MATTHEW 17:1-9, 14-18

[17:1] And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

[2] And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

[3] And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.

[4] And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

[5] He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

[6] When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.

[7] But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”

[8] And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

[9] And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

[14] And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him,

[15] said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.

[16] And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.”

[17] And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”

[18] And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

Life is full of mountain top moments; moments that are incredibly exciting. Your heart begins to pound and you feel an overwhelming sense of joy.  It happens when a baby is born.  It happens when your son comes home from Afghanistan.  It happens when the love of your life says, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”  For many of us it happened at 11:47 p.m. on October 27, 2004.  Do you remember what happened at that precise moment? That’s the moment the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. 

When was the last time you had a mountain top moment?  Do you remember where you were?  Do you remember how you felt?   Do you remember how long the feeling lasted? Life is full of mountain top moments. At the same time life isn’t meant to be one continuous mountain top moment.  Just ask Andrew, Bartholomew, James, Judas, Matthew, Nathaniel, Philip, Simon and Thaddeus.  They’re the disciples who didn’t get to go to the top of the mountain with Jesus, Peter, James and John.  They were the disciples who were left to fend for themselves at the bottom of the mountain.   So, they didn’t get to see Jesus in those dazzling white clothes.  They didn’t get to see Moses and Elijah standing there with him.  They didn’t get to see the bright cloud and hear the booming voice say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Simply put they didn’t get to experience that mountain top moment. I wonder how they felt?  What do you think?  The probably felt left out and cheated.  Actress Helen Hayes tells a story that may describe the way the disciples felt.   The story is about a mountain top moment that she shared many years ago with fellow actress Mary Martin.  The two of them were filming a movie in Paris.  During a break in the filming the two of them went for a walk down the Champs Elysees.  It was a beautiful day and they were soaking up the atmosphere in one of the world’s great cities.  Their mountain top moment didn’t last very long though. Mary Martin was wearing a brand new designer dress when all of a sudden a bird came down, went swoosh, and Martin was covered.  Helen Hayes later said, “I was very frightened about what she’d do, but she just turned and said, ‘For some people, they sing.’”

Life isn’t meant to be one continuous mountain top moment.  Unfortunately, we live in a society that wants you to believe that life isn’t worth living unless you’re on the top of that mountain.  Everything has to be exciting.  Everything has to be extraordinary.  Everything has to be exceptional.  Maybe that’s why we have such an additive society.   People will do just about anything to find that high and if they can’t find that high they’ll do just about anything to create an artificial high instead. 

Maybe that’s why sports is so big these days.  People are looking for the high that you experience when your team wins.  Gambling in another way people try to find that high. That sad reality can be seen in a tongue-in-cheek question that goes like this. Question: What’s the only difference between praying in a casino and praying in a church?  Answer: In the casino they really mean it.

We live in a society that wants you to believe that life isn’t worth living unless you’re on the top of that mountain. If you take a look at the calendar and you’ll see that it’s all about jumping from one party to the next, one celebration to the next.   You go from Christmas parties to New Year’s Eve parties.  Then you have your obligatory Super Bowl party followed by Valentine’s Day and your St. Patrick’s Day parade.  Oh and let’s not forget March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament which wouldn’t be complete without betting a few dollars in the office pool.  There’s also the annual cookouts on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.  Let’s see what else is there.   That’s right.   You also have Thanksgiving and then there’s Halloween.  When I was growing up Halloween was for the kids; but not any more.  Today it’s also a day for adults to dress up in silly costumes and party.  Along with all of these days for festive feasting and fun you have to add the annual birthday parties, anniversary parties and graduation parties and that includes the parties for graduating from nursery school.   That last one has always baffled me.  Hey look.  Junior is potty trained.  Someone get the camera and let’s have a party.

People today are no different from Peter.  Do you remember what Peter did while they were at the top of that mountain?  In the midst of all the excitement he said, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Peter offered to do that because he wanted to stay on the mountain.  Peter didn’t want to go back down to the humdrum world at the bottom of the mountain.

That’s what people want today.  Like Peter, they want to stay on the mountain.  They want life to full of excitement and they’ll do just about anything to making it exciting.  In extreme cases that desire can lead to drug abuse and the excessive consumption of alcohol.   That desire is also what fuels our lust for material things. 

You buy and buy and buy but still you want more and more and more.  Before you know it you’re just like the farmer who met a preacher one day.  The preacher was riding his horse when he came upon the farmer.  The preacher tipped his hat and said, “Fine day isn’t it?”  The farmer shook his head. “Maybe it is for you,” he said.  “All you have to do is ride around on your horse thinking about God while I have to sweat here in this field.”   Now it was the preacher’s turn to shake his head. “Actually,” he said, “thinking about God is one of the most difficult things you can do.  And to prove it I’ll give you this horse if you can think about God and nothing else for one minute.”  The farmer quickly agreed and sat down in silence. He bowed his head and began to pray.  Thirty seconds later he looked up at the preacher and asked, “Does that include the saddle?”

Society wants you to believe that life is only worth living when you’re on the top of the mountain.  Jesus, on the other hand, knows that life can also be wonderful when you’re at the bottom of the mountain.   Jesus knows that there are grace filled moments waiting for you at the bottom of the mountain.  They’re waiting for you in your mundane moments and everyday routine.

Just look at Andrew, Bartholomew, James, Judas, Matthew, Nathaniel, Philip, Nathaniel and Thaddeus. There was a wonderful grace filled moment waiting for them at the bottom of that mountain.  All they had to do was heal that man’s son but they couldn’t.  They couldn’t even though Jesus gave them the power to heal shortly before he went up the mountain.  That’s why Jesus got angry.  He came down the mountain and the man ran up to him and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.”   

They disciples couldn’t heal him.  Now I have a theory about why they couldn’t heal them.   Maybe they couldn’t heal him because they were discouraged and depressed.  They were discouraged and depressed because they wanted to be at the top of the mountain with Jesus and the other disciples.

So, the missed out on what could have been a wonderful grace filled moment at the bottom of the mountain.  Jesus wants you to know that life can be good at the bottom of the mountain.   He wants you to know that there are grace filled moments waiting for you at the bottom of the mountain.

Take, for example, the wonderful grace filled moment that author Winston Pierce shares in his book “A Window On The Mountain.”   It happened shortly after he went to his high school reunion.   While he was there he remembered a special English teacher by the name of Mrs. Wendt.  So, when he got home, he wrote the teacher and letter and mailed it to the school.  The school then forwarded it to the teacher.  A month later he got a letter back from the teacher.  “My dear Willie,” the teacher wrote, “I can’t tell you how much your letter meant to me.  I am now in my nineties, living alone in a small room…lonely, and like the last leaf of fall lingering behind.  You will be interested to know that I taught school for forty years and yours is the first letter of appreciation I ever received.  It came on a blue cold morning and it cheered me as nothing has for years.  Willie, you have made my day.”

There are lots of grace filled moments waiting for you at the bottom of the mountain.   They’re waiting for you in a crowded subway train.  They’re waiting for you an unexpected telephone call.   They may even be waiting for you in a pile of laundry or a chance encounter in the grocery store.   John Henry Newman was right.   John Henry Newman was an Episcopal priest who converted to Catholicism and went on to become a cardinal and a saint.   He once wrote these words:

“I sought to hear the voice of God,  And climbed the highest steeple;
But God declared ‘Go down again, I dwell among the people.’”                        Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

March 6, 2011