June 16, 2025 • 22 mins
Join Pastor Tom Helmich as he explores the transformative power of mountain-top experiences, drawing insights from the Transfiguration of Jesus. Discover how moments of divine revelation prepare us for life's challenges, and learn why finding silence in a noisy world is crucial to hearing God's voice.
Key Talking Points:
- The spiritual significance of mountain-top experiences
- Understanding the Transfiguration of Jesus
- How silence and solitude connect us with God
- Overcoming modern distractions to hear divine guidance
Memorable Quotes:
- "The mountain top isn't the destination. It's a preparation for something off the mountain."
- "What if we could start looking for peace in silence, in prayer with nothing to drown out God's voice?"
- "God came down to us so that we didn't have to try to climb a mountain."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom Helmich (00:00):
Good morning neighborhood. So as you can see,
(00:07):
Joe is indeed, thank you nothere because I'm not Joe. And
you tell by the energy levelbecause I don't, I don't have
that. I don't know if he's gotespresso flowing through his
veins or what the deal is. But alittle calmer, a little bit
calmer morning. So we're talkingabout mountain top experiences
this morning, and some of ushave, may have been on actual
(00:30):
mountain tops before, orsomething that seems like it,
and some of us may have hadexperiences like that somewhere
else. And we're going to talk alittle bit about that and what
it means for us. But first, I'llstart with the reading. And this
is the transfiguration of Jesus.
This is in Matthew, 17 verses,one through nine. Six days
later, Jesus took with Him Peterand James and his brother John,
(00:52):
and led them up behind mountainby themselves, and he was
transfigured before them, andHis face shone like the sun, and
his clothes became bright aslight. Suddenly, there appeared
to them, Moses and Elijahtalking with him. Then Peter
said to Jesus, Lord, it is goodfor us to be here. If you wish.
(01:13):
I will set up three tents here,one for you, one for Moses and
one for Elijah. While he wasstill speaking, suddenly, a
bright cloud overshadowed them,and a voice from the cloud said,
This is my son, the beloved,with him. I am well pleased
listen to him. When thedisciples heard this, they fell
(01:35):
to the ground and were overcomeby fear. But Jesus, came and
touched them, saying, Get up anddo not be afraid. And when they
raised their eyes, they sawnoone except Jesus Himself
alone. And as they were comingdown the mountain, Jesus ordered
them tell no one about thevision until after the Son of
(01:58):
Man has been raised from thedead. Here ends our reading. So
the transfiguration of Jesus wasa major experience for the for
the disciples, and it shaped thechurch and how that is carried
on to us, even still today. Butto understand the
(02:19):
transfiguration, we have tounderstand two other things that
happened on mountain tops. Lotsof things happen on mountain
tops. I started looking throughthe Bible for mountain top
experiences, and I got to, like,seven, and I'm like, This is too
much. This is Father's Day.
Like, we want to go home. Wedon't want to be here for two
hours, right? So I had tosimply, you know, get it cut
down to the simple ones. Andit's three different experiences
(02:40):
that are all interrelated. So tounderstand the transfiguration,
we have to understand firstMount Sinai. I've got a picture
of Mount Sinai. There's MountSinai at the very top. Suppose
I've never been there. There's acave up there, but that's a
pretty big, kind of scarylooking mountain. This is the
(03:02):
mountain that Moses had hisencounter with God in. It's a
mountain that Elijah had hisencounter with God on. It is not
the mountain of theTransfiguration. We have no idea
what mountain that is. It's notnamed in the Bible. We know it's
nowhere near this one, but wehave to understand what happened
on this mountain to reallyunderstand what happened at the
Transfiguration. So the nextslide is a picture of an artist
(03:25):
rendering of Moses and Elijah.
So there's Moses holding up theTablets of the 10 Commandments,
and then there's Elijah beingfed by a raven. That's a
different part of the story. Icouldn't find an artist
rendering of just on top ofMount Sinai. But those are the
two people, and those twocharacters, those two people,
are very important for the faithof the Jewish people and for us
(03:48):
still today as Christians. So atthe Transfiguration, Jesus's
face shown bright as the sun,and his clothes became dazzling
white. So Moses, when he went upMount Sinai and received the law
from God, the 10 Commandments onthe stone tablets, His face
shone dazzling white, shownbright white as the sun, so
(04:12):
bright that when he came down todeliver the law to the people,
it freaked him out of what'sgoing he had to wear a veil
because it was scaring him. Andso he'd take the veil off and go
back up the mountain and thencome back down and put the veil
on so he wasn't scaring peoplebecause of his face glowing,
because they didn't know, Iwouldn't know what to make of
that. I mean, I've seen sunburnbefore, but like, glowing bright
(04:33):
as the sun, that'd be tough tolook at, right? And they didn't
have sunglasses, so, you know?
