Whole Lotta Love

“A Whole Lotta Love”
John 3:14-21
March 26, 2006 CCUM
Rev. Carolyn Waters

14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Odds are that if you were anywhere near a Sunday School class when you were between 8 and 10 years old, you memorized John 3:16. If you know any verse in the scriptures by memory, it’s most likely John 3:16. The verse in and of itself is….simply………..enough.

God so loved the world! That stands on it’s own.

God so loved the world that God sent/gave God’s only Son!

God so love the world that God sent God’s only Son that whosoever believes in him, shall not parish but have everlasting life! Makes for great poetry and not bad theology!

Except that I’d just as soon stay with the God so loved the world part………leave it there. Nice and simple, profound and complex in and of itself enough.

If you are scratching your head and trying to remember who sang “Whole Lotta Love” it was Led Zephlen. The lyrics to that rock song from the 70’s aren’t something to be quoted in a sermon, but the title has a nice ring and came back to me when considering what I wanted to focus on this morning.
Just how much love does it take to love the whole world? So much that only God is capable of such love. What does the statement that God so loved the world imply? And incredible amount of tolerance, forgiveness, and acceptance of the behavior of God’s children! Both when Jesus was credited with speaking the words and our reciting of the words from childhood memory and adult hope.

God so love the world that……….

In loving the world God offered the best gift possible to represent that love.
We attempt the same when we share ourselves with others in ways that go beyond the routine of daily relationships. There are times and situations in which we want to give the very best of what we have or who we are to another because of who they are for us or what they mean to us.

But almost without fail, no gift we give ever fully communicates our love or appreciation. If lucky the gift giving brings the hoped for joy within the spirit of the one we care for.

My mother turned 93 yesterday. She didn’t answer her phone in the morning, which brought worry to my mind as I always call her on Saturday morning and she always answers the phone. I found out later that she was in the community room of her senior apartment building eating birthday cake. She was too busy to sit around waiting for phone calls!

My brother that lives in the community where Mom lives threw a little birthday party for her Wednesday evening. Apparently it was quite the deal. Marti Gras beads, balloons, cupcakes and take out Chinese food. Of course Jacob the 21/2 year old grandson made the party real. My brother Jack and I conspired to give Mom a parakeet and habitat in which to live. We thought it was a safe gift as parakeets were not unfamiliar to our life when growing up. We also thought it would give her some company and something “alive” to talk to. The parakeet is green. Mom ask grandson Jacob what to name the bird to which he immediately said, “Go.” Everything in his world that is green is called “go.” Everything red is called “Stop.” So the bird is called go-go. And mother couldn’t be happier. She said she was so excited Wednesday night she couldn’t sleep.

What do you give a 93 year old mother that doesn’t need anything? You give her a parakeet and a roll of stamps. Why do you give her anything? Because you love her, because and even if she is your mother.

The giving and the loving doesn’t even begin to compare to the depth of love God has for this world or the gift of the person Jesus to show us how to live in relationship with one another and in relationship with God.

The greatest love you have for the one, two, five, or ten most important people in your life doesn’t begin to compare or measure to the depth of love God has for you or for me……………for the whole world.

That’s a whole lotta love!

The joy you offer to those you love or the joy you experience from their gift of life offered to you…………..doesn’t hold a candle, doesn’t even begin to offer a spark of a giant bonfire when compared to the joy God has in the gift of all creation and each and every human being on this earth.

That’s a whole lotta joy!

But as much as I want to simply rest in that vast ocean of love or luxuriate in the depth of that joy………….I can’t.

It’s not enough to simply give a birthday gift and feel good about it.
It’s not enough to realize God’s love for us and feel affirmed and accepted.

If that’s as far as the loving goes, then God’s love is lost on thankless children.

This well known scripture verse follows Jesus encounter with Nichodemus and his confusion about being born again. One can only assume that Jesus was doing his best to explain to those listening the depth of God’s love. In believing the depth of God’s love, transformation occurs for the believer. One is “born again” in spirit, in focus, in intention for living and believing.

When an understanding of that love occurs, an understanding of the representation of that love also occurs. The representation of God’s love is found in the person of Jesus. It is through his life, his ministry, and the way he died and lived beyond death that we see the image of who God longs for God’s children to be. And it is through the representation of God’s love found in the person of Jesus that we see what God expects of us.

Being loved goes a long way. Believing that we are loved is the foundation to our core personality and character. But being loved is not enough. Unless we figure out how to return that love, to respond to that love, then we haven’t fully realized the gift of the love we are offered.

