WHICH PART OF THE MOUNTAIN--TOP OR BOTTOM?

FRIDAY AFTER THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 2015

Today is Mark 9:1-29 with Bishop Wright focusing on verses 2-13, the Transfiguration. My thoughts today are quite different.

Bishop Wright spends some time speaking about how the Transfiguration once again demonstrates, in a very dramatic way, that Jesus is the Messiah and more. He unpacks the symbolism of the “shelters” that Peter wants to build, and he even cuts Peter a little slack with his “foot-in-mouth” moment. But my mind is running to a different place. On the other side of the Transfiguration is the remarkable story of Jesus healing a boy and interacting with the father who says, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

The words of Marks’ Gospel and this blog reach you not in a vacuum, but rather they come to you in the midst of your day and your week. For example, was it an especially hectic week and are you tired? Or has today had a few interactions and moments that you were not expecting and those moments have thrown off your equilibrium? Or perhaps you have received some hard news and that again gets your mind and heart going in all sorts of directions. My point is that as I write this blog…I too am processing my day and week.

So my mind, as I read the Transfiguration and the rest of the chapter is a bit numb to it…I know that may sound strange, but it has been the week I have had, and already the things I have had to deal with this morning. I believe of course, but it is at an intellectual level at this moment. It is as if I am somehow at an “arms-length” distance from the events of the text and am looking not just at events described today, but at all that we have read to date. Consider how crazy this story is. Consider all that is being claimed. First that this man, born of a virgin, is now off running around the earth healing people, feeding people, and there are moments when the sky somehow opens and a voice is heard. And as crazy as it all sounds I quote unquote believe.

I imagine if I was swept up in one of these moments, then everything from the week, and even the day so far, would evaporate, but the challenge is to live as I believe—and in the ancient days belief had everything to do with how we live, and not just what was a theoretical thought. Where are you today? On the mountain top…if so enjoy…and you require no explanation about why Peter wanted to linger. If you have come down off the mountain, know that Jesus is there as well…after all he spent most of his time on that level…