Friday, September 28, 2007

Mountains, Plains and Valleys: Transformations of Grace

Faces are so beautiful….so different….so telling.

A child's face can be seen to glow while watching fireworks. Watch a child on Christmas Eve and you will see a face shimmering with anticipation. The gleam when they read for the first time. The blushing face on the first date. A beaming face the first time driving the family car.

The parental glow begins when a woman becomes pregnant. We have all seen parents faces glow with love as their children are born, baptized, take first communion, are confirmed, graduate from school, get jobs, marry and start their own families.

Peyton Manning's face surely glowed two weeks ago when his football team won the Super Bowl. I would guess that his father, Pro Bowler Archie Manning's face was glowing, too. Parents reserve a special radiant glow for their children.

Grandparents have a different radiance that comes out in the common day-to-day things of life. Like teaching grandchildren a traditional craft. Sharing the secret ingredient to a family recipe. Giving parenting advice to new parents. Cherishing the family as they gather for a birthday. Sneaking a little special something to the grandkids when the parents aren't around.

There is a sense of mature wisdom that illuminates from grandparents. Grace. The grace that comes from living.

An artist tells the story of a beautiful transformation from young girl to mature woman when explaining his piece called "Talking Leaves". He tells how the beauty of the changing seasons can become so commonplace that one can miss the mystery and the miracle each season holds. Like a composer of a beautiful song, God infused a certain order and rhythm to each interlocking season. As the beauty of each season builds, it creates anticipation for the season to follow. God is much more than a composer; God is also a teacher and has placed many lessons of life in His song of the seasons.

In order for the trees of spring to bring forth their new buds, the leaves of autumn must humbly fall to the earth. But before they make their descent, they adorn the trees with a spectacular array of colors; from fiery reds and rich plums to pumpkin oranges and yellow ochres.

When one is young, she is like a young bud of spring unfurling, thirsting for sunlight, vibrant and green. As she grows, the unpredictability of weather strengthens her form, causing her to mature as she dances gloriously against the spring and summer skies. As autumn approaches and life has been lived for a few seasons, the color of wisdom starts to emerge and slowly begins to permeate the entire leaf. When the wind rushes through a grove of autumn trees, it is as if a chorus of elders are singing their songs and telling their stories. Then as they all must, they fall and lie down in the deep sleep of winter.

And just as the Great Composer echoes these truths in his handiwork, he also was the leaf that fell that we might have new life in His name.

So the question that remains is not "do leaves talk?" but "are we listening?"

As we listened to the Gospel today, we heard two experiences that are called "mountaintop". This tells us that not only were Moses and Jesus really on a mountaintop but that each experience on the mountaintop outshone any other experience imaginable.

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on a mountaintop. We heard today how Moses' face shone with God's glory after he received the Commandments. God's glory surrounded Moses so that when he came down from the mountain, his face shone so brightly that the people were afraid. He even wore a veil to cover the brightness of God's glory when he spoke with the people. Moses carried his mountaintop experience down with him to the plains, the valleys…his real world. He used his experience to teach the people, build the tabernacle and lead the people out of oppression.

Jesus took three of his disciples with him up to the mountaintop to pray. Peter, John and James probably felt pretty special for being chosen to go with Jesus. This was most likely a treat for the disciples. Mountains offer quiet solitude for rest and retreat. This atmosphere combined with the trek up to the mountaintop may have tired them. In fact, they were so relaxed that when Jesus walked away to pray, they fell fast asleep.

You know that physically exhausting sound sleep that leaves you feeling like there is a heavy blanket holding you down? And then, you feel like you should be awake, but you feel like your senses are fooling you into sleep? Sometimes it's hard to tell if you are awake or dreaming in that state.

Well, the disciples were kind of fuzzy but they thought they saw Jesus praying and "the appearance of his face changed" and his clothes became dazzling white. That would surely make one want to wake up!

Imagine God speaking to Jesus, his only Son and God's great love for Jesus illuminated Jesus' face and clothing. Then the disciples see two other men talking to Jesus - Moses and Elijah. St. Luke tells us the three spoke of Jesus' departure that would happen in Jerusalem. The disciples saw both of these men in the same dazzling white image. Here's a dazzling trio - Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, two great prophets who were very recognizable to Peter, John and James.