So he wore a veil. Moses, on theMount of Jesus' transfiguration
represents the law of the OldTestament. And then there's
Elijah. Elijah is a little lesswell known to a lot of
(04:55):
Christians. You remember there'sa song saying, I want to go out
like Elijah. I. Uh, because inthe Bible, that's maybe it's an
old Christian song from datingmyself a little bit. But there's
a Elijah is said to have beentaken up to heaven in a chariot
of fire. There's never a mentionof Elijah dying, just being
taken up into heaven in achariot of fire. And there's a
(05:18):
prophecy that said that he wouldreturn before the great and
dreadful day of the Lord. Thisis interpreted as meaning he
would come to prepare a way forthe Messiah. And in fact, later
on in the in the Gospels, Jesusis going to say, if you are
willing to accept it, talkingabout John the Baptist. He is
(05:39):
the Elijah who is sent to come,who is said to come? So for the
disciples, Moses and Elijah wererepresentative of the foundation
of their faith. Moses with thelaw, Elijah as the Prophet. And
we gotta remember who Jesus is.
When Jesus was asked about thegreatest commandment, he said,
(06:01):
Love the Lord your God with allyour soul, all your heart, soul,
strength and mind. And anotheris like it that you love your
neighbor as yourself. And thenhe said, all of the Law and the
Prophets Hang On these twocommandments. And Jesus, we
know, came not to abolish thelaw, but to fulfill it, and in
fulfillment of prophecy, to showGod's love for the world and to
(06:26):
redeem all of us sinners, forall of us who believe him. So
now on the transfiguration, thebright cloud shows up and a
voice from heaven. This is myson, the beloved. Listen to him,
that sounds an awful lot likeJesus's baptism from last week,
doesn't it? But there's a fewkey differences. If you really
(06:48):
look at the details, last week,it says he heard a voice,
meaning Jesus heard a voice. Wedon't know that anybody else
heard it. I mean, maybe theydid, maybe they didn't, but
also, at that point, Jesus hadnot called his disciples. They
probably weren't there. Theywere fishing and mending their
nets and doing these thingsbefore they were called to be
Jesus's disciples. But now, onthis mountain of
(07:12):
transfiguration, God wasspeaking to Peter, James and
John, the transfiguration on themountain wasn't about it's about
Jesus, but it wasn't for Jesus.
This is a mountain topexperience for Peter, James and
John, like Moses and Elijahbefore them. The transfiguration
(07:32):
showed them Jesus's glory andJesus's authority. It showed
them that even though throughoutall of their lives and all the
history of the Jewish people.
They've been following theteachings of Moses and Elijah.
Now they were to listen to andfollow the teachings of Jesus.
That's a big shift for them.
It's hard to let something gothat's entrenched in the very
(07:55):
fiber of our identity, of who wethink we are. We don't want to
let go of it. And that was therethen also. But God told them,
This is my son, the beloved.
Listen to him, and he waspresent with Moses and Elijah.
When he said that, to show themthat Jesus stood with among and
above Moses and Elijah, theywere to follow Jesus.
(08:25):
But like Moses and Elijah, whowent up the mountain, had an
encounter that prepared them forsomething incredible. The
disciples also had to leave themountain with it. They wanted
Peter wanted to build tents andjust stay there. What good would
it do for God to empower themfor the ministry of the church
(08:47):
if they never went out and didit? I can't imagine going to
seminary and then neverpreaching the gospel, or
somebody going to medical schooland never treating the sick, or
somebody going to engineeringschool and never building
anything a teacher training tobe a teacher and never entering
the classroom. The mountain topisn't the point. It's the
preparation for Peter, James andJohn the transfiguration was a
(09:15):
revelation from God to preparethem for something off the
mountain. Now, evidently theyforgot about that when Jesus got
arrested, because they sureseemed shaken. Maybe they didn't
really realize or understand thetotality of what they'd
experienced until after in fact,and this is kind of in jest, but
(09:35):
I feel like maybe I missed anopportunity for something on a
on a mountain top. So I've got apicture to show you here. So
this is an Meteora Greece. Mywife and I went in January with
a group from Wartburg seminary.
And so it's pretty high up. Asyou can see. You can see all the
fields and the river and theroads and the houses past me and
below me, down below. And thisrock wall I'm sitting on. Just
(09:55):
below the wall, there are theseiron bars that. Stick out about
three or four feet with like achain link mesh on top of it
that assume is to keep rocks andcats from falling down the
mountain and onto people below,and maybe tourists that sit on
the wall like me, that thatmaybe fall over. It's way up
high. Immediate Meteora, theGreek word Meteora, is the same
(10:17):
word that we get the word Meteorfrom. It means lofty or
suspended in the sky. And itsure felt like I was suspended
in the sky. But now lookingback, I kind of and this again.
This isn't just I feel likemaybe I missed an opportunity,
because look at this ray oflight coming down that cat. I
feel like I should have heard avoice from heaven saying, This
is my cat, the beloved, withwhom I'm well pleased, pet her,
(10:41):
and I'm stuck over here withthis cat named Moses, petting
this one. I feel like I missedan opportunity, but it was, it
was an awe inspiring moment. Butdoes this mean we're supposed to
climb mountains to be able toexperience God's voice. No,
because it's not about ourachievement. Remember what God
(11:04):
told Peter, James and John,listen to him. We don't have to
climb mountains to hear God'svoice. We just have to remember
the teachings of Jesus and tolisten to the teachings of Jesus
and to read them in theScripture and hear them
preached. But it's okay if westill crave a mountain top
(11:25):
experience. I've got anotherpicture, Meteora. This is taken
from a neighboring point. And asyou can see here, these high
precipices, and you start seeingbuildings in some of these high
spots, there are six. You canonly see three or four of them
in this picture if you lookreally close, there are six
(11:45):
Eastern, Orthodox monasteriesbuilt up on these high points
looking over the edge, becausethey're one. They're easily
defended when there's violencein the area, right? You're going
to see the invading army comingfor days, and they're going to
be winded when they get there.
The other side is you can justyou can see forever. It's
(12:06):
peaceful. There's something aweinspiring and serene about being
up there. The sky is bluer.
Things are quieter. I have towonder, like, why is this
feeling I was feeling was upthere, looking out on the the
world below. I start wondering,what is it about mountain tops,
and it makes us crave mountaintops and those types of
(12:27):
experiences. And I wonder ifmaybe we feel a sense of
closeness or proximity to God,but we know that God isn't up
there. God is everywhere, allplaces and all times, all at the
same time, right? So I wonder,what is it? Because it's not an
actual proximity to God.
Otherwise, you'd have to be anastronaut to be a good
(12:48):
Christian, right? But what if,maybe it's just the distance
from everything else that helpsus to feel close to God, because
when we're up that high we areso far from all the distractions
and the hustle and the bustleand the noise of life that
there's nothing else to do butjust sit there in awe and admire
(13:09):
the beauty of God's creation andfeel that closeness to our
Creator. Some of the things youcan get when you're on high
places like that are perspectiveand peace. So perspective,
you've heard of the 30,000 footview, versus being down in the
weeds, like in business, down inthe weeds means all you can see
(13:30):
is what's right in front of yourface, like you're walking in six
foot tall grass. You can't seebeyond what's right in front of
you. We can't see beyond theconcerns of what's going to
happen tomorrow or thisafternoon. We can't see the big
picture. We can't see past ourfears. It's hard to discern much
(13:51):
of God's creation or of apossibility of hope beyond
what's happening right now,because we don't know what is
beyond now 30,000 foot view isabout seeing the big picture.
It's about seeing the totalityof everything that's out there.
You can't really see muchdetail, though, maybe like
little ants crawling around, ifyou can even see anything at
(14:13):
all, but a spiritualperspective, a spiritual
perspective for a mountain topmoment we could get from a
mountain top type moment canhelp us to see just how small we
really are and how big andamazing and beautiful God's
creation really is. Thosemoments quiet the distractions
(14:38):
of the world, and she can showus that there is a hope of
something beyond our immediateworries. Hope is easier to
comprehend in these moments,because we can see that there's
something beyond what's right infront of our face. Now, peace.
Do you know what's not at thetop of mountains? I. Well, yeah,
(15:00):
not a lot on some of them.
