“Rarefied Air” (Luke 9:28-36)
Intro to theme: Last week I mentioned my flight instructor Jake, he used to like to joke that “altitude can change your attitude”. It was it his house that I first time I saw poem “High Flight” and I’d like to read it for you now. READ POEM. “Reached out and touched the face of God.” It can be hard to describe “mountain top experiences” but I’d like to consider them in the sermon this morning.
Intro to reading: Today is Transfiguration Sunday. The week before we start the season of Lent. This is the familiar yet mysterious story of Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountain top. At this point in his ministry, Jesus knows what is before him Jerusalem, he knows his time is short and that the disciples really don’t get it yet. He takes three disciples with him as he goes up to pray. //
Prayer of Invocation
(Slide of Taranaki) Who has seen this mountain? Everyone, right? We’ve all seen it from the ground, right? Has anyone climbed it? I got this far. (SLIDE) And those who go higher can see this. (Slide from top of Taranaki) Great view, wow. To get up above the clouds. Love it. A different perspective. What is the view like from up there? (Was it worth the hike?) It can be hard to describe some events, and even when you do try you can tell people just don’t get it.
Astronauts from around the world have tried to describe what it was like for them to voyage into space and return to Earth again. The book’s author asked many people who had flown into space to reflect on how the journey changed them emotionally and spiritually. Some said the experience was simply beyond words. Some did try to describe the changes and their words are fascinating.
An astronaut from Saudi Arabia said “the first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were aware of only one earth.” A Russian writes “During a space flight the psyche of each astronaut is reshaped. You become more full of life, softer. You begin to look at things with greater trepidation and you begin to be more kind and patient with the people around you.” (I have heard some people wanting to send a loved one up for a rocket trip for just this very reason). And an American wrote: “We left as technicians and returned as humanitarians.”
These space travelers have seen things that not many, if any, of us will see first-hand. They have gone beyond the veil of the earth and peeked further towards the edge of the universe than all others. It is great and fantastic stuff and many times there are no words for the experience. From the pictures and words we can get a glimpse of what it must have been like for them. But we still have to use our imagination for the universe is so vast that it always defy full explanation or definition.
Back to our mountain top with Jesus and the disciples. The miraculous mysterious things that happened on the mountain are precursors to taking up the cross. We can learn a great deal from how Jesus dealt with this time of transition in his life. He knows full well what lies before him in Jerusalem. He knows that those who follow him do not fully understand. Yet he invites his three closest disciples to go with him up the mountain and pray with him. It is interesting that Jesus chose to go up the mountain to pray. We know and believe that God is everywhere and that you can pray anywhere and Jesus would know this too. But he goes up to the mountain top.
Perhaps there is a good reason for this. From here his line of sight, his vision would be much different. From here one can look across the Jordan valley and see where the river flows into the dead sea, and on a clear day you can see all the way to Jerusalem. For Moses this would have been the place to see get a view of the promised land, to see where to cross the Jordan, to dream of what could have been. This would have been the place. Not only is Jesus getting a glimpse of the big picture of the landscape, he is gaining a deeper insight into what his calling as the Christ means.
Our story this morning is a moment of God most definitely reaching toward Jesus and all of us with a glimpse of heaven. Jesus is in a time of transition and transformation as he has begun his ministry, Peter has declared that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus has explained for the first time that to be the Christ means that he must journey to Jerusalem and die. It will not be an easy road before him but he accepts that and know his journey to the cross will be difficult.
In this moment, when heaven and earth touch Jesus is transfigured by a shining light and suddenly appear Moses and Elijah. These two represent the essential parts of the Jewish faith namely the law and the prophets. Jesus is being comforted and encouraged by his spiritual roots, his culture, his heritage comes to him in his hour of need and this becomes a timeless moment. Don’t we at turning points in our lives take comfort from people or places from our past taking the time to look where we have been to help guide us as we go forward.
For a movement heaven and earth do touch and Jesus shines. Even though the disciples are sleepy they can still see it and they don’t know what to do or say. When the moment changes and passes Peter is so swept up in it that he wants to build a set of booths and try to live up there and stay in that wonderful moment. He wants to stay in that rarified air of the mountain top. We can understand that, the temptation to hold on those once in a lifetime moments forever. Peter doesn’t realize the reality of what Jesus has explained that God’s work is not yet done, they most all go down together and carry on. They must leave the mountain and go through the valleys before them and continue toward the cross.
Here you can help me fill in the blank, what goes up? ……… Must come down,
Hikers come down, airplanes must land, spacecraft return to earth. OH, if only we just stay up there!
They descend from the peak changed somehow, wondering what words will suit the experience and then God speaks saying the words uttered at Jesus baptism, this is my child, my beloved, listen to him” It is a clear call for us to recognize Christ in our lives, to know that following Christ will mean times of ordinary moments and time of extraordinary. Most of the time we live day to day, yet God does and God will break into our lives providing moments and glimpses that we hold on to and make sense of over time. As we go forward into Lent we do so knowing that God is with us in all our times of transitions and transformations.
We don’t need to leave the ground, but can we imagine our spirits soaring when we reach out to touch the face of God and we find God is already there, already touching our face ready to begin a new and intimate relationship, where we need not hide any of ourselves, and change begins. This Lenten season we will be transformed, reflecting the light and love of our God and we will see that same light and love in our neighbor as well. Amen.