Matthew
17:1-9
What
can be seen?
Something changes on top of that
mountain. Something happens up there
which alters the direction of the journey taken by Jesus and his
disciples. Something up there affects
the way Jesus speaks to his disciples and how he speaks of his mission.
Up on that mountain top, there is a
vision. And this vision brings a clarity
which is lacking before.
My goal this morning is to
encourage all of us to think of the visions which have changed our lives. I will not accept that you have had none; I
will totally support the lack of practice you may have in talking about
them. One of the downsides to the way we
do worship is you get talked at and seldom are you taught to use your own
voice. That means you seldom rehearse
your stories; it also means you compare your stories to the grand ones written
in scriptures or eloquently delivered by a trained orator.
But you would not be here, in this
place, on a bright and glorious weekend morning if there weren’t visions in
your past. Visions which conveyed to you
the reality of God’s love; visions which convinced you that your life will be
better off by spending this hour reconnecting to that which earlier moved you
so deeply.
Let me tell you about one such
event in my life.
It involves David Choate, an employee
of the Agricultural Extension Service in North Carolina. In addition to trying to help my grandfather
improve production in our apple orchard, he served as my 4-H agent. During my youth, Mr. Choate came to my house
on countless afternoons to help me prepare my public speeches, to design my
tomato research project, and to help my daddy learn when to pick this new
variety of apples which the State 4-H leader told us would soon be the only
apple the packing houses would buy.
Mr. Choate had more confidence in
my abilities than I did. Mr. Choate
would not allow me to accept my lot in life as the hyper-active child of a
couple of mill workers and part-time farmers.
I wanted to be just like David
Choate. I wanted to organize 4-H clubs
for other kids and take them to exciting places like Raleigh and Winston-Salem. Mr. Choate had taken me to 4-H Clubs in black
neighborhoods in a deeply segregated corner of western North Carolina. He is the one who communicated to me my
self-worth and taught me the God given value of every human being.
At about age 15 I told him I wanted
to be just like him; I told him I wanted to try to teach other youths what he
had taught me.
My memory is of him driving us
somewhere, as I told him all this. And I
can hear him saying, “Well, Chris, that is wonderful. But you know the one thing I can’t always
tell folks is why I do what I do.
Sometimes,” Mr. Choate told me, “I wish I were a preacher, so I could
tell them why.”
Something happened in the front
seat of that car which made it crystal clear what was to happen in my life. It was a vision. It was a mountain top experience.
Do not compare your story to
mine. But allow my story to remind you
of those moments or exchanges or visions which have given clarity to your
life.
Do not compare your story to the
one we read from Matthew 17. But allow
this story to invite you to recall those moments or exchanges or visions which
lie in the path which has brought you here this morning.
Something happens. Something happened on the top of that
mountain and something happens in our lives.
And as a result, we begin to give voice to a conviction which both
invites us and frightens us; which claims us and sets us on a course too
powerful to be denied.
The retelling of what happened to
Peter and James and John is well rehearsed.
These events are recorded in each of the synoptic gospel accounts. In each, there is a mixture of revelation and
fright. However, in the verses which
follow each there is a more direct path to the places where Jesus knows all
this is leading.
The description of the events isn’t
as crystal clear as we might want to pretend.
Look back at the text and note the actual words. We are told that Jesus is “transfigured
before them.” That his face shone like
the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.
Most of what I know about the word “transfigured” I know from the bible
stories. Have you heard the word used
elsewhere? Google defines transfigured
as “transform into something more beautiful or elevated”. I am still not sure what Peter and James and
John saw when they looked at Jesus.
If Jesus’ face shone like the sun,
they would not have seen much. Polaroid
sunglasses were yet to be invited and looking into the sun couldn’t have been a
pleasant experience. The part of his
clothes becoming dazzling white I can understand. One version even adds, “as no one on earth
could bleach them.”
Where do Moses and Elijah come
from? What did they discuss? And how is it that they slip off without even
a good-bye? A non-named voice from
heaven is affirming, but had Moses or Elijah said a few words about Jesus think
how well that would have settled disputes with the Jewish religious
authorities.
What happens on that mountain top
is not as crystal clear as we would sometimes want to believe.
But what is absolutely clear is the
effect this event, this visit, this vision has on those who experience it. Jesus is transfigured; they are transformed.
Prior to this little trip up the
hill, Jesus finds it difficult to get the disciples to focus. We read today from chapter 17. Chapter 16 contains stories of Jesus
attempting to make sure the disciples know what it means to call him
“Messiah.” They don’t seem to get it. But after whatever happened on that mountain
top happens - they do.
As we prepare to begin our
liturgical season of Lent, I want you to practice retelling the events, the
visits, the visions which have happened in your life. What occasions have created in you an
appreciation and a desire to love and serve God more fully? We do not often enough give voice to the
stories which set us on the path which has brought us to the place we are
today.
Maybe your story is not as dramatic
as the story told in Matthew 17. Few (if
any) are. The stories in the bible are
always a bit over the top. I hope I have
helped you to realize that even this story isn’t as crystal clear as we too
often assume. A whole lot of living into
the story is necessary before it becomes the life-altering occurrence we now
perceive it to be.
What are the visions which have
guided your journey?
The dramatic flair given to the
story is not the measure of its importance.
What matters is the effect it has had and continues to have in our
lives.
Somebody else was in the car the
day when Mr. Choate and I had that conversation. I have racked my brain trying to remember who
it was. Whoever it was, I am pretty sure
they didn’t go on to become a pastor.
What happened in that car was not as life-altering for them as it was
for me. The significance of an exchange
cannot be measured by external indices.
The significance can only be discovered by the effect it has on the
person at the center.
Something happens on the top of
that mountain. What happens changes
everything. What happened we may never
know. But we all are basking in the
afterglow of how those events changed the lives of those who learned to retell
their story. And told it to others, who have
since told it to us.
Amen.
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