We don't stay long on the mountaintop Feb.3 sermon

Sermon-Year A-Last Sunday after Epiphany-2-3-08
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
The last Sunday, every year, of Epiphany, ends with this story. Jesus takes his closest disciples, they go to the top of a mountain. And while they are up there, the two greatest figures from Jewish history, Moses, the greatest figure of the Law, and Elijah, the greatest prophet, stand next to Jesus. And Peter is so excited he wants to build 3 tents there to memorialize the moment. A bright cloud appears and God’s voice out of a cloud says, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" And Jesus picks up the terrified disciples off the ground and tells them "Get up and do not be afraid." And Moses and Elijah disappear-and Jesus tells them, “Don’t tell anyone about this til I am gone.”A great story. It’s called, the Transfiguration. Jesus is “changed” transfigured, right in front of them, and the disciples are in awe that God is coming to them through Jesus.
I have been to a few mountain tops, and this is what I have learned-It takes a long time to get to the top of the mountain. You never stay there very long. We don’t live our lives on top of the mountain. But we have to go there, for the rest of life to make sense.
One man who had a mountain top experience was Sir Edmond Hillary who died about 3 weeks ago. On May 19, 1953, Sir Edmond Hillary, and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, reached the top of Mount Everest. The first two people ever to literally be, on top of the world. After Hillary had climbed Mount Everest, be became an overnight celebrity. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. His name became a household word around the world. He had the famous quote-“why did you climb Mount Everest? ("Because it’s there.”) He became a spokesperson for Sears-Robuck and company. His name appeared on sleeping bags, tents, and boot laces. And He could have lived in his little dwelling of success for the rest of his life. But he didn’t! He went back to Nepal. Back to those people, the Sherpas, whom he had grown to know and appreciate and respect and love.And he was used his fame to bring them help. In a speech some years ago, Hillary recounted how an elderly Sherpa from Khumjung village, the hometown of most of the Sherpas on his Everest ascent, had come to him a few years after that expedition and said, "(big Sahib), our children have eyes but they are blind and can not see. Therefore, we want you to open their eyes by building a school in our village of Khumjung.” This touched the heart of Sir Edmund Hillary and he immediately organized to raise funds and built the first school in Khumjung village in 1961 " So Hillary established the Himalayan Trust, and in 1961 a three-room schoolhouse was built in Khumjung with funds raised by Hillary. In its first decade the fund focused on education and health. Since then the trust has built 27 schools, two hospitals, 12 medical clinics, numerous bridges, airfields, reforested valleys and slopes in the many areas of Nepal. He would spent more than half the year traveling the world, raising money for the trust and supervising the various projects undertaken with the funds he’s raised. And he has continued doing this for more than forty years. Whenever Sir Edmund was asked his occupation, he always just said that he was a beekeeper.’
It took Hillary a long time to get to the top of the mountain. He stayed on top 15 minutes. He took a picture of Norgay, the sherpa (Norgay did not understand how to take a picture), but Tenzing left chocolates as an offering on the mountaintop, Hillary left a cross, and they headed down. Hillary did not live his life on top of the mountain. But he had to go there, for the rest of life to make sense. And after that his life, and the life of the Nepalese people was never the same.
This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. We walk for forty days through repentance and self-examination, we struggle to become better Christians, we work at keeping our self-imposed disciplines, and it is not easy. Just before Lent every year we walk with Jesus to the top of this mountain for the Transfiguration. It’s as if we have to have go to the Mountaintop, before we can spend our life in the valley. We have to see Jesus shine, before we can walk to the cross.
Back in the early 1980s, I took a youth group, and we climbed to the top of Mount Mitchell in North Carolina-the highest mountain east of the Mississippi. You know what these trips entail-lots of fundraisers, hundreds of hours of planning and preparation, days of driving. And we spent about 45 minutes on top of the mountain. But years later when I talk to the kids from that group (all middle aged now) they still talk about all that it took to get to the top-and what it was like. It takes a long time to get to the top of the mountain. You never stay there very long. We don’t live our lives on top of the mountain. But we have to go there, for the rest of life to make sense.
In the sequence of things in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus and his friends head down the mountain and shortly after that walk towards Jerusalem and his death. It’s as if the disciples needed to have this mountaintop vision before they faced the long hard days ahead. We do, also. We need to have this compelling vision, this driving image that leads us on in our faith. We have to stand on top of a mountain, if only for a few minutes, to make sense of the rest of our lives. We have to see the glory, have to experience the shining, if our faith is be strong enough to sustain us all the way through to the end of our journey.
I have told many of you of this, but 8 miles off the coast of Ireland there is a rock that juts up out of the sea. In the 600s some Irish monks landed there, built a rock stairway to the top, and created a monastery 750 feet up this island. They lived on seaweed, birds eggs, and fish. They built beehive huts made out of rocks. And for 600 years they worshipped there. When Deborah and I went to Ireland the first time, we couldn’t go there, because the seas were too rough, and the boats only go there when conditions are perfect-there is no dock. When we went the second time, the boats didn’t go the first day, and the second day we were told to go down and see if the boats would go out. And they did, and we went to the top of Skellig Michael. They only let you stay on the island 2 hours, and that includes going up, and coming down. But it was truly a mountaintop experience.
It takes a long time to get to the top of a mountain. You never stay there very long. We don’t live our lives on top of the mountain. But we have to go there, for the rest of life to make sense. You don’t have to climb a mountain, to have a mountaintop experience. But you have to have an experience of Jesus, you have to experience the power and the glory and the love, for the valley to make sense.
Today we hear about the mountaintop. Wednesday we start the journey through the valley. The only way Lent makes sense, is because we have to see the transfiguration, for the Cross to make sense. We have to seen what the end will be like. It takes a long time to get to the top of a mountain. You never stay there very long. But for our journey through the valley to make sense, we have to have an experience of heaven to drive us on. That is what today’s vision is, that is the message, we climb to the top of the mountain in our lives, so we know why we are walking through the valley.
my Lenten verse: 17:7 Jesus touched them and said, "Get up, do not be afraid."
Matthew 17:1-9
17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."17:5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid."17:8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.17:9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."



Matthew 17:1-9
17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.17:3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.17:4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."17:5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid."17:8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.17:9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."