There's also not a lot ofpeople, because, like some of
these, the bus would only go sofar, and then you had to walk,
and we had to take breaks, andnot everybody could make it to
the top. There's not a lot ofpeople, no shops, no traffic, no
cell phone or internet serviceon most of the ones I've been on
(15:22):
top of there are fewerdistractions and noise competing
for our attention. So CS Lewisand I know I mentioned this
before, because this issomething that just makes such
great sense to me. In TheScrewtape Letters Screwtape
talking to a lesser demon inthis novel that CS Lewis wrote,
he's training him on how totorment people and pull us from
God, reveals God the devil'stactic of using noise to
(15:45):
distract us from being able tohear the voice of God in the
silence and the solitude of amountaintop, Elijah heard the
voice of God in the silence. Andso we've got another reading.
It's in First Kings, 1911,through 13, and it says this.
The voice said, go out and standon the mountain before the Lord,
(16:11):
for the Lord is about to passby. Now, there was a great wind
so strong that it was splittingmountains and breaking rocks in
pieces before the Lord, but theLord was not in the wind. And
after the wind, an earthquake,but the Lord was not in the
earthquake. And after theearthquake, a fire, but the Lord
(16:31):
was not in the fire. And afterthe fire, a sound of sheer
silence. And when Elijah heardit, he wrapped his face in his
mantle and went out and stood atthe entrance of the cave. Then
there came a voice to him thatsaid, What are you doing here?
Elijah, he heard the voice andthe sound of the sheer silence,
(16:57):
a voice that would have beencovered up by the distractions
of everything else. So I gotthis picture of Meteora again,
where they built all thesemonasteries. Do any of us know
what the sound of sheer silenceeven sounds like? Something
about sitting on the edge ofthat rock wall and looking out
(17:19):
over everything below made itfeel very quiet. Fewer
distractions. Do we understandwhat the sound of peace sounds
like? We seek peace anddistractions. How many of us go
home and go through YouTubeshorts and Facebook shorts just
(17:40):
to distract us so we don't thinkabout the worries of the day.
But what if we could startlooking for peace, in silence,
in prayer with nothing to drownout God's voice? What if we had
the ability to push all of thesedistractions out away from us,
to just be there, to listen forthe voice of God, to make
(18:02):
ourselves available, to set thattime apart from everything else
in the world, to just be withGod and maybe hear nothing.
It's not easy, because the worldis actively competing for our
attention. I set my cellphone upthere just in case it you know,
I think you need text and thelight flashing through my pants,
(18:23):
but there's so many things thatdistract they want to distract
us for our attention. Iguarantee you, I'd get a couple
of texts during the service. Howmany of us have a smart watch,
right? Text messages, phonecalls, social media, messages,
emails, all these things todistract us. Imagine sitting
trying to spend just an hour incomplete silence in prayer to
(18:45):
listen for the voice of God. Howmany dings and buzzes we're
going to get look at theteenagers today, if you take
their phone away from them, theyfeel anxious because they don't
have it, because it's their onlysense of peace. We don't know
how to just sit in the silenceto listen for the voice of God
anymore. I don't know that wehave the ability to really do
(19:07):
that anymore, but I think it'sworth trying. But what if we do
found out, find ourselves havingthat mountain top experience,
either on a literal mountain orjust in a room, praying you
can't camp out there, becauseit's not about that experience.
That's not the end. That is apreparation, a revelation, to
prepare us to go do somethingout here with everybody else.
(19:31):
The mountain top isn't thedestination. But don't give up
hope. The mountain reminds uswho Jesus is, but just as the
disciples followed Him back downthe mountain, we can follow Him
and His teachings in our dailylives here and now without being
on a mountain top. And there'sgood news that God is down here
(19:53):
too. We don't have to seek out amountain top to find God or to
hear God. Voice, becauseremember that God came to us and
Jesus Christ came down to us sothat we didn't have to try to
climb a mountain. God has cometo us, and He died for us and
(20:14):
was resurrected for us, and nochaos can distract us or take
that away from us. Thanks be toGod, if you bow your heads and
pray with me, please, HeavenlyFather, we we thank You that You
have come down to us rather thanmaking us come up to you as a
(20:39):
little more Lord. We know wethat we can't and we know that
we we don't have the willpowerto fight the distractions of the
world, and we know that the theworld tries so hard to be able
to distract us from hearing yourvoice. Lord, we pray that you be
patient with us and empower usand help us to still seek you in
the silence. Help us to to beable to desire your voice, and
(21:02):
to be able to push thedistractions away and set the
noise aside, and to set timeaway, to just try to be still
and be present for you, to turnaway from everything else in the
world, to listen for You. AndLord, when we do experience
those things help us to beempowered by it, to go out into
(21:26):
the world and to share that withother people around us. Lord, we
pray that today and every day,you give us those moments of
peace and silence so that we canhear your voice and to know what
it is that you want us to do inour lives, and we pray these
(21:46):
things in Jesus name And allGod's people said, Amen. All
right. I.
