Scripture: Mark 9:2-13; Matthew 11:28-30 Series: 2021
A Transfiguration Sunday sermon on Mark 9:2-13, preached amid the February 2021 Texas ice storm. Pruitt uses the frozen, transformed Lake LBJ to introduce how the same scene can be read very differently, then turns to Peter’s misunderstanding on the mountain as an ‘adventure in missing the point.’ Drawing on Schweitzer’s warning that we tend to make Jesus a mirror of ourselves, he insists the transfiguration reveals Jesus fully as God rather than confirming our constructs. Mountaintop experiences are good but not meant to be clung to; like the disciples, we are called back down the mountain toward Jerusalem and the cross. As Lent (rooted in lento, ‘slowly’) begins, he invites hearers to give thanks for their own mountaintop moments and then follow Jesus down the lonesome valley, not alone but with the Christ whose yoke is easy and burden light.
Illustrations: frozen-lake-lbj, wool-comber-brightness, schweitzer-mirror-jesus, sufjan-stevens-transfiguration, texas-snow-day, lent-lento-tempo
February 14
The Transfiguration
Mark 9:2-13
For my first Sunday at Bee Creek, back in those simpler times of the summer of 2020, my family and I stayed on Lake LBJ and then drove down here in the morning for the service. We had hoped to do something similar this weekend. Kids are off school. We need something to do. We went out on Thursday morning and everything was different. The place where I learned to swim and ski was covered in ice. The boys looked and thought it was snowing. It was not. The whole place was transformed. What was usually brown or greenish brown, was white. It has transformed into something different.
To the boys, it was magical. I just saw the falling tree limbs and possible burst pipes. We stuff around us changes, we don’t all look at it in the same way.
Today is Transfiguration Sunday. In today’s reading, Jesus takes his disciples and they go to the top of a mountain and the disciples have a vision. Jesus is bright. There is an odd word here, only used once in the bible, but Jesus is brighter than any wool that a wool comber could ever comb. You would have to comb a lifetime to get wool as bright as Jesus was. And not only is Jesus bright, but they see Moses and Elijah and Jesus all together. And Peter gets really excited and he was like, “This is awesome. Let’s stay here forever. Let’s build up some tents.” And Peter, like usual, misses the point. Peter sees a winter wonderland but doesn’t understand why Jesus is showing them all of this ans what is going to happen next.
We often miss the point about Transfiguration because we often miss the point about Jesus, about who he is and what he represents.
But like the disciples on the mountain, we needs to start with who we see Jesus to be. So let’s think about who the disciples saw him before they went up on the mountain. Peter and Andrew were called by Jesus during his ministry on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and Jesus comes to them and says “lay down your nets follow me. I will make you Fishers of Men.” He comes just the same to James and John. And they do. They dropped their Nets and followed him. They witness The Sermon on the Mount. They witness the 5000 fed and the blind able to see and the lepers healed. They witness miracle after miracle. They witness and hear Parables. They have the parables explained to them when other people didn’t know what Jesus was talking about. And Jesus turns his face towards Jerusalem. And Jesus takes them up this mountain. And then back down it, all the way to the cross. So that is the disciples. What about us?
Who is Jesus for us? Today, most of us have different experiences and different responses to Jesus. We don’t all come from the same place. There have been a few different pastors here in Bee Creek’s short life as well as people who had no experience of Jesus before coming here. All of that influences how we understand who Jesus is. Albert Schweitzer, the great scholar and doctor who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his clinics in Africa, said that, very often, when people look for the historical Jesus, they see a reflection of themselves. You know, that a liberal German is going to see a Jesus who seems very like a liberal German, a conservative Texan like a conservative Texan. A Liberation Theologian is going to find a Jesus who Advocates Liberation and so on. There is a breadth of possibility here, but there is also a danger. The danger is that, so often, the Jesus we are familiar with is a construct of our own mind and of our own experiences and not the received revelation of God to us. The same is true for our expectations of what Jesus has done as well as what Jesus can do. And so we get to this moment on top of the mountain that Jesus brings his disciples. This is really the great Mountain Top experience. There are conversion stories in the Bible. Paul’s conversion happens on the Damascus Road Peter and John and Andrew their conversion happens by the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples aren’t converted on this Mountaintop; Jesus is revealed, magnificently and fully as God.
The Angel’s sing. Sufjan Steven’s has a version of this.
Lost in the clouds a sign Have no fear, we draw near Lost in the clouds, a voice Son of Man, turn your ear.
They see something amazing, but they never want to leave. They think it is going to last forever like a snow day in Texas, forgetting that it is going u toi be 70 next week. Many of you have had experiences like this on the Mountaintop. Experiences of God and one of the connecting aspects of a Mountaintop experience is that we don’t want to leave. This is what happens on mountains. We have a powerful experience of God. We don’t want to leave. It is so good. It is so true that it makes the life we have back down the mountain seem less real by comparison. And so we are left with the question: What do we do now? We see what the disciples did after seeing Jesus. Peter misunderstood what was going on and wanted to build some houses because he wanted to just stay worshipping God forever, which is good, you know? It is good to desire to worship. God is good. But God has a life for us to live. A life where we connect and grow and receive God in our lives and share God with others. Peter is not dramatically wrong to desire to be with God, he just misses the point, which gets us to Lent, which starts this week. A lot of the actions of the disciples are adventures in missing the point, especially when they get to Jerusalem. They don’t understand what is going on in the temple. They don’t understand what is going on when they enter the city. They don’t understand what is going on in the garden. They don’t Get it. Even after seeing Jesus in this way transfigured, the reality of God in front of him, the voice of God overhead: they still don’t get it. So then, it comes down to what are we going to do? Are we going to respond like the disciples? Are we going to miss the point? Are we going to fixate on the past? Are we going to forget the heart of the matter. The coming of Jesus was not just to offer us a feel-good moment but to offer life to this world. To offer a culmination to the Covenant from God to the people of Israel. The culmination of the work of Abraham, of Moses, of Elijah, of Isaiah and Jeremiah and David and Solomon and Deborah and Ruth. The culmination in the son of Mary and Joseph, the son who walks all the way to the cross. Peter and John weren’t ready, then, to go all the way to the Cross. They wanted to stay on that mountain top. They weren’t ready to be accused.
Lent has the same root as Lento, which is a music term for playing something slowly. Lent is a season to slow down.
Today, my brothers and sisters, I want you to think back to a mountaintop moment. It may have been a Walk to Emmaues or a youth camp for you, or it may not. It may not even have been something to do with church or faith, a moment of joy. It may be a snow day oIf God is the God of all creation, God created us in God’s image. There was a sense that all joy, even misdirected joy, comes from God. Even the joy that we have for, you know, earthly things are gifts. So the question is still: how do we respond? Do we respond in giving? Or do we respond and pride and moving on? Do we give thanks for the visions that we see? Do we give thanks for the experiences that we’ve had? And then are we ready to follow Jesus on this road to Jerusalem. Are we ready to take up our own crosses? The good news, my brothers and sisters, is that we are not alone. That you are not alone and that you don’t have to bear your cross alone. Jesus carried it for us. For me. He says “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Let go of the need to stay on the mountain to be a person of Faith let go of the need to hold onto only the positive. You can walk the lonesome valley of lent because God is with us. We are not alone. We don’t have to live by lies. You don’t have to live in the past. We can follow God even through the storms and valleys because we know His victory is true.
In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.