Lessons From The Mountaintop
Sermon
Something's Coming ... Something Great
Sermons For Advent, Christmas And Epiphany
Frederick Buechner in his book, Peculiar Treasures, writes about Moses in the following way: "Whenever Hollywood cranks out a movie about Moses, they always give the part to somebody like Chariton Heston with some fake whiskers glued on. The truth of it is, he probably looked a lot more like Tevye the milkman after 10 rounds with Mohammed Ali. Moses up there on the mountain with his sore feet and aching back serves as a good example of the fact that when God puts the finger on people, their troubles have just begun! Hunkered down in the cleft of a rock, Moses had been allowed to see the Glory itself passing by, and although all God let him see was the back part, it was something to hold on to for the rest of his life."1
Mountaintop experiences in our faith journey become those moments of revelation that give us something to hold on to for the rest of our lives. That certainly is the kind of experience Moses had on Mount Sinai, and the kind of experience our Lord had with Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. Any experience in which we recognize the Living God can be a transfiguration. It may take place on the summit of a mountain, or as we kneel in prayer on a wooden floor at sea level. It can happen in the midst of a service of worship where God becomes dramatically real to us, and we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is our Living Lord and Savior. So as we celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord, let us consider some spiritual lessons from the mountaintop.
1. The Value Of Spiritual Mountaintops
Let us consider first the lasting value of mountaintop revelations. To the ancient Hebrew mind, there was something mystical about mountaintops. Such places were associated with God's dwelling place. The cosmology of the Bible was that of ancient times, which saw the earth as a flat plain floating on a bed of water and protected from more water overhead by a dome-shaped firmament, or sky. Beyond the firmament and the water it held back was heaven and the throne of God. With that ancient three-storied view of the universe, it was only natural that mountaintops would achieve mystical significance. For both Moses receiving the Ten Commandments atop Mount Sinai and Jesus receiving the blessing of God on the Mount of Transfiguration, the experience was one that shaped not only their own future, but that of the people of God for many years to come.
Mountaintop experiences have that kind of lasting effect on those who experience them. There was once a father and son who had achieved a really good relationship with each other. Among their many good times together, one experience stood out above all others. It was a hike up a particular mountain where they seemed to reach the height of a beautiful friendship. After they returned home, there inevitably came a day when things did not seem to run as smoothly. The father rebuked the son and the son spoke sharply in return. An hour later the air between father and son had cleared. "Dad," said the boy, "whenever it starts to get like that again, let's one of us remind each other of that wonderful day we had on the mountain."
So it was agreed. In a few weeks, another misunderstanding occurred. The boy was sent to his room in tears. After a while, the father decided to go up and see the boy. He was still angry until he saw a piece of paper pinned to the door. The boy had penciled two words in large letters, "The Mountain." That symbol was powerful enough to restore the relationship between father and son. That is the nature of mountaintop experiences - they have a lasting value which shapes our spiritual lives for years to come. The law which Moses received atop Mount Sinai, and the salvation which Jesus made possible on Mount Calvary are but two examples of how important spiritual mountaintops are in our faith journey.
2. The Mystery In Mountaintop Experience
A second lesson that comes out of Moses' experience on the mountaintop is the element of mystery which always accompanies such revelations. Our modern world is often intolerant of mystery. Ours is an age which is obsessed with the idea of knowing and explaining everything. A story is told of a little boy whose father expressed the usual before dinner command: "Hurry up and wash your hands and come to prayers." As the boy went toward the bathroom, he was heard to mutter, "Germs and Jesus, germs and Jesus! That's all I hear around here, and I can't see either one of them!"
But the Living God always comes to us in surprising and mysterious ways. The revelation we receive is not always immediately clear and unambiguous. If it were, there would be no need for faith. Moses on the mountain alone with God reminds us that we will never fully understand the ways God breaks into our lives, nor can we judge others' mountaintop experiences by our own. For some, God may become more real in a magnificent manifestation on a mountaintop, while for others, it is that still small voice within that brings us into the presence of the Living God.
