Be Truly Astounded

Luke 9:28-43
Transfiguration
2-27-22

 

Eight days later, Jesus went up on the mountain to pray

with his three most trusted disciples

and an amazing thing happened.

Not just to him, but to all of them.

Jesus was transformed.

Changed, glowing white,

and he was talking with two people

who weren’t there just a minute before,

and somehow, they all knew that it was Moses

and Elijah, their ancestors in faith.

 

Peter, James and John had known that Jesus

was special and that he could do amazing things,

that he was wise, and had that certain something,

but now they knew that he was more than

just some great teacher and leader,

he was God, he was divine.

When Jesus was transformed, and they were transformed.

All on top of that mountain.

 

Mountains have their own mystique and strength.

You almost expect a special event to happen there,

just because it’s on a mountain.

I remember when I lived in California, you could see

mountains in the distance and even though

it was warm and green out where we were,

you could see snow on the tops of the mountains.

It was like another world right there in our midst.

 

Mountains are strong, old, they have a permanence,

they’ve been there for billions of years

they almost have a wisdom in themselves.

 

I know some people like mountain climbing. But I do not.

I feel very comfortable in the low country right now.

I can take about 7 thousand feet of elevation and then I start getting sick.

 

But for some reason last year, I became a little obsessed

with learning about climbing Mt. Everest, the tallest Mountain

in the world. I think I started reading about it because I fascinated

by how insane it was to try and get to the top.

If you’ve actually done this or tried or wanted to,

I apologize for calling it insane – or maybe not really.

Because it’s really, really crazy.

 

Everest is 29 thousand feet high at the top.

It costs around 60 thousand dollars to do it all told,

And it takes at least two months for the whole trip.

One of those months is spent just hanging out at the base camp which

is about 18 thousand feet, so wouldn’t even get there.

And then you just go up and down and up and down

getting used to all the elevations and feeling sick and

getting stupid and light headed and coming back down.

 

The temperature up on the mountain

is usually about negative 20 degrees

And the wind is a consistent 20 miles an hour,

but it has gotten up to 200 miles an hour

but there’s one spot that you have to climb though

to get to the top that gets up to 100 degrees sometimes.

 

Since the only safe time to go is in May everyone goes at once,

so there’s actually huge crowds trying to get up all at once

and there are lines in the toughest climbing places.

And there’s a lot of all kinds of waste and garbage on the mountain.

And, maybe the biggest issue, almost 300 people have died trying

And a majority of those bodies are still on the mountain.

because they can’t get them down.

To get to the top there seems to be a huge amount

of cost, time, effort, challenge, and risk to get to the top.

Everyone wants to get to the top.

 

But obviously, people still want to get to the top of Mount Everest

about 1000 people try every year and about

500 of those make it to the top.

But what was kind of surprising to me is that

after they’ve spent all that money and that time and risk

when they actually get to the top, they can only be there for 15 minutes.

Any longer than that is sure death.

The top of the mountain is actually called the death zone.

The effects of the altitude are quickly killing

their bodies (even with oxygen tanks)

and if they don’t schedule enough time to get out of that

death zone, then they will surely die on the descent down.

15 minutes tops.

No one can stay on that mountaintop for long.

Don’t get me started on this topic.

Just brushing up for this I found myself down a rabbit hole.

But still, my point is, 60 thousand dollars, two months time

all for fifteen minutes.

 

So, let me get back to the Transfiguration story.

Peter and James and John are up on the mountain top.

They see Jesus transformed, dazzling white it says.

And Peter says, “Jesus it’s great

for us to be here, let’s stay here. Let’s build a house here

and just stay here, let’s have all our ministry right here.”

 

I mean it is wonderful that they are there.

And it is beautiful and awe inspiring, but they can’t stay there.

They have to come down from that mountain top and that vision they saw.

They only get a peek, 15 minutes then they have to come down again.

They have to come back to the real world and breathe the regular air.

 

Likewise, some people try to use Christianity as kind of

an escape, as a way to avoid the problems of the world all together.

 We try and say oh, I’m blessed all the time, nothing can bother me.

and all this worldly stuff doesn’t affect me,

because my place is secure in heaven.

 

Some Christian ministries only focus their time on worship

whether it be traditional, Lutheran or other traditional liturgy

or Praise and worship bands, or Gregorian Chanting,

or meditation, or whatever, they put all their focus on that

time because it’s an escape from the real world

and their people never have another experience

of community, or service, or wrestling with the Word of God,

or wrestling with the world, or wrestling with each other.

Just the good stuff.

  

And surely we all do need worship to replenish

ourselves and regroup and get us ready again.

But that can’t be it. That can’t be the end of the story.

We can’t stay up on that mountain top.

15 minutes in that rarified air and that’s about all we can take.

Then it gets to our heads too.

 

We can only spend a little time up on that mountain,

because Jesus only spends a little time up at the top of this mountain.

Most of Jesus ministry is spend down at the bottom.

 

Now everything that Jesus gets at the top of the mountain is ours as well:

If Jesus is glorified, that glorification is for us too.

If Jesus is unified with his spiritual ancestors, that promise if for us too.

If Jesus is as clean as white snow, then we will be made clean too.

if Jesus is resurrected, we will be too.

If Jesus gets up to the mountaintop, then that promise is for us too.

 

But if we get to follow Jesus up the mountain,

and be transformed and transfigured with him,

then we also will be following Jesus down the mountain too.

 

And  Jesus came down the mountain again,

because we have to live down on the bottom of the mountain.

We can’t breathe that air up there all the time.

Jesus came down to us n order to breathe our air too

and to live with our real world problems

that belong to every human being,

and that’s where every Christian belongs

and that’s where every Christian church belongs too.

 

Right after this mountain top experience

where Jesus is glowing and talking with his ancestors,

they go down to the bottom of the mountain

and find a boy with convulsions that they can’t heal.

The real world comes back at them fast.

And this is where Christ’s true glory can be seen.

 

Jesus trades in his other-worldly glory and power

to come and face this world’s greatest need.

He takes his white and dazzling robe

and he trades it in for dirty hands and feet,

and for a cross between two common thieves.

And that is still where we find Jesus today.

 

If we want to see where God’s true glory lies,

We don’t need to work and pay for that mountain top experience.

We don’t need to spend two months and 60 grand

to go up to the mountain top in the Himalayas.

and we don’t have to have the perfect worship service

that suits our desire every week.

 

We just have to go next door to visit a friend in mourning.

Or to give food to a person who is hungry.

We don’t have to go to the top of the mountain

We can see God’s glory it in the mercy of Ukrainian hospitals

helping wounded Russian soldiers.

We just have to look at the world standing up

this week against bullies and tyrants .

We can easily find God’s glory when people

reach out with compassion to those who

are sad or lonely or hurt,

to those with disease or poverty.

 

The true glory of Jesus is not always found at the top

it’s found at the  bottom of the mountain,

it’s found at the bottom of the cross

where God’s mercy and forgiveness

meets the suffering of the world.

 

Those 15 minutes at the mountaintop can

change us, transform us, transfigure us.

But it is at the bottom of the mountain where we will be

truly astounded at the greatness of God.