Sermon: The Mountaintop

          I'd like you to close your eyes, and take a deep breath, hold it for a couple seconds, and let it out slowly.  As you breathe out, imagine Christ coming up behind you, putting his hands on your shoulders and giving a squeeze, as you breathe in again.  You can feel that man's love for you, mixed with God's love for you, all in that one moment.  You can open your eyes again.

          Wanting to stay in a moment like that – feeling yourself surrounded by pure love, holding your child for the very first time, seeing the absolute perfect sunset, joining with the one you love – these are moments that feed our souls.  It gives a person the peaceful sense that all is right in the world, even if just for a moment. 

          So let's look at that moment on the mountaintop, where Peter, James and John witness Jesus meeting with Moses and Elijah.  In this instance, we are witnessing with the apostles the evolution of time.  Moses represents the law.  We listened in the Old Testament as he descended the mountain, face shining with the reflection of God's glory, in order to give the law of God to the people.  That reflection provided us with the true definition of awe-some, because within that overflowing emotion, there is also an element of fear – that the moment will end, or we may not be able to completely comprehend, and that will bring the fear of the unknown.  Moses stood in the presence of God, long enough that his very being took on a holy, otherworldly glow.  He was bringing God's word, His laws, His commandments to a people who were afraid of the freedoms they were currently experiencing.  They may not have been happy in slavery to the Egyptians, but they at least knew what to expect and when to expect it.  Now, they were free, but had no idea how to live in freedom.  God's guidance for them, and for future generations came at the cost of time:  that of giving them laws, and giving their children time to learn how to grow into freedom. 

          The other person there with Jesus was Elijah.  Elijah was a prophet, but certainly one of the most important in history.  His defense of God and actions on behalf of God in many miracles, including raising the dead and bringing fire down from the sky, is legendary to the disciples.  He, too, had a mountaintop experience at Mt. Horeb, another name for Mt. Sinai, after wandering through the desert for 40 days.  Elijah, however, never died, but was taken directly from Earth as he was speaking with Elisha:  "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."  Malachi later prophesied that Elijah would return before the Messiah came.

          So Jesus stood here, showing that both Moses and Elijah were separate from him, but that he brought both new law and new word from God, with a new covenant that fulfilled the law and the prophets of old.  There are times I wonder if it might not have been a little more clear to the overwhelmed apostles if Adam had also appeared. 

          But like all who want to capture that moment, to live in it just a little bit longer, Peter suggested building dwellings, or booths, places where each of the three – Jesus, Moses and Elijah – could stay, and they could stay too.  There is a natural tendency to want to stay in that feeling of being overwhelmed with the glory of God!

          But God spoke for the second time in the New Testament where all could hear, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”  And the other visions disappeared, and reality was once again restored.  The apostles had their instructions directly from God.  This moment of solitude and vision, connection with God, was complete.

          In a book I'm reading at the moment called "The Soul's Slow Ripening", the author states:  "Solitude is not a practice just for ourselves but a practice to cultivate within each of us a greater capacity for living in communion with the world."

          When Moses came down from the mountain, he was faced with the reality that people feared him, because his face shone with the reflection of God's glory.  As Paul points out in his letter to the Corinthians, Christians have to hear the word of God without the veil that Moses donned, so that they can hear and understand what God is telling them.  They have in Christ both the law and the prophets of old, but to understand clearly, they have to remove the veil from their eyes. 

          When Christ came down from the mountain, he was faced with the reality of disciples who didn't believe His words that they could heal the sick and cast out demons in His name.  He knew that His time on Earth was coming to an end, having looked toward Jerusalem, as He had just discussed with Moses and Elijah.  He already knew life was going to get tough.  Now, however, He also had to pray that His disciples would somehow "get it" before He was ready to leave; that their faith in Him and in His word would be understood without the veil of Moses, and that healing done in His name would be successful.  If they didn't have faith, how could they know the glory of God without the veil?

          Experiencing mountaintop moments can help us feed our souls, and strengthen our faith, to help us have a greater capacity for living in communion with the world.  We have to remember that Christ is not just at the mountaintop. He is in the least, the last and the lost; He is the one who needs clothing, or something to eat or drink, or be visited in prison.  He left us both the work to do, and the ability to do it – to see Him in every person and hold that mountaintop feeling in our hearts, having faith that as we share the Good News with others, the Kingdom of Heaven is being built right here, one person at a time.