In almost all occasions in the Bible where people experience God, there is mention of a cloud. In Jewish thought, the cloud or "Shekinah" was the age old symbol of the Divine Presence. Moses sees God in the cloud. It was a cloud that led the people of God through the wilderness. It was a cloud that filled the Temple after Solomon built it. At the Ascension, Jesus is received up into a cloud which signified that he has been taken up into the nearer presence of God. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter experiences an overwhelming sense of what theologians call the mysterium tremendum. It was that mysterious and yet wondrous experience in the clouds that resolved Peter's doubts forever.
3. The Temptation Of The Mountaintop
In almost all accounts of mountaintop experiences in the Bible, those who have the experience face the temptation of wanting to cling to the moment forever. It is a tragedy when people stop and build upon one period in their religious thinking. There are those whose understanding of God has never progressed beyond the "now I lay me down to sleep" stage. Conversely, there are those who have rejected religion in their early years because of some unfortunate experience with a pastor, priest or Sunday school teacher. They put the freeze on their own personal spiritual history at the moment. Their minds are closed to the possibility of an adult faith.
I am sure you have seen the ads on television: a group of friends sitting around a campfire. A clean, clear mountain stream rushing by. A skillet filled with fish. A tub filled with "Old Milwaukee." And one of the friends says to the others, "Fellows, it doesn't get any better than this!" We have all had those kinds of experiences. Everything is just right. It cannot get any better. We want to hang on to the moment and stay on the mountaintop forever. The problem is that the God we discover on the mountaintop is a God who is always on the move. Our God is never stationed in one place. The biblical God is like a Methodist preacher: an itinerant who doesn't stay in one place forever!
Moments of high religious ecstasy are important, just as moments of intense emotion are important in a marriage, but you cannot build a marriage upon those moments alone. Nor can we build all of our faith on the memory of a great moment with God. God calls us forward into the future, and that usually means down from the mountain to meet the problems of the marketplace. Ernest Hemingway once wrote a book about his early days as a writer in Paris. He titled the book, A Moveable Feast. In 1950 he wrote, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a move-able feast." I do not know about Paris, but the presence of God is a moveable feast. Even when we leave the mountaintop, we do not leave God behind. In fact, it is God who leads the way!
4. The Urgency Of Spiritual Mountaintops
Still a fourth lesson we can discern in Moses' experiences on Mount Sinai is the urgency with which he is compelled by God to head back down the mountain with a stone tablet under each arm. Every genuine encounter with the Living God turns out to be an urgent call to discipleship at the foot of the mountain. God does not give us spiritual trips away from the real world; God has a tendency to thrust us back into the thick of it! There are needs to be met at the foot of the mountain. There is a world desperately in need of a vision of God, or the touch of someone who has had a vision of God, and who wants to share it. Real Christianity is not just what happens in the sanctuary; it is ultimately what we do in the real world which counts.
A few years ago a new pastor was called to a neighboring church in our community. The local newspaper was supposed to announce "The Installation of Dr. Jones as Pastor of First Baptist Church." But instead, the paper printed in bold headline, "The Insulation of Dr. Jones as Pastor of First Baptist Church." Many Christians would prefer insulation to installation when it comes to doing the real work of the kingdom! Sometimes living as a Christian amidst the squabbles, the complaints, the pettiness, and the pain of life in the real world is less than glamorous. Nevertheless, God calls us to share our faith and our experience of God outside the safety of the church in a world that God still loves, and wants to redeem in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross was doing research for her famous book on death and dying, she met a woman who was a member of the cleaning staff in a large hospital. This woman spent her days cleaning floors, emptying wastebaskets and tidying up patients' rooms. The hospital staff, however, began to notice that each time this woman finished cleaning the room of a dying patient, that person was invaribly more content and more at peace. The woman explained to Dr. Kubler-Ross that she had known a lot of fear and tragedy in her life, as well as good times when others helped her know of God's love. She had been up and she had been down the mountain. The worst time was when her three-year-old son was ill with pneumonia. She brought him to the public health clinic, and he died in her arms while she waited her turn. All of this could have embittered her, but she said to Kubler-Ross, "You see, doctor, the dying patients are just like old acquaintances to me, and I'm not afraid to touch them, to talk to them, or to offer them hope." The hospital decided to promote this woman to "Special Counselor To The Dying."