Good morning neighborhood. So as you can see,
(00:07):
Joe is indeed, thank you nothere because I'm not Joe. And
you tell by the energy levelbecause I don't, I don't have
that. I don't know if he's gotespresso flowing through his
veins or what the deal is. But alittle calmer, a little bit
calmer morning. So we're talkingabout mountain top experiences
this morning, and some of ushave, may have been on actual
(00:30):
mountain tops before, orsomething that seems like it,
and some of us may have hadexperiences like that somewhere
else. And we're going to talk alittle bit about that and what
it means for us. But first, I'llstart with the reading. And this
is the transfiguration of Jesus.
This is in Matthew, 17 verses,one through nine. Six days
later, Jesus took with Him Peterand James and his brother John,
(00:52):
and led them up behind mountainby themselves, and he was
transfigured before them, andHis face shone like the sun, and
his clothes became bright aslight. Suddenly, there appeared
to them, Moses and Elijahtalking with him. Then Peter
said to Jesus, Lord, it is goodfor us to be here. If you wish.
(01:13):
I will set up three tents here,one for you, one for Moses and
one for Elijah. While he wasstill speaking, suddenly, a
bright cloud overshadowed them,and a voice from the cloud said,
This is my son, the beloved,with him. I am well pleased
listen to him. When thedisciples heard this, they fell
(01:35):
to the ground and were overcomeby fear. But Jesus, came and
touched them, saying, Get up anddo not be afraid. And when they
raised their eyes, they sawnoone except Jesus Himself
alone. And as they were comingdown the mountain, Jesus ordered
them tell no one about thevision until after the Son of
(01:58):
Man has been raised from thedead. Here ends our reading. So
the transfiguration of Jesus wasa major experience for the for
the disciples, and it shaped thechurch and how that is carried
on to us, even still today. Butto understand the
(02:19):
transfiguration, we have tounderstand two other things that
happened on mountain tops. Lotsof things happen on mountain
tops. I started looking throughthe Bible for mountain top
experiences, and I got to, like,seven, and I'm like, This is too
much. This is Father's Day.
Like, we want to go home. Wedon't want to be here for two
hours, right? So I had tosimply, you know, get it cut
down to the simple ones. Andit's three different experiences
(02:40):
that are all interrelated. So tounderstand the transfiguration,
we have to understand firstMount Sinai. I've got a picture
of Mount Sinai. There's MountSinai at the very top. Suppose
I've never been there. There's acave up there, but that's a
pretty big, kind of scarylooking mountain. This is the
(03:02):
mountain that Moses had hisencounter with God in. It's a
mountain that Elijah had hisencounter with God on. It is not
the mountain of theTransfiguration. We have no idea
what mountain that is. It's notnamed in the Bible. We know it's
nowhere near this one, but wehave to understand what happened
on this mountain to reallyunderstand what happened at the
Transfiguration. So the nextslide is a picture of an artist
(03:25):
rendering of Moses and Elijah.
So there's Moses holding up theTablets of the 10 Commandments,
and then there's Elijah beingfed by a raven. That's a
different part of the story. Icouldn't find an artist
rendering of just on top ofMount Sinai. But those are the
two people, and those twocharacters, those two people,
are very important for the faithof the Jewish people and for us
(03:48):
still today as Christians. So atthe Transfiguration, Jesus's
face shown bright as the sun,and his clothes became dazzling
white. So Moses, when he went upMount Sinai and received the law
from God, the 10 Commandments onthe stone tablets, His face
shone dazzling white, shownbright white as the sun, so
(04:12):
bright that when he came down todeliver the law to the people,
it freaked him out of what'sgoing he had to wear a veil
because it was scaring him. Andso he'd take the veil off and go
back up the mountain and thencome back down and put the veil
on so he wasn't scaring peoplebecause of his face glowing,
because they didn't know, Iwouldn't know what to make of
that. I mean, I've seen sunburnbefore, but like, glowing bright
(04:33):
as the sun, that'd be tough tolook at, right? And they didn't
have sunglasses, so, you know?
