• A family, who lived an isolated life out in the country, entered a sweepstakes and won a trip to the big city. They checked into a luxury hotel and stood in the lobby, amazed at the sights and sounds. The father and son wandered over to the elevators, stood there and stared at these huge, mirrored doors. They weren’t sure what these doors were for. An elderly woman walked to the elevator and pressed the button. The doors opened, she stepped inside and the doors closed. A minute later, the doors opened, and a beautiful, young woman stepped out. The Dad couldn’t stop staring. Without even moving his head, he tapped on his son’s shoulder and said, "Son, go get your mother."

If only change were so easy. Lots of us want to make changes in our life. I struggle with my weight. It is not that I am obese. It is just that my pants get too tight. I think maybe Esther has been shrinking them when she does the wash!

I talked to someone the other day who told me they had lost 60 pounds! I asked them how they did it and they said, "I use the rocket scientist diet. I eat less and exercise more!" That is not what I wanted to hear. It is a lot easier to go buy bigger pants.

Making changes in our life usually requires effort, discipline and commitment. We would prefer magic. We would love it if we could just take a pill.

Moses went up the mountain, met God and when he came back down his face was shining like the sun. Peter, James and John went up the mountain with Jesus. He was transfigured before their eyes. His face was changed and his clothes became dazzling white. He began to shine like the sun.

We long for mountaintop experiences like that. We want something that makes it easier to believe. We think an experience like that would help us to hold fast to our faith in a world that throws questions and doubts at us every day.

It is easy for us to long for the experience of Moses on that mountaintop where he got to see God face to face. It would be great if we, like Peter, James and John, could catch a glimpse of Jesus’ glory. But something we forget is that they had to walk up the mountain. They didn’t drive a car or take a chairlift. They walked up one step at a time. Walking in the mountains isn’t easy. The air is thin. The path is rocky. The climb is hard.

If we really want to encounter God there are some steps we can take, but they require effort, discipline and commitment. They are not exactly rocket science either.

If we want to encounter God our best bet is to go where God has promised to be. You are here in worship. God has promised to be here too. Jesus said, "Where ever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also." We encounter Jesus in word and sacrament. Christ has promised to speak to us through his word. He has promised his presence in the bread and wine of communion. He is there "for us" to feed our faith and to assure us of our forgiveness and his promise of eternal life. Worship isn’t always a mountaintop experience. It may not cause our face to glow and we may not come out shining like the sun, but hopefully, there is at least a light of hope ignited in our heart as we hear again how much we are loved.

Hopefully, there is a flicker of joy as we rejoice in the fact that we are forgiven.

Hopefully, our love for God burns brighter as we offer God our thanks and praise.

Those of you who are parents have a tougher time climbing that mountain because you have to bring your kids along. They can be heavy. They might complain. They might even be a distraction. But you need to bring them. If you want them to be people who worship as adults then you need to help them to learn to worship now as children.

I was at a meeting of Senior Pastors of Large ELCA congregations last week to discuss worship attendance and how we might help people to see worship as a priority in life. We didn’t really come up with any concrete answers, but all of us agreed that there is a lot of competition out there for people’s time. All kinds of sports activities are taking place on Sunday mornings now and it never used to be that way. People live such hectic and harried lives that many decide to use Sunday morning as a time to catch up on sleep or to run those ever present errands like grocery shopping.

One congregation is contemplating eliminating Sunday School and offering Christian education only on a weekday evening. They see Sunday School keeping kids and Sunday school teachers out of worship. They want to say to people that worship is what is most important and that if you have to choose between Sunday school and worship - choose worship.

We are not going to try eliminating Sunday school here. I love my job too much to try that! However, I do strongly agree that worship is what is most important. One of the commandments Moses brought down from the mountain was a command to worship. It has been on the books for a long, long time. Sunday school is only about 200 years old.

I know it is hard to bring kids to worship. They get wiggly and they can be noisy and distracting. But it is vital that they are here.

