Dazzled and Dashed

DATE: February 24th, 2013
SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 99; Luke 9:28-43
© Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton

Last week, we followed Jesus out into the desert, where he stayed for 40 days, tempted by the devil.  This week, we strike out for a different wilderness, but this time we’re headed up: up on the mountain, away from the crowds, away from all the people who have been following Jesus; the ones he has taught and healed and fed; and all the countless others still desperate for bread or hope or human touch.  Jesus takes three of his disciples – Peter, John and James – and heads up the mountain to pray.

[Sung:] Going up on a mountain, and I ain’t coming down ‘til the morning.
Going up on a mountain, and I ain’t coming down in chains.

When my family went on hikes through the White Mountains, or up Mt. Monadnock in southern NH, we’d often sing songs along the trail: the Happy Wanderer or Kukaburra sits in the old gum tree. We packed snacks, foraged for the perfect walking stick and for wild blueberries in season. If I prayed, it was the care-free, unselfconscious prayer of a child: “Please, God: let there be more rocks to climb”; and “Wow, God: Awesome view!”

I wonder whether Peter, James and John sang, on their way up the mountain that day, or if they followed Jesus in somber silence, lost in their own thoughts about recent events: how somehow there’d been enough bread to feed a hungry crowd over 5,000 strong; how Jesus had brought that little girl back to life; and healed the woman who had suffered from hemorrhages all those years; and then, just when things seemed to be going so well, how Jesus had told them we was going to be arrested and killed and would rise again on the third day… What did that even mean? It was a lot to take in.

So I wonder whether they welcomed the hike as a chance to sort things out, to get their bearings, or were they merely focused on putting one foot in front the other? The mountain they climbed would have had less in common with New England’s lush ranges than with a desert landscape: stark, arid, forbidding. Did Jesus give them time to grab their water bottles, or a bag of trail mix, or were they thirsty and hungry, as well as tired, by the time they reached the top? I can imagine, as Jesus knelt and began to pray, how the disciples may have collapsed on an outcropping of rock, to shake dust and pebbles from their sandals. Between the climb, and the heat radiating from those rocks, and their tired feet, it’s no wonder their eyes began to droop.

But what happened next jolted them awake and caused the hair on their arms to tingle as if there was electricity in the air: the sun had gone behind the clouds, but still: Jesus was… glowing, shining like a dislodged star come to earth – and talking with two figures who had not been there moments before – Moses, it looked like, and Elijah! The disciples rubbed their eyes; they were dazzled by the vision, and lacking sunglasses to ward off the glare, and not knowing what else to do, Peter said: “We’ll build a tent.”

Three tents, one for each: This one for patriarchs, this one for prophets, this one for messiahs. Step right up and take your place. Then we’ll always know where to find you, if ever we need you. Right here on the mountain. Good.

I recognize that impulse – the impulse to name and contain. To mark a place or a moment in order to control it a little, to put walls around it, maybe even freeze it in time and space: This, this is a Holy Place (with a capital ‘H’).

[Sung:] Going up on a mountain, and I ain’t coming down ‘til the morning.
Going up on a mountain, and I ain’t coming down in chains.

Next week, you will hear stories from young people who have been to summer camp at Silver Lake Conference Center. Growing up in New Hampshire, my “Silver Lake” was called Horton Center, a UCC camp up on Pine Mountain. I remember leading a young adult retreat there, when I was in college. For worship, we gathered together on a ledge overlooking the Presidential mountain range, set communion on a rock and sang to the clear-blue sky. Sunlight glinted off the mica-flecked rocks, and we were dazzled by the view. I was sure I felt the presence of God… It was a Holy Moment, one to which I still return in my mind. I didn’t build a tent on the spot, but I did plant a tree, and my fingers in the dirt were like a prayer of gratitude and awe.

Marking a place – it can be a genuine attempt to honor a Holy moment. But it is also an effort to somehow make concrete to an encounter that is otherwise intangible, inexplicable, ineffable. Peter, James and John tried to pin it down, but that dazzling display of divine presence, it would not be contained.

