Sermon on Luke 9:28-43

--> Tell me if this is something you've said before: “I don't know why you won't just listen to me! It's like my mouth is moving and no sound is coming out!” You snap your fingers or stomp your feet, but no matter what you do, it seems like the message is getting lost. Maybe this is a conversation you have had with your spouse, or children. One of the most important parts of any relationship is feeling like you're being heard, but in actuality, just being heard is not usually enough. What we want is a response. If you say “Listen to me, clean up your room!” you're not saying you want your kid to listen to you nodding and then do nothing, right? You're saying “Clean up your room!” You expect a response! We've seen throughout the entire book of Luke this message, which started with an announcement from the angels and continued in Jesus' baptism, and here again at the transfiguration you have been given a message. But the message is more than just words—it's a call to action, and one directed at you and me.

So here's how this story unfolds. One day after Jesus has started his ministry, he and three disciples decide to go up a mountain to pray. Peter, John, and James follow him up and sit with Jesus while he has some personal time with God. While he's praying, Jesus' face and clothes suddenly transform to dazzling white. Just as suddenly, Moses and Elijah appear and talk to Jesus about what Jesus was “about to accomplish in Jerusalem.” Imagine being a disciple and watching this transformation and miraculous conversation with two dead men! They finish their discussion and are about to go down the mountain. Stunned by what he's seen, and also very sleepy, Peter makes a little suggestion. He says, “Hey, let me make three little dwellings for you and your company!” This sounds like a pretty good idea, right? It's something polite to do for visitors. And Jesus doesn't even dignify this suggestion with a response. Awkward.

In fact, after Peter's odd comment, something even stranger happens: a dark cloud rolls in and a voice like thunder declares: “This is my Son—listen to him!” and once the cloud departs, Elijah and Moses are gone. This whole text seems to be pointing to who Jesus is and what he's supposed to do as “the Chosen” or Messiah. Jesus' transformed appearance is kind of like a flashing, neon sign saying 'this guy is special!' And then we have Moses and Elijah, who brought the law and called Israel to return to God's way. It seems pretty clear that Jesus is important, the next guy in this succession, and more than that, the author of Luke wants you to know just exactly who he is: the Son of God. Clearly the disciples understood that. Peter, about 10 verses before, confesses that Jesus is the Messiah. He recognizes that he's not out of place shooting the breeze with Moses and Elijah. So why does Jesus ignore him? Why does God's voice call out that Jesus is the Messiah and that Peter should listen. Hasn't he been listening?

He's missing something, but what? The word Peter uses here for a dwelling would almost surely be recognized by the Jewish audience as relating to a particular Jewish festival, the festival of booths or tabernacles, which were temporary structures like the ones that the Israelites lived in while they wandered in the wildnerness. The point of this celebration is to serve as a remembrance of the time they spent wandering in the desert, as well as a celebration of the harvest and God's provision in bringing them out. This festival was a fun, and lively event that took place after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the most solemn of all Jewish holidays. Peter's suggestion to build a dwelling, then, is more than just a polite offer to house strangers, but something which reaches back in historical memory to celebration. The problem is, the work isn't done yet. In fact, Jesus is barely getting started.

Have you ever been to Christian summer camp, youth gathering, a WELCA gathering, or mission trip? My brother went to Mexico when he was in high school, and had an awesome trip. He spent a week building houses for poor people, and climbing mountains, and praying and singing together with his friends. It was really hard for him to come back after that experience, because he had kind of literally been at the top of a mountain, feeling God's presence and feeling pumped up and excited for Christianity. He was determined to do devotions every day and do prayer group and youth group, and... well, how long do you think that lasted? How long does it ever last after those experiences? A few days or weeks, maybe, but then we realize that we're not on the mountain anymore, and Christianity isn't quite as interesting when you're not saving lives or building houses or having revival style worship with your peers. You settle in and wait for the next mountain top experience, but in the meantime, what do you do?

Peter suggested building booths; staying up on the mountain because Jesus was God, and should have been in the company of such great men like Moses and Elijah. Moses, who brought the law, Elijah, who called the people to turn back to God, and Jesus, the next great voice, leader, and ruler of the people. Peter wanted mountain top Jesus. And sometimes that's the Jesus we want too. We want the Jesus who is God, who is king, who is seated on a throne and ruling us. But the reality is that, yes, God has declared Jesus the chosen, but he also said listen to him. Don't just physically perceive Jesus. Don't just acknowledge that Jesus is speaking by nodding your head. Like asking your kid to clean up his room, Jesus is telling you through his identity who you are, and what you are called to do. And what you are called to do is listen to the sound of Jesus' feet and follow. And Jesus always goes down the mountain.

Jesus goes down the mountain to the boy who has a demon, and he casts out the demon and heals the boy. Jesus goes down the mountain and sends his apostles out in mission to the world. Jesus goes down the mountain and teaches with parables and talks to Martha and Mary. Jesus goes down the mountain to heal the cripled, the blind, to be with the beggar, the tax collector, the prostitute, and to raise the dead. Are you getting what I'm saying here? Jesus goes down the mountain. Listen to him! And not just with your ears.

Next week we will gather to receive the sign of ashes on our foreheads. We'll come together and be told that we are dust, that we are mortal, and sinful, and in great, great need of help. Next week we will begin our journey to the cross with Christ, as he comes down the mountain and travels toward Jerusalem. And that's exactly where you should want him to be. Because you're not up on the mountain. Most of the time, you're not on top of the world. You're not overwhelmed by your vast resources and constantly happy home life and lack of concern about health or school or whatever. We know that family members get sick, and jobs are lost, and economies change, and our lives aren't lived on mountain tops. Our lives are lived in the valley, where we're scared; where sometimes we're so weighed down with loneliness that it's hard to move forward. We're in the valleys of sin and pain and struggle and bad marriages and divorced parents and bad grades and broken friendships. We live in the valley, and that's exactly where we need Jesus to come.

Salvation doesn't come when you're on the mountain, does it? Because that's not where you need it, that's not where we live most of the time. Salvation comes at the foot of the cross. It comes where Christ laid down his life in a very dark and scary moment, because without Christ's willingness to be in the valleys of life and death, there would be no mountain tops. There would be no resurrection.

Listen to him. Listen to him, and respond to him by being willing to go into the valleys, and living in all the messy, difficult, ugly crap of life, with your own mess, with your neighbor's mess, and with a stranger's mess. Because Jesus is in the mess, and is calling you to the mess to show love and care and healing and comfort to the world. Jesus may have met Elijah on the mountain, but he meets you in the mess. This is the Son of God. Listen to him.

In the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, who cleans up our messes and walks with us through dark valleys, amen.