So he wore a veil. Moses, on theMount of Jesus' transfiguration
represents the law of the OldTestament. And then there's
Elijah. Elijah is a little lesswell known to a lot of
(04:55):
Christians. You remember there'sa song saying, I want to go out
like Elijah. I. Uh, because inthe Bible, that's maybe it's an
old Christian song from datingmyself a little bit. But there's
a Elijah is said to have beentaken up to heaven in a chariot
of fire. There's never a mentionof Elijah dying, just being
taken up into heaven in achariot of fire. And there's a
(05:18):
prophecy that said that he wouldreturn before the great and
dreadful day of the Lord. Thisis interpreted as meaning he
would come to prepare a way forthe Messiah. And in fact, later
on in the in the Gospels, Jesusis going to say, if you are
willing to accept it, talkingabout John the Baptist. He is
(05:39):
the Elijah who is sent to come,who is said to come? So for the
disciples, Moses and Elijah wererepresentative of the foundation
of their faith. Moses with thelaw, Elijah as the Prophet. And
we gotta remember who Jesus is.
When Jesus was asked about thegreatest commandment, he said,
(06:01):
Love the Lord your God with allyour soul, all your heart, soul,
strength and mind. And anotheris like it that you love your
neighbor as yourself. And thenhe said, all of the Law and the
Prophets Hang On these twocommandments. And Jesus, we
know, came not to abolish thelaw, but to fulfill it, and in
fulfillment of prophecy, to showGod's love for the world and to
(06:26):
redeem all of us sinners, forall of us who believe him. So
now on the transfiguration, thebright cloud shows up and a
voice from heaven. This is myson, the beloved. Listen to him,
that sounds an awful lot likeJesus's baptism from last week,
doesn't it? But there's a fewkey differences. If you really
(06:48):
look at the details, last week,it says he heard a voice,
meaning Jesus heard a voice. Wedon't know that anybody else
heard it. I mean, maybe theydid, maybe they didn't, but
also, at that point, Jesus hadnot called his disciples. They
probably weren't there. Theywere fishing and mending their
nets and doing these thingsbefore they were called to be
Jesus's disciples. But now, onthis mountain of
(07:12):
transfiguration, God wasspeaking to Peter, James and
John, the transfiguration on themountain wasn't about it's about
Jesus, but it wasn't for Jesus.
This is a mountain topexperience for Peter, James and
John, like Moses and Elijahbefore them. The transfiguration
(07:32):
showed them Jesus's glory andJesus's authority. It showed
them that even though throughoutall of their lives and all the
history of the Jewish people.
They've been following theteachings of Moses and Elijah.
Now they were to listen to andfollow the teachings of Jesus.
That's a big shift for them.
It's hard to let something gothat's entrenched in the very
(07:55):
fiber of our identity, of who wethink we are. We don't want to
let go of it. And that was therethen also. But God told them,
This is my son, the beloved.
Listen to him, and he waspresent with Moses and Elijah.
When he said that, to show themthat Jesus stood with among and
above Moses and Elijah, theywere to follow Jesus.
(08:25):
But like Moses and Elijah, whowent up the mountain, had an
encounter that prepared them forsomething incredible. The
disciples also had to leave themountain with it. They wanted
Peter wanted to build tents andjust stay there. What good would
it do for God to empower themfor the ministry of the church
(08:47):
if they never went out and didit? I can't imagine going to
seminary and then neverpreaching the gospel, or
somebody going to medical schooland never treating the sick, or
somebody going to engineeringschool and never building
anything a teacher training tobe a teacher and never entering
the classroom. The mountain topisn't the point. It's the
preparation for Peter, James andJohn the transfiguration was a
(09:15):
revelation from God to preparethem for something off the
mountain. Now, evidently theyforgot about that when Jesus got
arrested, because they sureseemed shaken. Maybe they didn't
really realize or understand thetotality of what they'd
experienced until after in fact,and this is kind of in jest, but
(09:35):
I feel like maybe I missed anopportunity for something on a
on a mountain top. So I've got apicture to show you here. So
this is an Meteora Greece. Mywife and I went in January with
a group from Wartburg seminary.
