The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson

The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson

Have you ever had a mountaintop experience? Twenty-four of us have just returned from St. Michael’s Conference in Hartford. It was a weeklong conference for senior high and college age young people.

I have been involved with the conference for 11 years, first as a visiting priest and now as the Assistant Director of the conference. It is a huge commitment of time, and I do it because I feel it is such an important ministry with our young people. They are truly amazing and I always come away from the conference invigorated and with great hope for the future of the Church.

It is an intense week, during which participants deepen their faith, build relationships that last a lifetime, and establish patterns of faithfulness and churchmanship that likewise will influence them throughout their lives. It is truly a mountaintop experience, not only for the young people, but also for the clergy and staff who lead the conference.

We call such experiences mountaintop experiences because in both the Old and New Testaments intense experiences with God often took place on mountaintops. On Mt. Horeb, Moses encountered God in the burning bush that wasn’t consumed. That experience ultimately led Moses to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land. Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and spent 40 days and 40 nights. It was there that God gave him the 10 Commandments.

Elijah, the greatest prophet of Israel, also went up on Mt. Horeb, the same mountain where Moses met God in the burning bush. On that mountain God said to Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life to take it away.” God calmed his fears, assured him that there were others who had not forsaken God, and gave him the direction he needed.

Hundreds of years later, our Lord took three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, up on the mountain to pray. While Jesus was praying, the three disciples witnessed Jesus, “whose countenance was altered and whose raiment became dazzling white,” and he was with Moses, the Law-giver, and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets. St. Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus about what he was about to face when he went to Jerusalem. In other words, they were speaking to him about his impending suffering and death.

Peter, James, and John knew Jesus was the Messiah. Now Jesus is seen with the two greatest figures in the history of Israel, Moses and Elijah. Peter’s response was to make a memorial right there on the mountain. He proposed that they build three booths, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. He most likely came up with that idea because of the Jewish Feast of Booths, in which the Israelites commemorated annually the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai to Moses. But what was happening on this mountain was much greater than the giving of a new law.

They heard the voice of God: “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him.” When they heard that revelation, Moses and Elijah disappeared. Only Jesus remained.

The disciples knew that Jesus was a unique person. They believed he was the Messiah, a descendent of King David, who would restore Israel as a free, independent, and prosperous nation. But this revelation they had not expected—that Jesus is God’s Son. He is divine himself, far greater even than Moses or Elijah.

Peter’s response to this revelation wasn’t unlike how many of us might have responded. He wanted to stay on the mountain. He wanted to build a memorial of the experience.

But it wasn’t to be that kind of an experience. Jesus was speaking with Moses and Elijah about the next part of his mission. He had spent time in Galilee, but now it was time to go to Jerusalem; it was time to go to the cross.

Our youth learned a great deal about their faith at the conference, they experienced the joy of Christian community all week long, and perhaps they even caught a little glimpse of heaven. The retreat center where we had the conference is actually located on a little hill in Hartford. So, that literally it was a hilltop experience!

But our youth couldn’t remain at St. Michael’s Conference. Just like Peter, James, and John with our Lord, they had to come down from the mountain.

Every Sunday is a mountaintop experience for me as we gather together, as a parish family, to celebrate our life in Christ and to be nourished by his Body and Blood. The mountaintop doesn’t have to be a place. It can be a state of being—being in the presence of God.

From time to time, if we allow him, God lets us see glimpses of our home which is heaven. He does this so that we won’t lose sight of the goal, so that we won’t become so caught up in the joys and sorrows of this life that we forget that this is only a training ground for heaven. He gives us those mountaintop experiences to fortify us for the struggles that come from living as a Christian in an unchristian world. Don’t ever forget that Jesus went from the mountaintop to Jerusalem and the cross.

We will leave this place today, having heard God’s Word, having experienced his forgiveness, and having been nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ in order to go from here to offer ourselves in sacrificial love to others, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, to be agents of reconciliation, to be Christ’s compassionate arms of love in this sinful and broken world.

That’s what we hope and pray is the message our young people took away from their mountaintop experience at St. Michael’s Conference. God grant that you and I take it away from here this day.

Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida

Solemnity of the Transfiguration
9 August 2015

X