Convictions, wrote James Wm. McClendon, are not just beliefs or opinions, … for our convictions show themselves not merely in our professions or belief or disbelief, but in all our attitudes and actions…
And if that were not challenging enough, McClendon goes on to say of the church…no mere collections of the curious will count.
James William McClendon, Jr.
Doctrine p 29
John Howard Yoder wrote similarly contrasting two choices for the church… ‘run-of-the-mill’ devotion or a ‘heroic’ level of devotion.
J.H. Yoder; The Priestly Kingdom
The Kingdom as Social Ethic, p. 83
The Transfiguration is a gift to inspire heroic devotion… to shock us out of our curious believing and into action…
Which is where our second strange story comes into play…
Mt 17:27
Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin.
We cannot control Transfigurations
We cannot plan them, as I said,
We wait expectantly for them…
We ready ourselves for Transfigurations
Those moments that interrupt our struggles and doubts and silence and fear
With the white light of God’s own creating
We ready ourselves to be ready for those moments
With the seemingly foolish
Searching for gold coins in the fish mouth
Peter, for all his faults, did something foolish, silly, unbelievable
When Jesus told him to go fishing for a coin, he did…
And that is what is required of us…
Watching and waiting,
and when the time comes the courage to take risky and even foolish chances
that God’s creative presence will come shining into our darkness
come shining through those of us
who will dare to climb the mountain…