And is that not the call of God to each one of us - to be Special Counselors To The Dying? We cannot stay on the mountaintop forever. There are so many lives to be touched with the love of Christ down there in the valley where we live. This is the most important lesson from the mountaintop. Let us go forth to touch others as God has touched us.
Mountaintop experiences in our faith journey become those moments of revelation that give us something to hold on to for the rest of our lives. That certainly is the kind of experience Moses had on Mount Sinai, and the kind of experience our Lord had with Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. Any experience in which we recognize the Living God can be a transfiguration. It may take place on the summit of a mountain, or as we kneel in prayer on a wooden floor at sea level. It can happen in the midst of a service of worship where God becomes dramatically real to us, and we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is our Living Lord and Savior. So as we celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord, let us consider some spiritual lessons from the mountaintop.
1. The Value Of Spiritual Mountaintops
Let us consider first the lasting value of mountaintop revelations. To the ancient Hebrew mind, there was something mystical about mountaintops. Such places were associated with God's dwelling place. The cosmology of the Bible was that of ancient times, which saw the earth as a flat plain floating on a bed of water and protected from more water overhead by a dome-shaped firmament, or sky. Beyond the firmament and the water it held back was heaven and the throne of God. With that ancient three-storied view of the universe, it was only natural that mountaintops would achieve mystical significance. For both Moses receiving the Ten Commandments atop Mount Sinai and Jesus receiving the blessing of God on the Mount of Transfiguration, the experience was one that shaped not only their own future, but that of the people of God for many years to come.
Mountaintop experiences have that kind of lasting effect on those who experience them. There was once a father and son who had achieved a really good relationship with each other. Among their many good times together, one experience stood out above all others. It was a hike up a particular mountain where they seemed to reach the height of a beautiful friendship. After they returned home, there inevitably came a day when things did not seem to run as smoothly. The father rebuked the son and the son spoke sharply in return. An hour later the air between father and son had cleared. "Dad," said the boy, "whenever it starts to get like that again, let's one of us remind each other of that wonderful day we had on the mountain."
So it was agreed. In a few weeks, another misunderstanding occurred. The boy was sent to his room in tears. After a while, the father decided to go up and see the boy. He was still angry until he saw a piece of paper pinned to the door. The boy had penciled two words in large letters, "The Mountain." That symbol was powerful enough to restore the relationship between father and son. That is the nature of mountaintop experiences - they have a lasting value which shapes our spiritual lives for years to come. The law which Moses received atop Mount Sinai, and the salvation which Jesus made possible on Mount Calvary are but two examples of how important spiritual mountaintops are in our faith journey.
2. The Mystery In Mountaintop Experience
A second lesson that comes out of Moses' experience on the mountaintop is the element of mystery which always accompanies such revelations. Our modern world is often intolerant of mystery. Ours is an age which is obsessed with the idea of knowing and explaining everything. A story is told of a little boy whose father expressed the usual before dinner command: "Hurry up and wash your hands and come to prayers." As the boy went toward the bathroom, he was heard to mutter, "Germs and Jesus, germs and Jesus! That's all I hear around here, and I can't see either one of them!"
But the Living God always comes to us in surprising and mysterious ways. The revelation we receive is not always immediately clear and unambiguous. If it were, there would be no need for faith. Moses on the mountain alone with God reminds us that we will never fully understand the ways God breaks into our lives, nor can we judge others' mountaintop experiences by our own. For some, God may become more real in a magnificent manifestation on a mountaintop, while for others, it is that still small voice within that brings us into the presence of the Living God.
In almost all occasions in the Bible where people experience God, there is mention of a cloud. In Jewish thought, the cloud or "Shekinah" was the age old symbol of the Divine Presence. Moses sees God in the cloud. It was a cloud that led the people of God through the wilderness. It was a cloud that filled the Temple after Solomon built it. At the Ascension, Jesus is received up into a cloud which signified that he has been taken up into the nearer presence of God. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter experiences an overwhelming sense of what theologians call the mysterium tremendum. It was that mysterious and yet wondrous experience in the clouds that resolved Peter's doubts forever.
