High on the Mountain, Down in the Valley

Psalm 99         2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2          Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

After multiple epiphanies about Jesus:  from the Magi with gifts, the voice of God at Jesus’ baptism, and lessons about life with Jesus from the Sermon on the Plain, we get to the apex, the summit of all epiphanies – the Transfiguration

Most scholars agree that the Transfiguration is meant to demonstrate the divinity of Jesus and preview his future glory.  Moses and Elijah show up to portray the link between the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, and the New Testaments.  This event reveals all we need to know about Jesus. The initial goal of this trip of Jesus was to pray.

9:28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

9:29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.

Pay attention.  It is during his prayer that Luke tells us his countenance changes, Moses and Elijah appear, representing the prophets and the law.  Both confirm Jesus’ identity and significance.  And, as if we needed to know even more about who Jesus is, God comes down in a cloud and says, clear as a bell, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”  We can’t get a lesson more enlightening than this!

This story in Luke is so dramatic, that the lectionary says we can skip the next seven verses.  I want to stay on that mountaintop with Peter, John, and James.  Frankly, I am sick of valleys.  Sick of school shootings, and hurricanes, and fire and war.  Sick of the chaotic changes in the national landscape.  Surround me with light and glory and God.

Our spiritual mountaintop experiences are brief, stellar moments, where we are empowered to return to the ongoing work of God, through the Holy Spirit.  But, then comes the valley. Today we go from the Messiah’s glory to an entrenched demon and  the dismal failure of the disciples to cast out the demon. Here we have again the contrast from light to dark, good to evil that we saw with Jesus’ Baptism to his temptations from Satan.    From a glorious moment to shocking reality.  A roller coaster.  This is what life is.  Often.  Amen?

Part of me can’t believe we are half-way through this decade which opened in a world that I, at least, never really imagined we would have.  However,  in the hospital I worked at in Illinois, we prepared for it.  A world -wide pandemic.  Deep in the Valley.  And when we most needed each other, many of us were prevented from seeing each other.  There wasn’t even Church we could escape to. Disease, death, destruction.  Unremitting brokenness.   God, o God, why have you forsaken us? The valley can’t get any deeper than this.

Yet, there were videos of Italians singing from their balconies. I also remember long walks in the mountains , comforted by horses, sheep, and cows that I saw in the field.  Sitting on the mountainside. To think, to pray, to cry.  No wonder Jesus went to the mountains to pray. God, can I find you here?

God, oh God, where is your glory? It is here with us right now.

The power of our scripture today, perhaps surprisingly, is also about Jesus coming down the mountain to the valley and finding that he needs to heal the boy by casting out the demon.  Jesus is present in both places. To be glorified and to heal.  He shows up at a mountaintop wedding and at a hospital bed.  God’s glory is here.

The disciples of Jesus failed to heal in the valley, just as we often fail or unable to do enough to lessen the suffering in this world.  In the next 6 weeks of Lent, let us be intentional in our efforts to be God’s hands and feet in our communities, to show the face of Jesus that is within us to others.  N.T. Wright suggests that

The transfiguration was a harbinger of God’s new creation breaking in yet again, peeling back the clouds, and giving a brief glimpse of the coming new [world order]!

Let us shine.  Let us be the forerunners of God’s heaven on earth, carrying the torches of love, hope, and peace until Jesus comes again.  He promised.   He will come. Amen.