Reading from the 9th chapter of Mark, verses 2-9

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, (STEVE, READ FROM BOOTH….) “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.  As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

This is the Word of the Lord
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN!

 PLAY CD as I start talking, :00-:28 

The scripture just read pushed this mental juke box button:

 Standing on the mountain looking down on the city
 The way I feel is a doggone pity
 Teardrops falling down a mountainside
 Many times I’ve been here, many times I’ve cried
 We used to be so happy
 When we were in love
 High on a mountain of love
 

BAND COMES IN….

Let’s adapt the lyric then to fit the scripture:
 
 C.Todd: The gospels tell a story, what it says may surprise you
 Jesus on a mountain with Moses and Elijah
 Also on the mountain were John, James and Peter
 And right before their eyes the Lord Jesus was transfigured
 STEVE:  “Listen to my son,”
 C.Todd:  Said a voice from above
 High on a mountain of love

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, BAND STOPS AFTER EACH VERSE.

 Let’s break that passage down.  “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain.”  Okay.   It might be helpful to know what was happening six days earlier. 

Turn back to chapter 8, still in the Gospel according to Mark. 
The Transfiguration narrative is shared in three of the four gospels:  Matthew, Mark and Luke.   It’s generally assumed that Mark’s was the first written, so that’s where we’re working from today.   It’s in the passages immediately preceding the Transfiguration that Jesus first starts talking openly in terms of suffering and death.  

Jesus had asked the apostles, “Who do people say that I am?”  What’s the buzz, guys?  Reading from the book:

And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

 That’s elite company; we’re talking Hall of Fame, Mount Rushmore. 
 

 And then this pivotal question, Jesus to the apostles:
 “But who do YOU say that I am?” 
It’s Simon Peter who answers, “You are the Messiah.”

 There.  It’s been said.  For the first time.  Jesus is the Messiah, the long-awaited one, promised by the prophets, savior of the nation, redeemer of the Hebrew experience dating back through their ancestors to Abraham and Sarah. 
You might have thought this would be time for the group to hoist Jesus on their shoulders in celebration of the moment, him going around giving high-fives.  No.  

 It’s precisely at this point that Jesus begins talking about the cross that’s got his name on it.  Reading from the book:

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
  
 Simon Peter, who surely assumed he had gone to the head of the class in his profession of Jesus as the Messiah, now takes it upon himself to tell Jesus to stop talking like this.  You’re discouraging everybody.  Is this any way for the Messiah to carry on?
To which Jesus says, “Get thee behind me Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things.” 

 We are in the season of Lent, a remembrance of Jesus’ forty days of fasting and temptation in the Judean wilderness following his baptism.  The road to Easter runs through Lent.  During those forty days, Satan had tempted Jesus with very human things.   Hey, there’s no need for you to suffer, Jesus, no need for you not to have anything and everything you want.   You want power over people, even over kingdoms?  It’s mine to give.  You want fame, celebrity?  I’ll sign you up right now.  Want people to love you?  No problem!
 
 

Jesus had said “Get thee behind me Satan!” to Satan then, and he didn’t need his friends reminding him now that there was an easier way than the one God had set before him.

 Lest their be any confusion, this was Jesus’ sermon, six days before going up the mountain with Peter, James and John:

 “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.   For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.  For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”

 I have wondered, given the context, if maybe Jesus was preaching to himself:  What would it profit me to gain the whole world and lose my soul?

BAND BACK IN
 
Fast forward six days.  Let’s go up the mountain:

Jesus on the mountain with Peter, James and John
 Can you blame the trio, wondering what is going on?
 Maybe they’re already dizzied by the height 
 And now the Lord Jesus is bathed in dazzling white
 Earth could not bleach
 What the disciples saw above
 High on a mountain of love

 As pastor of this congregation, I have a question:  Where was Andrew?  This church is named for the apostle Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.  It was Andrew who invited Simon Peter to a relationship with Jesus in the first place.  I am bummed that Andrew wasn’t included in this mountain-climbing expedition.
 