NOW the disciples really awaken from their deep sleep. A very sleepy-head Peter speaks without thinking (again) and proposes building three tents so that Jesus, Moses and Elijah can continue their time together. But God directs the disciples "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" Listen to my Son! Listen to Jesus. Listen…Listen… Listen!

Like Moses, Jesus' face shone brightly on that mountaintop and he also came back down. Moses and Elijah gave Jesus encouragement to do what must be done. To heal the people, teach the people, do justice and to die for the people. Jesus went up to the mountain; He had a mountain top experience and because of it and him, we will never be the same. Just like Peter, John and James, we are transformed.

We do, however, have to come back down to the plains and the valleys and live in our real world. How do we carry our mountaintop experience into our real worlds? How do we actively live in communion with God?

God asks us frequently to listen. Not just in those special "mountaintop experiences" but in the "plains" and "valleys" of our lives, too. We come face-to-face with God when we are participate in family, church, community, prayer circle, bible study, church retreat, ministering to others, doing work we are passionate about, and admiring God's creation. When we participate in any of these ways, we leave in closer communion with God. God is with us, not only on the mountaintops, but God is with us the next day at the very bottom of the mountain.

We know what it is like down at the bottom of the mountain.

We know what it means to lose an unborn child.

We know what it means to experience the severe illness and death of children.

We know what it means to have problems in a marriage.

We know what it means to have one of your friends die much too early and much too painfully.

We know what it is like to be down at the bottom of the mountain.

And we know that God is with us and we know that God speaks to us there and gives us the words of hope and strength for that time.

For God is with us both on the mountaintops and in the valleys.

Going back down to the "plains", things seem more normal there.

And God is with us in the "plains", in the normal day-to-day activities of life. We really don’t spend much time on the mountaintops nor do we spend a lot of time down in the valley.

Where we spend most of our time is living plain, ordinary days.

I have found that God is in the plain ordinariness of life as well. In things like,

Eating breakfast.

Making a cup of coffee.

Driving to work and school.

Turning on the lights for a drink of water in the middle of the night

A PB & J sandwich.

Listening to the telephone as it rings.

Talking to a friend.

Sitting at the kitchen table.

Listening to the radio

Opening the refrigerator door.

Feeding the dog.

Going for a walk.

Greeting friends

Sharing coffee and donuts

Sharing stories

Studying the bible

Working on projects together

Life…everyday life.

Imagine standing in the pitch dark cold February night and you look up to see millions of twinkling stars, each one a mystery and a miracle.

This is the normalcy of life.

And God is there with you.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us again, "And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."

There is an organization in Mexico called AMEXTRA that truly lives out the transformation in very normal and ordinary ways of day-to-day life. Amextra is a Mexican non-profit organization whose main purpose is to promote the holistic transformation of farmers, indigenous people groups, women, youth and children who live in rural and urban areas. Their belief is “We do not serve because we are transformed; rather we are transformed when we serve.”

Every day these people find God in their lives. Whether they are feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, teaching the children, helping families with health and nutrition, working on savings and loan programs or training peace-keepers, the people know that God is at work within them and within their communities.

Here at the end of the season of light, we wonder what's ahead? Where will the roads of the Lenten journey take us? Where will San Francisco de Asis go? Will there be light ahead for us? How will we stay transformed and keep glowing in the ordinary days ahead?

We cannot walk apathetically into the future.

We have been blessed and we are asked by God to bless others.
God is with us and the Holy Spirit is active in our community.

Jesus Christ leads us back into the world so that we may transform our community.

Like Peter, James and John, we are transformed so that we can be a light to the world. We are transformed, so others can be transformed through meeting Jesus on the mountaintop in their faith journey.

The Good News is that Jesus walks with us every step, transforming and renewing us (individually and communally) every day. Our transformation comes through listening. God gave us His Son for a reason – to listen and learn from him. Transformation comes from inside. When we receive the Word through our ears and eyes, it transforms us by coming inside us and living inside us.

We can look down the road and see the crisis coming. But we need not fear when we have had our mountaintop experience to pull us through. When we have been filled with the love of God, our faces surely will shine.

We feel the need for the mountain-top experience.

My prayer is that you will have it in your life, and I pray that transformed by that experience, you will come again into the valley and plains and serve with the people of God.

May God bless you as you climb to meet the Lord on the mountain top.

Amen.

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