Feb 14th - In Person

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you the name of our God and Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

So there was an experienced group, and they were climbing a very high mountain, except they had one rookie. He was a young man, he was in great shape. He had trained for this mountain climb.

I mean it was strenuous. Took them hours, but finally, they reached that plateau there, which was called the face the mountain, and they were on the top. And the young man when he realized that he had made it all the way to the top, he jumps up in the air and says, "I did it!" And immediately, a gust of wind almost blew him off the side. Meanwhile, the experienced mountain climbers were on their knees. And after that, this young man was on his knees. And he had learned a very valuable lesson: when you get to the top, don't stand up too fast.

I'm talking about mountain top experiences, and this is Transfiguration, where Jesus is up in the Mount of Transfiguration in our Gospel lesson in Mark chapter 9. We have to put in the context of chapter 8 and chapter 9. At the very beginning, Jesus feeds the 4,000 which by itself as you know, he's does a 5,000, 4,000, it's just amazing what he does with his miraculous power. Shortly after that, Peter says, you know when He asked, "Who am I?" Peter says, "You are the Christ." Peter gets it, right.

Jesus goes on to say - cuz from this time on, after the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus, before this for 8 and 1/2 chapters He's been to Galilee, He's been in Nazareth, He's been all over the place, now He's pointing directly to Jerusalem. He tells the disciples that. I'm going up to Jerusalem. I'm going to suffer, and I'm going to die, but I will rise again on the third day. Well, they don't hear that Third Day stuff. They just hear the "suffer and die." So, when Jesus takes His inner circle up on the mountain, Peter, James and John, they're kind of great about this, cuz they were very troubled, and maybe some of this rarefied air up on the mountain here will clear their heads. And when they get up there, Tara said it very well. The Gospel says His clothes were like white. He transformed.

In the Greek, it's called metamorpho, coming from the word metamorphosis in our English language, which, here's your definition: a complete change of form or appearance into more beautiful of spiritual sake.

I love Peter. You know, I got size 12 boots, and I think Peter had size 12, and he puts it in his mouth very frequently.

And part of it is, it says the same thing at all the synoptic gospels - by synoptic, I mean Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels. It's the exact same words in all three Gospels. Because Peter was afraid. The disciples were afraid.

This was a transforming event. What does Peter say? "Let's make a tent. One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah."

Isn't it interesting? They recognize Moses. Been dead for hundreds of years. Elijah. Been dead hundreds of years. But they recognize. Moses was a symbol of the law. We read it in - isn't it interesting that in our Old Testament lesson for today that Moses had to wear a mask? Did you pick up on that? He had to wear a veil. Because his face was shining. Not because of COVID, because he was shining, reflecting of God. Elijah. Woooh. Didn't die, went up on that fiery chariot, remember?

He symbolizes the prophets. And then we have Jesus. And then there's the phrase - because this cloud goes over him. "Listen to Him."

It's in all four Gospels.

First, He says this is my beloved Son which with whom I am well pleased. He says that at His baptism, and how He comes and He says it here. He says "Listen to Him."

I wonder whether the disciples at that time really understood. See, when you come from very profound things happening, it's very hard sometimes.

There were two astronauts that walked on the moon, and the first one, this was all he strived for. It's all he did. And when he finally got there, he was to the pinnacle of what he felt was the very top. Because of that, he'd arrived at everything he wanted to do, he became kind of dispondent. In fact, he went into a state of depression, actually. the other astronaut, James Irvin, I got his book up here if you ever want to Google it. He had a completely different outlook about that.

Here's what he wrote: "As we flew into space, we had a new sense of ourselves of the earth of the nearness to God. We were outside ordinary reality. I sensed the beginning of some sort of deep change taking place inside of me."

And then he continued: "The ultimate effort had been to deepen and strengthen all of the religious insight I ever had. On the moon, the total picture of the power of God and His son, Jesus Christ became abundantly clear to me."

Now, I've seen pictures, never really experienced that. But I imagine if I had walked on the moon, that would make an amazing difference in my life. But I like how he says it: he came in to the power of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. See, most time, we think of Jesus as we think about His compassion, right? We think about His sacrificial love, we think about His caring. His tenderness. But we don't always think about His power, about His glory.

If I was the disciples Peter, James, John, I would have been afraid too, because they have never seen this side of Jesus.

And then they came down off the mountain. And you know, Jesus said, "don't tell anybody."

How does it feel to come down off the mountain? Like my clerical tonight? You asked, Cindy. I said, if you go 15,000 miles you get one of these. When my wife and I teach in Africa, It is a mountaintop experience.

We are so blessed by it. And so humbled by it, because when we teach, we learn so much. And here's the deal. They are so appreciative of the leadership that we're giving them, because it helps their church continue to grow and grow.

And that's even more humbling when they say that to us. But if you've ever been to a retreat, like we used to at Trinity every two years, we'd take our 7th and 8th graders to Camp Luther. And they come back and go "wow."

Or for marriage retreats, and they go "wow."

I can name some other things to you. Maybe the first time you went to Lambeau Field, well maybe not.

When you go to that mountain and you come back down, It changes you. Maybe not in everything and that everyday life of what you do, but it it changes you in the sense of: I know Peter, James and John remembered how Jesus looked.

Because in the Gospel of Matthew, when the cloud came over, it said they fell to their knees. They fell to their knees.

Well, if you've ever watched the movie The Passion directed by Mel Gibson - and I like how Mel Gibson as a director put it - because when you see Jesus on the cross like you se Him right here, and they get to that point where Jesus on the cross sees His mother and John the disciple whom He loved, you remember what's happening here.

And Jesus says to his mother: "Mother, behold your son. ,Son behold your mother." And they're on their knees.

When we come before Jesus. We're not doing it tonight, but you've done it for years - when you receive the precious body and blood, you are on your knees.

And that's really what Transfiguration was for Peter, James and John, and it's really what Transfiguration is for us. Where we see not only the son of man, but we also see the Son of God. We not only see Jesus, Yeshua, but we also see the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And we find great comfort in that.

Because not only does He have the power over sin, death and the devil, but He has that sacrificial love that comes to us as His people. So that you and I could call each other brothers and sisters in Christ.

So, next week Wednesday, we're going to start a journey. It's a 40-day journey, not counting weekends. But it's six weeks where, under the theme of "Return to the Lord," we're going to go to the cross. We're going to follow Him from the Mount of Transfiguration to another hill called Golgotha, where He gave His life for you and I, so that you and I could be forgiven, redeemed children of God. And praise God for that. Praise God. Amen.

And now may the peace that passes all understanding, preserve and keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. Amen.