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Elma United Methodist Church |
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Ain’t No Mountain High Enough |
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Elma United Methodist Church |
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Ain’t No Mountain High Enough Dan Shelly Elma United Methodist Church February 26, 2006 (Mark 9:2-9, Isaiah 40:31)
The story we just heard from the Gospel of Mark is an important event in the ministry of Jesus. Not only is this event recorded for us by the writers of Matthew, Mark and Luke, all three of the synoptic gospels, but we even named a special day within the life of the church to proclaim it. Transfiguration Sunday – the final Sunday in the Christian calendar before we enter into the time of Lent. Over the years, there’ve been an awful LOT of sermons preached on this subject. And interestingly, most of them don’t focus as much on the transfiguration, as on the fact that after this amazing event Jesus brought his disciples back down from the mountain and started on the path that would lead to the cross. They use this as kind of a gateway scripture to lead us into the season of Lent.
And this led me to try to remember what it was that I talked on last year during Transfiguration Sunday. So I looked back and found that our sermon was on the dual nature of Jesus. Jesus understood as fully God and fully human. We explored the struggles of the early church on this subject; the understanding arrived at by the Montanists that Jesus was fully a being of Spirit; the differing ideas of the Ebionites who saw Jesus as the greatest of created beings; the formula hammered out in the Nicene creed; and the understanding of Jesus as having two natures in one person preserved for us by the council of Chalcedon. I looked at all that and I thought… Wow… Wow! You people are so kind to put up with that seminary student fresh out of Christology class who wanted to share all of those wonderful insights from hour upon hour of lecture on the nature of Jesus the Christ. And the amazing thing was, not only didn’t you fall over sleeping (or if you did, you did it very quietly) but you came back the following week as well! Somebody came up to me just the other week and told me, “You know Dan, your sermons have really gotten a lot better, a lot easier to follow since you’ve been here.” And having read this sermon from last year, I thought – if there was such a thing as a “Grace” award I’d want to present it to all of you for having sat through some of these early sermons and quietly prayed “Help him Jesus!” The difference between a United Methodist Church and an AME Church, an African Methodist Episcopal Church, like where my friend George preaches is that they not only pray it, but when you’re struggling at an AME church they say it! Talk about your instant feedback when the sermon starts to drift off on you! Help him Jesus!
Well, the good news is that today we’re not going to talk about early Church theologians and how they struggled with the dual nature of Christ. And we’re not even going that the tried and true route, to talk about Jesus coming back down the mountain and into the world. Instead I want to have us actually spend a little time up there on that mountain top with Jesus. You see in the United Methodist Church we’re really good at getting down off the mountain top and getting into ministry. We work to raise money for missions, many of us, like Jenny Goeres who is about to go back to Bolivia, feel the call to go to be in service in different parts of the world. We respond to disasters locally and abroad, we open and support food banks, clothing banks, educational programs, we support homeless shelters, you name it. We’re really good at ministry in the world. But we can get pretty uncomfortable when the spiritual part of our Christian life becomes too intense. When God’s Spirit begins to really break upon us in all of God’s glory, we often find ourselves feeling uncomfortable and out of our depth.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter weren’t an early United Methodist. He and James and John had gone up onto the mountain with Jesus. At that point, they were probably feeling a bit like the inner circle - Jesus’ main men. And Jesus had invited them up onto the mountain to pray with him. They suddenly, all heaven broke loose! As they watched, Jesus’ clothes became dazzling white. The writer of Matthew tells us that Jesus’ face shone like the sun. And then there were Moses and Elijah, two of the greatest figures in Jewish history, standing right beside Jesus and talking with him. It had to be an overwhelming and awe-filled sight for these disciples to witness. Up on this mountain top, they were privileged to get a glimpse into the awesome and awe-filled prayer life of Jesus. Suddenly they had an insight into the power that enabled Jesus to teach, to preach, and to heal. And they realized there was so much more to their rabbi then any of them had imagined. He was fully in communion with God’s Spirit and able to dwell in spiritual realms that were way beyond their understanding.
So how did Peter respond to this event? Like Moses who encountered God in burning bush, did Peter take off his shoes when he realized that he was on Holy ground? Was he struck speechless by the overwhelming awe of standing in the presence of God’s glory and wait to hear what God would tell him? No! Peter said, “This is great Jesus! I know let’s start a building program! We can pick up some rocks and we won’t just make one booth to celebrate this event, we’ll make three, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah! We’ll form a building committee and we’ll put up buildings, (owned by the district of course) where we can come week after week, year after year and talk about that time when we once encountered the power of God’s Spirit!” As an early United Methodist, Peter was probably just getting wound up. I suspect it wouldn’t be long before he would be building universities, conference offices, and making sure every community got a place where people could come to hear about this great event. About the time that they encountered the power of God’s Spirit.
But God had already heard enough and God cut Peter off. The writer of Mark tells us that, a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’
You know, you gotta’ feel sorry for Peter. When he unexpectedly encountered the Holy, when God’s power visibly broke through to him, Peter went with what he knew. He tried to immediately switch from the Spiritual to the physical. Peter wanted to get his hands dirty and get down to some real ministry. But that wasn’t why Jesus brought him up onto the mountain top. Jesus brought Peter, James, and John up onto the mountain top to teach them the reality of the awesome power of prayer and to show them the nearness of the presence of God. He brought them up onto the mountain top to get them in touch with God’s Spirit, the Spirit that would empower them to truly be in ministry. It wasn’t that Peter’s wanting to get busy was a bad thing, but first, Peter needed to get in touch with that power of God that would guide and sustain him in his life and in his ministry.
And that remains Jesus’ invitation to us today. Jesus invites us to come to the mountain top with him, to spend time in prayer and conversation with God. Jesus invites us to pause from our busy-ness and linger on the mountain until we too hear the voice of God speaking to us, guiding and leading us into the paths where God would have us go. Sometimes it’s as hard for us to hear this today as it was for Peter, that man of action, who wanted to be up and about God’s work in the world. We have so many good ideas, and we have so many good intentions. Who has time to stop and wait upon the Lord?
But remember those wonderful words of Isaiah, words of wisdom passed down to us to teach us what he had learned of living life in the Spirit.
They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
As we move toward the time of Lent, Jesus is inviting us to come up to the mountain top and stay a while. Stay a while in prayer, wait a while upon the Lord, and watch for God’s Holy Spirit to break through in our lives in new and empowering ways. There’ll be plenty of time to be about God’s work in the world and plenty to do. But first, find the time to linger a while on the mountain top, to deepen your relationship through times of listening, times of stillness and times of prayer, and let the Lord renew your strength that you may mount up with wings like eagles.
I love the promise held in the words of the song “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Remember the day when I set you free From that day on I made a vow
No wind, no rain, no winter’s cold can stop me now when you are in trouble I'll be there on the double
'Cause there Ain't no mountain high enough
Come spend some time on the mountain top and experience God’s love and God’s strength in a new and fresh way. Cause there Ain’t no mountain high enough to keep God from getting to you.
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