On the Mountain Top
a sermon based on Matthew 17:1-9 & Exodus 24:12-18
by Rev. Richard Gehring

            As a child growing up on the plains of Kansas, I had relatively little experience in the mountains.  About every other year or so, my family would take a vacation where we would spend a few days in the Colorado Rockies or the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas.  Then, when I was in high school, I spent some time at a church camp in the Rocky Mountains.  Each afternoon during the week-long camp sessions, we spent time mountain climbing.  Each day the hikes grew longer and a bit more difficult until Friday when we spent the entire day hiking up a 12,000 foot peak known as "The Sentinel."

            During those times in the mountains, I saw and experienced things I never would have in Kansas.  I drank cold water from clear mountain lakes and streams.  I walked through snow in the middle of July.  I stood on high peaks and looked out over miles and miles of tree-covered rolling hills, grassy valley meadows and rugged outcroppings of rocks.  Those were special times for me—those "mountain top" experiences.

            In our scripture passages for today, we read about probably the two greatest figures in the Bible, Moses and Jesus, as each of them had their own "mountain top" experiences.  We begin in Exodus with Moses being called to go up to Mount Sinai to meet with God.  This is the same mountain where Moses had earlier encountered the Lord in the burning bush.  At that time, God had called him to go to Egypt and lead the people of Israel out of  slavery.  Moses had been faithful to that call and now was called back to Sinai to hear from God once again.      This time, God delivers to Moses the Law, the covenant by which the Israelites are expected to live.  Because the Lord has delivered them out of bondage, God now expects them to live in a new way.  And the details of that covenant are spelled out to Moses as he returns to Mount Sinai.  In the chapters immediately preceding the one that Jim read for us this morning, Moses has already been to the mountain and come back to deliver the Ten Commandments along with a variety of religious and social laws to insure that the people treat one another and God with justice and respect.  Now the Lord calls Moses back to the mountain top to continue delivering him the Law.

            For forty days and nights, Moses has the unprecedented opportunity to converse directly with God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the one who called Abraham and Sarah and promised to make of their children a great nation, the one who had been faithful to that promise by leading Moses' own people out of captivity and rescuing from the most powerful military force of that time.  Moses spent almost six weeks enshrouded in the cloud of fire that signified God's presence.  He listened intently as God outlined what was expected of the people.  And when the time was over, he brought back to the people two stone tablets on which God's own hand had inscribed for them what they were to do.

            It must have been a very exciting time for Moses.  He had the opportunity to do what no one had ever done before and what many Jews and Christians have sought in vain to do ever since—to spend time entirely enveloped by the presence of God; to learn directly from the Lord what God's people needed to know.  It was no doubt a very glorious and completely unforgettable experience.

            Hundreds of years later, Matthew tells us about an experience that Jesus also had on a mountain top.  While his experience was far more brief than Moses', it was no less dramatic.  Jesus went up on a mountain with his three closest disciples:  Peter, James and John.  Luke says that the four of them went up to pray and that it was while they were praying that the miraculous events recorded in the gospels occurred.

            First of all, Jesus' appearance was completely transfigured.  His face began to shine and his clothes turned a dazzling white.  Moses himself had a similar experience on another visit with God on Mount Sinai after the passage we just looked at.  He, too, came down from the mountain with his face glowing so brightly that he had to put a veil on so that others could look at him.

            The connection with Moses' mountain top experience is made even more obvious when Moses himself also appears on the mountain beside Jesus, along with Elijah.  Clearly, this incredible occurrence is an indication of the importance of Jesus' mission.  He is held up alongside Moses and Elijah, the greatest leaders and prophets in Jewish history.

            Then, an even more incredible thing happens.  Just as happened on Mount Sinai, God is present in a bright cloud.  And out of that bright cloud God's voice speaks.  But this time instead of giving the Law, the voice says, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

            In these miraculous events, Jesus is affirmed as not only the latest in the line of great prophets; he is recognized as being greater than Elijah—greater even than Moses.  For Jesus is proclaimed God's son.  And his words are confirmed as having as much validity as the Law of Moses and more.

            So out of these great mountain top experiences, Moses and Jesus both receive affirmation and direction.  Both of them encounter God in a very direct way.  And both of them are empowered to continue the work which they have already begun.  But in both cases, the response by others to what happens on the mountain is very disappointing.

            While Moses was on the mountain receiving the tablets of the Law from God, the people of Israel grew impatient.  They came to Moses' brother, Aaron, whom God had appointed to lead the people during Moses' absence, and asked him to make gods for them.  And it was out of this that Aaron oversaw the making of a golden calf for the people to worship and make sacrifices to.

            When Moses came down from the mountain, he discovered the people in a great celebration.  They were eating and drinking and dancing around the golden calf.  They were singing and shouting and declaring that this calf represented the gods who had brought them out of Egypt.

