Bible Text: Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
Growing up, my Grandma and Grandpa Geddes had a cottage on the shores of Lake Huron close to the town of Goderich, Ontario. I have fond memories of spending summer weeks there. There was a guy who worked for the Opeechee candy factory and so we called him the candy man. There were the Culbert’s who owned a bakery in town and made delicious donuts. (Likely where my love of donuts came from). And there were black flies and noseeums that were just as much a part of the cottage community as any of the human beings who own property there. While the trees were nothing like the ones found in Cathedral grove, as kids these trees were huge. To pass the time we would play a game using these big trees, a baseball and gloves. One person would stand on the opposite side of the tree, throw up the ball as high as he or she could, arching it just so that it would fall near the middle of the tree. As the ball fell, and hit each branch, it would bounce unpredictably and randomly in a variety of directions. The idea of the game was to simply catch the ball as it came down. But one never knew where its final drop would occur. So, you just stood there, glove in hand, looking up, watching and listening. Of course, there was always a point in the game when the ball would land squarely on someone’s head, bringing a yelp from the victim and howls of laughter from everyone else. The game taught us a very valuable lesson, what goes up must come down, and sometimes the fall is unpredictable.
Today both Moses and Jesus have mountain top experiences, both literally and figuratively. They both go up and they both must come down to a reality that is chaotic and unpredictable. They will hit a few branches on the way down, so to speak. It is necessary that we look at what happens to them while they are on top of the mountain, but we often get too focused on what happens at the top and forget that what goes up must come down. These mountaintop experiences are not the end of the story; they don’t even mark the beginning of the story, but rather serve as a stop along the way on a much bigger journey.
There are a few similarities between Moses and Jesus’ experiences, more than we might think. First of all, Moses goes up the mountain initially with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel, one of whom was named Joshua. Moses does not make the journey alone and even when God asks that Moses climb a little higher, Moses takes Joshua with him. The two of them were there for a week and then it seems as though Joshua is left behind while Moses enters a cloud and spends the next forty days and forty nights there. I want to pause for a moment while Moses is on the mountain to touch upon a common theme. Throughout scripture the term forty days and nights is used. It is not to be taken literally, although there is nothing wrong with that, but rather it was used as a statement to demonstrate, “a long time”. Perhaps a modern version of forty days and forty nights would be, “I was up on that mountain forever and a day”. What is also unique about the use of the term in this passage in Exodus is that in almost every other situation the term is used to describe a long period of hardship or trial. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights in the story of the flood, Goliath taunted Saul’s army for 40 days before David showed up and as Lent approaches it is appropriate to remember that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. All of these examples, and many more, use the number 40 to demonstrate a long period of adversity. And yet, in our story of Moses it doesn’t strike me that they are experiencing any major trials at that very moment, aside from the fact that they are wandering the wilderness for the next 40 years. Perhaps it is not that the dispersion of the law was cause for adversity, but that it was foreshadowing the fact that the Israelites, and the people of God, will struggle to maintain and keep the law for the rest of history.
Yet what goes up must come down and Moses is no different. But think about this for a moment, Moses is literally on top of the world, communing with God. I have to believe that Moses did not want to come down! He probably wanted to stay up there as long as possible, taking in the view, enjoying the solitude, happy to be away from the mob of stinky, needy, whiny people below. Like Peter on the mountain with Jesus’ transfiguration, Moses must have wanted to say, “God, why don’t I build a hut here and just stay with you”. But instead, Moses must come down and bounce into every branch along the way, to the chaos of the Israelite people; and it will be chaotic- in fact, those two tablets that God’s finger wrote upon, will be destroyed as soon as Moses makes his way down the mountain because the people are busy worshipping a golden calf! You never know which way the ball will go, nor do you know who will drop the ball.
We call this Sunday transfiguration Sunday because of the story we hear in Matthew in which Jesus’ form is changed. The Greek word for transfiguration is metamorfosi, so really a more literal term and better understood term would be metamorphosis Sunday- but it doesn’t really have the same ring to it. Like Moses, Jesus takes a few of the disciples up the mountain with him, Peter, James and John. As the version of the story in The Message says then, “Jesus’ appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.” Moses, as demonstrated in our Exodus passage, came to symbolize the law and Elijah served as the representative for the prophets. We have to remember that we heard Jesus say just a few weeks ago that he did not come to abolish the law and prophets but to fulfil them. Peter then makes a pretty obvious statement that it is good these disciples are there to witness to this event. Then he follows it up with his brilliant plan to build booths or memorials for these three prestigious characters. Of course, this request is not only denied but completely ignored and God responds with a reiteration of what was said at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” What goes up must come down, but where it will fall, no one knows. As Warren Carter states, “Every Mountaintop experience has this element of the story, the part where the people come down from the mountain and move forward with their lives. The part where people acknowledge that, while it is good for us to be on the mountain, it is also good for us not to stay, it is good to move on to other terrain, to the valleys and plains of life and perhaps to other mountains. The spiritual life is one of mountains and hills and valleys and plains.”
When Jesus and Peter, James and John made their way down the mountain they were heading back down to the road that led to the cross. On Wednesday we mark the beginning of the long valley journey for ourselves as we begin Lent. It is a season of deep reflection on our mortality, on our frailty, on the chaos that is our lives. While it can be wonderfully solitary, peaceful, calm, and yet still exciting up there on the mountain, we need to walk those valleys too. We have to come down the mountain to where it is unpredictable, especially as we face an unpredictable future for our church. Imagine the one on the other side of the tree being like the many great prophets, encouraging us to grab our gloves and get ready. We don’t know where the ball will fall and so we feel like we are back under the tree, baseball glove in hand hoping to catch the ball, or just catch on. We are never too sure we are standing in the right spot, but it is a risk we have to take because sometimes we might not only be lucky enough to catch the ball, but to have God’s inspiration and wisdom to hit us squarely on the head. Amen