Last
weekend was winter Homecoming for Paola High School. For those nominated to the Homecoming Court—including our
nursery attendant LL—and certainly for the 2 crowned winter Homecoming Queen
and Homecoming King, it was a time to bask in glory. I wonder if any of them were thinking “it just can’t any
better than this.” Colleges and
universities host homecoming weekends—a time for alumni to return to the scene
of their glory days. You do
something similar with your June class reunions here in Paola. I recall last year’s 50-year reunion
was held at F & L’s place.
Homecoming weekends & class reunions are opportunities to remember
glory days.
Bruce
Springsteen—one of the poets for my generation—has a song about that. In “Glory Days,” he sings about running
into an old high school friend, “but all he kept talking about was glory days”
when he was the ace baseball player. Springsteen continues, “I hope I don’t sit around thinking
about the past—just sitting back and trying to recapture a little of the
glory.”[1] I hope I don’t let time slip away and
leave me with nothing but boring stories of glory days.[2]
The fact is we can remember our glory days so much that we get stuck in the
past.
Glory
days . . .
In
the events leading up to today’s scripture reading, Jesus and his disciples
have been busy. Gaining fame in
Galilee, Jesus’ group of followers is growing. Healing, confronting local Pharisees, and teaching his
disciples, Jesus regularly finds his spiritual oil gauge registering a little
low, so he seeks opportunities to get away and pray. In today’s text, he takes Peter, James, and John up a
mountain to pray. The setting is
significant, for in the Hebrew faith story, God is encountered on the
mountain. It was on a mountain
that Moses came upon a burning bush, burning but not consumed by the fire. There Moses 1st encountered
God. It was on a mountain that
Elijah encountered God—in the quiet stillness after earthquake and storm. In
the Hebrew faith story, God is encountered on the mountain.
Exhausted
from travel, ministry, and study, the disciples are weighed down with
sleep. It won’t be the last time
they find it difficult to stay awake as Jesus prays. Struggling to keep their eyes open, the disciples see a vision: Jesus in dazzling white—heavenly
clothing—is joined by the great prophet Elijah and the mighty law-giving leader
Moses. What a sight! What glory! What a revelation.
It’s a revelation to Peter, James, and John—who heretofore have known
Jesus to be a miraculous healer, a learned teacher, and a gifted leader. Previously they may have suspected he is God’s chosen one, but
here, on the mountain, when they see his glory and hear God’s voice, they know—at least for this instant of
time: Jesus is God’s son, the
Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
Thinking
it just can’t get any better than this Peter suggests, Let’s stay right here,
on the mountain. We’ll erect a
shrine to sit in and remember this Kodak moment. Peter wants to stay on the
mountain, to stay where he is—perhaps so long that he is close to getting stuck
in the past.
What
a sight! Until the clouds roll in
and overshadow the mountain—enveloping Peter, James, and John in the sightless
mist. Disoriented, cut off from the glorious vision, they are terrified—until
God speaks to them. Calling their
attention to Jesus, God speaks to them.
The clouds clear, and Jesus alone stands in front of them. He leads them back down the mountain. He leads them back to the other
disciples. He leads them back to
the crowds. Re-orienting them to
the present, Jesus leads them back to people in need.
In
this painting[3] by Raphael,
the glory of Jesus’ transfiguration is balanced by the need for his healing,
life-transforming ministry. Half of the canvas depicts Peter,
James, and John’s revelatory vision while the other half depicts the activity
at the foot of the mountain—the activity focusing on the demon-possessed boy
whom Jesus’ disciples cannot heal.
Half the painting is mountain-top
experience, and the other half is working in the trenches.
What
a sight! What glory! It just can’t
get any better than this. How hard it is for Peter to let go of this vision, to
let go of his desire to enshrine this glory day. But Jesus knows there is a child in need at the foot of the
mountain—a child who does not yet know him—a child in need of life-transforming
relationship. Jesus knows there is
a child in need at the foot of the mountain—a child possessed by demons of
disease—a child in need of healing.
Jesus knows there is a child in need at the foot of the mountain—a child
fettered by fear and disbelief—a child in need of faith. Jesus knows there is a child in need at
the foot of the mountain—a multitude of children actually—a crowd of people
whom God desires to claim individually—each one as God’s very own child. Men and women; adults, youth and
children; insiders and outsiders—every one of them is a child in need at the
foot of the mountain.
Our
mountain top experiences inspire us, but God’s work is done at the foot of the
mountain. Sometimes we think, It
just can’t get any better than this.
When we think we’ve reached
the pinnacle of our mission, the capstone of our ministry, it’s appropriate to
relish the success—for a little
while—in the present. But if we rest on our laurels up there on the
mountain for too long, we are distracted from our call to action. If we get too
comfortable with our success, our
vision is clouded, and we become disoriented from the path God lays out for us
to follow.
Peter,
James, and John thought what a sight!
What glory! It just can’t
get any better than this. Little
did they know, the best was yet to come.
For the sight of the resurrected Christ and the glory of his defeat of
forces of death and destruction, would outshine this Transfiguration
experience.
Glory
days—they have peppered our past.
Since its charter 145 years ago, this church has seen glory days—growing
numbers, more building space, the first thrift shop in this area, a weekday
ministry to pre-schoolers, paying off debts. We could, like Peter, by tempted to enshrine what we have
done—and camp out on the mountain.
But Jesus draws our attention down and out, for there are children in
need in our community, children who don’t know Jesus—yet.
I
believe—for our church—the best is yet to come. As we are faithful to our call to share God’s transforming
love in the person of Jesus the Christ, we will experience new glory days. I think they are on the horizon . . .
as early as June . . . and our day camp. But there is work to be done, so let’s
roll up our sleeves and follow Jesus to the child in need at the foot of the
mountain.
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