Up and Down the Mountain

Sermon preached on Sunday 7th March 2011 at St Columba's 7pm Choral Evensong

Today is the Sunday before lent, as we progress through the churches year we highlight various aspects of the Christian Life through the calendar and lectionary the readings.

Today we have changed the colours from Green to white - as we are remembering one of the highpoints of the church’s year - the Transfiguration of Christ. An event which Jesus brought Peter, James and John up a mountain, and then he appeared talking with Moses and Elijah. The Three witnessed this amazing display of God’s glory, they saw just how amazing Jesus is ... the impact of this is truly remarkable

Moses - The reluctant leader who lead the people out of slavery into the promised land, which he just glanced before he died, he was the one who proclaimed the 10 commandments

Then Elijah - the prophet who bore witness to mighty acts of God’s power and provision

How amazing it was for the 3 disciples to witness this unique event in history and to hear God’s voice saying of Jesus - “This is my beloved son, with him I am well pleased ... listen to him”

Our gospel reading this evening follows on from this experience ... they come down the mountain and are faced immediately with the trials and tribulations of everyday life.

It is quite remarkable how often we go through the same thing in our lives... of how we are on a high - perhaps celebrating some achievement and then in the next breath we encounter something which brings us down to earth with a bump ... perhaps bad news or a negative experience of some kind.

One of the tensions have have found as I progress through life is the making sense of this. The mountaintop highs and the valley lows.

For us in our lives of faith - High Times could be those spent with God, in prayer, in studying the Bible, in worship ... and then in the same day we may meeting up with people who have problems of all sorts, we may encounter problems with friends where our faith is challenged, where we fail to grasp what God is saying - it is always a tension between ...

How do we practice what we preach

How do we be the same on monday as we are on sunday

How do we combine sacred with secular

How do we practice the presence of God as we go about our daily lives

How do we communicate with a world which is hurting

There are no easy answers - but what we expenience in church, in our own home devotions and Bible Study has to empower us to reach out to those who need our help, impact those who do not know God.

Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.

Encounters with God empower people to do things for him

The Disciples, Moses and the Burning Bush, Saul who became the apostle Paul.

Countless Saints down through the ages ... and even in the lives of Christians today

We probably won’t see a burning bush or be blinded for days but we may hear God saying “follow me”

we may be impacted by a cause which we know which needs supported,

a person we think could do with a wee bit of love

we may see injustice in our world

we may hear the call of God step out in faith some how.

It is good to worship, it is great to sing songs and to come to this place ... we as Christians do need to encounter God

But we also know that we need to go and face the valley, the people, the situations which are difficult. It is up to us to be God’s hands, feet, voice in others lives.

It is a difficult call but it one which we remember that we do not face alone - but God is with us, and that is the great news. We don’t worship a God who lives in a building or a temple, we have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, empowering us to do the things that Jesus did and much more besides :-)