But then I get to thinking:  It’s possible Andrew was at a place in his faith development where maybe he didn’t necessarily need to see what Jesus was wanting this trio to experience.  We’ve already noted Peter’s objection to the idea that Jesus might have to suffer in order to fulfill his destiny.   Peter had a lot to learn….

The brothers James and John seem to have been pretty ego-driven, themselves.   We will read, in another place, that they went to Jesus saying:  When we all get to heaven, let one of us sit at your right hand, the other at the left.  You do like us best, don’t you?

 It’s at least possible that Peter, James and John were chosen, not as a reward for special faithfulness, but because Jesus was wanting to teach them a lesson. 
 
 Or. Maybe Jesus had foreknowledge that Peter, James and John would be the writers in the bunch.  Each of these three have books in the Bible bearing their names. 

This is interesting to think about.  There are four gospels:   Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—presumably the same John who went up the mountain with Jesus.  Of the four, it’s only John who doesn’t have anything to say about the Transfiguration.  I have read this theory about that:  
Scholars tell us John’s was the last of the four gospels put to parchment.  Mark had covered the Transfiguration in his book, Matthew and Luke had repeated the story, so John wanted to share material NOT included in the earlier gospels.  Makes sense to me.

 The mountain-climber who does offer an eyewitness account is Peter.  Reading from what’s remembered as his second letter:
 

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we have been eyewitnesses of his majesty.  For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’  We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

Peter wanted to assure readers that he wasn’t making this
stuff up, or passing on what he’d heard from someone else.   Peter was reporting what he’d seen with his own eyes, including Majestic Glory on the mountaintop!

To repeat the gospel narrative:  “And Jesus was transfigured
before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.”

I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how that’s been imaged by artists over the centuries.

• Here’s the scene represented in a 14th century Greek icon.  Icons were a favorite teaching tool of the church in a time when most people couldn’t read.   If you ever hear anyone saying, “Why do we need these pictures on the wall during the sermons?” consider, the church has a long history of sharing the gospel through pictures.
• Jump to the Renaissance.  This is Raffaelo Sanzio de Urbino’s vision.  History remembers the artist as Raphael.  This was his last major painting.  Raphael died in 1520, before it was finished.  The canvass was completed by one of his students and is part of the Vatican collection in Rome. 
• Another Renaissance interpretation, this by Lorenzo Lotto.
• Here’s what Titian did with the scene twenty years after Raphael. 
• I really like this representation by 19th century Swedish painter Carl Bloch. 
• Here’s a more contemporary, multi-cultural rendition.   If you’re thinking, Ah gee, that doesn’t look like Jesus, remember Jesus wasn’t a European, either, per Renaissance imagining.

BAND COMES BACK IN….

Let’s turn then to the Mount Rushmore guys the apostles saw
with Jesus on the mountain:  Moses and Elijah.  Both of these, in their time, had memorable mountaintop experiences of their own:

Moses on a mountain, nothing could be finer
Moses saw the glory that the Hebrews called Shekinah
When he came down from the mountain,
Moses’ face was shining
Freaked the people out, so Moses face needed hiding
Moses had to veil
What he’d seen from above
High on the mountain of love.

In the book of Exodus we read of the Lord calling Moses up a mountain, Mount Sinai.   The book tells us Moses ascended into a cloud.   On the mountain top, Moses said to the Lord, Show me your glory”  The Lord told Moses, STEVE:  You cannot see my face and live, but if you’ll stand in a cleft by that rock, I will pass by quickly, and you can get a glimpse of my backside.  That’s what the book says.   The important thing is that Moses indeed saw the glory of the Lord, the Hebrews called it “Shekinah”; not in all its fullness--that’s too glorious for any human being.   But even the backside of the Lord’s glory was glorious indeed.
 

Moses spent forty days and nights on the mountain.   What he didn’t realize, when he came down from the experience, was that “the skin on his face shone because he had been talking to God.”  As indicated in the lyric, folks saw this and had to look away.   (I imagine Moses’ face having the radiance of these t-shirts the event volunteers are wearing this weekend.  That would freak me out, too!)  So after reading the law to the people, Moses put a veil over his face.  The only time Moses removed the veil was in follow-up conversations with the Lord.  
There can be little doubt that this narrative, found in the 34th chapter of Exodus, informs the Transfiguration narrative of the New Testament.  