And so it's pretty high up. Asyou can see. You can see all the
fields and the river and theroads and the houses past me and
below me, down below. And thisrock wall I'm sitting on. Just
(09:55):
below the wall, there are theseiron bars that. Stick out about
three or four feet with like achain link mesh on top of it
that assume is to keep rocks andcats from falling down the
mountain and onto people below,and maybe tourists that sit on
the wall like me, that thatmaybe fall over. It's way up
high. Immediate Meteora, theGreek word Meteora, is the same
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word that we get the word Meteorfrom. It means lofty or
suspended in the sky. And itsure felt like I was suspended
in the sky. But now lookingback, I kind of and this again.
This isn't just I feel likemaybe I missed an opportunity,
because look at this ray oflight coming down that cat. I
feel like I should have heard avoice from heaven saying, This
is my cat, the beloved, withwhom I'm well pleased, pet her,
(10:41):
and I'm stuck over here withthis cat named Moses, petting
this one. I feel like I missedan opportunity, but it was, it
was an awe inspiring moment. Butdoes this mean we're supposed to
climb mountains to be able toexperience God's voice. No,
because it's not about ourachievement. Remember what God
(11:04):
told Peter, James and John,listen to him. We don't have to
climb mountains to hear God'svoice. We just have to remember
the teachings of Jesus and tolisten to the teachings of Jesus
and to read them in theScripture and hear them
preached. But it's okay if westill crave a mountain top
(11:25):
experience. I've got anotherpicture, Meteora. This is taken
from a neighboring point. And asyou can see here, these high
precipices, and you start seeingbuildings in some of these high
spots, there are six. You canonly see three or four of them
in this picture if you lookreally close, there are six
(11:45):
Eastern, Orthodox monasteriesbuilt up on these high points
looking over the edge, becausethey're one. They're easily
defended when there's violencein the area, right? You're going
to see the invading army comingfor days, and they're going to
be winded when they get there.
The other side is you can justyou can see forever. It's
(12:06):
peaceful. There's something aweinspiring and serene about being
up there. The sky is bluer.
Things are quieter. I have towonder, like, why is this
feeling I was feeling was upthere, looking out on the the
world below. I start wondering,what is it about mountain tops,
and it makes us crave mountaintops and those types of
(12:27):
experiences. And I wonder ifmaybe we feel a sense of
closeness or proximity to God,but we know that God isn't up
there. God is everywhere, allplaces and all times, all at the
same time, right? So I wonder,what is it? Because it's not an
actual proximity to God.
Otherwise, you'd have to be anastronaut to be a good
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Christian, right? But what if,maybe it's just the distance
from everything else that helpsus to feel close to God, because
when we're up that high we areso far from all the distractions
and the hustle and the bustleand the noise of life that
there's nothing else to do butjust sit there in awe and admire
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the beauty of God's creation andfeel that closeness to our
Creator. Some of the things youcan get when you're on high
places like that are perspectiveand peace. So perspective,
you've heard of the 30,000 footview, versus being down in the
weeds, like in business, down inthe weeds means all you can see
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is what's right in front of yourface, like you're walking in six
foot tall grass. You can't seebeyond what's right in front of
you. We can't see beyond theconcerns of what's going to
happen tomorrow or thisafternoon. We can't see the big
picture. We can't see past ourfears. It's hard to discern much
(13:51):
of God's creation or of apossibility of hope beyond
what's happening right now,because we don't know what is
beyond now 30,000 foot view isabout seeing the big picture.
It's about seeing the totalityof everything that's out there.
You can't really see muchdetail, though, maybe like
little ants crawling around, ifyou can even see anything at
(14:13):
all, but a spiritualperspective, a spiritual
perspective for a mountain topmoment we could get from a
mountain top type moment canhelp us to see just how small we
really are and how big andamazing and beautiful God's
creation really is. Thosemoments quiet the distractions
(14:38):
of the world, and she can showus that there is a hope of
something beyond our immediateworries. Hope is easier to
comprehend in these moments,because we can see that there's
something beyond what's right infront of our face. Now, peace.
Do you know what's not at thetop of mountains? I. Well, yeah,
(15:00):
not a lot on some of them.
There's also not a lot ofpeople, because, like some of
these, the bus would only go sofar, and then you had to walk,
and we had to take breaks, andnot everybody could make it to
the top. There's not a lot ofpeople, no shops, no traffic, no
cell phone or internet serviceon most of the ones I've been on
(15:22):
top of there are fewerdistractions and noise competing
for our attention. So CS Lewisand I know I mentioned this
before, because this issomething that just makes such
great sense to me. In TheScrewtape Letters Screwtape
talking to a lesser demon inthis novel that CS Lewis wrote,
he's training him on how totorment people and pull us from
God, reveals God the devil'stactic of using noise to
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distract us from being able tohear the voice of God in the
silence and the solitude of amountaintop, Elijah heard the
voice of God in the silence. Andso we've got another reading.
