Transfiguration Sunday; February 3, 2008; Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester.
Matthew 17:1-9.

Dear Friends in Christ, Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. AMEN.


Some of you baseball fans remember former major league catcher and TV personality Joe Garagiola. Garagiola is a great story-teller.
He tells a story about baseball legend Stan Musial. Musial came to the plate in a critical game. The opposing pitcher in the game was young and nervous. Garagiola was catching, and he called for a fastball to be pitched to Musial. The pitcher shook his head. He didn’t want to throw that pitch. Joe signaled for a curve, and again the pitcher shook him off. Then he signaled for a change-up. Still the pitcher hesitated.
Garagiola went out to the mound to talk to his young pitcher. He said, “I’ve called for every pitch in the book; what do you want to throw?”
“Nothing,” was the pitcher’s reply. “I just want to hold on to the ball as long as I can.”

It seems like a reasonable move, doesn’t it? When faced with a situation that threatens horrible results, we want to extend the moment as long as we can. We know we need to make that telephone call, but we stare at the telephone for minutes or hours. We know we need to visit a doctor about a problem that has surfaced, but we live in ignorant bliss, hoping the problem will go away. We have resolved this year that we are going to get at the income tax early, but…the deadline is still over two months away…

Or, there are times we want to live in the moment and not move forward. Maybe Christmas was like that for you this year. You were gathered with family and friends, and you wished that the holiday would never come to an end. Or maybe you have been on a wonderful winter vacation already, and the day before you were scheduled to come home you heard that it was -20º in Minnesota—or maybe a blizzard was sweeping across the state like it did this past week. And you wanted to stay in Florida or Arizona or Mexico.

Maybe you have just earned a promotion or did so much better on a test than you had even dreamed you would do. Maybe you won a conference or a state championship. Maybe you have stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon and wanted the magnificent vista to last forever in your mind.

Maybe you have stood on a mountaintop and wanted never to come down. Maybe you were Peter and James and John with Jesus on the high mountain. You know the story. Jesus asks the three to come with him onto the mountain. While there, Jesus is transfigured in every way. His face shines like the sun, his clothes become dazzling white. If that isn’t enough, the scene is transformed by the appearance of Moses and Elijah—two giants of the faith. Moses represents the first five books of the Bible, while Elijah is representative of the prophetic books. Law and the prophets…and Jesus.

If Norman Rockwell had been there, he would have painted the scene. If CNN had been there, they would have had a dozen cameras and three talking heads covering the event. If the satellites in the sky had been looking, they would have seen a bright glow from that mountain on planet earth. It was that big.

Peter is transfixed by the transfiguration. He is appropriately moved by what he sees—something he likely will never see again. So he wants to immortalize it. He wants to build three dwellings or booths. It is a time of glory. He wants to create places, tents, where God can communicate directly with the people like he did in the desert wandering. Or perhaps booths like that at the Feast of the Tabernacle. Jesus shall be enshrined forever!

They will never have to come off the mountain. This will be the place to which people will make pilgrimage for millennia to come!

But you know that isn’t the way the story turns out. Surely, this is a time of glory for the Son of Man. Even the voice from the cloud speaks of that glory, “this is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

But there is more to this story. Jesus gives more than hints at the end of our reading for today. Says Jesus to the disciples, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Raised from the dead? What is this about? They probably are not even off the mountain when the disciples begin to question Jesus. He tells them that the Son of Man is going to suffer.

The very next story in the Matthew? It is the healing of a boy with a demon—a demon that causes seizures and makes the boy to fall into fire or water. Peter would rather have stayed on the mountain where the light shines in glory. Jesus knows he has to be involved with the messiness, even the suffering, of this world.

And you know that the story doesn’t stop there. Jesus would again be led up a hill, and he would be flanked by two men. This time it wouldn’t be Moses and Elijah. This time it would be criminals. On this hill it would not be a voice from heaven that declared him the Son of God. It would be a Roman soldier who recognized the Son of God, even in his suffering.

Remember when you were on that vacation you wanted to last forever? It came to an end, didn’t it? And you came home to your work, your chores, the bills. Remember the time when you were at a concert and the music lifted you to heights you had not before experienced? But the concert came to an end, and you went home listening to the radio or your Ipod.

Remember the time when you were so excited about your faith? Remember how everything seemed fresh and exciting? You were so close to Jesus that you could feel his breath on your neck? And the next week you came back, and you were still excited? And the third week stretched into the fourth and the fifth. And Jesus no longer seemed to be standing right next to you.

The excitement of being on the mountain with Jesus settled into the messiness of the world. You hoped your faith would lift you out of the problems of this world to the heights of glory!

But that isn’t the way it is. The choir that sang such a wonderful number the day you were close to Jesus—the choir was just ordinary today. The Bible lessons that other day spoke to your heart—today the lessons don’t make any sense. Everybody in the pews around you were electric with excitement that other day. Today they act like it is cold in early February. Of course, the preaching was excellent both days. Oh, we know…we know…

You thought your had your problems solved with Jesus. But then you had to come down the mountain, and it was Monday. You had the same commute, the same lousy parking, the same boss, the same teachers, the same bad complexion, same-old-same-old.

And that is the way it was for Jesus—glorified on a mountaintop, back to work on the plain. Glorified on a mountaintop, and then lifted up on a cross on a hill. Meanwhile, there is a God who watches, who affirms, who strengthens. Tomorrow when you park in that same lousy spot and get back to your same hard work, there is a God who watches over you saying, “This is my baptized daughter or son.” And in the end, the glory will be ours—because of that one who was transfigured on two mountains—the first in light, the second on a cross. AMEN.