Have you ever noticed how God seems to be at work, changing lives and transforming people over there, somewhere else, somewhere where we are not?
Even for those of us who have been going to church faithfully all our lives, we can appreciate on the one hand how God is active in the world, but on the other, we may wonder and yearn for that lightning bolt, crystal clear moment where God seems to be present.
Transfiguration Sunday, often the Sunday the week before Lent, we read of such an encounter where God is somewhere else, other than where the real needs of people’s everyday lives are. Luke 9: 28-36 describes how Jesus takes three, just three of the disciples up to the mountain top to pray. While they are on the mountain, God’s presence is known, and Jesus is transfigured before their eyes. It is an awe-inspiring moment, one that the three disciples cherish, so much so, that they want to erect a couple of tents and bask in this sense of glory longer.
But what about the other nine disciples? The ones who do not get a mountain top experience, what about them? They are at the bottom of the mountain carrying on their daily work as best they can. There is no mountain top experience where they can bask in God’s glory and consider erecting tents and relaxing. The more I think about this passage, the more I realize that we are more like the other nine, the ones at the bottom of the mountain rather than the chosen ones at the top. Mountain top experiences are great. But they do not happen all the time, and not everyone gets such an experience.
Jesus reminds the three on the mountain that they need to go back down. They need to go down the mountain, join the others and continue their daily work. This passage teaches us that God does not only speak to us on mountain tops, rather God comes to us and transforms us in the ordinary of every day.