My mother has loved me since her first awareness of me in her womb. I have absolutely no doubt of that. My mother loved me through my stubborn teenage years, my obstinate young adult period, the poor decisions I made in my 30’s and the trials and triumphs I have experienced the last 20 years.

But I didn’t always love my mother. In fact, for a number of years my prayer was that my mother would live long enough that I could learn to love her.

It’s happened. And in loving her, I have a greater appreciation of her love for me.

It makes me think of a couple of Charlie Brown comic strips:
Lucy once said to Charlie Brown, "Discouraged again, eh, Charlie Brown?" "You know what your whole trouble is? The whole trouble with you is that you're you!"
Charlie asks, "Well, what in the world can I do about that?"
Lucy answers, "I don't pretend to be able to give advice...I merely point out the trouble!"
Perhaps the greatest insight of this passage from John is to realize that we are part of the problem and God offers to whatever our problem is, the person of Jesus……….that through his life we can begin to see some solutions to our problems.
However, another conversation between Lucy and Charlie Brown indicates another part of the problem/solution.
Lucy speaks, "You know what the whole trouble with you is, Charlie Brown?"
Charlie answers, "No, and I don't want to know! Leave me alone!" He walks away.
Lucy shouts after him, "The whole trouble with you is you won't listen to what the whole trouble with you is!"
The solution begins with listening. .Perhaps if "you" are the problem, "you" can't be the solution. The solution has to come from outside ourself..
If loving isn’t a two way street, then the power of love, the gift of love, the sacrifice of love has little meaning.

If we are not able to see “our stuff” in the challenge of loving, we seldom reach the grace filled space of realizing the “gift of love”.

Hear again the last three verses of today’s lesson:

19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

If we dare to be children of the light, children of the love of God, children who see a vision of what life can be and what love can be and what relationships can be when lived in the embrace of God’s love for the world……..

If we dare these things………..not only will our lives be different, but the world will be a different place because of our response to being loved.

Upside Down

“Upside Down”
John 2:13-25
March 19, 2006 CCUM
Rev Carolyn Waters

Read: Exodus 20:1-17
John 2:13-25
13The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
23When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.




The giving of the Ten Commandments is included in the lectionary readings every Lenten season.

(Following are selections from: Rev. Ben E. Helmer http://www.episcopalchurch.org/6087_72521_ENG_HTM.htm)

The Commandments need to be seen in a larger context, as part of God's covenant with God's people. The passage in Exodus that I just read is the conclusion of God inviting Moses up to the mountain and then agreeing to address the people of the Exodus directly, albeit cloaked in thunder, fire, and smoke.

Even amidst the noise and fear of God's speaking, the reader is struck by how passionately God cares for the people and how much God's desire to have a relationship with them shapes the giving of the Commandments. These aren't just the house rules of a stern parent, they are the terms of relationship for God's people who are loved and cared for by their creator. It's almost as though God is saying, "Look, I know what will make you miserable, and here are ten things to avoid that will keep you from misery."

By the time of Jesus' ministry, a whole system had been put in place to uphold the Law and help people who break it find a way back to a right relationship with God. The faithful loved God's law, recited it and its application night and day. In addition, a sacrificial system had been developed so people can offer the proper sacrifice at the Temple and have their relationship with God restored.

Part of that sacrifice involved purchasing ritually clean animals. Since Roman currency was considered idolatrous because it was stamped with the image of Caesar, one had to exchange Roman currency for Temple money to purchase the sacrificial offerings. Anybody who has traveled and changed currency knows the moneychangers always get a fee, and that was exacted on the Temple steps.

Jesus saw this practice for what it was: an unnecessary barrier between God and the children of God. He saw the poor having to borrow money in order to purchase the animals of sacrifice. He heard the arguing and fretting over whether the moneychangers were charging a fair exchange. And he'd had enough. He singled out a table or two, and drove out the dove sellers and the moneychangers. Two interesting points: One, Jesus didn’t get arrested for doing this; and two, in John's account this event took place at the beginning of his public ministry, where the other Gospels place it at the end.

Regardless of placement in the Gospels, the results are the same: controversy. Commentators remark that Jesus wanted to eliminate the system that kept God and the people of God apart, while enriching the pockets of some at the expense of the poor. The new temple will be the spirit of Christ, the presence of God with us, who will replace the building and its sacrificial system. People will no longer need to rehearse sacrificial piety in order to be in a good relationship with God. Jesus, as the new temple, will make that possible forever.

