Pre-candidating sermon preached 26 Feb 2006 by the Reverend Lille Mae Henley
Once, a young woman asked me where she could find God when she wasn’t in church? She said I’ve looked for God in books, I study all the time—the Bible, too. I’ve looked for God in my backyard, and, sometimes, sometimes, I think, I feel a Presence. But, not often, she said, not often enough.
She is searching for God, and she knows when she’s found what she’s looking for, although it is “not often enough.”
Is she any different than Jesus?
We find Jesus going up to a high mountain.
He went to the desert looking.
Later in his story, he goes to Gethsemane.
He often sought solitary refuge.
He, too, was looking for God.
Why do we have to look for God?
We look for God, because, life is hard.
Larry McMurtry, co-author of the screenplay Brokeback Mountain, said last weekend in an interview, and I quote liberally, “Life is hard, whether we have someone in our lives or not, life is hard.” McMurtry is one of the most successful western writers of our time, and yet, after he had heart surgery a few years ago, he couldn’t go home. He just couldn’t go home. He asked his friend Annie, who co-wrote Brokeback Mountain, if he could come stay with her awhile, and she said, “Yes,” and he did, and stayed for two years.
No matter how much money we have, or we don’t have.
No matter how much power we have, or we don’t have,
No matter how much or how little love we have, life is hard.
I think of Job. Now, there was a rich man—a wife, seven sons, three daughters, thousands of camels and sheep, hundreds of oxen and donkeys, and very many servants. Yet, despite his wealth, he probably struggled every day, just like you and me, and that was before God gave Satan permission to challenge Job. After that his life really got hard!
We see Jesus, soon to be Christ going to the high mountain. He brought with him Peter, James, and John. They were there to bear witness.
The story does not give us a time frame, but I would suggest, that Jesus was in prayer and contemplation for some time before he was transfigured. Mystical experiences are not turned on like light bulbs, and Jesus’ transfiguration probably didn’t happen with a [snap of the fingers].
But soon after Jesus’ transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared. Jesus stood talking with them. In the story, they represent the Old Law, and we know the Scriptures depict them as being taken into heaven without having to die. Jesus, on the other hand, was destined, not only to die for his beliefs, but also to suffer tremendously for those beliefs.
Jesus had to go to the high mountain, he had to find God; he had to make sure. And sure enough, God spoke from a cloud and affirmed his path.
Peter, James, and John were there to bear witness.
Peter was frightened. In fear, he said that they should build shelters for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus.
Well, Moses and Elijah were just visiting; they certainly weren’t going to trade their celestial residence for a tent on the mountain. And Jesus, no matter how much he might have wanted to stay in the presence of God, had to return to his world and his story.
Peter wasn’t there to build shelters; he was there to bear witness.
Once, when I was a chaplain in a hospital, I had the opportunity to minister with an elderly Illinois farmer who grew up a Dunker Baptist. He said he hadn’t gone to church in years, because he didn’t like the “new preacher.” I said, how long has the new preacher been there? He said, “Twenty years.”
Silently I told myself, one would think the preacher wasn’t “new” anymore.
Anyway, this ol’ farmer was a heart patient recovering from a bypass. He asked me, if I’d visit with him, he said, “I need to get back to God, I need to get back to church.”
“I grew up a Baptist, and now I’m a Universalist, and while we might not hold the same beliefs, I’m sure we can pray together,” I responded.
He said, “It doesn’t matter what our beliefs, so much, it matters that you help me find God, again.”
We began to talk, and pray, and pray some more. At first, I believed we were together for him. But as we prayed, sitting, holding hands, and opening ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, I began to understand, that I needed to find God again. I was so busy doing the hard work of chaplaincy I had forgotten my purpose. I don’t know how it happened, I guess I left God back at the Seminary, back with my books, and the classes.
Something wondrous happened that day. There was the spiritual recognition by both of us that a Spirit of Holiness, of wholeness, was working in our lives at that moment. Both of us found what we needed.
He said, “I’ll be back in church with my wife this Sunday.”
What I found was a deep, loving connection to God that provided a source of strength. I experienced a feeling of ecstasy, of being touched by the Holy. I’m sure many of us, as Christians and a religious people, have at sometime in our lives experienced that kind of ecstasy. It is when we most need God that we have an epiphany of Spirit.
Why do we look for God?
We look for God, because, life is hard.
Life isn’t, however, made up of only the ecstatic experiences. Life is made up of the everyday knowing of God. We find God in all the moments of our lives, even the busy ones. Hopefully, it is seldom and it rare when we feel that we must go to the high mountain. However, as disciples of Jesus, we are always welcome on the high mountain. And the more we go there, the closer we are to God.
Oh, some of us may be stubborn and refuse to admit that we need contemplation and prayer in our lives. We may say, “I don’t need a mystical experience—I don’t need my own epiphany.”
But in saying that, we are ignoring Jesus’ example.
He told us to go into the closet and pray. There is no difference between the high mountain and the closet.
We know this is what Jesus and God wanted for us. There were three there to bear witness.
Why do you suppose Jesus said on the way down from the mountain, don’t tell anyone until the Son of Man has risen?
Peter, James, and John needed time to come to an understanding about their experience. Seeking God’s presence on the high mountain takes time and discernment.
Life is hard, and then sometimes, like in Job’s life, it gets harder.
Tragedy comes, a death, a struggle with cancer, a divorce—there are many life experiences that call for a trip to the high mountain. And Job rebelled. He hollered at God, defied God, and said he was doing the best he could, why did God let all these things happen? I can see Job now, in the character of the Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump. Now don’t tell me you don’t have that video. Until Harry Potter is was one of the most purchased video in movie history.
In the movie a hurricane came through Louisiana, and Forrest and Captain Dan, rode out the devastating storm in Forrest’s shrimping boat? Captain Dan, legless, climbed up the flagpole and railed at God for changing his destiny. Like Job, it was this railing, this reaching out to God, this connection that brought God and peace into their lives.
What happened to the young woman who was looking for God? She came to understand, not only was God with her in the every day, but that her time in the backyard praying was a high mountain experience.
Do we follow Jesus’ example?
Do we seek a time of prayer and contemplation when the every day becomes too much?
Do we bear witness to our own epiphany?
As Christians and a religious people, we have a calling, in the every day and on the high mountain.
Blessed be and amen.
The Reading
After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He did know what to say, they were so frightened.
Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer say anyone with them except Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.