Genesis 17.1-7, 15-16; Mark 9.2-9

Pipes … thousands of pipes run beneath our feet … beneath our cities and towns, across the deserts and through the mountains … underground, unseen, beneath our feet.

On the wall in front of me, a giant map - red lines, blue lines, orange lines … converging on Tulsa, OK - a map of the underground pipes and pumps moving tons of product across the nation - from gas and oil wells to the refineries, to the tank farms, to the tank trucks and the local gas station … and to the ships in Houston, taking gas and oil across the seas.

Underground, invisible, unknown … day in and day out, year after year …  underground pipelines … 

And the glory of God, underpinning our lives … 

The glory of God: large enough to hold the universe, 

small enough for Mary’s Womb, 

small enough to snuggle in her arms, 

wrapped in swaddling clothes … 

small enough to find a room in our heart. 

The glory of God:

All around us:

the birds of morning, the crickets at night … 

our laughter, our tears … 

the noise of the day, the quiet of the night … 

when hell appears, when heaven dawns …

When I’m listening to one of my favorite authors, Jacqueline Winspear and her Maisie Dobbs detective stories … she’s a gifted writer, and ever so often, a moment: Oh my Gosh, a splash of insight, a shooting star, a get-my-attention split-second - the glory of God.

It happens all the time … in a million different ways … God shows up, but always in a way suitable to us, mostly quiet and gentle … Isaiah the Prophet says it so beautifully:

God … will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed [God] will not break, and a dimly burning wick [God] will not quench.

Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian minister and novelist, says this about angels: 

An angel spreads its glittering wings over us, and we say things like  "It was one of those days that made you feel good just to be alive,"  or  "I had a hunch everything was going to turn out all right,"  or  "I don't know where I ever found the courage." 

The glory of God … in special places … thin places … where we can more easily encounter the sacred … 

The Church, and it’s Bible … a text, a book, a page and its words.

hymns and prayers, sermons and liturgy.

Baptism and the LORD’s Supper.

stained glass windows, well-worn pews … the sounds of a great organ.

the Holy Spirit blowing where it will!

Who knows where and when the glory of God reveals itself to us … but it will come our way … God is a God of great love … not to overpower us, but to walk beside us … 

The glory of God … beneath us, around us, deep within us … at work - 24/7 365 … 

Someone might ask, How can you talk about the glory of God when all hell is breaking lose, humankind has lost its way …suffering and sorrow at every turn - greed and malice everywhere?

Yes, caution is needed!

Life is no fairy tale …

And neither is the gospel … 

Jesus rightly says to us: take up your cross … faith demands a great deal of us, love requires everything … this is our calling … this is the Word of God that comes to each one of us, here and now, in this place, this moment of time … 

The story of Abram and Sarai begins where there is no hope … they’re old … too old to have a family.

That train left the station long ago, that door is closed …

But it’s never too late to be great …   

This is truth-story, not a true story.

Any more than Moby Dick or Lord of the Rings are true… 

These are truth stories, and it’s terribly important that we know the difference, lest we miss the point. 

We don’t argue about Bilbo Baggins, or the white whale, or whether or not God could reverse the aging process and give this old couple a child. 

This is not about weird miracles; some kind of a crazy “facts of life” for an old couple … but the facts of faith all of us.

It’s never too late to be great!

If one train has left the station, another one is coming … if one door is closed, there will be another door to open!

Centuries later … Jesus goes up to a high place with Peter, James, and John … Jesus is transfigured … his clothing shines … Elijah and Moses are there …  the disciples see the glory of God.

A cloud comes upon them … a voice is heard: This is my son, the beloved … listen to him.

Peter stammers and stutters … Let’s gather some branches, make a few huts, enjoy the mountain … 

In a moment, it’s all gone … the light, the glory, Moses and Elijah … what’s left is Jesus; the glory of God in tunic and sandals … down the mountain they go, to meet the world … 

At the foot of the mountain, sin and sorrow, sickness and poverty, want and hurt, craziness and meanness … it was a mountain-top experience, but life goes on at the foot of the mountain. 

