On the Mountain

Mark 9:2-9

February 11, 2024

Emmanuel Baptist Church; Rev. Kathy Donley

Note: A recording of the worship service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZshuEBS9c

We come to the end of the Epiphany season today. Our worship theme has been “Wandering Heart” and we have wandered widely from one gospel to another, tracing some of the story of Simon, also known as Peter. Because of last Sunday’s FOCUS service, it has been two weeks since we heard about Peter, so let’s do a very quick review. We started with an incident on the Lake of Galilee. Simon and some other local fishermen had fishing all night with nothing to show for it. The next morning, Jesus had asked to use one of their boats as a floating stage so that he could teach the crowds standing on the shore. Afterwards, he told Simon to go back out fishing. Simon was reluctant because he had fished all night and caught nothing, but he did it anyway. And then he caught so many fish, it almost broke his nets. His first reaction was awe. He told Jesus to get away from him, because he, Simon, was sinful. But then, when Jesus invited all of them to follow him, Simon dropped his nets and did so.

The next week, we wandered to the incident where Jesus commanded the disciples to get in a boat without him and row for the other side. But then he came walking toward them in the midst of a storm and they didn’t recognize him. We recalled how Simon chose to get out of the boat and walk towards Jesus, sinking after just a few steps. I suggested that I think it is somewhat of a toss-up about whether he was being brave or stupid, but that Jesus stuck with Simon and kept him safe regardless.

Two weeks ago, it was the identity question – Who do you say that I am? Kathy Moore offered a sermon that asked who we are and who Jesus is to us. In that story, Simon seems as confident as he ever is about anything. He says to Jesus “you are the Messiah.” “You are the Christ.” Jesus answers “I’m changing your name to Peter, the rock solid one on which I will build my church.”

This is the push and pull of Peter’s relationship with Jesus. One minute its “get away from me Jesus.” The next it is Peter abandoning the family business to be with him. One day it is walking on the water and sinking when he sees the waves. The next it is being so sure, so insightful that Jesus gives him a new name which is the Rock.

And then we come to today’s story. Leaving the rest of the disciples, Jesus takes Peter and James and John up on a mountain. On the mountain, something spectacular happens. Something that is really hard to put into words, unless you were there, and even then. They know the story of Moses going up a mountain to talk with God. We know that story too. We know that it is dangerous to see God face-to-face, dangerous and deadly. So when Moses went up the mountain, he only saw God’s back, and even then, the glory of God scorched him. When he came back down, his skin was shining and he had to cover up so as not to frighten anyone.

That same glory appears on this mountain. God lets all God’s glory loose in Jesus, making hm one big light, shining from every pore, dazzling in his brightness.

Barbara Brown Taylor says “The . . .word for what happened to Moses and Jesus is transfiguration – another word we rarely use outside of church vocabulary. While people who knew them both very well watched, they were changed into beings of light, as if their skin had become transparent for a moment and what had been inside them all along shone through for everyone to see.”[1]

Sometimes, God shows up in ways we cannot deny. Halfway between Jesus’ baptism and his resurrection, something is revealed. In this moment, Peter, James and John see who Jesus really is. Not all is as it seems on the surface; there is a hidden glory waiting to be revealed for those who will see and believe.

It is not enough that Jesus turns into a human light bulb; Moses and Elijah also appear. What are we supposed to make of that? One standard interpretation is that they represent the Law and the Prophets, the ways that God has revealed God’s self in the past. The presence of Moses and Elijah puts Jesus in a context of continuity with religious tradition.

We might also remember that Moses and Elijah each encountered God on a mountain at a crucial point of discouragement. For Moses, it was after the people made a golden calf to worship and he got so angry that he broke the tablets on which God had inscribed the law, so that Moses had to go back up the mountain and ask God for forgiveness, again. For Elijah, it was that time when he ran for his life with Queen Jezebel pursuing him. When he could run no longer, he hid in a cave on the mountain and God found him there.

Moses and Elijah each beheld God on a mountain at a crucial moment, a moment of fear and discouragement, an experience which the disciples are now sharing. What happens for Moses and Elijah, is that God sends them back into the struggle.

Peter doesn’t pick up on that clue right away. He wants to prolong this experience. He says “let’s build some booths.” It’s a reference to a the Feast of Booths, a week-long religious festival which recalled the wandering in the wilderness. Peter is saying, “Let’s stay up here together for at least a week.”

Verse 6 immediately follows. It reads “He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.” Who is the He being referred to in that verse? It might be Peter. It might an explanation that Peter blurts out the thing about building booths because they are all terrified and he doesn’t know what to say. That would be on brand for Peter. But the He might also be Jesus. Jesus doesn’t know how to respond because he knows that he is shining and the disciples are terrified.

A voice from the cloud takes over. It is the voice heard at his baptism and it says “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

Now you have seen who he really is. Now you know that he is the glory of God covered with skin -- listen! Listen to him.

Six days earlier, Jesus had told them something they didn’t want to hear. Six days before this, Jesus told them that he was going to be rejected and killed and be raised from the dead. They did not want to hear that. In fact, Peter had pulled him aside to tell him not to say things like that. But Jesus had insisted and now the voice from the cloud makes the same demand – “Listen!

He told you what is coming.

Believe him.

Listen and follow.

Listen and go.

You can’t stay here.

Get back into the struggle.”

Sometimes God shows up in ways we cannot deny. Sometimes we have an experience with God we can’t easily share with others. We call that a mystical experience. Now, I have just done what you probably shouldn’t do with mystical experiences. I have examined it, taken it apart, trying to make sense of it on a logical level. Mystical experiences aren’t intended for that kind of analysis . . . but since I’m in this far already . . . here is my take-away:

There may be moments of spectacular awareness of the presence of God, but they are not ours to initiate; they are not ours to prolong, and not every one gets them.

These moments are not ours to initiate – Jesus took the disciples up on the mountain. They did that often and only had this experience once. And they had no expectation that it would happen until it did.

These moments are not ours to prolong. We cannot extend the God-moment. More likely than not, we will sent back into the struggle, back out on mission.

Not every one gets them. There were at least 12 people following Jesus around Galilee and often more than that. Only three people were privileged to have this experience. Everyone else kept listening and following without the benefit of it. I am not a mystic. I do not have these experiences. I try to lean hard into the mysticism of others.

And Peter? Peter keeps wandering. Even after this, he will fall asleep in Gethsemane. Even after this, when Jesus is arrested, he will deny that he even knows who Jesus is.

On the way back down the mountain, Jesus tells the three of them “Don’t speak of this until after Easter.” It won’t make any sense. You won’t begin to understand it until then. And maybe not even then.

This is my other take-away. This journey takes a lifetime. Even Peter, the Rock, wanders. Even Peter, who has what seems like one revelatory, faith-confirming moment after another, has his doubts and fear. At no point does Peter have it made. His understanding is always limited. But somehow, he keeps showing up. He keeps failing to read the room, keeps leaping before he looks, keeps being stupid or courageous – sometimes it is hard to tell the difference. He keeps yearning. He keeps exploring. He keeps following, in spite of the cost, because he is one of the imperfect people whom God claims and calls.

Just like you and me.

Thanks be to God.

[1] Barbara Brown Taylor, “Glory Doors”, in Bread of Angels, (Boston: Cowley Publications, 1997), p. 6