Engage

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

February 26, 2017

The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

          The church camp in the Diocese of Arkansas sits up a mountain on the edge of a cliff.  When I was in high school and college, that camp was the site of many mountain top experiences.  Deep friendships were formed there that lasted decades into my adulthood.  We all experienced God through those friendships, worship, the beautiful view, and music.  At Camp Mitchell, I learned what a powerful form of prayer song can be, which is perhaps the most enduring lesson of my time there.  While we were at camp, whether for a weekend, a week, or a summer, our time on the mountain was an escape from the realities at home-the realities of school, chores, and work-and we basked in the glory of our time on the mountain.  Given a choice, we would have stayed on the mountain forever.  But absent a choice, we trudged back down the mountain to get on with our lives.  I’d love to say that we all went home better human beings, and I’d like to think that we were at least marginally so.  But I do think we went home with a bit more confidence in ourselves and in God as we re-entered reality.

          Our gospel lesson this morning begins “Six days later.” Six days ago, Jesus asked the disciples “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter answered “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus is thrilled with Peter’s answer and gives him the keys to the kingdom of Heaven.  But then Jesus begins to teach the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day, be raised.  Peter, who has just proclaimed Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, objects. Peter says “God forbid it, Lord.  This must never happen to you.”  Jesus’ response to Peter is “Get behind me Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me.  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”  This to the person who has just been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven!

          Six days later, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain by themselves.  The three disciples must have been hoping for an escape from any notion of suffering and death, and certainly from having been called Satan.  On the mountain, Jesus is transfigured in both their presence and the presence of Moses and Elijah.  This is definitely more like what Peter had in mind.  In Peter’s excitement, he offers to build three booths, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus, so they can all stay on that mountain and live in that glory forever. 

          Peter gets to bask in the escape of mountain top glory for about a nano-second before God intervenes.  We hear God’s voice say “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  We heard the same voice say the same thing at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  The difference is that this time God has added the command “Listen to him.” What Jesus says to his three disciples, who are face down on the ground, shaking with fear, is this: “Get up, and do not be afraid.”

          Fear is what led Peter to protest Jesus’ teaching that Jesus must suffer, die, and after 3 days be raised from the dead.  Fear is what led Peter to make his offer to construct three dwellings, so that the horrible things Jesus’ predicted could never come true.  Fear was the disciples’ response to the voice from heaven.  God tells the disciples that they are to listen to Jesus, and Jesus has told the disciples to put away their fear and head down the mountain towards Jerusalem.

          This morning, we baptize Emma Angeloni, and in the words of the church, she will be claimed as a child of God, with whom God is well pleased, just as Jesus was claimed at his baptism and again at his transfiguration.  A baptism is a mountain top experience in its own way-for us as we welcome this child into the household of God and promise to do all in our power to support her in her new life in Christ, for Emma as she is marked as one of Christ’s own forever, for her parents, godparents, and all who loved her as they present her to be cleansed from sin and born again.  But just as the transfiguration was not escape but sent Jesus and the disciples down the mountain to head toward Jerusalem, baptism is not an escape either.  Baptism is new way of engagement that sends us down the mountain to follow Jesus where Jesus goes and to engage the world as Jesus engages it, not fearful of what is to come, but faithful.  The promises of the baptismal covenant remind us over and over again how we are to engage the world as baptized people, nourished by the breaking of bread and prayers, so that we can resist evil, respect the dignity of every human being, seek and serve Christ in all people, and work for justice and peace.  The prayer over the baptismal water reminds us that in baptism we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection so there is nothing to fear.

          At the end of our worship this morning, we will bury the alleluias with joyful song as we create our own little mountain top experience.  Because for me, great hymns are a deep experience of God, I could certainly stay on this mountain forever and sing great hymns.  We will come down off the mountain with Jesus that ends the season of epiphany light and joy, and enter the wilderness of Lent.  Our Lenten journey will take us, with Jesus, through the wilderness and on the road to Jerusalem where Jesus will suffer, be rejected and killed and on the third day be raised, just as he said he would.  If we stay on the mountain where it is safe and comfortable, we will have escaped the wilderness, but Jesus won't be there.  Jesus will be on the road to Jerusalem, stopping along the way to teach and heal and pray.  So, we will journey with Jesus, and our worship over the next weeks will reflect that journey.   And we will travel trusting in the one who said “Get up and do not be afraid.”

                                                                   Amen.