May
the words from my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you,
O Lord, Our Rock and our Redeemer: AMEN
Good morning, and it is a good
morning, it is good because we are at this magnificent moment in Jesus
ministry. He is up on the mountain top. Good things and Godly things happen on
mountain tops. Moses saw the face of God, Moses sees the Promised Land from the
mountain top; and, NOW, we have this morning. Jesus is on the mountain top. It
is the Jesus that we hoped to see. Picture this: this regular kinda looking guy
goes up to this mountain and there it is. He sees Moses and Elijah. This is not
your ordinary mountain top. Everything changes; his clothes are a dazzling
white there is all this white light, rocks glowing of gold…It must have looked
better than the Vegas strip with its neon lights!
This is the place we want our Jesus
to be, right? We are ending the season of Epiphany…this season of light…and
what better way to end it than with all the light that is coming from heaven,
illuminating the entire top of this place where Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are
gathered. What better way to show light than God showing the light of the
kingdom to come; and, what better way to show us all who Jesus is by God’s
light being so bright, God’s glory being so powerful that it changes everything
to this magnificent white!
While this is the place…THE PLACE we
may want to be and want to stay, we also know that this is not what happens. We
know that Jesus will come down from this mountain, Just like Peter, James, and
John Jesus will come down of this mountain and resume his ministry. I can’t
blame the disciples for wanting to stay up there. They are witnesses to this
wonderful sight! I would imagine we all might want to stay up there, if we
could! You know the place where we could take in all that glory, the
magnificence of God’s presence, and the warmth of God’s grace and love.
God does have that place for us.
There is a place where we can experience that; where we can experience the
warmth of God’s love, constantly. There is a place where we don’t have to earn
our way in, it is a place where God welcomes all God’s children. There is
plenty of room so we won’t get crowded out, and we don’t have to worry that it
is for someone else or only the elite can get in. This place of God’s glory and
love is a place for us. We can breathe in and take in all of God’s love, mercy,
and grace. It is the place that God promised for all of God’s children and it
is where God’s promises are certain and true.
A much as we would like to stay
there, we don’t. The disciples come down from the mountain and more
importantly, Jesus came down from that mountain top; and it is a good thing
that Jesus did not stay up there. It was good because Jesus’ ministry was not
over. He had a lot of teaching to do. He had to get his followers on the path
of understanding what it meant to be a child of God. He had to show them that
God was not a God of anger, but a God of love and compassion. HE had to show
that God was in the world…not on a mountain top and watching what was going on.
This Son of God was in the world to show the people that God is forgiving, God
is healing, loving, stern, yet caring. There was much more for Jesus to do in the
world.
Just as Jesus came down from the
mountain, we come down as well. We don’t get to stay up on that mountain. We
come down…back into the world of work, school, family, and neighbors. We have
responsibilities, commitments, laundry, snow shoveling, cooking, cleaning,
errands to run, sports events to get our kids and grandchildren to…you know,
the rigors of everyday life. And we are confident that we do not go alone.
Because Jesus came down the mountain, back into the world, the light of
Christ…that dazzling light comes with us…into our everyday world.
We can think about it and think or
say, “That’s right!” Ever tried it on one of your worst days? Maybe not! We can
become so bogged down with life that it is difficult to see that light of
Christ. We can get caught up in our own lives that we want to see that light,
we crave that light, just to know that God hears us or knows what is going on
in our lives. Sometimes, we can feel the opposite; that everything is going so
perfectly that we forget about the one who has blessed us with gifts. We can
take for granted the God who created us; and, sometimes, we might end up
thinking that we don’t need God. We might put ourselves on that pedestal.
That is when Jesus coming down that
mountain is more important than wanting him, and us, to stay up there. Jesus
comes down, as I said earlier, to be in the world. To teach us that God does
not abandon, God is always with us, and sometimes may be here with us and in us
to humble us a little.
His,
Jesus, coming down is important because he now heads to Jerusalem. Jesus now
begins a journey toward another hilltop. This next one is not as bright or
brilliant in color as today’s mountain. The next hill will not contain Moses
and Elijah. It will contain two pieces of wood and he will be placed next to
two criminals. It is a picture that we may not want to think about. It is a
place where we might want to see Jesus, the Son of God, yet we will see him
there.
Why
do might we NOT want to see him there? Because, in today’s scripture, we see
the glory of the Lord. The brightness of God’s kingdom, we see Moses and Elijah
speaking to this guy we only know as Jesus, and we hear the words of God “this
is my Son, my chosen, listen to him.”
This guy is not just a guy! This is the Son of God…the almighty God who created
heaven and earth. This takes on a whole new meaning for us. This person who is
human and experiences all that we experience is the Son of God…the divine
creator, the teacher, healer, and the one who will go to the cross for you and
me; to show us the price that God is willing to go to and show us that we are
worthy of God’s love.
So,
what does this mean for us? It means that we, too, will turn ourselves toward Jerusalem.
We begin our journey to that cross to witness Jesus, learn from, and examine
our journeys of faith. We use this time to gain a better understanding of who
we are as Lutherans, as members of our community, and as children of God. This
week and for the next six weeks, we will be taking a journey of faith as we
begin to look at several themes during Lent. We will be spending time together
focusing on some important aspects of who we are as the body of Christ, what it
means to follow, and what it means to forgive.
As
we begin our Lenten Journey this week, remember that the Son of God does go
with us into our everyday lives; always there to hold us, care for us, and let
us know that God is with us…even on our worst days: Amen!