As if to drive that point home, a massive cloud rolled in, so they went from dazzling light to blinding fog. A cold mist settled on their eyelids, cheeks and arms; they lost sight of the ground beneath their feet, and as they stood there groping in the dark, they heard a Voice: “This is my son; my Chosen. Listen to him.” Had any of them been there the day Jesus was baptized, they might have recognized the Voice. It had spoken directly to Jesus on that first occasion: “You are my beloved.” Now, up on the mountain, out of the cloud, it spoke instead to the knock-kneed disciples. “My son: Chosen. Listen to him.”

I wonder now, whether they felt any comfort in that moment, or just sheer terror; did the disciples feel at all reassured or just utterly unsettled. Maybe all of the above. On the one hand, it was just like Peter had said: “See? Jesus IS the Messiah – I knew it!” On another hand… the Voice said to listen. What was that thing that Jesus had said, about suffering, and death? “This is what it means to be my disciple: Take up your cross and follow me.” Unsettling, to say the least…

Later, after the cloud dispersed and the sun came out, they did not speak of it. Maybe, as with so many Holy Moments, they simply had no words to describe it. Maybe it was all they could do to put one foot in front of the other, as they descended the mountain, each trembling foot seeking out the solid ground, as their minds spun and their hearts beat in their chests. Maybe they were still mulling over the implications of following this one who had been Chosen by the Voice. Maybe they were wishing they could stay up on the mountain.

But of course, they couldn’t. Jesus went back down, and so they went, too. Waiting for them at the base of the mountain was a crowd, and in that crowd was a father with a suffering son, his only son… a child convulsed by an unseen spirit. And so the scene shifted: from divine glory to human despair, from dazzled to dashed in the blink of an eye.

Jesus did not hesitate. Jesus, who had glowed with Holy light up on the mountain, now shown with Holy love: love deep and real and fierce enough to rage against human pain. In one fell swoop, he banished the spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God. All except Peter, James and John, right? All except those three, who had just seen the raw power of God in a blaze of light and mysterious cloud…

I wonder if something didn’t click in the hearts of Peter, James and John, as they watched the boy’s contorted limbs relax and saw a look of relief wash across the father’s face. I wonder if they didn’t begin to see that going up-the-mountain is just a prelude to coming back down, that the most amazing Holy moments occur right here, at ground level, among those who are yearning for bread or hope or human touch. There are so many people whose lives have been dashed to the ground by broken relationships or broken bank accounts; addiction or prison, poverty or abuse, illness or bigotry, overwork or no work, so many people who need to experience something real and powerful and transforming in their lives. That’s what it means to follow Jesus: to feed and heal and love God’s people. That can be daunting work.

So we go up the mountain to sing and to pray, to find our bearings, and maybe to lose them for a time, in a dazzling flash of light, in the dark of a cloud. Those mountain-top moments remind us that God’s love and power are stronger than all our suffering. Remind us that even when we can’t see the ground beneath our feet, the Holy One is there. So take heart. Have courage. Go back down. Listen to him. Do what he does. Heal the people. Be set free. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[Sung:] Going up on a mountain, and I ain’t coming down ‘til the morning.

Going up on a mountain, and I ain’t coming down in chains.

Scripture Texts

Psalm 99

The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!

You sit enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! O Lord you are great in Zion; You are exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy are You! Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

Extol the Lord our God; worship at God’s footstool.

O Lord, holy are You! Moses and Aaron were among Your priests, Samuel also was among those who called on Your name. They cried to the Lord, and You answered them. You spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept Your decrees, and the statutes that You gave them. O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

Extol the Lord our God, and worship at God’s holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy.

Luke 9:28-43

Introduction: These verses come at the tail end of a section about who Jesus is, exactly. King Herod has asked: Is this John the Baptist, raised from the dead, or Elijah? Jesus asks his own disciples what people are saying. They answer: Some say john the Baptist, some Elijah. It is in this section that Peter first proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus responds by declaring for the first time that he will undergo great suffering, be rejected by temple officials, that he will be killed, and rise again on the third day. Not the kind of Messiah they had in mind, perhaps… The text continues:

28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure [or: exodus], which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40 I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

43 And all were astounded at the greatness of God.