BAND BACK IN…

As to the other Old Testament figure on the mountain with Jesus…. 

Elijah on the mountain, on the run from Jezebel
Hunted and dejected, more depressed than words can tell
The Lord’s came to him, by the means of God’s own choice 
Not in wind, or in fire, but a still, small voice
STEVE:  I will be with you
Said the voice from above
High on a mountain of love

It’s interesting to note that when Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?” one of the answers was Elijah.   Not that that’s surprising.  800 years before the age of Jesus, Elijah had been a prophet of towering moral significance, speaking the Word of Yahweh in Israel.  (The old Hebrews knew the Lord by the proper name of Yahweh.)  Elijah had stood up to the idolatrous King Ahab and the original Jezebel, denouncing their advocacy of the false god Baal. 
Elijah had challenged the prophets of Baal to a duel, of sort, Yahweh vs Baal.    It was not contest.  Yahweh wins!   But Jezebel did not take losing gracefully and Elijah had to run for his life, eventually hiding on a mountaintop, where he told the Lord he was at the end of his rope, used up, ready to die.
That’s when Elijah was told to go stand on the mountain, “for the Lord is about the pass by.”  Reading from I Kings, chapter 10:    

BILL & GENE, CAN I GET SOME SOUND EFFECTS?

Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; And after the fire,
a still, small voice…

Other translations have “the sound of sheer silence,” but I grew up with the “still, small voice.”  And this is what Elijah heard:  Get up Elijah.  I’m not done with you yet.  You’ve still got work to do…

BAND COMES BACK IN…

So did Jesus….

Peter on the mountain, what he saw filled him with fear
But then he said to Jesus, Lord it’s good that we are here
In fact let’s just stay now, what I want to propose is
We’ll build three little houses, for you, Elijah, Moses
No need for any crosses
While we stay up above
High on this mountain of love

Mountain of love, Mountain of love
Way above the town
Only way it can be a mountain of love
Is if Je-sus goes back down

BAND STAYS IN NOW, ON THE VERSE PROGRESSION, LIGHTLY, AS I CONTINUE…
 

The Bible makes it clear that this was a disorienting experience for Peter, James and John.  We can understand that.  This is a good rule of thumb:  When you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything.  But Peter was wired more like me; he just had to say something about everything, no matter how dumb, and this is what came out of his mouth:   

“Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

In fairness to Simon Peter, I’ve known folks who’ve had what’s sometimes described as a mountaintop religious experience, getting high on faith.  I’ve had a few of those myself.  And I can understand Peter wanting to stay on this high!   PS, Jesus:  If we stay up here, we may not have to go through all this hardship you’ve been talking about lately. 

But Jesus hadn’t brought them up here to stay here…

Jesus on the mountain looking down on the city
What he sees just fills him with pity
Way down below him, people crying, people dying
Even though some others are thinking crucify him
And so he says to Peter
         We can’t stay above
 High on this mountain of love

Mountain of love, Mountain of love
Way above the town
Only way it can be a mountain of love
Is if Je-sus goes back down

MOUNTAIN OF LOVE, THE SONG, ENDS HERE…
 

This Lenten season, many of us have been involved in group study of the Adam Hamilton book, 24 Hours That Changed The World.  This week’s chapter:  The Garden Of Gethsemane.  After celebrating the Passover with the apostles, in what’s remembered as the Last Supper, Jesus led them across the Kidron Valley.   The apostolic team is a long way from the mountain top.  Jesus is taking them across the deep valley of human experience.  For Team Jesus this is literally the valley of the shadow of death. 

Having crossed the valley, the apostles arrive at the foot of the Mount of Olives, a garden called Gethsemane, and the last temptation of Christ.