The glory of God … the call to be great … the light of hope … Elijah and Moses … Jesus our LORD.

Our souls need a North Star … a point of reference to guide our footsteps … we need the glory!

If we don’t move toward the light, chances are, we’ll move in the opposite direction. 

God says to Abram and Sarai: I am God Almighty … and I make my covenant between me and you. 

On the Mt. of Transfiguration: this is my beloved son, listen to him!

Can you see the glory?

The glory of God - that all should live, and live in peace … that every child should be fed … the naked clothed, the lost be found, the gospel proclaimed … can you see the glory?

Consider the blue ceiling above the chancel … the color of the heavens … heaven and earth are not so far apart, after all … can you see the glory?

Above you … hundreds of crosses, no longer carried by the saints - their work is finished - the crosses they carried have been laid aside and exchanged for a crown … can you see the glory?

Mine eyes have the glory of the coming of the LORD …

I have seen him in the watchfires 

of a hundred circling camps,

He has sounded forth the trumpet 

that shall never call retreat;

In the beauty of the lilies 

Christ was born across the sea,

He is coming like the glory 

of the morning on the wave, 

he is wisdom to the mighty, 

he is honor to the brave;

Can you see the glory?

Hallelujah and Amen!

2.19.23 "Sneak Peak!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Exodus 24.12-18; Matthew 17.1-9 

Important things happen on high mountains … we call them “peak experiences” … 

There are plenty of such moments in the biblical story … 

Mt. Ararat, on which Noah’s ark grounded when the flood waters receded, and a new world emerged …

Mt. Sinai, on which God and Moses had several serious chats, in dark clouds, with lightening and thunder … down from the mountain came Moses with tablets of stone, upon which the hand of God had inscribed The Ten Commandments …

Mt. Nebo, where God took Moses at the end of his life … to see in the distance the Promised Land … as in all things, Moses could only go so far, and then, no further.

Mt. Carmel, on which Elijah the Prophet confronted the priests of Baal, like a shootout at the O.K. Corral … winner take all … the Priests of Baal shouted and danced, whipped themselves, cut themselves, nothing happened … then Elijah prayed … fire came down from heaven to consume the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, even the water with which Elijah had soaked everything, just to make a point, God’s fiery love is greater than all the sin and sorrow of the world.

The Mt. of Olives, down from which our LORD road into Jerusalem amid the cheers and hopes of a troubled people … palm branches and cloaks laid down on the road, with people singing their hearts out … 

Mt. Zion, on which the city of Jerusalem was founded, and Solomon built the temple … the fabled temple, destroyed and rebuilt … built even greater by King Herod … the very temple in which Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, and overturned the tables of merchandise and coinage.

Mt. Tabor, the mount of transfiguration … our LORD meets Elijah and Moses, the law and the prophets … forging forever the bond between the covenants, old and new … the law and its wisdom; the prophets and their power … and Christ … the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Who doesn’t like a mountain view of things … an easy hairpin drive up to Mt. Wilson gives us a panoramic view of Pasadena … air is bright, breezes cool … there, beneath our feet, the world in which we live.

I’ve never been to Everest, but I’ve read about it … those first climbers, losing their lives, and then the moment when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, in 1953, made the first documented climb to the summit.

I’ve been on Lookout Mountain in Georgia … Pikes Peak in Colorado … California’s High Sierras … the Rock of Gibraltar, to look across the Mediterranean to the coast of North Africa.

It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said to the world, on the evening of April 3, 1968:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

The next day, the assassin’s bullet found its mark, and killed Dr. King … 

At the center of our faith stands Jesus the Christ … the child of Bethlehem, the boy growing up with wisdom and strength … the young man baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River … driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, there to be tempted, challenged, badgered, by the Evil One … a moment to decide, to make sure, to choose the right from the wrong.

