The Diocese of East Tennessee
Sermons

March 5, 2000
Epiphany Last
Delivered at All Saints, Morristown

Sermon: At the Mountaintop
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

I want to thank this parish family for the warm welcome that All Saints has extended to Annie and to me. We have visited here previously on other occasions, but this is my first official parish visit as bishop. In addition, I want to thank your interim rector, your deacon, and your day school headmaster for the good job they do here at All Saints and on behalf of the diocese as well.

There are great moments of significance in every life that raise us to a plane almost beyond ourselves. And - in the nature of things - these moments are surrounded by much that seems mundane and superficial by contrast. However, those peaks of meaningful intensity help us to withstand and to endure the valleys that separate them. Indeed, it is from such mountaintop perspectives that we view the rest of our own lives, for better or for worse. We live on the hillsides and in the valleys most of the time, but the mountaintop is that point from which we may observe all the rest.

Significant experiences are parts of life - every life. The mountaintops are not the same for us all, but the perspectives from them are equally significant for each one of us. The rest of life can be viewed from those high peaks in a way that no other perspective will allow. Our mountaintops might include the birth of children … or the achieving of some long-sought life goal … or the special awareness that might come at the altar during a wedding, if indeed we have our wits about us then … or the knowledge which is experienced as a gift at the center of our being that somebody else cares about us - really and truly cares.

These and others are our mountaintops. Thank God for them! They make sense of life and give our existence meaning. They help us endure so much that is relatively unimportant. They beckon us to raise our sights and our hopes and to strive to reach our capabilities.

It is no accident that we call such moments "mountaintop experiences." In our biblical heritage, mountains were often places where a person encountered God, the ultimate source of knowledge, insight, and meaning. Mountains were special places of worship and of profound spiritual experience in the Bible.

For instance, Moses met God on the mountain of Sinai. From that mountaintop experience came the laws by which the people of God were instructed to live, the Ten Commandments. Also, it was on Mt. Carmel that Elijah called on the name of God. The resulting indication of God's power put the prophets of Baal to shame, and a nation was converted to the one true God. Again, Elijah encountered God on another mountaintop - this time on Mt. Horeb. On that occasion, the Lord was known in the "still small voice" that Elijah heard on the mountaintop. Then, later, when Jesus offered his great teaching on the Law of God, he did so in what we call the "Sermon on the Mount."

Thus, great biblical events have happened on mountaintops. Mountains symbolize the encounter between God and human beings. They provide the location of much meaningful and profound insight. It has been on mountaintops that people have learned a great deal about God and the eternal aspects of living, as well as gaining important knowledge of themselves in the process. Therefore, again, mountaintops are those places of special perspective from which the rest of life makes more sense.

We have the opportunity to experience two figurative mountaintops this morning. First, this final Sunday after Epiphany has been designated as "World Mission Sunday", and this year we pay special attention to the Sudanese Christians. Christians in the Sudan continue to make their witness in the face of great persecution, and our own faith is enriched by their conviction. Secondly, in our worship today, several candidates climb to a mountaintop as they come before us for the laying on of hands, to make promises about their future lives, and to receive the support and prayers of this community of faith.

We also read about a particular mountaintop experience in the biblical lessons today - the Transfiguration of Jesus. And this experience had much in common with other mountaintop experiences, for such experiences often share various traits.

For instance, an encounter with God was certainly involved during the event of the Transfiguration. Further, in this experience were found an element of mystery, a display of power, and, most important of all, an opportunity for new and transforming insight. Indeed, because of this experience, Peter, James, and John could never be the same again. They had been to the mountaintop. There they had seen Jesus as the glorified Christ, and because of that confrontation, their perspective of the world must have changed radically.

The exact nature of what happened on that mountaintop is not clear. But the meaning of it most certainly is clear to those of us who have received the written witness of it. The form of the man Jesus was changed there in the presence of those three disciples. Jesus was seen in his glorified state - his resurrection body - at this time during his earthly life. Therefore, before death, Jesus was demonstrated to be the Lord of the world and the One who would overcome death itself.

In this mountaintop experience about which we read today, our own Christian perspective on the world should be changed also. In faith, we have climbed that mountain with Peter, James, and John; and we, too, have seen the transfigured Christ. As Christians, we believe that Jesus, who walked this earth, was the very Son of God. The one whose pain and suffering on earth we remember during Lent is the same as he who was raised on Easter Day and who is now our advocate and mediator with God the Father. We believe that Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, who is able to overcome death - the final, great, and mysterious adversary of life. Thus, by means of the Transfiguration - even before his own death - Jesus is proclaimed the victor over death and the Lord of life. As Christians we affirm that proclamation at all times - times like those today in which we recognize and pray about the sufferings in the Sudan, as well as times in which we celebrate the public affirmation of faith at confirmation.

Finally, because of our experience in faith on the mountaintop, our view of life is transformed forever. The life we live is shared with Christ - in suffering, in pain, and in hardship, as well as in joy and in happiness. And he who shares this life with us now is able to transform life itself by overcoming death, for he himself was transformed as well.

"Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor 15:57).

Copyright © 2000 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee