February 19, 2023, Going Down from the Mountain, Matthew 17:1-13 – Mtr. Kathryn Boswell
To listen to this sermon, click the link above. An outline for the sermon follows.
1. Begin with Peter’s testimony in a.d. 64-67, shortly before his death: 2 Peter 1:13-19
30 years after the event Peter remembered on Mount Tabor, close to Nazareth – awe, fear – description of what they saw
Mark’s account – bleach!
Seeing Moses and Elijah, for us, like seeing the Blessed Virgin Mary, or St. Paul, or Peter himself
Heard the voice of God from heaven
Peter wants to make a shrine – tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, Elijah, to preserve the moment
2. Notice God commands PJJ to listen, but Jesus doesn’t say anything – but the next thing Jesus does is take them back down and tell them not to reveal what happened until after he had risen from the dead – because what they couldn’t understand yet is that the way to glory led down the mountain first
3. What PJJ had to hear and to know is that the God of all that shining glory is the God who goes back down the mountain to heal and to teach – the God of all that shining glory is the God who goes back down the mountain to be betrayed, to be mocked, to be tortured, and to die
The God of the Transfiguration is the God who is with people who are digging in the rubble of an earthquake to find their loved ones. He is the God who is with people who are fleeing their war-torn homeland. The Christ of Transfiguration glory is the God of the gutter, and the refugee camp, the nursing home and the homeless shelter. People ask, when terrible things happen “Where is God?” and the answer is that he is here with us, where we are, where suffering is happening.
4. And the disciples needed to listen; they needed to know that, because if they were really going to follow Jesus they would have to be people who don’t stay on the mountaintop. His path would be theirs
5. My call to the priesthood began at the altar – in the Presence. (my story)
But my call takes me out – to the sick, to the grieving, to the lonely, to the dying. I’d be useless if I stayed at the altar. Is true for all….
6. We all come together every week to share the Eucharist – to see, to taste, to touch the glory and wonder of his Presence. We step outside of kronos time into kairos time, eternal time, as PJJ did on the mountain – we are lifted up to celebrate with the Cherubim and Seraphim….
But then we go back out through those doors, to live our lives in the world – following Jesus – in service and sorrow and sacrifice – but most of all in love – this is what is means to walk in the way of the cross. If our faith stays enshrined in some private holy place, and doesn’t lead us back out into the world, then we aren’t following Jesus.
7. The reality of God’s Presence with us is what Peter had discovered, and what gave him fearless joy as he came to the end of his life in this world.
8. Prayer for Morning Prayer on Fridays – pray together in closing:
BCP p. 99
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he
was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way
of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and
peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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