For three years, Jesus wandered the highways and byways of Galilee and Judea … he crossed the sea of Galilee and healed a broken man … he crossed the border into Samaria to give life to a lonely woman … he set his face for Jerusalem, the deep center, where Rome and its military might, and the Temple with its religious power, walked hand-in-hand to work out a deal for the day … 

A deal that was cruel and oppressive … 

The deal that sealed the deal when Jesus entered the Temple and overturned the tables … 

The powers that be decided that no more of this troubling man would be what the doctor ordered … 

They arrest him, beat him, parade him through the noisy streets of a bustling city, to let people know who’s in charge, who’s boss, who calls the shots, and sets the pace … he’s taken to a small outcropping of rock, the Place of the Skull, Golgatha, and there, with two others, he’s crucified, dead, and buried … as the Creed puts it, he descended into hell.

Jesus said to the disciples: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

The stakes are set as high as they can get …  

Jesus demands of his disciples everything … all they are, all they hope to be … everything …

Six days later, Jesus takes with him three disciples, Peter, James, John … each different, each in their own way, a representative of the other disciples … a representative of all of us … they went up the mountain, a high mountain, says Matthew … because important things happen on high mountains …

A voice on the mountain, This is my son, the Beloved … with him, I am well pleased … listen to him …

There are high mountains all around us … literally … anyone of them might be enough to inspire our lives and call us to greatness …  

A high mountain might well be a very good book that sends us into the twilight zone, the wilderness, the arms of God.

Maybe it’s music … or art … visit the Huntingdon or Norton Simon - you may well be caught up on a high mountain.

Our trek to church, here in person, or home by the TV … a mountain to climb, a mountain of faith, hope, and love, who knows? … something said, some random thought … a song, a prayer … suddenly we’re there, with Jesus, Elijah, Moses, the disciples.

Within each of us is a mountain, a high mountain … a place within the soul, a pathway within the mind, where the gap between heaven and earth grows thin … God comes down to meet us in the upward reach of our soul … 

A moment in time … just a moment is all it is … comes quickly, closes quickly … and what’s left? who’s left? but Jesus … the Lamb of God.

Come now, says Jesus, there is work to be done.

Amen and Amen!

April 28, 2013, "What Meets the Eye"

Genesis 50.14-26; Mark 9.2-8

When finally the brothers realize that the powerful ruler of Egypt is none other than the brother they sold into slavery years earlier … the brother they hated … the brother mourned by their father, Jacob … now their lives are held in his hand.

They’re scared out of their wits … and who wouldn’t be?

But Joseph remembers his faith … and when the truth comes out, Joseph says to his brothers, What you intended for evil, God intended for good.

When was Genesis written?

Written during the Exile … a terrible time, a time of dislocation and upheaval … Judah’s dreams dashed on the rocks of defeat … the Babylonians tore down the gates and demolished the Holy City … thousands of Judah’s citizens hauled off to Captivity.

The Genesis stories are an attempt to understand …

Why are we here?

What went wrong?

What do we do about it?

Can we learn anything from this?

To understand what Joseph says, it’s helpful to read Psalm 137 … please open your Bibles …

¹      By the rivers of Babylon—

      there we sat down and there we wept

      when we remembered Zion.

²      On the willows there

      we hung up our harps.

³      For there our captors

      asked us for songs,

      and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

      “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴      How could we sing the LORD’S song

      in a foreign land?

⁵      If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

      let my right hand wither!

⁶      Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,

      if I do not remember you,

      if I do not set Jerusalem

      above my highest joy.

⁷      Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites

      the day of Jerusalem’s fall,

      how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!

      Down to its foundations!”

⁸      O daughter Babylon, you devastator! 

      Happy shall they be who pay you back

      what you have done to us!

⁹      Happy shall they be who take your little ones

      and dash them against the rock!

The psalmist is consumed with hatred … 

The psalmist dreams of Babylon getting it … that some conqueror will come along and beat the snot out of Babylon.

Many years ago, when living in Pittsburg, we went to the zoo, and had a lovely time, and when we returned to our car, it had been broken into … all of my camera equipment stolen.

I remember laying awake at night planning revenge … thinking the darkest thoughts about “getting even,” “getting back” at the creep who had done this.

