First United Methodist Church
March 2nd, 2025
Rev. Lauren Hall
Changed!
Have you ever experienced an event that was so amazing that you wanted to capture it in order to keep it forever? In today’s world, this is much easier to do than it used to be because we can record everything on our smart phones. In fact, last year I managed to get a close-up picture of a Red-Tailed Hawk, because I already had my phone in my hand. If I had had to look for a camera, I may have missed the opportunity.
But even with today’s technology, it’s very difficult to capture every moment, especially when these special events catch us unprepared.
Think about what happens when you take a child to see a natural wonder for the first time. Imagine the look on their face when they see the Grand Canyon, or Niagara Falls or a Redwood tree! The first time I took Rowynn to see the ocean, I saw that look on my daughter’s face. Since I wasn’t walking backwards with a camera, I had to capture that moment of joy up here in my memory and in my heart, where it will be forever imprinted, but unfortunately, I don’t have a picture to show you.
It’s these kinds of moments that catch us off guard sometimes and we wish we could go back and relive them again.
The transfiguration of Jesus provides a dazzling, dizzying experience for the three disciples who accompanied him up the mountain. It is one of these moments that we wish we could capture, and Peter, once again reminds us of our basic humanity as he reacts to it. Faced with a spiritual event that overwhelms him at every level, he responds with a very natural impulse: Let me build something. Let me build a dwelling, a container, a box to place you in so I can create a Holy Space that I can keep going back to in order to recapture that moment. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of reaction. We all have them. Look at your friend’s Social Media posts. They are filled with “moments” that we want to celebrate and remember.
Peter, James and John were not prepared for the situation they faced when they accompanied Jesus up the mountain. They thought they were going up there for a prayer session with Jesus and apparently Jesus generally prayed for a long time, because they decided to take a little nap while they were up there. When they woke up, they realized that something amazing was happening as they witnessed a conversation between Jesus, Elijah and Moses.
Peter has probably experienced a number of these type of revelations, and this one is especially significant, because the transfiguration reveals Christ’s divine nature. God’s voice exalts Jesus above Moses and Elijah as the long-awaited messiah with full divine authority. Moses represents the law, and Elijah the prophets. Their appearance shows Jesus as the fulfillment of both the Old Testament and the prophetic promises.
Following this experience, they find themselves alone with Jesus. They choose not to tell anyone what they had seen at that time, perhaps because they have to experience the resurrection before they can fully understand what actually happened.
We have heard this transfiguration story, as related by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each year on “Transfiguration Sunday.” Even if we have never been to the mountaintop ourselves, we recognize the significance of this particular event.
We don’t really know what happened on the mountaintop with James and John and Peter – all of the gospels are rather vague about that. But we are able to make sense of it because we have the benefit of the resurrection. While Peter and James and John were just beginning to comprehend the idea that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law and the prophesy, we regularly profess this on faith.
Luke’s placement of this story in his gospel reminds us that the coming of the Kingdom of God is not going to be an apocalyptic event that will bring on the end of the world. Rather it is an ongoing process in which God’s will is realized in the world. Although we don’t see it immediately, the disciples came down from the mountain changed. And it is because of this change that they were more equipped to live out Christ’s gospel of mercy and love.
After this mountaintop moment, the disciples go back to the drudgery of the human world of pain, disease, and death. No wonder Peter said it was good that they were on the mountain and should build three dwelling places. When we are in a place of joy, rarely do we want to return to the ordinary world. Yet, Jesus, as the prophets did before him, always forces disciples to look at their world—and he shows them how God’s grace works through real life applications.
The story of the healing of an epileptic child offers a key lesson on discipleship. The disciples alternate their lives in Christ between the mountain of joy and their Christ-needy world. Given people’s nature, however, we tend to overindulge in only one side of the human-divine equation.
Throughout Luke’s gospel, Jesus moves back and forth between the divine and the human realm. We may not realize it, but he is setting a pattern for what we actually do here on Sunday morning. Notice that Luke describes Jesus as going up to the mountain to pray. Jesus discusses with Moses and Elijah his impending crucifixion. And then the voice from heaven is directed not to Jesus but to the disciples with the instruction, “Listen to him.” This encounter models a pattern of worship that combines prayer, discussion focused on the cross, and the command to listen. But it doesn’t stop there. The second half of this passage reminds us that while worship may be a retreat from the world temporarily that allows us to immerse ourselves fully in the Word, worship inevitably leads us back into the everyday world filled with human need where Jesus heals the sick and opposes the forces of evil. If worship is a retreat, it is not a retreat from the world but a retreat in order to come back to the world in love, mercy and grace.
Therefore, when you come up for communion today, think about the places in your life where love, mercy and grace will have the greatest impact.
I think sometimes we think mountaintop experiences have to be a result of a powerful adventure like surviving your first rafting trip on the Ocoee River or running up a bunch of steps in Philadelphia. But Luke shows us that sometimes Jesus reaches out to us at the top of a mountain, and sometimes Jesus reaches out to us when we see someone suffering and we respond. We see Jesus during our most vulnerable points because it is then that we need to hear the words: “This is my Son…Listen to him!”
Your Mountaintop Experience may be a bright, shining moment that you never want to forget, or it may be one of those dark moments in time that you don’t really want to think about. But if that moment reveals to you that Jesus is real, that Jesus loves you and wants you love others, then you have been changed. Remember that when God comes to us in Christ, the Lord appears right before our very eyes and calls us into discipleship, not hidden away in our holy spaces, but out in the world where the people are. Christ lifts us up and equips us to do what we can’t do on our own. Let us pray:
Gracious God, we tremble in the presence of your glory and power. Strengthen our courage, that we might look upon your love and stop shrinking away in fear. Embolden us to trust your grace, no matter what we are facing in our lives. Shine upon us with your mercy, that we may shine for all to see. Show us the places where you need us to be and grant us the confidence to go out into the world boldly so that we might share both your grace and your abundant love. In your loving name, we pray. Amen.