So, the link between the giving of the Ten Commandments and Jesus' passionate love for the people of God is a covenant relationship, one in which God desires to show us love and makes it possible for us to be in a loving relationship with our creator. The giving of the Commandments and the cleansing of the temple are both acts of love that remove barriers we create between God and ourselves.

Today as we worship in places that are deeply special to us, we might reflect on the barriers we have created that could separate people from God in worship. Is our church welcoming? Barrier free? Do we offer hospitality to guests and strangers? Do we take strangers to the coffee hour and make sure they are introduced? In what ways might we better become a place where anyone seeking God might feel they are welcome, safe, and free to enter?

Over the next six weeks you will be receiving information about what it would mean for our congregation to identify itself as a “reconciling congregation.” In so doing, we would be clearly communicating to Denver and to the denomination that we do truly are an “open” place……..for all people. Standing up and stating that we are “reconciling” means that we turn the tables of the General Church over in regard to its discrimination against gay and lesbian people.

DeWitt Jones, a photographer for the National Geographic produced a motivational film a few years ago called “Celebrate What’s Right with the World.” Using his well known skills as a photographer, he approaches what we see in the world with our eyes and hearts and shows that we can look at something and see even more beauty in it if we simply change our perspective. With the slightest adjustment in the way we look at “things”………..life can be very different.

I think that’s what Jesus must have been doing that day. He was able to see beyond the acceptable practice of the people to something greater and more meaningful in our relationship with God. But before he could get others to see what he could see, he had to turn everything upside down.

Hear these words from Jack Johnson’s current hit song from Curious George!

Upside Down

Who's to say
What's impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything
And as the surface breaks reflections fade
But in some ways they remain the same
And as my mind begins to spread its wings
There's no stopping curiosity

I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
I don't want this feeling to go away

Who's to say
I can't do everything
Well I can try
And as I roll along I begin to find
Things aren't always just what they seem

I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
This world keeps spinning and there's no time to waste
Well it all keeps spinning spinning round and round and

Upside down
Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found
I don't want this feeling to go away

Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Is this how it's supposed to be
Is this how it's supposed to be

Jesus Calls Us

“Jesus Calls Us”
Mark 8:31-38
CCUM March 12, 2006
Rev Carolyn Waters

31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
There are so many significant words attributed to Jesus in this passage from Mark that are foundational to meaning of calling oneself a “follower” of Jesus Christ.

I’ll begin this morning with my ending! Claiming the “Christian Faith” as one’s practice means you are a different person because of claiming that identity than if you didn’t claim it.

Now let me twist that for a moment. How are you different and how is your life different because you claim the Christian faith as your religion?

Because you claim Christianity, it implies that you “follow Jesus”.
What is that all about?

The role of a “follower” is to fulfill the tasks requested by the leader.

What is there about your life that is different because you follow the leader?

Most of us are better at giving directions than receiving them!

And then there is the part of the passage about denying self. What’s with that? It may be one of the most counter-cultural challenges we could be given.

My current favorite New Testament Scholar, Wm Loader offers these words for reflection:

These verses have caused considerable confusion in Christian spirituality. Who is doing what? Which self am I denying? With which self am I doing the denying? Is it a matter of not doing what I want to do – for a while, perhaps during Lent – only then to return to myself? Is it saying I need to hate myself or, at least, constantly put myself down – or, if I want to make a good impression, keep doing so when others are listening. It is little wonder that many people have been confused by the rules of the game.
Loader continues:

Clearly we are being offered an alternative model of being. It is for our gain, in our interests, to consider it. That is the appeal. So there is no thought of our abdicating responsibility nor of our being asked to do what we do not want to do. We are being challenged to want something different. Instead of thinking only of ourselves and believing that it is to our good to gain wealth and avoid any path which leads to suffering, we are being challenged to be generous, giving of ourselves, even when it may mean suffering. The first image of ourselves and our good is to be set aside; instead we are to embrace the way of Jesus, of self giving love. Then we will find ourselves, our true selves. The merging of our will and being with God’s will and being, and therefore with love which cares for others as well as for ourselves, is the way of discipleship. It is also the way to real humanness - and the way of Jesus, and ultimately also of God!

The commitment of responding to our individual and unique “calls” to follow Jesus results not in self-sacrifice but in finding self. In finding self, grounded in the spirit of God’s love, one is most able to sacrifice self, to “give it up” for others.

