Luke 9:28-43

About a year ago, my sister out in Iowa moved to a different house in the town where she’s lived for nearly 20 years. I couldn’t imagine her new neighborhood even though I’d visited the small town many times. But there’s this remarkable invention called a computer that made it possible for me to go there without ever leaving my home.

I went online. There are web sites that let you put in an address anywhere in the world and voila! you’re right outside the door. I watched with fascination as the screen showed first the entire earthly globe, rotated to North America, zoomed in on Iowa, and glided right down to street level. Not only could I see her new house, but by zooming out a bit I could see all the buildings in town and “travel” from her old house to the new one.

Perspective is important. People can use that same computer program to project their virtual presence to right outside any place on earth, but – so far, anyway – what goes on behind closed doors is still beyond our sight. Looking at the outside of my sister’s house couldn’t reveal the life within.

Today, Luke’s Gospel text takes us to “the mountaintop” with Jesus and three of his disciples: Peter, John and James – the same disciples who would accompany him to the Mount of Olives the night before his crucifixion. They didn’t know at that moment exactly what was to come, even though Jesus had recently reminded them of the death and resurrection he knew was coming. We tend to disbelieve bad news, and it was no different for Jesus’ followers way back then.

Let’s see if we can get some perspective. At this point in Luke’s biography of Jesus, our Lord has, in the previous week, fed 5000 on a grassy hillside AND predicted his manner of death along with the promise of his resurrection. Well, life moves on, and about a week later Jesus takes his friends up the mountain for an experience they’ll never forget. Right before their weary eyes, Jesus begins to glow! And although they weren’t able to fully understand how it happened, Moses and Elijah were standing right beside him. Their presence seemed to say to the disciples that Jesus was the one the prophets had been promising all along. Jesus was the one who would fulfill the promises God had made as far back as Adam and Eve’s exit from the Garden of Eden. The disciples are AMAZED.

We can’t even imagine the depth of astonishment they shared. No wonder they wanted to stay there! They wanted to capture this moment and never let it go. Maybe they thought they could stay at that level of emotion for the rest of their lives and never feel sorrow or pain or heartache again. But in that moment of ecstasy, they’d actually lost perspective. They forgot who Jesus was and what he had come to do. They forgot the ministry he had called them to do in his name.

The voice from the cloud called their attention back to what was important: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.” It took the disciples a long time to make sense of this day and to be ready to share their experience with others. I’d guess they were still in some kind of daze as they walked down the hillside. Confusion and questions must have plagued them, and chances are they might have withdrawn someplace to contemplate the event, but that was not to be.

Real life brought perspective back into their situation. As they ambled down the mountainside, the crowd was waiting. Jesus’ reputation had preceded him and the crowds were restless. A voice cried out above the others: “My son needs your healing,” and Jesus heads off to do what needs to be done.

The founders of the Methodist movement were two brothers, John and Charles Wesley. They transformed the practices of their Anglican Church tradition, personalizing the believers’ experience of communicating with God. It was their intention to bring cold and distant ritual right down the mountainside into the hearts of true believers. They wanted their fellow Christians to be so moved by the love of God that they would be “strangely warmed” and inspired to go into the world to take care of others.

That kind of experience, thankfully, isn’t limited to members of today’s Methodist Churches. We can experience it ourselves throughout our lives. We come together for religious ritual, like a baptism, that reminds us of our place in God’s realm. We recall that each of us is God’s own child, redeemed and sanctified, called and sent. The Word is spoken, the water poured, the baptized welcomed into the community and we celebrate the new life that begins again within the Lord’s own community.

And then reality hits. In the real world we have trouble hanging onto such a mountaintop experience. Critical childhood illness, the death of a loved one, a terminal diagnosis, a natural disaster or the challenge of a breaking relationship hit us right between the eyes. We long to retreat to those memories and dwellings where we expect the Lord to reside – the mountaintop, the seashore, the forest glen, the church. We may even say, “Oh, if only I could get away from it all, leave the real world behind.”

But those spiritual sanctuaries aren’t where Jesus STAYS. Jesus didn’t allow Peter to build tents or booths on the mountaintop that day. He turned his face toward Jerusalem, toward his certain execution, and ambled down into the daily lives of people who needed him. Jesus’ perspective wasn’t clouded by mists separating him from daily experiences. He isn’t separated from us by doors or hospital beds or nursing room hallways. He walks among us and heals our ills.

Jesus chose to walk through the valley of the shadow of death for us. In his Transfiguration, he solidified his intention to follow through on the promises made generations before. He reached out to his terrified disciples and journeyed with them into their future.

Today Jesus walks with us, with you and me and all the baptized. Wherever we go, we are within our Lord’s vision. Our bodies, minds and souls are within the embrace of the one who gave his life for ours, today and into eternity. You and I can remind each other of his presence when times are tough. We can carry each other in prayer when reality hurts. We can reach out to others who don’t know the peace that passes all understanding, because there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Computers are able to take us any place in the world. Still, what goes on behind closed doors, beyond OUR sight within people’s hearts may be more painful than we can imagine. Jesus can see beyond the doors and reach within the pain to offer new life. Go out into the real world taking the mountaintop experience of the Lord’s eternal presence with you. Be bold in sharing God’s love. Amen

(Comments to Linda at kraftylynx@yahoo.com)

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
Trumbull CT