Scripture Text:
Sermon:
You’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And now you can’t get out of it
Don’t say that later will be better
Now you’re stuck in a moment
And you can’t get out of it
This is the refrain from one of my favorite pop songs by U2. “Stuck in a moment” is the name of the song, and these are the words that come to my mind as we read the stories appointed for this Sunday, the last before we head into the season of Lent. Every year on this last Sunday after the Epiphany, we come back to the moment of Jesus shining on the mountaintop in transfigured glory. Every year Peter says, “Wow, this is fantastic, and we have to stay here – let’s build some tents and camp out.” Stuck in the moment, indeed.
But it’s also appropriate for the first reading today, which only comes every third year- the story of Elijah the aged prophet, and his young protégé, Elisha. Elijah knows he is leaving soon. He knows his time has come, and it’s time for Elisha to take over. The prophets at Bethel and the prophets at Jericho know it too. The one who seems stuck in denial is Elisha. No matter who tells him to let Elijah go, poor Elisha just clings to him all the more. No, I will not leave you. No, I will never leave you. Elisha knows what he has in Elijah- a holy man of God, a wise teacher, a guardian and friend- and he likes it just as it is. He is stuck in the moment and he won’t let go of it.
Soon, the time has come. Elijah makes his final preparation. He rolls up his cloak and strikes the waters of the River Jordan- the waters part and they cross over the river. Just as Moses and the Israelites had crossed through the Red Sea, and just as a generation later, Joshua had led Israel across the Jordan, now these two prophets, one young and one old, make their sacred crossing over storied waters. It is as if Elijah is stepping outside the ordinary, outside the safety of the promised land, outside of time itself- and soon he is caught up in a whirlwind, with horses and chariots of fire galloping around and between them, and Elisha inheriting the Spirit that rested on his spiritual father. Now Elijah is gone. Elisha must carry forward the work of holiness in an unholy time. And he must do it without the one who taught him how. The past is gone- the future lies stretched out before this young man.
*****
Centuries later, it is Jesus and his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John. And as people still do in our own day, when some time apart is needed, they go to the wilderness and head up to the mountaintop. When the moment comes, Jesus is blazing in glory- looking at Jesus is probably like looking into a projector. The prophets of old appear, having a chat with Jesus, and these hapless disciples are astonished. It is the kind of moment you might want to get stuck in- and Peter is certainly stuck in this moment and doesn’t seem to want to get out of it. “It is good for us to be here! Let’s make three dwellings.” In other words, let’s settle down. Let’s stay. Let’s put up houses you three can live in. We don’t have to leave. We can keep things this way permanently.
But down the mountain they come- because the Transfiguration was an important moment to be sure- a glimpse of Jesus in his full, divine glory, with the voice of God chiming in just to make sure everyone gets the message. But it’s not the point. The point is yet to come. The point is the journey to Jerusalem- the point is the coming struggle which leads to the crucifixion and death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
*****
We all have things we love about the way things are. We all have things we’re quite sure we could never live without. And we will lose every one of them. Every day we live is a moment which is poised between all the joys and sorrows of the past, and the future which is ours to claim. Some of us like things as they are, and some of us would prefer to go backward, or to hold onto things which are slipping away beyond our control.
Every step of Jesus’s ministry, he is surrounded by people who want to hold on to him and keep him there. When he heals the sick, they want him to stay in town until everyone is healed. But the healing is just part of the message, and he’s got to move on and carry the message to other towns. When he is transfigured, Peter wants to take up permanent residence on the mountaintop. But the transfiguration is just a moment of confirmation that Jesus is the divine Son of God. Now that they know that for sure, they’ve got to go onward and continue the ministry together. When Jesus is feeding his disciples at the Last Supper, teaching them about the suffering he is about to undergo, they want to hold on to being his followers and argue about which of them is the greatest. But greatness is exactly what it’s not about- Jesus is there to serve, and so should his disciples be. Finally, when Jesus has been raised from the dead, and, like Elijah, is about to ascend into heaven, his disciples want him to stick around and take over and rule as King over Israel- but he has to go- Jesus leaves, and promises them that the Holy Spirit will come and send them out into every part of the world.
Every moment that we have- time we have with each other as friends, time with Jesus in our moments of prayer and sacrament, the years we have been members and worshipers and builders and leaders in this congregation, the years and decades of our family lives- all of it rolls on, and we have to leave each moment behind. If we refuse, then we become stuck- spiritually, emotionally, psychologically- stuck like flies in amber. But Jesus always expects his disciples to move forward, to press toward the goal- the full realization of the Kingdom of God, which is so close you can almost touch it, but lies beyond the end of time as well.
The Church, as an institution, seems always to be looking back to the past. We read the ancient stories of scripture over and over, we pray in language that is familiar to us, but which is often incredibly old-fashioned to most of our neighbors. We do the things we have done for two thousand years- we baptize and we share a meal week by week. And we’re not wrong to do these things- we do them because Jesus himself gave them to us and told us to do them. But we also need to remember that Jesus gave these things both as a remembrance of the past and as a sign of what is to come in the future. We are, whether we realize it or not, and whether we even like it or not, a future-oriented people. It’s hard to see it sometimes, but it’s what we are.
I’ll close with another song. Lots of you probably aren’t fans of U2, whose lyrics I started out with. So – in true church fashion, I’ll look to the future with words from an old, old song- a song which nonetheless looks, as we always should, toward a future which is yet to come.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
bears all our years away;
they fly, forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guide while life shall last,
and our eternal home.