3. The Temptation Of The Mountaintop
In almost all accounts of mountaintop experiences in the Bible, those who have the experience face the temptation of wanting to cling to the moment forever. It is a tragedy when people stop and build upon one period in their religious thinking. There are those whose understanding of God has never progressed beyond the "now I lay me down to sleep" stage. Conversely, there are those who have rejected religion in their early years because of some unfortunate experience with a pastor, priest or Sunday school teacher. They put the freeze on their own personal spiritual history at the moment. Their minds are closed to the possibility of an adult faith.
I am sure you have seen the ads on television: a group of friends sitting around a campfire. A clean, clear mountain stream rushing by. A skillet filled with fish. A tub filled with "Old Milwaukee." And one of the friends says to the others, "Fellows, it doesn't get any better than this!" We have all had those kinds of experiences. Everything is just right. It cannot get any better. We want to hang on to the moment and stay on the mountaintop forever. The problem is that the God we discover on the mountaintop is a God who is always on the move. Our God is never stationed in one place. The biblical God is like a Methodist preacher: an itinerant who doesn't stay in one place forever!
Moments of high religious ecstasy are important, just as moments of intense emotion are important in a marriage, but you cannot build a marriage upon those moments alone. Nor can we build all of our faith on the memory of a great moment with God. God calls us forward into the future, and that usually means down from the mountain to meet the problems of the marketplace. Ernest Hemingway once wrote a book about his early days as a writer in Paris. He titled the book, A Moveable Feast. In 1950 he wrote, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a move-able feast." I do not know about Paris, but the presence of God is a moveable feast. Even when we leave the mountaintop, we do not leave God behind. In fact, it is God who leads the way!
4. The Urgency Of Spiritual Mountaintops
Still a fourth lesson we can discern in Moses' experiences on Mount Sinai is the urgency with which he is compelled by God to head back down the mountain with a stone tablet under each arm. Every genuine encounter with the Living God turns out to be an urgent call to discipleship at the foot of the mountain. God does not give us spiritual trips away from the real world; God has a tendency to thrust us back into the thick of it! There are needs to be met at the foot of the mountain. There is a world desperately in need of a vision of God, or the touch of someone who has had a vision of God, and who wants to share it. Real Christianity is not just what happens in the sanctuary; it is ultimately what we do in the real world which counts.
A few years ago a new pastor was called to a neighboring church in our community. The local newspaper was supposed to announce "The Installation of Dr. Jones as Pastor of First Baptist Church." But instead, the paper printed in bold headline, "The Insulation of Dr. Jones as Pastor of First Baptist Church." Many Christians would prefer insulation to installation when it comes to doing the real work of the kingdom! Sometimes living as a Christian amidst the squabbles, the complaints, the pettiness, and the pain of life in the real world is less than glamorous. Nevertheless, God calls us to share our faith and our experience of God outside the safety of the church in a world that God still loves, and wants to redeem in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross was doing research for her famous book on death and dying, she met a woman who was a member of the cleaning staff in a large hospital. This woman spent her days cleaning floors, emptying wastebaskets and tidying up patients' rooms. The hospital staff, however, began to notice that each time this woman finished cleaning the room of a dying patient, that person was invaribly more content and more at peace. The woman explained to Dr. Kubler-Ross that she had known a lot of fear and tragedy in her life, as well as good times when others helped her know of God's love. She had been up and she had been down the mountain. The worst time was when her three-year-old son was ill with pneumonia. She brought him to the public health clinic, and he died in her arms while she waited her turn. All of this could have embittered her, but she said to Kubler-Ross, "You see, doctor, the dying patients are just like old acquaintances to me, and I'm not afraid to touch them, to talk to them, or to offer them hope." The hospital decided to promote this woman to "Special Counselor To The Dying."
And is that not the call of God to each one of us - to be Special Counselors To The Dying? We cannot stay on the mountaintop forever. There are so many lives to be touched with the love of Christ down there in the valley where we live. This is the most important lesson from the mountaintop. Let us go forth to touch others as God has touched us.