Ever been there?

Psalm 137 is full of darkness … “getting even,” hoping that Babylon will feel the pain that Judah feels … more than happy to see Babylon’s children brutally killed.

I’m always grateful for Psalm 137 - it’s about as honest as one can get about about vengeance … the dark stuff of our soul … hatred and bitterness.

Psalm 137 is one option for Judah … 

But the writers of Genesis realize what we all know to be true - live in the darkness, and the darkness only grows darker … give in to the feelings and thoughts of vengeance, bitterness, hatred - poisons in the soul … they eat us alive … and soon, and very soon, we lose our humanity, we lose our soul, we become our own darkness.

If you will, the writers of Genesis choose to live on the sunny side of the street … while telling the truth about how hard it is.

The Joseph stories make one thing very clear - life can be terribly hard, sometimes impossible … when hope disappears, life collapses …

The story of Joseph is the story of Judah … and a reminder: Don’t give up on God … 

Things may be terrible …

But God is at work in all things for good.

What others intend for evil.

God will use for good.

Not even God can stop the evil workings of sin.

Terrible things happen.

Evil has its ways.

Sorrow and suffering.

Tears all day long.

But don’t give up on God.

Choose a better way of living.

Trust God.

Trust God in the morning and trust God in the night.

Trust God in all the in-between places.

What others intend as evil.

God uses for good.

The writers of Genesis appeal to Judah’s better instincts.

Trust God in all things.

What meets the eye may be terrible and sad.

But there’s more to this life than what meets the eye.

Faith reaches above and beyond what we see.

Paul says it well, 2 Corinthians 4:

¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

The eternal hand of God is at work …

What meets the eye is only part of the story … faith reaches beyond what can be seen to the unseen work of God … the majesty of God’s love … the height and breadth and width and depth of God’s mighty love … that whatever comes our way, there is nothing that can separate us from God’s great love in Christ.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Isaiah (40) says it so beautifully to his people in Exile … in the worst of times, in the worst of places, Isaiah says:

²⁸      Have you not known? Have you not heard?

      The LORD is the everlasting God,

      the Creator of the ends of the earth.

      He does not faint or grow weary;

      his understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹      He gives power to the faint,

      and strengthens the powerless.

³⁰      Even youths will faint and be weary,

      and the young will fall exhausted;

³¹      but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength,

      they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

      they shall run and not be weary,

      they shall walk and not faint. 

What meets the eye is one thing … but faith reaches beyond what the eye can see …

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen … (Hebrews 11.1)

The Transfiguration of Jesus … shining light … Moses and Elijah … a stunning moment for the disciples … they don’t know what to do … stammering and stuttering … Peter wants to build little huts on the mountain and stay there … 

In that shining moment of light, they see beyond what the eye can see … 

Six days before the Transfiguration ... Jesus said to the disciples, It will end badly for me … I’m going to Jerusalem, and there I will suffer many things … they will kill me, bury me, be done with me … and I will rise from the dead on the third day.

Peter objects - he can’t hear the good news; all he can hear is the bad … No, no, no, it won’t end badly; I’ll not let it end this way … 

But Jesus has no time for Peter … Get behind me Peter; you sound like the Devil. You haven’t a clue what’s important, what matters. You can only think of yourself.

True enough … when times are tough, it’s hard to think beyond ourselves … 

Which is why Jesus gives the disciples six days to think about it … six days to feel the pain and sorrow of what Jesus said, that it will end badly … this is no fairytale life we live … this is not some adventure in the woods … the stakes are high … and sometimes things end badly.

Six days Jesus lets the disciples stew on this … 

And when the time is right, up the mountain they go … it only lasts a little while in the glory of the light … it doesn’t take long at all … nor could they stay there … no, they had to walk back down the mountain to the same old stuff, the same old world, and the fate awaiting Jesus.

But in that moment, they saw something …  

Choose the light!

Choose faith, hope and love.

Choose grace, mercy and peace.

What meets the eye is one thing, what meets the eye of faith is another.

Amen and Amen!