Sunday Message
February 6, 2005
Robert D Bohnsack
Text: Exodus 24:12-18; Matthew 17:1-9

Last October I was in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for a seminar. I had some free time so I decided to venture up Pike's Peak. Pike's Peak at the summit is 14,110 feet. (Now Pike's Peak is not the highest peak in Colorado. That distinction belongs to Mt. Elbert at 14,433 feet.) Rather than driving or walking to the summit I elected to take the Pike's Peak Cog Railway to the summit. So, I gave my $27.00 to the good people of the Pike's Peak Cog Railway Company and climbed aboard the train. The entire trip, up and down the mountain, was going to be three hours and ten minutes, and that would include thirty to forty minutes on the summit. So, I found my seat and enjoyed the ride. I watched the impressive scenery as the cog railcar chugged 8.9 miles up the mountain. I watched the rest of my fellow travelers absorb the splendor of the mountain. I watched them take hundreds of pictures and hundreds of minute of video tape. We all eagerly anticipated our arrival at the summit. About an hour and twenty minutes later we arrived at the summit of Pike's Peak. While it was a comfortable 58 degrees at the Cog rail station, it was a not quite so comfortable ten degrees at the summit. Fortunately, the good people at Pike's Peak had built shelter at the summit. It just so happened that inside that shelter you could buy anything you desired with the Pike's Peak name and logo. I will admit that I did buy two coffee mugs to commemorate my mountaintop experience. The view from the summit was incredible. If you could stand to be outside for a few minutes it was worth it. You could see for miles. You could even see the curvature of the earth. It was an experience I will not forget. It is not often that one stands on a 14,000 foot mountain. It was truly a "mountaintop experience."

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Transfiguration is not a word that many of us use on a regular basis. However; it is part of our church vocabulary. For the last couple of weeks the Confirmation Class and the Youth Fellowship groups have been talking about church vocabulary. We have talked about words such as chancel, font, baptism, chalice, and many more.

Transfiguration as a word is defined as a change in form or appearance: metamorphosis, or an exalting, glorifying, or spiritual change. Transfiguration is depicted as the time that Jesus, Peter, James, and John went up a high mountain. On the summit of that high mountain Jesus' clothes became a dazzling white, and his face shone like the sun. Jesus changed right before the disciples. He was transfigured.

Why "Transfiguration Sunday"? Jesus does a lot of amazing things during his ministry. We don't have "Walk on Water" Sunday, "Feeding the Five Thousand" Sunday, or "Raising Lazarus from the Dead" Sunday. What is so significant about this episode in the life of Jesus Christ? Why does the church mark this Sunday on the calendar? Why on the Sunday before the start of Lent do we celebrate the Transfiguration?

We celebrate and set this event in the life of Jesus apart for two reasons. First, the divinity of Jesus Christ is revealed to Peter, James, and John. His divinity is revealed to us. We are who we are because Jesus Christ is God. We believe Jesus, God's only Son, is God. Second, like the time Jesus is baptized, God speaks. God speaks aloud and says, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" ¹ Transfiguration is more than an episode in the life of Jesus Christ. It is part of who we are as members of the body of Christ. We celebrate the transfiguration of Jesus Christ on the Sunday before Lent because this is when Christ begins to prepare himself for his journey to Jerusalem, and his eventual trial and crucifixion.

The interesting thing about this episode is that we proclaim that Christ was transfigured, or transformed, but it is Peter, James, and John that are truly transformed. They have seen the divinity of Christ.

2004 was my year for mountains. In addition to being on the summit of Pike's Peak, I was also on the summit of Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell is a mountain in western North Carolina. It is the highest peak East of the Mississippi River. Coincidently, Mount Mitchell is named for Dr. Elisha Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell was a professor at the University of North Carolina, and a Presbyterian minister. He determined that Mount Mitchell is 6,684 feet high. Dr. Mitchell is buried near the summit. I was in North Carolina last May for a vacation. One morning we decided to drive to the peak of Mount Mitchell. So we headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway and took the state highway that ascended the peak. We arrived at the top around noon. It was so hazy that you could barely see twenty feet in front of you. I was really disappointed. I didn't drive all the way up here to see haze. So, we had to wait. We did some hiking, ate lunch, and eventually the haze cleared and we were able to enjoy the wonderful view that Mount Mitchell offered of beautiful western North Carolina. What a wonderful mountaintop experience.

We have all had our own version of the mountaintop experience, or an encounter with God. We may have encountered God on a mountain, or in the middle of a quiet lake. Your mountain may have been late at night one summer during church camp. It may have happened when you were on another continent fighting a war. It might have happened that night your first child was born.

We have a mountaintop experience every Sunday. We are invited by God to come and worship and praise Him as a community of faith. We are invited to ascend God's holy mountain and be in the presence of our God. We are invited by God to do exactly what he told us to do, "listen to him, listen to Jesus."

As a community of faith our mountaintop experience is not limited to one hour of worship on Sundays. We are invited to the mountain when we gather to serve the Lord.

In the Old Testament story God invites Moses to his Holy Mountain. Moses sat for six days on the cloud covered mountain waiting for God. My Mount Mitchell experience helped me to relate to Moses. In our story from Matthew's Gospel Christ invites Peter, James, and John to witness his transfiguration. We are invited to come together and be in the presence of the Lord. This is our mountain top experience. We are invited to witness and be in the presence of Jesus Christ.

Like Moses. Like Peter, James, and John, we eventually must climb down from the mountain. Even Christ had to leave the mountain and continue his ministry. As much as I wanted to stay on the summit of Pike's Peak the train was leaving. As much as we want to live in our mountaintop experience we eventually have to return. We have to return to the world. We return to share our mountaintop experience with others, and invite others to join us. The wonderful thing about God's mountain is that there is always room for more. The summit will never get too crowded. The experience cannot be diminished by too many people.

Lent starts this Wednesday. I hope you will join us for the Ash Wednesday service. I hope you will join us on the mountain. I hope you will invite other to join you on the mountain during the Sundays in Lent. Amen.

"Come and Listen to Jesus and Wait For the Lord."



1. Matthew 17:5, New Revised Standard Version.