It’s interesting to think.  Jesus’ public ministry begins with his baptism in the Jordan River.  On that occasion, a voice is heard from above, STEVE:  “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  This is followed by the first great temptation, Satan in the wilderness, offering power, fame, celebrity, Jesus saying, “Get Thee behind me.”

Then the Transfiguration.   This time, the temptation comes first, in the form of Peter saying, You are the Messiah, so why are you talking about suffering and death?  The Transfiguration can be seen as a confirmation of the path Jesus has chosen, and again there is a voice from above, STEVE:  “This my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” 
 
And now Gesthemene, what Adam Hamilton sees, correctly, I think, as the final temptation, the point of no return.  The Bible describes Jesus as being in deep grief and anguish, to the point of sweating blood!  Hamilton writes that this may sound strange to some Christians.  We have hard time imagining Jesus wavering, in any way, shape or form.  Comments the author: 

Jesus may have experienced anguish because he was wrestling once again with the tempter—the same tempter who sought to lead him away from the cross when he began his public ministry.  Perhaps Jesus could hear the devil whispering, ‘Are you sure that you are the Son of God?  If you are not, you will be throwing your life away!” or maybe, “Would God really want his Son to die? Surely this cannot be his will; you have misunderstood.” Maybe the tempter whispered, ‘Are you so sure there is not some other way?  You’re only thirty-three!  You’ve got so much more you could do with your life.  Flee now; you still have time!  Or simply tell them what they want to hear, and they will let you go!’

We’re told Jesus prayed, not once, but three times, “Father, take this cup of death away.”  And maybe Jesus waited yet again for a voice from above.  (                                ) What he heard instead was sheer silence, which sounds a lot like nothing, which sounds a lot like what some of us have heard in our own valleys of doubt and despair.  
But Jesus is not done talking to God, and this is his prayer:
 “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”  Paraphrased by Hamilton, “Not what I want, but what you want.”  

Adam Hamilton continues:    

The prayer captures the essence of complete trust.  It is bold enough to lay before God our desires and humble and obedient enough to reassert that we will do whatever God calls us to do, no matter what the cost.

BAND STARTS UP EVERYTHING GLORIOUS, EVER SO LIGHTLY…

I was reading in one of the commentaries that the same term
Mark translates as “transfigured” shows up later in the New Testament, in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 18:

And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes
from the Lord, the Spirit.

 Paul invites his readers to believe that we too can be changed, our lives transformed into a reflection of the glory of the Lord!
 

 What’s your favorite view in Omaha?  Maybe the Gene Leahy Mall downtown?  Zorinsky Lake?  As far as I’m concerned, this is the prettiest view of all.  From the crest of 144th street between Maple and Blondo you can see St. Andrew’s as if on a mountaintop. 
Okay, “mountain” is a stretch.  But then, given the terrain in Israel, it’s likely that what’s described as a mountain there wasn’t much more than a glorified hill.   Not that there’s anything wrong with that. 
Jesus taught, “A city set on a hill can not be hid,” and I like to think of St. Andrew’s as a city set on a hill, a mountain of love, where people of all ages and stages of life are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.
I like to think of St. Andrew’s as a place of prayer, where people in any and all circumstances are invited to lay their best hopes and dreams before the Lord, in the complete trust, “Thy will be done.”
 I like to think of St. Andrew’s as a place where we can take off the veils we may feel compelled to wear most of the time, hiding our true selves from others, who might think we’re weird, and in the community of faith let our countenance shine with the glory of the Lord!

 One last picture.  We’ve talked a lot today about voices from above.  Officer Dave Ackerson sent me this picture this week, St. Andrew’s from above! 
 The picture put me thinking of the glory of the big story:  The Creator of the heavens and earth, made known to us at ground level in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who knows up close and personal what it is to be human, who has overcome suffering and death itself, inviting those who believe to share in his glory, a glory we see reflected in the faces of people who gather here for worship, praise and service at St. Andrew’s, week in/week out, day in/day out.   If you don’t have a church home, we’d love to add your shining face to the galaxy of those who worship on our little mountain.   

 Let’s kick it up, guys…  

BRD