Texts: 2 Kings 2:1-12 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 (Series B. Transfiguration of Our Lord) Ps. 50:1-6 Mark 9:2-
Today I would like to share with you about Christ, about the Presence of God and Glory of God being all around us…if one has the eyes to see. I would like to share with you about God being in the mountaintops, down in the valleys, and in the plains of life. That the glory of God, the Presence of Christ, the goodness of the Spirit of Christ is found in the mountaintops, down at the bottom of the valleys, and in the plains of ordinary living.
First, Christ is present with us in the mountaintop experiences of life. God is present in the exotic times of life, those special moments when we know for sure that there is a God. When we know for sure that Christ has been talking with us. In the Old Testament, these experiences are called, theophanies. Theophanies is made up with two words: Theo meaning God; epiphany meaning revelation. Revelation of God.
There is that old story about Moses. Moses was walking along in the Sinai Peninsula and there was a burning bush. As Moses stood before this burning bush, he heard the voice of God say, “Moses, take off your shoes for you are on holy ground.” Moses knew that God had spoken to him in that moment.
The gospel lesson for today is a similar story of Moses and the burning bush. Peter, James, and John were up on a mountain, Mount Tabor, an 1800 feet high, not far from the village of Nazareth. They were on the top of that mountain for six days and six nights.
Then, as with Moses, a cloud came around them and in that moment, in that exotic moment, in that theophany, in that special and sacred moment in their life, they heard the voice of God say, “This is my beloved Son, Jesus. Listen to him.” And they knew it was a special moment, an exotic moment; they believed that God had spoken.
I would like to suggest to us this morning that God comes to us in those atypical and exotic moments when we know for sure that God has been with us, when we know that God has talked with us. When we know and feel the intervention of God in our life.
“Have you ever had any mountaintop experiences with God? Where, you know that God has been with you. When you really know it without a doubt in your mind. When you felt that God was communicating his goodness and love to you?
Yes, God forever is coming to us, in those exotic mountaintop moments where we feel the Presence of God, when we know for sure that God is with us, that God has spoken to us. We sleep better and more comfortable that night.
God comes to us in those special moments, and those special moments may be in the form of a healing. It may be in that exotic moment that we have been convinced that we have been touched by God or some one dear to us has been healed . And our hearts are convinced that God has given us healing in what ever form it takes.
You see, God comes to us on the mountaintop. God comes to us in those special worship services that touch us deeply. Sometimes God comes to us in a special way when we feel like we have been sent some place unknown, when all we see around us is darkness and confusion.
It was Thursday, February 3, 2011, around 1:00 p.m. I was working in the church office, when I felt this urge to go and visit Per Ivar Gurholt in the hospital. Normally Fridays are when I visit parishioners in hospitals, with few exceptions off course, but that day was different the thought came to me almost audibly as if God was saying to me go to the hospital to see Per Gurholt.
The persistence of this inner voice was overwhelming, so I wrapped up what I was doing, and drove to Chateauguay. When I got to his floor, one of the nurses at the station recognized me immediately and asked if the family had called me I said no, then she said it is good that you have come because Mr. Gurholt is not doing well.
When I got to his room there he was tired but comfortable, he was responsive to touch and sound. I spent time with him in prayer audible, read some Scriptures, telling him that his work on earth is done and God and the saints in glory are anticipating his arrival and then I just sat there in silence.
That very evening Per Gurholt went home to his heavenly Father. This kind of theophanies is not unique to Samuel alone, I am sure you all have had similar stories or even amazing close encounters with God one shape or another.
On that Thursday, February 3, 2011 afternoon, was it the voice of God that spoke to my heart that Thursday after noon? Or was it a coincidence? You be the judge. I heard in my spirit what I needed to hear, and responded as the Spirit guided me. (by the way it wasn’t the first time this had happened).
Theophanies are those moments in life in which God clearly speaks to us. On a mountaintop, in the valleys, in a healing, in a worship service. Over a radio broadcast. In the birth of a child. In those moments, God speaks to us and we know, we know there is God. And God is all around.
We are living in the middle of God. But God never meant us to live on the mountaintop. When the disciples and Jesus came off the mountain, and they came right down to the bottom of the valley. They found a boy who was having epileptic seizures. The mother and father were extremely upset and worried about the sick boy.
In other words, the disciples came down off that mountaintop right into the problems of real life. And the disciples discovered that God is also down in the valley and does not live only or even primarily on the mountaintop.
Dr. Henry Drummond, a Scottish theologian once said, “God does not make the mountains in order to be inhabited. God does not make the mountaintops for us to live on the mountaintops. It is not God’s desire that we live on the mountaintops.
We only ascend to the heights to catch a broader vision of the earthly surroundings below. But we don’t live there. We don’t tarry there. The streams begin in the uplands, but these streams descend quickly to gladden the valleys below.”
The streams start in the mountaintops, but they come down to gladden the valleys below. You and I experience the valleys of life. You and I both know what happens the next day coming down from the mountain. It is the real world and the real life. After Sundays of life, there are always Mondays.
We know, the hardship of life. God is with us there. I believe that God is with us, not only on the mountaintops, but God is with us the next day at the very bottom of the mountain, when doubt replaces faith. We know what it is like down at the bottom of the mountain.
We know what it means to experience of being without work, broken relationship, severe illness, death of a spouse or a close friend or any human crisis. We know what it is like to be down and out at the bottom of the mountain.
And we know that God is with us and we know that God speaks to us, and gives us the words of hope and strength for that time. For God is with us both on the mountaintops and in the valleys. And God is with us in the plains, in the ordinariness of life.
Where we spend most of our time is living plain, ordinary days. What I have found is that God is in the plain ordinariness of life as well. When we stand underneath the flowering tree in the spring time and you look up and see a million miracles, a million flower blossoms. We know the ordinariness of life. And God is there with you as well.
God is good so far as I am concern, whether in good times and in bad times God is always good. Christ's mountain-top vision for his Church: as true home, as place of comfort and nourishment, as place of inspiration and deep meaning and purpose, for all people, indeed: for all creation. How Lovely Is Your Dwelling, O! Lord my God.
May the God of vision lead us onward: this day and for ever more.
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
February 19, 2012