2 kings 2:1-12
Mark 9:2-9
We just heard two mountain top experiences in our readings. In Christian tradition, we talk about mountaintop experiences being emotional high points and I think that we typically associate those with feelings of joy or happiness. I think some of that is true, at least in my own experience some of that is true.
Traditionally I believe we think of mountain top experiences as joyous moments – like that scene in the sound of music where Maria is spinning around singing “the hills are alive…”
Right?
Blue skies, no clouds, just light and joy and song that sticks with us forever.
I don’t know that I’d say that these two scriptures are ones you might traditionally associate with joy. But I think that these 2 stories from scripture are mountain top experiences. Not because they both take place on mountains – but because they are catalyst moments for those involved in them.
Just so we have the scene in front of us – the Prophet Elijah -is known for confronting kings and priests over worship of the pagan deity BAAL. He is the prophet of the Lord God that anoints kings and faces down false priests. He has founded the group of prophets named the sons of the prophet and has anointed Elisha as his successor. He is, as we might say, a big deal to the people of Israel.
Which brings us to our reading today. Elisha and the sons of the prophets know that Elijah is leaving and soon. When he leaves, they fear that everything is going to change. Which, I think, is only human. Change is scary.
So when Elijah tells Elisha to stay, because the Lord has only sent me as far as Bethel, Elisha responds “No. As the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you” and then the sons of the prophet come out and say to Elisha, Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from you?”
The NRSV says “yes, I know; keep silent” It’s not just be silent which in the English comes off as a command, but in the Hebrew it is an incomplete action – I know. I have known, I am knowing; hush. I think the implication is that Elisha is a bit more subdued than “I know; Be silent” I think it’s more “I know this thing which I am scared of is going to happen and I can’t change it, but hush.” And this same sequence happens again in Jericho. And Elisha’s response to the company of prophets is the same.
I really think that Elisha is showing us all his insecurities and his fears here. I know there is a change coming. I don’t know that I’m ready for it, but it’s going to happen. (Help me) Be still.
And then Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind right before Elisha – He watches his friend and mentor leave in a moment full of sound and fire and wind and he watches and watches and when he can see him no more; he mourns.
In the gospel reading today, Jesus takes his disciples Peter, James, and John up to a mountain away from all the other disciples. There we are told that Jesus was transfigured – that his clothing became whiter than it could have been bleached, and that Jesus is standing there talking with Moses, and Elijah. So imagine that you are the disciples: you are out for a hike with your friend and you are at the top of a mountain and you just sat down to a take a rest and rub your feet when you look over and there is Jesus – his clothing white and clean, cleaner than you can possibly imagine and not only that He is talking with Moses. The MOSES. And Elijah the prophet that God pulled up into heaven in front of Elisha!
What is even going on here? Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the promised messiah and now here on the mountain Jesus is talking with the Prophets Moses and Elijah like this is just a typical Sunday afternoon stroll? Peter then opens his mouth and says “ this. This is good. We should build you some houses. Here in the dazzling shade. We should build houses. One for each of you.
The text tells us they were terrified, and that might be an understatement. Peter and the disciples are good and faithful, but this, this is straight out of the scriptures. This is something that happens to people like Abraham or Isaac. But Jesus? Right there in front of Peter’s eyes is his friend, with his clothes a dazzling white, just talking with Moses and Elijah. Peter tries to make some sense of what is happening before him. One minute he’s on a hike with his friends and the next he is in a full-blown encounter with the divine presence right out of the scriptures.
It’s overwhelming to say the least.
It’s one thing to say, “Lord, you are the messiah” and quite another to experience the full implications of what that means. Because as soon as those words leave Peter’s mouth, a cloud overshadowed them and they heard a voice saying “This is my Son, the Beloved! Listen to him!” And when they look around, it’s just them and Jesus on top of the mountain. Jesus tells them to keep this experience to themselves and they head back to meet the other disciples.
In both cases, I think that it’s safe to say that Elisha and the disciples might have had a bit of a hard time dealing with what they had just encountered. Mountaintop experiences can be deeply emotional. Even when we see it coming, those life-changing experiences can be shocking and take some time for us to process. But we can look back at them and point to a particular moment and see where we changed our minds or how those mountaintop experiences have been catalysts in changing from who we were in to the people we would become.
I think that it’s fair to say that big events cause change in us and in our lives. Any number of things can be significant in our lives – getting a driver’s license, our first serious significant other, our first serious break up, the birth of a child, loss of a parent. A new house, a new job, even a new pastor.
All of these events and more change us and shape us. But the event is just the catalyst for change. It gives us some reason to see who we are, or to commit to who we want to be.
While both Elisha and Peter see God act in their situations, I would argue that for both Peter and Elisha, the experience alone does not dictate who they were or who they will be. In Elisha’s case, it feel like the author of the scripture is working hard to assure the reader that God’s blessing will continue through Elisha, to the point of Elisha asking for a double portion of the blessing. The best that Elijah can offer is, keep your eyes on me and witness the Lord and maybe. I believe that Elisha had to live into the promise that God would continue to bless the people of Israel. Double portion of the blessing or not, this is another moment in Elisha’s transformation into who he would become.
Jesus’s transfiguration before the disciples revealed and confirmed him as the Son of God and as the promised messiah. Moses and Elijah’s presence at the transfiguration serve to confirm that Jesus’s mission, identity, and destiny are in the same pattern as the Moses and Elijah stories, confirming that God keeps God’s promises.
But where does that leave us?
We all have had mountaintop experiences. But we don’t live on the mountaintop. We live in the places in between those experiences. Our in between days as it were. I argue that it is in those in between days that transformation happens. Of course, we all want to travel to the mountaintop – it’s exciting and powerful and a catalyst moment in our lives. Those moments can change the course of who we become. But I believe that how we react as we leave those moments behind and how those moments shape us says more about who we are and who we choose to be than the particular mountaintop experience that we had.
We can again look to both Peter and Elisha for some direction. It is the choices they made in the aftermath of those experiences that led them to be the people that are recorded in the scriptures.
2 kings 2:13-14 reads
“He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.”
After his mountaintop experience, Mark doesn’t tell us explicitly what Peter did, but I think that we can gather some clues as to how Peter chose to move forward from what we are told, even though Peter denies Jesus at the crucifixion, in Mark 16 after the resurrection when the women come to the tomb and meet the young man – he says to them – “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
“Go, tell his disciples and Peter….”
Even with the twists and turns in his journey following his experience of the transfiguration, Peter was transformed – and called out by name.
Those words speak to the fact that God has promised that God will remain faithful. Peter, to whom Jesus said I will build my church on you, Peter who denied knowing Jesus 3 times after the crucifixion
Peter shows us the truth of God’s promises and that the promise is for each of us. That promise that God gave to Elisha and Peter – is also a challenge.
I believe that our challenge is that as the community of Manassas Presbyterian Church – we experienced a catalyst moment in Skip’s retirement.
As individuals we face catalyst moments all the time – and in both cases, the questions we must answer to navigate the experiences are the same
Who are we, who do we want to be, and what do we believe?
As a community of faith and as individuals in that community we must face the challenge of understanding that being Elisha and Peter’s heirs means more than just performing a miracle or two. It means speaking the words that God has called us to speak, and in order to do that we need to know who we are as God’s called people. We need to enter into relationship with those in and outside the church and into the realities of life for all of God’s creation.
Who are we?
Who do we want to be?
What do we believe?
How we respond to those questions and to how we respond to God’s call to be a faithful people is our challenge.
Matthew Messenger 