In denying self, following a call, carrying our own cross (which I take to mean our individual purpose in life)………….we find ourselves.

When our life is spend in indulgence, selfish decisions, insular living, cocooned and living under the illusion of protection and safety, according to the “teachings” of what we believe………..in such an approach to life we in fact have no life.

Spiritual writer Henri Nouwen has these words to say about this passage from Mark:
The great paradox of life is that those who lose their lives will gain them. This paradox becomes visible in very ordinary situations. If we cling to our friends, we may lose them, but if we are nonpossessive in our relationships, we will make many friends. If fame is what we seek and desire, it often vanishes as soon as we acquire it, but if we have no need to be known, we might be remembered long after our deaths. When we want to be in the centre, we easily end up on the margins, but when we are free enough to be wherever we must be, we often find ourselves in the centre. Giving away our lives for others is the greatest of all human acts. This will gain us our lives.
Bread for the Journey p. 138

I struggle with “my call”……….. “my cross”………. “my purpose”.

I do not struggle with whether or not I am “called” to ordained ministry. That has always been a clear discernment and decision for my whole adult life. But I do struggle with what I am to be doing with my life as an ordained person. I struggle with how I live out my faith. I struggle with how I witness my belief through my decisions about how I live………what I do with my time, what I do with my money……….what I do with my abilities to lead, to follow, to serve. I constantly struggle.

I so intended and wanted to join the small group for the mission trip to Mississippi in a few weeks. But realized this past week that if I stepped aside from doing that, someone else that wouldn’t get to go if I did, would have a wonderful opportunity and experience. Sometimes we are called to do things, sometimes we are called not to do things.

The “One Book, One Church”…….theme for Lent is Ending Hunger Now by George McGovern, Bob Dole, and Donald Messer. We began a 4 week study last Wednesday night, we will have a church wide discussion of the book on April 23 with one of the authors, Donald Messer. I challenge you to buy the book and read the book. If half of this congregation reads this book it will change who we are as a church. We cannot be reminded enough about how so many people in this world suffer because of hunger.

p.2 Every day 30,000 people die of starvation
That’s 1,250 people every hour
20 people every minute
1 person every 3 seconds

852 million people are hungry right now

From chapter 1 of the book: “There is not a lack of food in the world, but a lack of political will and personal compassion.” (p.3)

“We hear the numbers, but they have no names. Statistics are what Africans call ‘numbers without tears.’ It is only when we experience a hungry person or embrace a starving child that we see the reality behind the statistics.”

I yearn for us……..as a people and as a congregation to have passion for something beyond ourselves.

There are many places of need, there are many voices crying for help.

Following Jesus is about responding to those places of need and those cries for help.

Look again at the call to worship:
Opening:
Jesus calls us To leave the past JESUS CALLS US TO HOPE

Jesus calls us
To travel lightly JESUS CALLS US TO FAITH

Jesus calls us To live fairly
JESUS CALLS US TO JUSTICE

Jesus calls us To risky living JESUS CALLS US TO LIFE

And the question for reflection:
What in you is dying/being born? What in our congregation is dying/coming alive?

Who is Jesus calling you to be?

Where is Jesus calling you to go?

What is Jesus calling you to do?

The Beloved

The Beloved
Rev Carolyn Waters
Mark 1:9-15 Lent I
March 5, 2006, CCUM

Author Mark McMinn in his book, Finding Our Way Back Home: Turning Back to What Matters Most, says “Remembering is a spiritual endeavor. In remembering we create space for God to meet us on our journey, and we allow our lives to be centered in the security of God’s love.” Remembering is a theme in Scripture, especially throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament. There, we are constantly reminded to remember the faithfulness of God, which is almost always in contrast to the forgetfulness of God’s people. I believe it is the spiritual endeavor of remembering that we are about when we observe the season of Lent. It is a time when we remember who we are and whose we are. So even more so than during the rest of the year, during Lent we focus on remembering who Jesus was. This morning’s Gospel lesson from Mark is a good place to begin.

In today’s lesson we learn some very important things about Jesus. He was baptized, and at his baptism God proclaimed, “You are my beloved”, and then Jesus immediately went into the wilderness where he was confronted by evil and wild beasts, and where angels waited on him.

