This is such a mind-boggling narrative, isn’t it? Imagine you are Peter, James or John – you’ve gone up to the mountain with Jesus to pray and you awake from a sleepy state to witness Jesus’ face being totally changed and his clothes as bright as a flash of lightning! Then, you see two other men and somehow you know they are Elijah and Moses – two men from the sacred stories you’ve heard a thousand times. Two men who you know to represent the prophets and the law. Two men who are now engaged in a deep conversation with Jesus.
Can you put yourself into the story? Can you feel 
the wonder, the awesomeness but also the terror? Are you able to connect the presence of Elijah and Moses to Jesus’ suffering and death prediction? Can you make sense of what you are witnessing? All because you agreed to go with Jesus up a mountain to pray.
But your experience goes on…Peter awakening from his slumber wants to put up three tents one for each of the men there. It seems reasonable to offer such hospitality, or maybe you want to keep experiencing what you are seeing – maybe even you might get to be in conversation with Elijah and Moses! How cool might that be? I think any of us good folk who believe in being hospitable might offer to do the same, but that isn’t what God had in mind.
Suddenly that voice comes from the cloud: This is my Son, the Chosen One, Listen to Him! Listen to him. Listen to him. Haven’t we been listening? Have we?
I have preached on this story many times, and it always gets to me – this mountaintop experience. I’ve had them in various retreat settings and even on daily walks. But many feel they have not had them so if we focus too much on the amazement, are we leaving out those who haven’t witnessed this? So maybe instead of focusing on what we might experience, maybe this time we focus on why Jesus might be experiencing this transformation – this change of appearance – this encounter with Elijah and Moses. And, if we look closely at what Jesus is experiencing how might that help us Listen to Him!
Remember that Jesus eight days ago has told the disciples this: “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.” (Luke 9:22). Eight days later he is heading up a mountain to pray taking Peter, James and John with him. Heading up a mountain to pray.
It has echoes of Jesus’ baptism doesn’t it – hearing a voice from above proclaiming that Jesus is God’s son and then heading out into the wilderness to pray. Pray for what in both cases – maybe the strength to continue his mission and ministry which will be infinitely more challenging and dangerous given the religious and political leaders’ growing animosity towards Jesus.
So I wonder if maybe one way of listening to Jesus is to really deepen our prayer life individually and in community. How might prayer help us to navigate the increasingly challenging and dangerous world we are living in? How might praying for this community of faith, for guidance and direction, for how to be in community inside and outside these walls strengthen us to be brave and faithful in being a witness to the love that God has for all?
For all – immigrants – documented or undocumented, for those who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, for federal workers being let go unceremoniously from their jobs, for political leaders who need courage, for those in our families we are disconnected from because of politics or religion. How might prayer strengthen us for the challenging and difficult world we live in now and what might a Lent full of prayer bring?
I wonder too if another way of listening to Jesus is to not do what the disciples did when they came off of that mountaintop. Did you notice that in this instance, Jesus didn’t order them to tell no one what they had witnessed. Jesus stayed silent. But Peter, James and John chose to tell no one what they had seen. Why? Was it that they wouldn’t be believed or that they would be laughed at – after all imagine yourself sharing this experience with a friend, neighbor or family member? Or maybe because they were doubting what they saw? Or maybe because what they witnessed didn’t really change anything in the valley and wilderness below.
Professor Troy Troftgruben writes this about the Transfiguration story: While offering clarity, affirmation, and formative experiences, the call to ministry leads us not to stay there (as Peter may have desired), but to return below, where the hard work of healing happens. After all, Jesus’ ministry is not transformative and redemptive because of what he did on the mountain, but what he did in the valleys and wilderness areas elsewhere.[1]
I believe this mountaintop experience gave Jesus the strength he needed to get through the following weeks as he turned toward Jerusalem which we will hear more about this Wednesday at 7 p.m. for the Ash Wednesday service. Jesus is facing death, and he knows it – Elijah and Moses remind him that his exodus, his departure will have the power to change everything and everyone. Isn’t that a good reminder for us? That Jesus’ life, death and resurrection has the power to transform us if we just listen to him!
We aren’t called to understand everything; we are called to listen to him! To pray, to read and reflect on the stories, to allow ourselves to be transformed by these things. To listen to him so that we can face this challenging and dangerous world we live in with courage, with love, with a desire to be a witness to what Jesus has done for us – not stay silent like the disciples. To embrace the new covenant that Paul speaks of in his second letter to the Corinthians: In hard times, it is by God’s mercy that we will not lose heart as we engage in mission and ministry that includes and welcomes all in God’s beloved community.
Maybe we haven’t all had some kind of lightning-like mountaintop experience, but I would guess that all of us have had some moment of awareness of the awesomeness of Jesus, of the power of our faith, and the ways in which we live our life as a Jesus follower impacts others. I would imagine that we have all had glimpses of that if we take the time to listen to him!
As we approach the season of Lent, I would encourage all of us to focus on our prayer life, actively seek opportunities to do mission and ministry within and outside these church walls and share them with one another. Let’s embrace those glimpses of mountaintop experiences and gather our courage to speak and not be silent. To work through our fears of what is happening in our world today because if we listen to him, we can pray, we can be courageous, we can do our inclusive and welcoming mission and ministry work, and we can witness to the power of God’s love through Jesus. May it be so.
An invitation: Reflect on your own mountaintop and/or prayer experiences. How can you/we listen to Jesus more deeply over the season of Lent? Can we see a transformation happening within ourselves and/or our community of faith?
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/transfiguration-of-our-lord-3/commentary-on-luke-928-36-37-43a’