February 11 Worship

Music.

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up

a high mountain apart by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white,

such as no one on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Then Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.

Let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice.

This is my son, the beloved.

Listen to him. Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them

anymore, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about

what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. The Gospel of the Lord.

Music.

Please be seated. Just a quick personal word before starting,

since this is hopefully and most likely the last time with you in the pulpit.

I don't want to take anything for granted, but I appreciate these months with you.

Brenda and I both appreciate your prayers and your partnership in ministry throughout

this interim time. So thank you very much.

Let's pray. Pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts

be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

Those of you that friends with on Facebook know that Brenda and I love to hike.

Unlike the forest bathing that Pastor James talked about last night as a healing,

just wandering about the trees, we like to hike to destinations.

Nothing like like to pay off of a hike's physical exertion like a cool waterfall

or an incredible vista spreading out before you.

Of course, capped off with a post-hike brewery visit.

For instance, last summer for a family reunion in Portland area,

we went out along the Columbia River Gorge and hiked up to Angel's Rest and

had just an incredible view of the Columbia River Gorge in both directions.

Closer to home, our hike might be something like Looking Glass Mountain,

where the vista is all of Western North Carolina, Frying Pan Mountain,

Cold Mountain, Pisgah, Devil's Courthouse, all those things, just breathtaking.

Many people are attracted to the mountaintops. Just check the real estate prices up there.

The price can tell you, the higher the price, the better the view.

But throughout the Bible, people were drawn or led to mountaintops.

The wilderness was believed to be the abode of spirits,

demons, and spiritual encounters, as we saw in last week's gospel when Jesus

slipped off in the wee hours of the morning to the wilderness outside of Capernaum to pray.

Mountaintops in the Bible are the places for theophanies, places where we encounter God.

Physically, they believe that the height of the mountains moved them closer

to heaven, closer to the dome where the divine presence of God resided.

Those encounters with God were personal and powerful for the humans involved.

And it seems to me that all of those mountaintop experiences in Scripture had

two primary characteristics.

The first characteristic is, of

course, that overwhelming supernatural experience of the divine presence.

Moses encountered God twice on Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai.

The first was in the burning bush back in Exodus 3 when he was tending his father-in-law's

sheep and the voice told him to take off his shoes, his sandals.

He was on holy ground and the voice told him the holy name.

And God called Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, out of slavery to the promised land.

Moses' second divine mountaintop experience was when God gave him all the laws

for living as God's covenant people.

And of course, the most memorable were the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments.

God inscribed those tablets with the commandments.

And Moses' experience with God was so close and so long that his face, remember,

radiated that divine presence such that the people begged him to veil his face

because they couldn't stand the brightness of it.

Fleeing the murderous threats of Queen Jezebel, the prophet Elijah that we heard read about a while ago.

In 1 Kings chapter 19, Elijah fled the queen and encountered God,

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

not in the fire or the earthquake, remember,

but in that still small voice as he cowered in the crevice on the side of Mount Horeb.

In today's reading, Jesus invites his three closest disciples,

Peter, James, and John, to come apart and come with him up to a mountaintop.

And in those moments elevated closer to God, the veil dividing the physical

world from the divine presence was pulled aside.

They witnessed the divine glory of Jesus emanating as that brilliant light,

Such as no earthly light could be from the physical person of Jesus.

And then the appearance of Moses and Elijah conversing with Jesus.

And their presence points us to the fulfillment of the law in Moses and the

prophets, Elijah, that fulfillment in the person of Jesus.

And then the voice underscores who Jesus is.

And it hearkens back, remember, to his baptism. That was our first Sunday in Epiphany.

That voice said, This is my son, the beloved.

Listen to him. Wow. Peter, James, and John were overcome.

How do you respond when you have a figurative or even a literal mountaintop experience?

Most of the time, I think we want to remain in that moment as long as humanly possible.

Nowadays, we pull out our phones and we snap a photo, shoot a little bit of

video just so that we can savor that moment and relive it again later.

But back then they didn't have TikTok. So Peter, James, and John offered to construct booths,

some type of shelter so everybody can just literally stay right there living

in that incredible moment as long as possible.

That's the first characteristic of these theophanies, mountaintop experiences.

Encountering God's divine presence there in a supernatural way.

I think the second major characteristic of biblical mountaintop experiences

with God is a mission field.

A mission field. For you see, God's purpose in meeting all of these leaders

on the mountaintop was not to simply hang out there and create memories with them,

but God's purpose was always to prepare and equip them for the mission field

that awaited them when they went back down the mountain.

The burning bush encounter on Mount Horeb sent Moses back to Egypt where he

was a wanted criminal, remember?

Sent him back there to bring the Hebrew slaves out to the land that God promised.

The giving of the law was to equip Moses and the people to live as God's covenant people,

to live as the blessing they were to be to all other nations,

having that law that set them apart, distinct and special, an example to others.

God's encounter with Elijah on the crevice of the mountain was to send him back

on a mission, recruiting leaders to rid the land of people who worship the idol Baal.

And today, the transfiguration of Jesus, experienced by Peter, James, and John,

prepared them for Jesus' mission of redemption in Jerusalem,

and then their own mission beyond

that, to carry the good news of the kingdom to the ends of the earth.

And if we follow our story on in chapter 9, they barely reached the bottom of

the mountain before that mission field meets them.

A man comes, encounters Jesus, pleads with Jesus to come cast out the demon

and his son that the other disciples hadn't been able to do.

The mission field came to them.

Today is a figurative mountaintop experience in the life of St. John.

Unless you came up the front steps of the sanctuary.

A figurative mountaintop experience as we gather and we seek the presence of

God and the Spirit's guidance.

It's a day packed with expectations and potential, much like numerous mountaintop

days in the past, like the dedications of at least nine new buildings or renovations

in your long and storied history.

Each celebrated the construction of the building, the accomplishment of the

fundraising and the mission that it would make possible for you to do.

Mountaintop experiences of congregational meetings that you held in the past

when you discerned the guidance of the Spirit and called new pastors throughout these years to come,

serve, and lead you in this mission field.

Today's another mountaintop day for St. John's.

Shortly, you will invoke the Spirit's presence and guidance in this step of

discernment for a new senior pastor.

It's an exciting day for sure.

But let's acknowledge at least a touch of anxiety among us as well.

The unknown and the uncertainty of the future at any point naturally causes

some wee bit of anxiety, uncertainty, uncertainty, because we don't know what lies ahead.

But we know we can't stay on this mountaintop forever any more than Peter, James, and John could.

And we wonder what lies at the bottom, what lies ahead for us.

What does God have for us in the future?

For beyond this building, beyond this worship service, after this holy moment

of discernment lies a mission field that God has prepared for St. John's.

A mission field for which St. John's has been and will be uniquely unique.

We don't know what that mission field is going to be like. We don't know what

it holds for us. And so we had that bit of anxiety and worry.

Can we do it? Will it be okay?

However, the final lesson from today's scripture is as reassuring for us as

it was for Peter, James, and John.

As the echoes of God's voice faded, as the vision of Elijah and Moses faded,

Mark continued his narrative.

As they were coming down the mountain, Peter,

James, and John, they had no earthly idea of what lay at the foot of the mountain,

what lay in front of them. And they didn't know what lay in the future for Jesus either.

What they did know for sure was that Jesus, their Lord and teacher,

was walking down that mountain into the future with them. And it would be okay.

Be at peace. Today, as you visit this mountaintop experience and then leave this mountaintop,

know that Jesus will go with you and be with you in your mission field. Amen.