“Jesus took…them up a high mountain…There he was transfigured before them.”
(Mark 9:2, part of Transfiguration Sunday’s Gospel from Mark 9:2-9)
A world filled with bad news was in evidence long before the challenging days of 2020-21. We read about it and hear about it through media and word of mouth to the point of overload. So, it’s especially refreshing when we hear or read an occasional “good news story” that makes us pause, smile and take notice. They can even provide the kind of “shining moment” that changes our thinking, transforms our perspective and instills a measure of hope.
When Jesus once climbed a mountain with his three trusted disciples, He was also looking for all of them to be encouraged, inspired and have their perspective changed. For sure, He needed to be reminded of His mission...enter Moses and Elijah, who embrace Him and tell him He’s on the right road and encourage Him to keep on going. Jesus also needed to know His dad still cared...so enter God the Father, who repeats the words first spoken at Jesus’ baptism:
“THIS IS MY SON, WHOM I LOVE. LISTEN TO HIM!”
And the disciples? They needed to learn more about this Christ, whose plans did not include setting up a glorious kingdom on earth, but instead paying the price for humanity’s sins so there could be a kingdom in heaven. The disciples may not have had cameras, but they needed to freeze-frame the mountaintop moment that followed in their hearts and minds...because that future picture would include Jesus’ suffering and death. But it would also mean an empty cross that would precede His resurrection, which would end up guaranteeing our resurrection and the promise of life to come.
Have you ever been confronted with a message that memorably changed your perspective? It seems one church chose as its upcoming Lenten theme, “Forty Days of Love.” Each week members of the congregation were encouraged to show their love and appreciation in different ways. During the first week of Lent they were encouraged to send personal notes to people who had made positive contributions to their lives.
After the announcement came out, a man in the congregation wanted to speak to the pastor. The pastor described the man as “kind of macho, a former football player who loved to hunt and fish, a strong self-made man.” The man told his pastor, “I love you, and I love this church, but I’m not going to participate in this Forty Days of Love stuff. It’s OK for some folks,” he said, “but it’s a little too sentimental and syrupy for me.”
But a week went by, and by the next Sunday the same man waited after church to see his pastor again. “I want to apologize for what I said last Sunday,” he told him, “about the Forty Days of Love. I realized on Wednesday that I was wrong.” “Wednesday?” his pastor repeated. “What happened on Wednesday?”
“I got one of those letters!” the man said. It came as a total surprise. It was from a person the man never expected to hear from. It touched him so deeply he now carries it around in his pocket all the time. “Every time I read it,” he said, “I get tears in my eyes.” It was a transforming moment in this man’s life. Suddenly he realized he was actually loved by others in the church, and it changed his entire outlook. “I was so moved by that letter,” he said, “I sat down and wrote ten letters myself.” (James W. Moore, HEALING WHERE IT HURTS, pp. 54-55)
Receiving the letter was a transforming experience for “Mr. Macho.” It came from a mailbox rather than a mountaintop, but the effect was the same…his perspective was changed. That’s what can happen when God breaks into our lives…we are changed. That’s what mountaintop moments can do…they can change us and even help prepare us for life in the valley.
The time did come for Jesus and his three disciples to come down off the mountain. As Peter, James, and John descended the mountain, they undoubtedly mulled over the significance of what they had just experienced. My guess is that they walked back down pretty quietly, they were so filled with awe. As they came down the mountain, though, Jesus instructed them not to tell anyone of their recent experience, “until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”
The time would come when they would tell everyone, but the time wasn’t right yet. Jesus and the disciples still had work to do, and Jesus needed the disciples’ help. This mountaintop experience played a major role in the lives of these three disciples, though. However brief the experience was, they were given a glimpse of the future. In fact, those who have seen the future are better prepared to live in the present. You and I see the future through the eyes of faith…a present and a future blessed by life, forgiveness and salvation. A present and future that includes our great God, who changes perspective on life, so we can help influence change on the lives of others. In that regard, a few closing words are in order from a person we’ve probably heard of before…a fellow name Fred.
The late Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood fame once wrote: “In the external scheme of things, shining moments are as brief as the twinkling of an eye, yet such twinklings are what eternity is made of – moments when we human beings can say ‘I love you,’ ‘I’m proud of you,’ ‘I forgive you,’ ‘I’m grateful for you.’ That’s what eternity is made of: invisible, imperishable good stuff.” (The World According to Mr. Rogers, 2003, p. 88)
I don’t fashion myself to be a rock climber, much less a mountain climber. In fact, my knees get shaky when I climb further up a stepladder. I’ve never witnessed a transfiguration event like the one pictured in Sunday’s Gospel. But there have been numerous shining moments in my life when I’ve been led to see and hear the “invisible, imperishable good stuff” of God. The shining mountaintop moments when God breaks into our lives and works to change our perspective...a perspective that too often gets clouded over by sin, fogged over by distraction and obscured by things way too unimportant in life. But no matter how they appear, I’ve discovered that those shining moments can help prepare us for the life that follows in the valley below.
So keep your eyes and ears open for those often brief “twinklings.” Better yet, take notice, take advantage of them, learn from them, use them and enjoy these precious moments given to all of us. We might not be expecting them. They may come as a surprise, but they really are the “good stuff.” Blessings and Joy!
Pastor Dale Koehneke – February 14, 2021