It's in First Kings, 1911,through 13, and it says this.
The voice said, go out and standon the mountain before the Lord,
(16:11):
for the Lord is about to passby. Now, there was a great wind
so strong that it was splittingmountains and breaking rocks in
pieces before the Lord, but theLord was not in the wind. And
after the wind, an earthquake,but the Lord was not in the
earthquake. And after theearthquake, a fire, but the Lord
(16:31):
was not in the fire. And afterthe fire, a sound of sheer
silence. And when Elijah heardit, he wrapped his face in his
mantle and went out and stood atthe entrance of the cave. Then
there came a voice to him thatsaid, What are you doing here?
Elijah, he heard the voice andthe sound of the sheer silence,
(16:57):
a voice that would have beencovered up by the distractions
of everything else. So I gotthis picture of Meteora again,
where they built all thesemonasteries. Do any of us know
what the sound of sheer silenceeven sounds like? Something
about sitting on the edge ofthat rock wall and looking out
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over everything below made itfeel very quiet. Fewer
distractions. Do we understandwhat the sound of peace sounds
like? We seek peace anddistractions. How many of us go
home and go through YouTubeshorts and Facebook shorts just
(17:40):
to distract us so we don't thinkabout the worries of the day.
But what if we could startlooking for peace, in silence,
in prayer with nothing to drownout God's voice? What if we had
the ability to push all of thesedistractions out away from us,
to just be there, to listen forthe voice of God, to make
(18:02):
ourselves available, to set thattime apart from everything else
in the world, to just be withGod and maybe hear nothing.
It's not easy, because the worldis actively competing for our
attention. I set my cellphone upthere just in case it you know,
I think you need text and thelight flashing through my pants,
(18:23):
but there's so many things thatdistract they want to distract
us for our attention. Iguarantee you, I'd get a couple
of texts during the service. Howmany of us have a smart watch,
right? Text messages, phonecalls, social media, messages,
emails, all these things todistract us. Imagine sitting
trying to spend just an hour incomplete silence in prayer to
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listen for the voice of God. Howmany dings and buzzes we're
going to get look at theteenagers today, if you take
their phone away from them, theyfeel anxious because they don't
have it, because it's their onlysense of peace. We don't know
how to just sit in the silenceto listen for the voice of God
anymore. I don't know that wehave the ability to really do
(19:07):
that anymore, but I think it'sworth trying. But what if we do
found out, find ourselves havingthat mountain top experience,
either on a literal mountain orjust in a room, praying you
can't camp out there, becauseit's not about that experience.
That's not the end. That is apreparation, a revelation, to
prepare us to go do somethingout here with everybody else.
(19:31):
The mountain top isn't thedestination. But don't give up
hope. The mountain reminds uswho Jesus is, but just as the
disciples followed Him back downthe mountain, we can follow Him
and His teachings in our dailylives here and now without being
on a mountain top. And there'sgood news that God is down here
(19:53):
too. We don't have to seek out amountain top to find God or to
hear God. Voice, becauseremember that God came to us and
Jesus Christ came down to us sothat we didn't have to try to
climb a mountain. God has cometo us, and He died for us and
(20:14):
was resurrected for us, and nochaos can distract us or take
that away from us. Thanks be toGod, if you bow your heads and
pray with me, please, HeavenlyFather, we we thank You that You
have come down to us rather thanmaking us come up to you as a
(20:39):
little more Lord. We know wethat we can't and we know that
we we don't have the willpowerto fight the distractions of the
world, and we know that the theworld tries so hard to be able
to distract us from hearing yourvoice. Lord, we pray that you be
patient with us and empower usand help us to still seek you in
the silence. Help us to to beable to desire your voice, and
(21:02):
to be able to push thedistractions away and set the
noise aside, and to set timeaway, to just try to be still
and be present for you, to turnaway from everything else in the
world, to listen for You. AndLord, when we do experience
those things help us to beempowered by it, to go out into
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the world and to share that withother people around us. Lord, we
pray that today and every day,you give us those moments of
peace and silence so that we canhear your voice and to know what
it is that you want us to do inour lives, and we pray these
(21:46):
things in Jesus name And allGod's people said, Amen. All
right. I.
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