“Transfiguration” Luke 9: 28-45

 Recently I was thinking about stories. Specifically what stories we tell about our lives. I think, if we are honest, we tell different things about our life to different people. There are some people that we tell the highlights to - those big moments. Things like weddings and births of children. How we met the person we love and where we retired from. I would call those the casual conversation stories. Things we would tell people at a party. 

But then, when we are with people that we are close with, the family members and close friends, we tell the every day stories. Not about the mountain tops, but about the ways that we would answer the question with “what did you do today?” Talking about tinkering with the car, folding laundry, and wrangling kids 

The same is true with the stories of our faith, is it not? When people who don’t know you very well ask you to talk about your faith life - you talk about the big moments in your life - that moment when you knew God loved you for the first time, about that time when you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, or about those profound moments where you sensed the Holy Spirit.

But when you closest spiritual friend asks you “how is it with your soul?” And “what sin do you have that is unconfessed?” Then you get into the everyday moments of the faith. The moments of challenge and struggle along with the moments of beauty and joy. 

Today’s story in scripture weaves those two types of stories together, though often when we talk about the transfiguration, we only bring up the one. First, the story we celebrate this day. Jesus took three of his disciples up on a mountain to pray. Mountains are places were powerful things happened in scripture. It’s where the Ten Commandments were given. Where God spoke to Elijah. Where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. But that day the disciples were not expecting anything spectacular to happen on this mountain.

Jesus had just told them, again, about his upcoming death. And they feel defeated. They aren’t sure what’s coming next for them. They aren’t sure what’s going to happen to them. And if they are honest, there are days when they cannot fully understand what Jesus is teaching them about. But in the midst of going off with their teacher something amazing did happen. 

While Jesus was praying his appearance changed and Moses and Elijah appeared to talk with them. The disciples are awestruck. So they suggested doing what folks had done for centuries when there is a holy moment - build an alter. Abraham and Jacob had laid piles of rocks along with others throughout history. But Peter suggests not just building an alter, but building three dwelling places, not fully realizing what he said. 

If that was not enough, a cloud came over them and a voice came out of the cloud saying, “This is my Son; the Chosen; listen to him!” Like that voice that had came to Jesus at his baptism, this voice now came to the disciples telling them about who this one was that they were choosing to follow. 

There are lots of words to describe this transfiguration experience, but I would imagine for the disciples some of those words may have been… overwhelming. Awe-inducing. Reassuring. In the midst of all of the unknown, they had this profound experience that changed them as well. They may not have had their appearance changed, as Jesus did, but they walked away from that place being able to firmly answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”

It’s no wonder they wanted to commemorate this moment. No wonder they wanted to build dwellings. This was truly holy ground.

But today’s text doesn’t end there. There’s another part of this story that we don’t talk about as often - the coming down off of the mountain part. The next day they are back amongst the crowds and the everydayness of life, when a man came froth from the throng of people to tell Jesus that the disciples he had encountered the day before, those who weren’t up on the mountain, they couldn’t heal his son, who was possessed by a demon. So Jesus looks around, seeing all that is left to do, and heals the son. And the people gathered were astounded. 

It’s hard to see in some ways how these two parts of today’s scripture are connected. The splendor of the transfiguration and the failure of the disciples to heal one in need, until we sit back and realize that this is how our lives are as well. We have big, holy days in the church - Easter, Christmas Eve, Pentecost, but we also have ordinary time. We have big moments in our lives - weddings and graduations and births, but we also have piles of laundry and dishes that need to get done. And Jesus is in the midst of all of it.

Even though three of the disciples have had this miraculous moment, where they start to realize that Jesus is the Messiah, the rest of the folks on the ground still think he is just a great prophet and teacher. Even though three of the disciples were in this place where heaven seemed to meet earth, this thin place, Jesus is just as present with the crowd as he healed the son. 

The problem, friends, is that we want to stay in the spiritually high places. And who can blame us?!? Just as we cannot blame Peter for wanting to build dwellings, so no one would blame us for wanting to continue to have moments of deep and profound spiritual connection.

The problem comes in when that’s the only story we tell. If we only tell the big stories of the faith - then we miss recognizing that Jesus is with us in the everydayness, and yes, even the valleys as well. If we only tell the stories of amazing moments with God, we will constantly chase after them instead of recognizing the presence of Jesus, right here and right now. If we keep yearning for the spiritual high, sometimes we miss the work that is right in front of us as we come down off of the mountain. 

If Jesus wouldn’t have come off of the mountain, would the son have been healed? If we keep looking telling the stories of spiritual heights, will people start to think that it isn’t normal when they don’t have those experiences all the time too? If we only look for the exciting moments, will we miss the call to reach out to love our neighbor?

In a lot of ways, these two parts of the story need to go together, because that is our lives. Remember why the disciples were up on that mountain in the first place? To do the work of praying. To listen. And in the midst of everydayness they were blessed with a profound experience that was to be reassurance to keep on, keeping on. To sustain them so they can continue to walk with Jesus.

Friends, if we live our lives only seeking the high moments, we are going to miss so much of the journey. So much of the blessing of Christ’s presence in all moments. So, yes, let us celebrate today, but let us keep on, keeping on, all the while with Christ our Lord. Amen.