The Gift of Mountaintop Experiences

Based on Luke 9:28-36

I have in my hand a small river rock that I picked up along the shores of the Illinois River that flows through the hills of eastern Oklahoma. There is a United Methodist church camp there called Camp Egan. The church I grew up in went there often for retreats. There is a place at Camp Egan where you hike up to the top of a ridge that overlooks a beautiful valley below. There is a clearing with some benches and a large wooden cross. It is an outdoor worship space. Hundreds of thousands of people over the years have gathered at that spot for worship, to experience the presence of God in the beauty of nature. People have had literal “mountain top experiences” at that sacred site called Camp Egan. I am one of those people. And it’s hard for me to put in words the experiences of God’s presence I have had at Camp Egan. That’s how it is when we experience the presence of the divine. Words to describe the experience fail us.

Today we hear the story of when Peter, James and John had their mountain top experience, when they saw Jesus transfigured before them, having a conversation with Moses and Elijah. And then a cloud enveloped them. They heard the voice of God declaring Jesus as the chosen one that they need to listen to. These disciples had a mountain top experience like no other. It was so powerful that they couldn’t tell anyone about it, at least not yet. They couldn’t put the experience into words. But I can imagine that from then on out, Peter, James and John had a completely new perspective about Jesus. They had seen a glimpse of who Jesus is in his fullness. No filters. It was a vision they could not articulate. Words to describe the experience failed them.

This rock I have from Camp Egan I picked up when I was not yet a teenager. On one side of it I have a drawing of a mountain. On top of the mountain is a cross. A huge sun is rising behind the mountain. And in the corner are three birds flying in the sky, representing the Trinity. This picture was an attempt to describe a mountain top experience I had at Camp Egan. As I came back down the mountain and returned home, I took this rock with me. It has sat on a home altar I have maintained for years, along with other objects I have collected that mark “mountain top experiences.” These objects remind me of how God has revealed Godself to me in a number of different ways, in different contexts, for over four decades of my life. When we have these mountain top experiences we carry them with us for the rest of our lives. They shape our faith. They help form who we are as persons.

Can you imagine how Peter, James and John were impacted by their mountain top experience? Like I said, surely they looked at Jesus differently from then on out. When they saw Jesus in his resurrected body, the Transfiguration experience surely flooded their memories and reaffirmed for them that their mountain top experience was real. Seeing the transfigured Jesus shaped the faith of Peter, James and John. They came down the mountain carrying that experience. They were different than the way they were before they went up the mountain with Jesus to pray.

What made my mountain top experiences possible as a kid was the result of the United Methodist Church. It was the church I belonged to that got me to that United Methodist owned camp. Not all my mountain top experiences have been at United Methodist church camps. But some have. Perhaps for many of us, and I would hope all of us, it has been through the church, particularly the United Methodist church, that the context for a mountain top experience was provided. Our church is a gathering of disciples around Jesus Christ, who from time to time gather on mountain tops, literally or figuratively, and experience the divine in powerful ways. We have these experiences as a church. And they are transformational experiences that shape our faith.

That’s what we heard about this morning. Peter, James and John, a tiny church gathered around Jesus, having their mountain top experience. The church has been that gathered community around Jesus for many of us where we have experienced the presence of God.

But, when church camp was over at Camp Egan, I had to go home. After we have our mountain top experiences, we have to go back down the mountain and return to the messiness of daily life. When Jesus, Peter, James and John came down the mountain, they walked right into chaos and pain. Listen to this description of what they were confronted with right after this incredible experience on the mountain.

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”

While Jesus and the others were on the mountain top, down below there was a father crying out for his son who was possessed of a demon. He had pleaded for the rest of Jesus’ disciples to cast the demon out. They had the power to do so. In Luke 9:1 we read where Jesus specifically gives his disciples the authority to cast out demons. They have the power but, for some reason we don’t know about, this father’s son was still demon possessed and the disciples had failed. Did the father not really believe the disciples could do it? Were the disciples not confident enough to try, for fear of looking foolish if it didn’t work? Whatever the reason, this failure frustrated Jesus to no end. The disciples had the power to cast out the demon and heal the man’s son, but it didn’t happen.

