Sun, Mar 3, 2019 St. John’s Winnsboro
Last Epiphany
Themes
lectionary Lesson 1: Exodus 34:29–35 Psalm: 99 Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2 Gospel: Luke 9:28–36,(37–43a)
Collect: O God, who before the passion of your only begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain
- Moses come down from the mountain – skin of his face shining – had to wear a veil when before the people.
- 3 disciples trudging up the mountain
When I was growing up Colorado
I spent a lot of time in the mountains. When I was still in the single digits (age-wise) my father took our family to a “dude ranch”. We have pictures still of us kids in cowboy outfits, smiling for the camera. Perhaps most memorable for me was that my father tried to be a good father to me by teaching me how to fish. I was eager to learn that outdoor skill – but I was also keenly aware that my father hated to eat fish. I knew it was just going through the motions.
Later some neighborhood friends agreed to teach me how to ski on the little hills by the little park between our houses. These hills must have been all of about 10–15 feet high, but I felt an exhilaration when I could finally stand up all the way down.
Then we headed for a real ski area! I remember my first real run after practicing on the little “bunny” slope at the bottom. I felt like I was going to fall off a cliff when I got to the beginning of the run. Later, when I became a more polished and experienced skier, I would remember my fear that day with embarrassment. It was such an easy run and I was by then familiar with skiing avalanche chutes.
Later, with the same friends, I would spend a lot of time trying to learn and explore rock climbing and mountaineering techniques. I was never quite as accomplished with those as I was with skiing, but I gained a taste for what the mountains had to offer:
- fresh water in streams that we could drink from
- a couple of times seeing the aurora borealis
- quiet, stillness
- stars filling the sky which was uninterrupted by city lights
- fresh smells of all kinds
- fresh caught fish, cooking on a fire, as the sunrise burned the fog off a lake
And so much more. There is something very attractive, alluring, about the mountains. There is a reason, I guess, that they have been the focus for millenia of spiritual seekers, those seeking a closer relationship with God – or “the gods.” Abraham climbed a mountain with his son, following the command of God [Islamic tradition]. That mountain is said to be the Holy Mount at the site of the temple in Jerusalem. Over it sits the Dome of the Rock. Moses went up the mountain to be with God. Jesus took his companions up the mountain as he turned his face from ministry to his passion in Jerusalem. Later, a community of monks would find their way to Mt. Athos in Greece – there better to seek to live holy lives and to mold them into persons acceptable to God.
Mountains have been both literally and figuratively a place of holiness and of being molded into holiness and the way of love.
Mountains a place of seeking
Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing,
One of my close friends from my youth introduced me to a mystical novel Mount Analogue. We reminisced, recently, about our youth when we were passionately and energetically drawn to mystical revelation and truths.
- Mount Analogue tells of a journey up a mountain whose “summit must be inaccessible, but its base accessible to human beings as nature made them,” the allegorical landscape, with its riddles and internal logics and gnomic sages, is akin to Alice in Wonderland—or, perhaps, The Phantom Tollbooth or The Little Prince.
- [There’s the same sense of unfamiliarity, and the same necessary release of preconception. In this case, the philosophical striving is matched with the literal practice of mountaineering. And the prose is clearly that of a poet, as well as a philosopher. Parisian Review]
- René Daumal died before the novel was completed, providing an uncanny one-way quality to the journey. Father Sogol – the “Logos” spelled backwards – is the leader of the expedition—the expedition to climb the mysterious mountain that unites Heaven and Earth.
As my friend and I shared, we agreed that after a lifetime of seeking, we were aware that the draw of the mystical has not left us, but has grown more peaceful. We are more patient. We have been humbled. Perhaps we even understand the significance of silence. It can be the mountaintop which unites heaven and earth.
Meeting God at the mountain tops
Many are the holy mountains throughout the earth:
- Mt. Zion, Mt. Everest, Mauna Kea, Mt. Olympos, Mt. Ararat, Machu Picchu, Mt. of Olives. … the list could go on and on.
- Mountains are places of revelation
- They are places of pilgrimage. They are places of worship. They are places with a powerful draw for many.
- Perhaps it is that the mountain tops are closer to the home of the gods or God.
- It is not so much to try to explain why as to observe their reality.
Today in the Episcopal Church, we observe a mountain day in preparation for a day of ashes – coming this Wednesday.
Where I’m going
As we heard in the opening reading today, Moses came down from the mountain and had to hide from the people. Only slowly, over centuries would Israel begin to understand what the glory of this God was all about. It did not reside in political structures. It did not reside in grand buildings. It resided in the hearts of men and women. It resided in the Torah.
Peter, James, & John came down from the mountain, it’s not clear they understood at all what they had seen or experienced. They were unable to share it and kept silent in those days.
To go to the mountain is to tremble in humility. A veil over your face. Silent before your friends who want to know what it was like.
I know that some of you have known the mountain top experience I have tried to evoke and scripture portrays.
Yes, one comes down. One returns home after pilgrimage. We are given a glimpse of glory – why? – but to help others to glory. Not for our own purpose, but for our fellow companions on the Way. Christians were known as “followers of the way” before they were known as Christians.
Jesus led his friends down the mountain, telling them to keep quiet and learn what the glory meant. It is a lesson in humility. It is the Way of the Cross.
The Transfiguration in the synoptic gospels plays a pivotal role. Literally. It is the point in the narrative where Jesus draws to a close the first part of his life and begins to live into the second half which culminates in the cross and the empty tomb.
Mountain top experiences are times for silence and awe. The time for talking, explaining, will come later. My own experience is that mountain top experiences are associated with profound times of loss as well as joyous times of celebration.
When we catch a glimpse of glory we know that life is worth living. Glory. Found on the Cross. Found in the empty tomb. On Wednesday the church literally will invite us to the keeping of a holy Lent. Today the church figuratively invites us to the same.
Come follow the way of the cross. Come with Mary as she discovers the Risen Lord.
