Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them, take our minds and think with them, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen.

In today’s gospel lesson, Peter, James and John follow Jesus up to the top of a high mountain.  A few quick bible study notes before I continue: whenever Jesus climbs a mountain pay close attention something important is about to happen.  Moreover, whenever Jesus sets off alone with Peter, James, and John pay attention something important is about to happen.  Now when you put those two together, as in today’s gospel lesson, Jesus climbing a mountain with Peter, James, and John alone really pay attention something extraordinary is about to happen and today’s lesson doesn’t disappoint. 

As Jesus and his three disciples reach the apex of the mount, Jesus is transfigured before them and his cloths becomes dazzling white.  Through the power of God, Jesus undergoes a metamorphosis, a change in form, a transfiguration.  He begins to glow with the glory reserved for heavenly beings—exuding unimaginable power.  Peter utters the words that I am sure James and John were thinking as well, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.”  Indeed, it must have been good to witness Jesus transfigured into his divine glory.

What’s more, the celestial brilliance of Jesus’ transfiguration is only the beginning.  Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus in a heavenly constellation.  Being faithful adherents to the Jewish religion, the disciples must have been totally star-struck.  After all, Moses and Elijah represent the two primary pillars of the Jewish religion—the Law and the Prophets.  Through Moses, God gave His holy Law to the people of Israel including the Ten Commandments.  And Elijah was a great and powerful prophet who like many other prophets proclaimed to the people of Israel God’s words of judgment and grace.  These two men are sacred supernovas, bright lights that have worked amazing miracles, promoted God’s covenant and law, and, like Jesus, even faced rejection by the people they cared for before being vindicated by God.  Jesus, Moses, and Elijah form a kind of divine Dream Team—radiating the unimaginable power and promise of God. 

For Peter, James, and John, everything must now be different.  If they had any question as to the identity of Jesus, they should all now be sufficiently answered.  Jesus is far more than some first-century Galilean miracle worker.  Jesus is not just a great moral philosopher whose thinking was ahead his time.  Jesus is not simply a charismatic political revolutionary seeking Israel’s emancipation from Rome.  Instead, Moses and Elijah—the Law and the prophets—find their meaning and fulfillment in Jesus.  Jesus is a continuation and the culmination of all the mighty acts of God throughout history.

As the disciples stand in awe of the scene unfolding before them, Peter always the pragmatist of the disciples makes a sensible suggestion, “[L]et us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  You see a dwelling is not just rock hut.  A dwelling is another term for a tabernacle.  A tabernacle is a holy place in Jewish tradition—a place that God is pleased to dwell.  Peter is not talking about building three shacks on a mountaintop.  He wants to construct three sacred tabernacles to house the divine glory that is glowing before him.  It’s an offer of respect.  However, before Peter can pop open his tool box, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice from heaven speaks, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”  In a day full of glorious surprises, this final experience brings the disciples to their knees.  Not only have they seen the glory of God in the face of their friend and teacher Jesus, but now they actually hear the voice of the Almighty speaking directly to them.  Indeed, it must have been good to be there. 

But this mountaintop story is about much more than Jesus’ true divine identity.  It would be an incomplete image of Jesus if we only pictured him as an untouchable ball of divine power.  Much like the sun, unapproachable, floating through the sky far removed from all the trials and tribulations that we face each day.  You see the very same person who shines like the sun on the mountaintop descends that mountain to be betrayed by a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane, be spat upon and slapped by the elders of his people, and to be crucified for the sins of the whole world.  Indeed it must have been good to be on top of that mountain glowing in Jesus’ divine glory, good enough even to build some dwellings and stick around for a while.  But we all know that’s not how the story ends.  Jesus and his followers have unfinished business in the world, so the time come for them to roll up there sleeves walk down the mountain and get about doing God’s work in the world.      

You see outside the walls of this church is a mission field.  And our work lies out there somewhere in that mission field.  Right now you and I are on the mountain top.  In this church, we are being filled with Jesus’ glory as we hear God’s word and feast on Christ’s body and blood.  But like Jesus and his disciples, the time will soon come when we must come down the mountain.  We have unfinished business in the world.  Jesus is calling us out of this church, and whatever else might be safe and familiar, to proclaim truth, justice, and uprightness…so that the nations of the world might be transfigured and give glory to God.  John Wesley once said, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, for as long as you ever can.”  I’ve said before, there is much work for us to do.  We either do it or we don’t, but none of us are too young and none of us are too old, and we are not done until we are dead.  The work is hard and it demands sacrifice, but it is still our work to do. 

My Grandmother’s name is Carrie Lou Brandon.  Several years ago now, I had to place Carrie Lou in an Alzheimer’s Unit in a nursing facility outside Dallas, Texas.  It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  However her Alzheimer’s had progressed to a point where it was unsafe for her to be alone any longer.  As I sat next to her on her bed in the nursing home, preparing to leave, I began to weep.  The thought of leaving my grandmother in that place was almost too much to bear.  Just then, as my grandmother noticed that I was crying she looked at me and said, “Please don’t cry.  Everything will be all right.  God brought me to this place.  His children in this home need to hear about His love, and it’s my job to tell them.”  As she shared these words with me, a woman walked up to us.  The woman’s Alzheimer’s had progressed to a point where she could no longer speak.  As she stood there with a blank stare on her face my grandmother began to sing to her.  She sang to her the entire first verse of some old Baptist hymn.  Then she looked at me and said, “You see.  That made a difference.”  And she was right you know.  It did make a difference.  It is the small things in life that make all the difference.

Outside those doors there is a mission field.  Somewhere out there you have a mission to fulfill.  That mission is to share God’s love with our words and with our deeds.  There is much work for us to do.  We either do it or we don’t, but none of us are too young and none of us are too old, and we are not done until we are dead.  The work is hard and it demands sacrifice, but it is still our work to do.  WH Auden once declared, “We are here on earth to do good for others.  What the others are here for, I don’t know.”

At the Episcopal Student Center, we have a weekly book study called Lunch Bunch.  Two Thursdays ago, we gathered at a Chinese food restaurant for our discussion.  When we finished eating, I grabbed a fortune cookie—more for the cookie and less for the fortune.  But as is my custom when eating Chinese, I always read my fortune just for giggles.  My fortune read: You need to listen more than you speak.  Those that know me well know that this is all too true—I talk a lot.

Well perhaps this piece of advice came originally from a person far wiser than we might even expect.  On the mountaintop, God shared three very important words.  These words are, “Listen to him!” Listen to Jesus’ words: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  Listen to His words: “No one has greater love than this, to give up one’s life for one’s friend.”  Listen to Jesus’ words: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Indeed, it is good for us to be here—together in this church—to hear God’s word and be nourished with Christ’s body and blood.  However, like Jesus and his three faithful followers, it will soon be time to come down from this mountain; time to walk out of those doors and into the mission field; time to push ourselves to reach beyond the familiar and comfortable to offer ourselves, souls, and bodies to those in need or neglect; time to listen to Jesus’ words and make them alive through word and deed.  Don’t you agree?  Don’t you agree?  It’s time.  Amen.

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