            The contrast between the glorious mountain top experience he had just had and the scene of depravity he witnessed among the people was too much for Moses to bear.  He had just spent forty incredible days talking directly to the one true God who had indeed liberated the people from slavery, and now those very people dared to give that credit to some idol which they had just created with their own hands.  He took the stone tablets that God had painstakingly spent forty days writing and explaining to him and he dashed them to pieces on the ground.  Then he took the golden calf, threw it into the fire, ground what was left of it into a fine powder, scattered that in the water and forced the people of Israel to drink it.

            In the end, Moses did intercede with God to forgive the people of their great sin.  He even offered to give his own life instead of having the people destroyed if God found it necessary to shed blood.  And ultimately, he returned to the mountain once again to get another copy of the stone tablets of the covenant.

            Jesus, too, must have been greatly disappointed by his disciples' reaction to what happened on the mountain top and shortly thereafter.  Right in the middle of the transfiguration experience, Peter pipes up and says, "Lord, it's a good thing that we're here.  If you'd like, I could make three shelters—one each for you and Moses and Elijah."  Here are the disciples in the presence of perhaps the three greatest figures in Judeo-Christian history, an utterly unique gathering of people from different eras, and all Peter can think about is setting up booths for them.  It was no doubt a very well-intentioned idea, but it's clear that Peter, and probably the other disciples as well, had no grasp of the full significance of this moment.

            What's more, the miraculous events which they witnessed on the mountain don't seem to have had any impact on them in terms of their ministry with Jesus.  Immediately after the transfiguration, Matthew reports of a man who came to Jesus to have his son healed from epilepsy.  He says that he has already approached the disciples, but they are unable to help.  Jesus does heal the boy, but he rebukes the disciples for their inability to help—a sign of their lack of faith.  Even after the experience on the mountain top where they witnessed such a miraculous thing, their faith is too weak to accomplish what Jesus expects of them.

            Like Moses and the Israelites, Jesus is very disappointed and angry with his disciples.  "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you?  How long am I to bear with you?" he asks.(Matthew 17:17)  And a few verses later he tells them, "If you have faith as a grain of mustard, you will say to this mountain, 'move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."(Matthew 17:21)

            This, of course, would not be the last time that Jesus would be disappointed with his disciples.  And the golden calf was not the last time that Moses was dismayed with the people of Israel.  Both of these leaders experienced repeated frustration at the lack of understanding and trust and obedience on the part of their followers.

            As one who has always lived on the plains, my forays into the mountains have been brief.  They have offered a change of scenery, an enjoyable respite from a sometimes mundane life.  But I have always had to return to where I live.  I've needed to get back to what it is that makes up the majority of my life:  the everyday tasks, the routine chores, the tedious busy work that seems to take up so much of our time and energy.  I suppose that is a little bit of what Moses and Jesus experienced themselves.

            I suppose that the same is true for all of us.  We all have certain "mountain top" experiences from time to time.  There are times that we feel lifted above our normal existence when we are able to reach beyond the usual events of life that we are used to.  In these times we may experience great emotional release or profound intellectual insight or deep spiritual renewal. 

            But sooner or later we have to return to our ordinary lives.  As much as we might like, we cannot stay on the mountain top forever.  Moses and Jesus both discovered that there was nothing they could do to maintain that "mountain top" experience at a constant level over the long haul.  They found themselves pulled rather abruptly back to earth by those who obviously did not experience the events in the same inspirational way that they had.  And if such great figures as these were unable to sustain their mountain top experiences or pass them on to others, then we should not be surprised when the same things happen to us.

            So what is the lesson here?  Must we simply resign ourselves to living mundane lives filled with unexceptional experiences and everyday events?  Should we not even try to rise above our ordinary routines and reach for mountain top experiences?

            On the contrary, it seems to me that the examples of Moses and Jesus show us the value, perhaps even the necessity, of spending some time on the mountain top.  We must simply approach these experiences with realism.  In other words, we cannot expect them to last forever.  And we cannot expect that everyone else will share our enthusiasm for the same experience.  We must simply appreciate them while we can, and perhaps look back to them for guidance in the future. 

            For while the experiences of Moses and Jesus on the mountains may not have produced immediate positive results, they have had priceless lasting consequences.  The Law revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai has guided God's people for many generations.  And the recognition of Jesus as God's Son as revealed on the mount of transfiguration is at the heart of the church.

            Like the people of Israel and the disciples of Christ, we may not find inspiration or renewal in the same things that our friends do, but we must not become like them by dragging others down with us.  If others are encouraged and revitalized by something we find either boring or bizarre, it is not our place to give them that dose of reality that we think may be healthy for them.  Rather, we should be happy that they have found additional meaning or motivation.  Perhaps there are even ways in which we can share in their joy if we are open to hearing from them.  Perhaps they may even be open to sharing in our mountain top experiences as well.

            So next time you find yourself moved closer to God by a speaker or a song; next time you come face-to-face with Christ in a personal encounter; next time you feel the tug of the Spirit in meditation or prayer, pause to give thanks to God for the gift you have been allowed to hold, at least for a moment.  Know that the moment itself may be fleeting, but the experience of the mountain top will be with you always.