• George was getting his boat ready for a day of fishing when Fred, his neighbor, wandered over. As the two men talked George’s six year old son Timmy kept interrupting. He was begging to go along fishing. Finally, George told him to stop begging that he was too young to go along. Timmy, started to cry and went into the house. George explained, "I have tried to take him fishing and it ruins my day. I spend all of my time baiting his hook and untangling his line. It takes all the fun out of it for me and fishing is something I really look forward to. There is nothing I would rather do." Fred said, "Obviously you love to fish and it seems like you are good at it. How did you learn?" George said, "Oh, my Dad taught me."

Parents if you want your kids to learn to love God and to offer God their worship and praise, you are going to need to teach them. Worship is one of the paths up the mountain as we seek to encounter God.

God has also promised to listen to our prayers. If we want to grow closer to God then it is important to talk to him and to listen to what God has to say to us by spending some time in prayer. I know it is hard to find time to read the Bible and pray. It takes effort. It takes discipline. It takes commitment.

Some of you have a wonderful devotional and prayer life and I commend you for it. But if that is an area of your life where you need to grow, you have a real opportunity coming up during Lent. In the last Herald we printed a 40 day devotional guide. Rather than giving up something for Lent, I would encourage you to take on a commitment to read the prescribed text for the day and then discuss the questions in that guide with your family or with some friends. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it does provide you with an opportunity to talk about the faith. Those conversations and the prayer time that is included there provide another path up the mountain and a step by step opportunity to grow closer to God.

Yet another path up the mountain, as you seek to met God, is service. God wants us to live out our faith. God wants us to serve others in response to the gifts we have been given. Someone has said, "It is easier to act your way into believing than it is to believe your way into action." In other words, if you act like a believer you will become one. Serve God and you will encounter God in those you serve.

Change is hard. There is no doubt about it, but if we want to grow in faith we need to make those changes that nurture faith growth. We need to take those steps that carry us up the mountain. They are steps that require effort, discipline, and commitment.

• A pastor shared a story on the internet. He says, "We have a beautiful ‘Christmas Cactus’ which I gave to my wife as a gift many years ago. It has accompanied us through tough years and good times. But it almost died.

  As the small plant grew, we transferred it to a larger pot. It did well for about twenty years, but then began to die. It seemed that no amount of feeding, coddling or attention helped. We finally plucked a few leaves, re-rooted them and started over.

  We could barely remove the now-dead plant from its pot for all the knotted and intertwined roots. The beautiful succulent was dying because it outgrew its environment. The plant changed, but the container it lived in stayed the same.

People, too, can die when they outgrow their environments. They need broader views, bigger challenges. Songwriter Bob Dylan put it this way: "’If you are not busy being born, you are busy dying.’"

Karen Kaiser Clark says, "Life is change; growth is optional. Choose wisely." Good advice - especially when we find ourselves becoming root-bound.

In the workshop held here last Saturday, Dr. Richard Bliese challenged us to change. He talked about sharing the Good News with people who are different from us and how if we are going to reach different people we have to do different things. We also have to be open to the changes that will come as a result of new people becoming a part of our community of faith.

There is an old saying, "If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten." As Christians we have a wonderful message to share.

It is a message that God loves us unconditionally.

That God forgives our sins, no matter how dark and dastardly those sins might be.

That God cares about us and can use us to share his love with others.

There is no question that God loves us just the way we are, but God also loves us too much to leave us that way.

God wants to change us and transform us. God wants to make us more like Jesus. If we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, if we take the paths that lead up the mountain where we encounter God, then God will transfigure and transform us.

For God has said to us, "I will raise you up on eagles’ wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of my hand."

Do you want to have the experience Moses had?

Do you want to catch a glimpse of Jesus glory? Do you want to "Shine like the sun?"

Then climb the paths God has given us to reach the mountaintop where we encounter him. Amen.