Mark 9: 2-9
At the end of the movie Selma, John Legend and Common sing Glory-
One day, when the glory comes, it’ll be ours… it’ll be ours…
And Jan Richardson writes this blessing:
That when glory comes,
we will open our eyes
to see it.
That when glory shows up,
We will let ourselves be overcome
Not by fear but by the love it bears.
That when glory shines,
We will bring it back with us
All the way, all the way, all the way down. - Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace
Here is where my mind and heart went first, thinking about this story this week, this season, this last Sunday of Epiphany in this time when we’ve been hoping that our theme this season might really happen… that we might be Created Anew, in spite of Covid, in spite of deep Minnesota cold, that somehow God’s light would shine in and among us… even by video, even by Zoom.
My thoughts went first to me going up mountains. I feel lucky to have climbed some mountains… in the Cascades of Washington state, in Colorado & New Mexico, Mount Snowden in Wales, Mount Sinai… even looking out from a peak that looks over Galilee.
Here’s what I know about myself… I love the idea of mountains, of thin places, of a bigger picture… but in reality, I don’t always do so well in the midst of a mountaintop experience.
For one thing, I complain… a lot. Please don’t ask Ben about it because he’ll be too nice to throw me under the bus… but Ben knows that I am filled with a lot of negative energy on the way up. “Why in the world did we think this would be a good idea?!”... has definitely come out of my mouth when I’m sweating in the face of an ascent.
In our shared year at Holden Village, Ben & I hiked to a mountain pass that grew more and more snowy as we hiked up with our small group, planning to go over the pass into Stehekin to a pilgrimage walk the whole next day - Palm/Passion Sunday morning - along Lake Chelan. It was March so we were ready for a beautiful spring walk through the glacier lilies and & it was… until we got a little higher where the snow made climbing slippery. I couldn’t believe one of our hiking companions was wearing tennis shoes instead of hiking boots. None of us had ice picks or any safety gear. We got to the peak of the pass and looked over and I just freaked out. Even the peanut butter tofu our friend offered did not help. There were tears, hidden from the group and an angry whisper, “You are going to have to send a helicopter to come and get me up here because I am NOT going down.” Immovable as I was, Ben shrugged & started down without me until about 15 feet down, he slipped, fell, got caught on a broken tree branch and cut his leg… I jumped up to run down and rescue him… and we were in the clear for a rocky but safe descent. We reached Stehekin unharmed and the ranger greeted us with these words, “Glad you made it down safely. You’re the first ones this season. Yesterday, a hiker had to be airlifted after falling.” I was right! It was treacherous. Was I grateful? Relieved? Yes… and collapsed in my tent the rest of the evening.
I look back on that hike as a true mountain top experience… and also, reality is that sometimes mountaintop experiences are terrifying before they are glorious.
I imagine that’s how it must have felt for Peter, James and John. They made it up on this hike… why are we headed here, Jesus? And suddenly, it’s clear that something totally out of this world is happening. Jesus is bright light. Ancient prophets, Moses and Elijah, are speaking their wisdom. Normally through life, on the good days, we get glimpses of God’s presence. We get little epiphanies of who Jesus is. We get just a breath, a taste, a touch of the Holy Spirit. But here on the mountaintop, the disciples get full-on transparency. Instead of just glimpses, they are in the presence of full-on glory… and in light of that, they are never the same again. If there was any doubt before (or later), this showed them who Jesus is and they would need it in the days to come.
In Baptism, God spoke to Jesus, “You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.” And now that message spreads to Peter, James and John… and to us, “This is my Beloved, listen to him.”
Last week, we got to take part in Malachi’s baptism and in the many promises we made to God and one another was this one, “We welcome you into the body of Christ and into the mission we share… giving thanks and praise to God and bearing God’s creative and redeeming word to all the world.”
It’s so good to be a part of this gift – to be part of a beloved community – to be in relationship with the Beloved One – in fact to called part of this beloved body – that it’s hard to put into words. And that’s our challenge… we can’t always put God-encounters into words.
But we can imagine that it changed them and it changes us forever.
Even just glimpses of Christ’s transforming love make me each of you more. Even just glimpses of God’s deep love for us can help us extend self-compassion, mercy, love to ourselves.
And we can understand why Peter wanted to build a little something to mark the moment.
Just let’s build something right here to remember this glimpse of possibilities that I hadn’t even thought of yet…
And then, there were clouds and then only Jesus.
It reminds me of this song – I know Garmai loves this song and others, too…
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus, you may have all the rest, give me Jesus.
And then with Jesus, they came down the mountain.
And they kept things quiet until the time was right… because they were headed toward they didn’t know quite what in Jerusalem, but Jesus had already mentioned dying once…
So, they headed down with the stories inside them, waiting until the time was right and they could share fully, with full transparency, all that love, all that glory.
So I close with another blessing from Jan Richardson to take with you on your way –