What was Jesus’ response? “You faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you and bear with you?” Ouch. Was Jesus directing that barb toward only the disciples or did he mean that for everyone? One thing is clear. Jesus was angry. He was hurt. He was frustrated. And he did not bite his tongue but expressed his frustration. He didn’t sigh, or get flushed, or even say something like, “Really?” No, Jesus was specific about what was irritating him. What he saw before him was a faithless and perverse generation. Those words are cutting. They hurt. They are offensive, even if they are descriptive. And if it wasn’t for the fact that it was Jesus saying this, surely the crowd would have told Jesus what they thought of that statement and walked away. Maybe some did.

But Jesus didn’t stomp off angry. Jesus’ frustration didn’t close him off from addressing the pressing need for this boy to have a demon cast out of him. There was healing and restoration that needed to be accomplished. There was work to do. Jesus wasn’t going to walk away from where the pain and brokenness was. He didn’t turn himself around and walk back up the mountain. If the disciples couldn’t get the job done, then Jesus would do it. He would cast the demon out and restore the boy to his father. And that’s what he did. Nothing would stop Jesus from healing the suffering child.

The example has been set for us. There is much suffering in our communities: people living in tents and families living in cars, sons and daughters ensnared in substance abuse, children traumatized by violence and struggling with anxiety and depression. We have systems of support for folks in need of healing. But there’s not enough. And those who do this healing work are often stretched thin and are weary. Even with the systems of support we have in our community there are still those who are in need of healing and restoration. There is healing work for all of us to do.

But what can you and I do? What is Jesus’ example? Jesus did not hide his frustration but named what he saw. We don’t need to look around us and say, “this is a faithless and perverse generation.” But what could we say in our frustration? Maybe we can decry the inequitable distribution of resources, or the breakdown of civic responsibility, or the decay of moral virtue in our society. Whatever it is, Jesus invites us to acknowledge our frustration and to name it with as much specificity as we can.

What else can we do? We can resist the temptation to go back up the mountain top, to remove ourselves from the mess and go back to where we had that mountain top experience and wait for another one. We can decide to engage with the needs around us in whatever way we can rather than close ourselves off. I don’t know how you will engage, to respond to the hurt and brokenness all around us. When the need is right in front of you, ask God the question, “What does love require of me?” And then see what rises up for you and do that.

After Jesus healed that boy and restored him to his father, Jesus and his disciples made their way toward Jerusalem. Jesus was on his way to complete the work he was sent here to do, the suffering, the death on the cross, the burial, and then the glorious resurrection. Before the resurrection, there will be great suffering and death. As Jesus endured the suffering, and as Peter, James and John looked on, don’t you think that they remembered that moment on the mountain top, when Jesus was transfigured and talking with Moses and Elijah, and when the cloud engulfed them, and the voice spoke of Jesus as the chosen one? Surely in those moments of great pain and struggle, they all remembered that mountain top moment. It had to be a source of encouragement. Remembering that moment on the mountain had to give all of them strength, and hope that there is something more, bigger, holy, than the present suffering, the messiness, the chaos.

Those mountain top moments we experience are gifts. When we are frustrated or weary with the struggles of life, of working at doing good in the world and not seeing much of anything change, and the chaos and suffering of the world becomes too much, our memories draw us back to those moments when we experienced the presence of God in powerful ways, in ways that are indescribable. What a gift. I invite you now to go back in your memory to one of those mountain top moments. Re-live that experience. And give God thanks for this precious gift, a gift you carry with you on this journey, as we make our way toward our destiny, when we will stand in our glory before the glorified one, Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord.