“Mountaintop Moments”

I think it’s a good thing, an important public witness, that I was able to convince Pastor Jen to call in “sick” today – even though it’s a Sunday where she was supposed to preach.  Some days we simply cannot muster the physical or spiritual strength to give voice to the praise we know we should offer to God.  Do you ever get up on a Sunday and think that you’re not quite up to coming to church?  Well that’s because it is actually work that we ALL do, giving thanks and praise to God. It’s not just the pastors’ work.

The Greek word for worship “leiturgia,” the word we translate as “liturgy,” literally means “the work of the people.”  It’s not too unlike the self-discipline we need to get regular physical exercise, the self-discipline it takes to be a faithful churchgoer.  So, congratulations to all of you.  You made it through that door today.  To those of you who’ve been doing this Sunday after Sunday for 40 or maybe even 80 years, I offer extra congratulations.  You are the saints of the church, liturgical Olympians.  You’ve been in training for a long time, and you probably have strong faith to show for it.

And I say that fully aware that, compared to this amazing epiphany we read about in today’s “Transfiguration” text, this brilliant and mystical encounter with the divine, that any “God experience” or “mountaintop moment” that we might provide here at the Congregational Church of Brookfield has to pale by comparison.  We have our dim February-in-Connecticut winter light coming through our tall windows – and we don’t have special sound or lighting effects, unless an organ stop gets stuck open or something.  To my knowledge we’ve yet to hear God’s voice literally and directly speaking down to us from Heaven with clear instructions.  We can read about this mountaintop vision of Moses, Jesus and Elijah, but they’ve yet to make their appearance here in this room.

Just imagine how our church might grow if God’s voice blasted out over the Shop-Rite parking lot one Sunday morning, saying “Jesus is my Son, my beloved; with him I am well pleased; go listen and learn about him at the Congregational Church of Brookfield, at the crossing of highways 133 and 25 at Brookfield Center!  All are welcome!  Worship is at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. every Sunday!” 

The truth is, we have a steady number of visitors and new members, but people aren’t flocking here by the thousands to share our experience of God here at this church.  And it makes me wonder if it’s because encounters with God are not really for everyone.  Not everyone has the stomach for a powerful “mountaintop moment.”  Did you notice in today’s scripture reading how Jesus took with him ONLY Peter, James and John up the mountain?  He left the other 9 disciples behind.  Makes you wonder if that was because that was the way Jesus wanted it, or if they made the CHOICE to stay behind.  Were they too tired for a long hike up a mountain or did they fear what might happen up there on a mountain with Jesus?  Or did they, like many of us, prefer to keep a respectful distance from the dazzling radiance of God Almighty? 

I mean, why would Jesus exclude the other 9 disciples from this chance to receive this shining vision and hear God’s own voice speak?  I suspect that 9 out of 12 disciples had something better to do that day.  You know?  “Don’t think I’ll go this time,” says Andrew.  “Looks like a great day for fishing.”  Mountaintop moments – direct encounters with God – are not for everyone.  They can be life-changing, transformative.

But neither Jesus nor Moses seems the least bit discouraged that they don’t have more company at the mountaintop, and neither should we.  I think sometimes we worry too much about the people who are not here on a Sunday, or who don’t choose to attend a certain event, or meeting, or class.  Our job is to continue to go back out into our lives and bear witness to those who have chosen to stay behind. We might hope and pray that in our own faces may somehow reflect, in dim imitation of the real thing, the dazzling light of God in Christ.  My friend Dorothy used to say, in our work with the homeless in SF, that “our faces may be the only Gospel these people get to read, their whole lives.”

I hope we can name and claim more of the miracles of God’s transforming love revealed to us right here in ordinary worship and atop the everyday molehills of our lives.  Let us suspend disbelief and see God’s glory transforming the world more readily in non-mountaintop places – in the sunrise we see out a dirty window on our commute to work, in a sunset reflected in the face of a family member we just argued with – but also in the supermarket, in the doctor’s office, even on the faces of our neighbors here at church.  Let us cultivate the spiritual gift of that special vision, to see God’s brilliance around us, and may we have the courage to name it as holy and precious among family and friends.

I see the glory of Jesus in the piles of grocery bags over there in the corner of Brooks Hall, in the outpouring of love that represents to our community. I feel the radiance of Christ in the passing of the peace and in the kindness of a friend’s voice who says, “I’m praying for you.”  I hear the powerful and transforming voice of God in the prayers we speak together and in the extraordinary music that fills this meetinghouse every Sunday morning.  I recognize the miracle of the loaves and fishes at every church Fellowship Hour, as we can expect to experience it tonight in the welcome that our church will extend at our Shrove Sunday pancake supper.  I see the bright light of Christ’s church when someone goes to the trouble of breaking down a cardboard box and taking it way out back to the recycling.  “Amen,” Church House Committee?

Where do you see miracles of Christ’s love in your corner of our church, or out there in the world?  Look for “mountaintop moments” not just on Sundays or holidays but every day.  Especially during Lent we have the opportunity to see God’s grace shining upon us everywhere – not just at “mountaintop moments.”  We might just need to try one new worship, study, or service experience to open our eyes to see it.

I challenge you to make room in your life for some of the extra opportunities we’re offering to practice your faith during Lent:  the pancake supper tonight, Ash Wednesday morning worship, our Sunday night Lenten book study, the Monday morning Women’s Study, our Tuesday Lenten Lunches, Thursday Morning Prayers and Bible Study, our Saturday morning Men’s Fellowship, or the hunger meal our Confirmands are offering at the end of March – even the youth group talent show provides opportunities to experience God first-hand in this place. 

All that we give and all that we do for God helps to ensure that our church continues to be a place where all can experience God.  What we do here matters, because we may be the only spiritual mountaintop some folks in Brookfield ever visit.   If each of us can continue to deepen our faith, I believe our church will continue to change and to grow more and more into the disciples’ vision for us -- bright shining as the sun, the crowning glory of God’s reign of love here on earth.  

Thanks be to God for this good news.  Amen.

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Mark 9:2-9

²Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” ⁸Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.