What we get from these verses may be a mixture of awe and disbelief! We have difficulty relating to the life Jesus lived because it’s focus was so very different from anything we know. Trying to figure out exactly what it means to be a “follower of Jesus Christ” can be a bit confusing if comparing our life to his. What does it mean to follow him if we can never believe we can live as he lived? It can get even more confusing for us when we read in the Gospel of John that Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and, in fact, will do greater works than these….” Can any of us, even begin to say, “We can do greater works than Jesus?” Actually if anyone claimed to be able to do so, we’d turn the other way! What was Jesus saying about who he was and who we could be as his followers? I think the key is that who Jesus was and what his life was all about had to do with his relationship with God, who he knew himself to be in God’s love.

According to Mark, when Jesus was baptized to begin his ministry, he heard God saying he was God’s beloved son. He was loved and blessed by God and it was only after that pronouncement, that affirmation that he began to live out his calling. In remembering this moment in Jesus’ life, can we connect that to our life and who we are?

Henri Nouwen, priest and prolific writer on the subject of spirituality said this about our connection to this moment in the life of Jesus. “….the spiritual life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen to a voice that says, ‘You are beloved and on you my favor rests.’” (Or as in today’s translation, “with you I am well pleased.”) “That is where the spiritual life starts, claiming the voice that calls us the beloved.”

Can we even go there? Can we really comprehend God’s love for us in such a personal way? Henri Nouwen was so convinced of our need to understand this passage of scripture as the foundation for our spiritual life that he wrote a book entitled, “The Life of the Beloved.” In this book he describes what he learned about being loved by God from living in a community with persons with profound physical and mental disabilities, persons who often feel unlovable. He tells the story of a severely handicapped woman named Janet who came up to Henri at worship service one day and said, “Henri, can you bless me?” He then made the sign of the cross on her forehead. And she said to him, “Henri it doesn’t work. No, that is not what I mean.” Henri was embarrassed and said, “I gave you a blessing.” And she said,“No, I want to be blessed.” He could not understand what she meant. He turned to all of the other people at the service and said, “Janet wants a blessing.” He had on a long robe with long sleeves and all the liturgical vestments that would make him viable as someone who could bless someone but he did not know what to do. At that point she again said, “I want to be blessed”, and put her head against his chest. He said he spontaneously put his arms around her, held her, looked into her eyes and said, “Blessed are you, Janet. You know how much we love you. You know how important you are. You know what a good woman you are.” She looked at Henri and said, “Yes, yes, yes, I know.” Henri said he could see all sorts of energy coming back to her. She seemed to be relieved. She realized again that she was blessed. She was loved. And she immediately went back to her place. Then other people began to say, “I want that kind of blessing too.” Henri said, “All these people came to me and I found myself embracing people….and then one of the people in the community who was a staff worker who assisted the handicapped came up to him and said, “Henri can I have a blessing too”? And Henri recalled the powerful moment of looking into the eyes of this big guy, a football player who was not handicapped in the same ways as the others, but how much he still needed the assurance of being blessed, being loved. So Henri put his hand on John’s shoulder and said, “John, you are blessed. You are a good person. God loves you. We love you. You are important.”

Nouwen asks, “Can you claim that and live as the blessed one?” We need that connection, that assurance, that like Jesus, we are known, we are loved, we are chosen, we are blessed by God. That is the beginning point for all that follows in our life and in our discipleship.

As we journey through Lent together, remembering the life and teachings of Jesus, I would like to challenge you to contemplate what it might mean to connect with your faith and the author of that faith from your heart and not just your head. I really believe if we remember Jesus and try to understand who he was and is only from an intellectual perspective, we will never have the courage, the heart, to live as he lived.

But, when we begin to understand what moved him, how he responded to being a beloved child of God and how his courage, his heart could withstand any danger that could come to him in the wilderness, we too can live being beloved by God, knowing we can withstand even times of wilderness.

The ancient poet Basho once said, “I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of those of old. I seek the things they sought.” I do not think as followers of Jesus we are asked to follow him in his footsteps and to live his life. I do believe we are asked to seek to know his heart, and to remember that like he, we too are the beloved children of God.

On The Mountain Top

"On The Mountain Top"
Mark 9:2-13

"Together with Peter, James, and John, Jesus climbs the mountain, away from the world in which they lived, with its business, its quarrels, its competitions, its jealousies, its sacrifices, and its strange list of priorities. They climbed out of it all, higher and higher, until they were at the top. Then Jesus, who marched them out of the old into the new, started to shine, brighter and brighter, like the moon, like a start, and in the end, like the sun."

