Mountain top moments

We’ve just had Transfiguration Sunday. Mark 9:2-9

Think of a mountain top experience you have had. How did you feel? Was it exciting? Was it challenging? How did you keep the memory alive once it was over?

Climbing a mountain is challenging. It’s not often you can start at the bottom and just ascend straight up. You may need to clear a path, zig zag up, stop and rest (not just once but many times) and often you may wish you had never started until you get to the top and the journey is forgotten by the holiness around you.

The story of the transfiguration of Jesus is one filled with awe and wonder and mystery. It is a story to be experienced rather than explained away. We all encounter God in a variety of ways. This is one of them – on a quiet mountaintop, alone with Jesus. May we savour the time alone.

Peter wanted to preserve the moment by building three dwellings. How do we try to confine those holy moments so as to hold on to them? When we try to hold onto them we can miss the experience of just being in the moment. How do we savour the holy moments so we can hear the voice of God? After experiencing that moment, how do we descend the mountain ready to rejoin society? How does it change us, transform us?

I encourage you to find a mountain (it doesn’t have to be a big one) and “climb” to the top. Sit a while, treasure the silence, be filled with the holy, and listen.

My favourite places are the top of the sand dunes at the beach and the top of the Botanic Gardens, just to sit and be, to sit and listen.

Prayer: You take us to the holy place, O God, your inspired presence lifts us up and gives us new life.

You bring us down to earth, O God. Through your eyes, we see what needs to be done and find the strength to begin. Bless us, bless our gifts, through which the ordinary shines with holiness. Amen.