Mark 9:2-9

I was at a meeting the other day when the treasurer handed the secretary an envelope. A bit later in the meeting the chairperson asked the secretary for some information - but the secretary replied that he didn't have that information. At the point the treasurer rose and said, "Yes - you do- it is on the envelope I gave you".
The secretary replied, "Oh, I didn't know what that was - so I threw it away".
Everyone laughed - including me - but I was struck at the time by just how normal the secretary's actions had been.

Often when we encounter something, which we do not know or understand we throw it away; or at the very least - we ignore it - we put it on hold - we neglect it.
So it is with stories like those we heard today from the scriptures - Many of us hear about visions of chariots of fire, of water being parted to reveal a path across a river, and of a man being taken up into heaven - and mentally shrug our shoulders and dismiss the matter as idle tales.

Others hear about how Jesus was transformed upon a mountaintop, so that he shone as bright as the sun, and about how he is visited by two men - long dead, and say to themselves - that's all very nice, but what does it have to do with me - and then they go on about their lives as if these things had never happened, as if they never can or will happen.

Most sermons I have heard on today's gospel reading ignore the experience that the disciples witnessed Jesus undergo.Very little is said in them about the overwhelming brightness of Jesus' appearance, very little is made of the fact that Peter, James, and John saw Moses and Elijah talking with Christ and heard a voice from heaven.

Most of those sermons have in fact quickly passed over the wonder of the experience and go on to stress how we Christians are called to come down off the mountain and serve in the valley below.

And I find that to be kind of a shame. I find it to be a kind of a shame as well how so many of us ignore, neglect, devalue, or scorn the prophet's ecstasy, the dreamer's vision, and the worshipper's conviction that he or she has heard God speak.

 
Most of us are convinced that our faith is about doing good things, about showing love and care for one another, and it is so - this is what our faith is about. But our faith is also about the yearning to see God and experience his power; it is about being touched by the Spirit and being moved by the voice of the Lord whispering in our ears.  Our faith is so rich - and our God so good - that it makes no sense at all to limit what is possible for us to the dry bones of what we should or should not do every day.  Our faith is about entertaining angels, every bit as much as it is about seeking to comfort the afflicted and heal the sick. It is about seeing visions of a new heaven and a new earth, every bit as much as it is about seeking justice and resisting evil.  It is about being refreshed by God; as much as it is about refreshing others in God's name.

A little boy, around the turn of the 20th century, lived far back out in the country. He had reached the age of 12 and had never, in all his life, seen the circus.
You can imagine the excitement when a poster went up at school that on the next Saturday a traveling circus was coming to the nearby town. He ran home with the glad news, and then came the question - "Dad, Mom, can I go?" The family was poor, but the father sensed how important this was to the boy, so he said, "If you do your chores ahead of time, I'll see to it that you get the money to go."

Come Saturday morning the chores were done and the boy stood ready in his best clothes by the breakfast table. His father reached down into his overalls and pulled out a dollar bill- the most money the boy had ever seen at one time - and gave it to him. After all the usual cautions about being careful the boy was sent on his way. The boy was so excited that his feet barely touched the ground all the way into town. When he got there, he noticed people were lining the streets and he worked his way through the crowd until he could see what I was going on. There in the distance approached the spectacle of a circus parade. It was the grandest thing that the lad had ever seen. There were exotic animals in cages and bands and midgets, acrobats, and all that goes into making up a great circus. After everything had passed by where he was standing, a circus clown, with floppy shoes and baggy pants and a brightly painted face came bringing up the rear. As the clown passed where he was standing, the boy reached into his pocket and got out the precious dollar bill. Handing the money to the clown, the boy then turned around and went home.

The mistake that the boy made - is the same mistake we can make in our spiritual lives - we can end up settling for less than the real thing, for a portion - instead of for the whole, and all because we either do not believe in what God can do or because we do not look at or understand what we have been given. I did not know what it was, so I threw it away.

I believe the most common problem faced by members of most churches is not the fact that they spend too much time seeking spiritual visions and revelations - and end up neglecting the important truths and duties of everyday life in Christ, rather it's the fact that they do not believe in and thus are not open to the special moments, the special touches, that only God can give.

Some of the faithful will say that people have no energy for living the Christian life because they do not get fed by the church - I say - some people are out of energy because they fail to recognize the food that is before them - because they fail to take and eat what God seeks to give them.

When I lived in Buffalo there was a weekly prayer meeting held at our church. Of the hundred or so adults who attended church every week, only about 15 or so attended this meeting. I remember one time when a guest preacher was present at the meeting. We prayed for one another with the laying on of hands, we prayed for healings, for people to have the power to overcome some grief or suffering in their lives, for others to discover what God wanted then to do about a particular situation.

 Finally my turn came to be prayed for - and I asked that all might pray that God would fill me with his Spirit - that he might make my faith come even more alive.
When the hands came down on my head and shoulders and the people gathered around me began to pray - I felt and energy go through my body like electricity, and I shook in my chair as the words of prayer washed over me, and then, in a moment of sudden silence, one word came strongly from the guest - a word came strongly from God - "You shall be used to do great things in my service".

To this day those words have stayed with me and shaped my thoughts - making me wonder what the greatness is - making me wonder - is it the power and glory like that of some great evangelist or theologian, - or is it the greatness that was revealed by Christ as he went about as the servant of all, stooping down even to wash his own disciple's feet?

It was a moment that fed me and still feeds me - a profoundly spiritual moment.
I might have told some of you this story before, but another time - many years later - I was a patient at St. Joe's Hospital here in Syracuse. After a time in intensive care I asked my Pastor to bring me the Sacrament, even though I couldn't really receive the elements while the tubes down my throat and respirator were keeping me breathing. What I can remember of it was a simple service of Holy Communion but when the bread and wine touched my lips I experienced that same electric feeling throughout my whole body. The moment was another turning point for me - much as the experience of Jesus and his disciples on the mount of transfiguration was a turning point - much as Elisha crossing the Jordan with Elijah was a turning point.  Unfortunately my friends - I can't explain to you what a holy moment is; nor can I tell you just how special and sacred events come to pass, nor can I even promise you that you will have such a moment if only you do this or that, but I can tell you, and I do now tell you, that these moments are real, and that they come to us most often when we put ourselves in the way of them. As another preacher one time put it - You can't have a mountain top experience if you don't climb the mountain.

Elisha followed his teacher Elijah around the country despite Elijah telling him not to when he had his experience; he actively sought a double portion of the spirit that filled Elijah and was patient to receive it.  Peter, James, and John are obeying Jesus when they witnessed his transfiguration; they had climbed the mountain with him when he went to pray.

I was looking to be open to the Lord, I was looking for forgiveness and for his blessing - when the message God had chosen for me came.

The sacred experiences that are recounted in the Bible, the experiences of the divine that are recorded there, are still needed today - and they still occur today.
Some catch sight of God in the beauty around them, some glimpse him during a close encounter with death, some meet him a special way during a period of suffering, others while they are praying at special gatherings or at worship.

Don't throw away those strange and mysterious experiences that have happened in your lives. Don't let go of those things that you do not understand or cannot explain. Rather meditate on them, delight in them, and use them as a source of strength for your time of service in the valleys below.

Oh how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Amen.