SERMON: View from the Top

 10:30 am, Sun, March 5, 2023 - J G White / FBCA

(Psalm 121; Gen 12:1-4a; Rom 4:1-5, 13-17; Mtt 17:1-9)

Have you been too any hilltops lately? And seen a good view? ‘Why do they always put the best views up a big hill?!’ Sharon and I have been travelling the Cobequid Pass much more often over the past eight months. I never tire of the views. Yesterday I noticed again an amazing sight. Just this side of the toll booth, around Westchester Mountain, I think, you can see far, far in the distance. Some days, like yesterday, when the atmosphere is clear, you can see Confederation Bridge, out in the Northumberland Straight – some seventy kilometers away!

Here we are now, in Christian worship, which is always looking back, back, back in time, and forward, far forward into eternity. In the scriptures here, we glimpse Father Abraham, perhaps four thousand years ago, and early Christians looking way back to him. We view a common thread of faith, all the way back to Abraham and Sara.

We also spent a moment with Jesus, now making a turn towards Jerusalem, and His destiny. The transfiguration scene. A ‘hinge of holy history,’ as my NT professor Dr. Alison Trites calls it. This incredible moment in Jesus’ life is witnessed by just a couple of His closest disciples. It is a high point which gives a view of the past: Moses and Elijah meet with Christ. It is a view of their present, in the midst of the travels of Jesus and His followers. & the transfiguration is a view of the future: the Son of God glorified & setting free humanity and all creation.

Mountains and hilltops figure prominently in the biblical record. In the ancient human worldview, these are special places where it is more likely that the things of the earth and the things of the heavens meet. This seems quite natural. There is a view, there is clarity, there often is solitude, upon a mountain.

This story from Jesus’ life is about getting the big picture, a view from the mountaintop. The vision of Jesus Himself is quite astounding to Peter and John. In that holy moment they get to view the essence of the One they’ve been following.

My dear, old friend, Brian, down in Parrsboro has been a paraglider for thirty years. He is a very relaxed, easy-going fellow. Up the hills around Parrsboro he would trudge, his paraglider wing bundled up on his back. Upon the blueberry covered hills, he would wait and watch and measure the wind, for that moment when it was just right to take off and fly.

But his partner, she would joke and say he is up on a hill, alone, working out his problems.

We might get in touch with our inner selves, and the problems of our world, when we go to a quiet place that seems special, beautiful, holy. We get to the essence of what’s going on. We see clearly, and the most important things come to the surface. Maybe, we get a bright glimpse of holiness!

The mountaintop experience is not just about the past or future; it is the present. “This moment or this place is as perfect as it can be” could be a motto. Richard Rohr suggests our temptation is to always look to the next moment to be more perfect, the next place, and then the next moment or place. But the spiritual practice of pilgrimage shows us otherwise. When I think back upon the twenty-two days I travelled on foot to be here, last June, I do remember arriving here and crossing the threshold of the building. But my memoires of each and every day before are just as strong and pure. I was given purpose in the present, in each day, before I was here.

Our Matisse devotional material this week talks of strong colours, bold paintings, getting in touch with our emotions. We have special moments when we face the darkness we find within, and also the beautiful light within us. We ‘get real.’

To hear and see and know what is truly within someone: this is so important. It is a matter of using the good listening skills some of us were taught in clinical pastoral education and the like. It is like the teaching of the late Marshall Rosenberg and his ‘Nonviolent Communication,’ so called. We pay attention to our feelings, and our needs, and how to express them. And we look for the feelings and the needs of those we meet. Once in a while, there is ‘a mountaintop experience,’ when something special is shared, from deep within. What a privilege these moments are.

Of course, like the scene of Jesus’ transfiguration, bright glimpses into someone’s life can be confusing to others, at first. Those intimate moments can be short lived. And they usually can be kept quiet, only told later, at the right moment. Even to know ourselves takes some steps. To step away and see ourselves. The Spirit, and other people, can help us.

My friend Jonathan happened to post this poem, yesterday:

 

TO SEE IT                Laura Foley

 

We need to separate to see

the life we’ve made.

We need to leave our house

where someone waits for us, patiently,

warm beneath the sheets.

We need to don a sweater, a coat, mittens,

wrap a scarf around our neck,

stride down the road,

a cold winter morning,

and turn our head back,

to see it—perched

on the top of hill, our life

lit from inside.

 

The Matisse devotional book for Lent suggests that this week’s colours be blue and white: the sea outside a window, the sky on a mountaintop, the light on a blue jay’s wing. Where are the blues in your life these days? Where do you find them the most beautiful and transfiguring? Where do you feel “the blues” of sorrow, or the “dazzling white” of transfiguration?

Today, the view from Jesus’ mount of transfiguration looks ahead to His death, and His rebirth to follow. Seek out the Master, to guide you and give you eyes to see. Do your best to get a good, broad look at your life: past, present, and future. And, in your deep awareness, learn from Christ to see other people well, so very well, in the moment, in the present.

All because we grow in faith, in the presence of the God in whom [Abraham] believed, [God] who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

                 SILENCE

 

PRAYERS of the People

Spirit of life and truth, there is searching to be done. We have sought You, in the name of God, in the face of Jesus of Nazareth – and found some true glimpses of glory!

Holy One, we pray together now, searching for that unity that Jesus prayed for in His disciples. We are searching for shared goals and vision when it comes to an Assistant Minister here: bless our communicating and our praying. We are searching for all sorts of good plans to make official at our Annual meeting: may it be so.

Searcher of our hearts, our prayers are for one another here, and those who are absent. Heavy on our hearts are some with real troubles. Deep in our hearts are hopes and dreams for others. Lifting up our hearts are the joyous moments we see in the lives of other folk. Let there be power, let there be peace.

God, all of us are searching. On this week of International Women’s Day, we give thanks for the women of our day, and of past centuries, who have shone with grace and justice, compassion and wisdom. Show us the path of forgiveness and repentance, for gender equity is still a problem, and violence goes on at home and abroad. Today, as the World Day of Prayer service takes place, we give thanks for Christian women of Taiwan who prepared this for us this year, and may they be blessed in all their ministry.

O Singer of the song of creation, as we lift our voices in the next hymn, the beauty of the world will fill our minds. Yet we call out for help to be better creatures in this world, and better at caring for it, in the midst of all our powers. How great You are: give us a greater view of creation, from Your eyes. All this in Christ we pray. AMEN.