This quote from Joseph Donders "Praying and Preaching the Sunday Gospel" calls us up to the mountain top with all the wonder and beauty of any great "religious experience." Up on the Mountain Top where all the cares of the world pass away! Up on the Mountain top away from everything! A time to reassess and reprioritize our life list!

Do you have a life list? A priority list for your life? Mountain Top experiences are a great awakening for shifting what is most important to the top or bottom!

Joseph Donders refers to such a list as strange. At least our priorities show as a strange list compared to the list of needs and priorities of the world. At any rate, Peter, James and John took a weekend holiday, perhaps to reflect and review their life. Their spiritual guide was with them. Jesus may have even directed them to the top of the mountain.

We call it "transfiguration Sunday" because for some reason while there on the top of the mountain, on the holiday or retreat, resting, Peter and the boys saw Jesus in a new way, from a new perspective, from a different angle or direction or with new eyes.

We've all had such moments. Those perfect moments. And if we can't make them last, we at least try to hold on to them so they will never leave us, or we try to reinvent them so we can have the special feeling again.....though it never works.

Peter, James, and John wanted to put up tents for the men of honor and just keep them on their mountain.

It was as if the three disciples had finally figured out what Jesus and the prophets were all about, how beautiful life is or could be, and they wanted to keep it for themselves, or at least keep it in such a way that it might last forever. To stay on the mountain top, a perfect life.

As Colorado residents, you know nothing grows on the top of the mountain! You have to go down into the valley to find the growth that makes a difference, that feeds, waters, and nourishes our lives.

God knew that. God has always known that! You can't just put up an alter and stay put and make life work. Life is about moving on, getting off the mountain tops, murking it thought the valley, and growing.

But what do we know with our strange list of priorities. Our casual thought out life list of goals. Our casual day-timer of activities that keep us on the move, on the go, in the car, with the kids, the culture, the social plans. What do we know, about murking it through the valley and growing?

Well, some of us know a lot. And with time, all of us know more than we want to know.

With time, we all experience the valley. And with confidence and hope, we all have mountaintop experiences to remind us of the brightness, the goodness of life that carry us through the valleys.

My friends Ed and Mary Bonneau from Nebraska know about the mountains and valleys. Ed is a clergy colleague now serving First United Methodist Church in Lincoln.
He ask if I was preaching on the transfiguration story this morning! Believe it or not, when clergy get together we often compare notes and stories.

He said, "I've got a great transfiguration story!" And started talking about January of 2001 when he, wife Mary and their 2 adult boys were out here skiing. The particular day he was remembering, he and Sam his youngest son of 20, were at Winter Park. Ed said it was a perfect day. At one point in their going up and down the mountain, Ed and Sam stopped at the top....stood in the sun....and said, "It doesn't get any better than this."

Then as Ed continued to tell his story his way, he said, "Little did I know that less than 2 months later Sammy would be dead. Hit and killed by a bus while crossing the street in the crosswalk on a green light."

Then Ed said, "that's what the transfiguration is all about.

It's about being up on the mountain, and knowing that you have to go back down into the valley to live. But because you've been on the mountain, you know you can live through the valley, because that's what faith and hope are all about."

Peter wanted to build a tent and keep life safe, comfortable, secure, perfect, on the mountain top.

But a voice came and said: "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!"

It's important that we take the time to go to the top of the mountain. That we take the time to stop, to reflect, to provide some open-space in our lives, and perhaps during that time of open-space we encounter the mystery of life. The power of life, the brilliance of the sun that shines in such a way that we wonder, could this be what it means to see Jesus?

We must take that time. It's giving our attention to God, and to God's life list for our life.

God is constantly asking for out attention! Listen!

But in the experience of the encounters that God puts on our path, daily we have to listen.

Listen! Not to our own voices, not to the voices and demands of the world around us, not to everything and everyone else, but we have to listen..........

Yesterday as I drove across Nebraska and the Platte River valley God yelled for my attention for almost 50 miles as the Sand Hill cranes were doing their annual spring dance through the sky for as far as the eye could see in any direction the eye could look. It was so beautiful I cried. Then the cell phone rang and brought me back to earth and reality. It was a mountain top experience in the plains of the heartland.

God cried out to us to listen. If we slow down enough and notice God calling we will hear.

Are you listening? Are you listening in such a way that when life throws the hard balls, when the valley's become the valley of death, will you be able to keep walking?

Will you still have faith?

Are you going to remember that the mountaintop of light, is for the purpose of moving on, not for the purpose of keeping everything just right?