‘The message of the Gospel is clear.
The disciples had to get back to work
and so do we.’
O God be in my mouth as I speak for you and fill this place with your great grace that we may leave this place less of what we use to be and more of what we ought to be, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
And Peter said to Jesus, “Master
it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you, and one for
Moses and one for Elijah.”
I have never been to visit
Graceland. There have been times in my life though when I have come close to
seeing the home of the King.
My college roommate was a huge
Elvis fan. Occasionally over a beer or two, we would joke about making a
pilgrimage to Memphis and to Sun Studios where Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny, and
Carl recorded.
Since those days, the closest I
have come to Graceland is being in a rector’s search for a church in Memphis
several years ago.
When I mentioned Graceland, I
remember the chair of the search committee told me that people who lived in
Memphis were not as excited about Elvis as people that came to visit.
(Perhaps this explains why I am
at a church in Atlanta and not one there. Or at the least rector candidates
need to know when to keep their mouths shout.)
Part of my fascination with
Elvis can probably be blamed on my mother.
He came to Macon to give a
concert in the mid-seventies. I was about ten.
I couldn’t understand why Mom so excited about seeing some guy that wore
such ugly jump suits.
I also noticed that my father
did not seem thrilled about having to take Mom to the show.
After Elvis’ death, I continued
to listen to his music and, like some of you, followed the various
controversies; was he still alive and working at burger king? and probably the
most important one, should the Elvis postage stamp have a picture of the 50’s
or the 70’s Elvis on it?
There was also something
reassuring about the AMC movie tributes that show up each August during Elvis
week just about the time the kids are going back to school.
There is no denying that since
his death his status as a secular saint has continued to grow in our pop
culture. Believe it or not, Elvis made 45 million dollars last year.
I have also heard news stories
about people who ask for Elvis’ intervention to find a parking spot at the
Mall. And I am sure most of you have seen the story on the Travel Channel where
an Elvis minister will do a wedding for you in Las Vegas. Blue Suede Shoes are
optional.
That his home has become a
center for devotion is not surprising.
There is a part of us that
always longs to be close to those we idolize. To know that we too, have walked
paths they once traveled.
This fact was reinforced for me
last summer when Cynthia and I traveled to Turkey and saw another important
home. The house that is near Ephesus where the Virgin Mary was supposed to have
lived in during her final years.
It was a simple two-room house
with an altar, candles, and icons. A lone monk lurked in the corner to stop
pictures from being taken. There was also a spring outside where hundreds of
pilgrims stopped to fill up their water bottles.
Much like Graceland, people who
visit want to hold onto that moment when they feel they are on holy ground
whether they have bought a statue, or just filled up their own bottle of water.
We see that same human desire
manifested in our Gospel lesson today.
Jesus takes is closest friends,
Peter, James and John, up a mountain.
Before their eyes, the scripture
tells us he is transfigured. His garments take on a brilliant white hue and his
disciples have a vision of Jesus talking to Moses the great lawgiver and Elijah
the prophet.
A cloud then overshadows the
disciples and they hear a voice from heaven, say “this is my beloved Son,
listen to him.”
How do the disciples respond to
this incredible event? Well at first, it appears that they are stunned. It even
says they were terrified.
It is Peter who steps forward
and takes the initiative. It is Peter who tries to find some way to hold onto
that sacred moment. He wants to fill up his own bottle of holy water.
“It is good for us to be here,
he says. Let us make three booths one for you, one for Moses and one for
Elijah.”
And just as quickly as the
vision is given to them, it is gone. The disciples and Jesus find themselves
standing alone on the mountain with no cloud, no prophets, and no heavenly
voice.
They leave the mountain and our
Lord tells them to tell no one about what they have seen until the Son of Man
has risen from the dead.
Now as I said earlier, Peter
wants to find some way to hold onto to what has happened. He may not understand
it entirely, but in his enthusiasm; he wants to build three booths. In modern
terms, he wants to open up the first souvenir shop on Transfiguration Mountain.
And while Jesus knows they
cannot stay. It is important to recognize that he does not condemn Peter for
his desire to capture this moment.
Jesus knows that all human
beings have this innate desire to preserve their encounters with the divine
whether they are visiting Graceland or the home of his mother.
At the same time, Jesus makes it
clear to his closet friends that it is time to leave and continue their work.
As wonderful as this event
appears to be, Jesus knows he must set his face toward Jerusalem and his
eventual death on the cross.
Looking at the story
superficially it can be tempting to say that we misunderstood Christ’s message.
Christians through the centuries
have had no hesitation about building plenty of booths and churches in the past
2,000 years to provide a focal point for our encounters with the divine.
Did we get the message of the
story wrong?
No, I don’t think Jesus was
against building booths, or churches.
He was someone who grew up in the shadow of the Jewish temple in
Jerusalem. And it was a focal point of his life and his death.
Jesus recognized that God’s
people need a place to worship their creator and to come for solace in times of
pain and to be reconciled to the Lord.
So how do we grapple with this
story in the life of the church today?
If we are willing to probe a bit
deeper, I think this story can help us make some observations about the
Christian life.
First we will in our earthly
lives be given glimpses of eternity.
Maybe it will come during
worship at St. Martin’s (most preachers hope it comes during the sermon), or
maybe though it will come when we have the courage to reach out to people that
in need to those that are suffering.
The point is that none of us
ever really knows when this will occur and when it happens we too, like Peter,
James and John, will want to stay on the mountain and live in the presence of
the Lord forever.
However this is not what God
intends for those moments to be and this relates to my second point.
Created human life doesn’t let
us enjoy that kind of constant mystical experience.
While I may have told my Sunday
school teacher that I wanted to ask Moses some questions, if I am honest with
myself, there are times in life, I want to take a break from holiness and
discuss the Braves pitching rotation.
Again, I don’t think our Lord
condemns us for this, he recognizes that in our limitations our finite minds
are not yet ready to live in the New Jerusalem.
In fact if you read further in
Mark’s gospel, the disciples came off the mountain and instantly find
themselves struggling to heal a boy that was possessed by a demon.
The message of the Gospel is
clear. The disciples had to get back to work and so do we. We have to get back
to healing, back to preaching, back to the ministry that Jesus had entrusted to
our care.
Although we live with an eye
toward the life to come, our focus, as a church is not on streets paved with
gold but on the here and now, that we have been called to redeem.
I suspect that what really
brings a smile to God’s face is not the number of Gracelands, booths or
churches, we construct but our willingness to preach the good news of Christ to
those that suffer, to those that are captives, to those blind folks that long,
long for a vision of the Lord.
And none of us can do this, if
we don’t walk out those back doors this morning and get back to the work that
Jesus has called us to do.
Of course, I don’t want you to
depart thinking that our Lord asks that we give up our dreams about going to
Graceland.
I just believe that Jesus wants
us to remember that our booths on this earth can never replace the cross that
he has called us to follow.
And that those booths are only a
mere shadow of the peace and the joy that awaits all of us one day on a distant
shore, when our work will be done and our true lives will begin.