Saint Mark 2:2-9
One of the most insightful preachers of our day is Dr. Scott Black Johnson who is a one man idea machine filling the pulpit of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. I listen to him faithfully and always come away richly rewarded.
He preached a series of sermons this fall in which he invited his congregation to become “Detectives of Divinity” by looking for moments of awe and wonder in their everyday lives.
It has always been an idea of mine that every new candidate to become a pastor of a church should be asked to tell the call committee their favourite joke. If he or she blushes, or hems and haws, the committee might guess that the joke was unseemly at which point I would strongly suggest hiring him or her on the spot because the church can use a little relief from priggish silliness and just get back to pure, unadulterated silliness. As an institution the church as a whole takes itself far too seriously.
Dr. Black Johnson has another question he would, and has, asked candidates who wanted to become ordained or join his staff. In order to discover whether a person regularly experienced a sense of wonder he would ask: “When was the last time you experienced awe?”
It is a good question for all of us to ponder. “When was the last time we experienced awe?”
Awe and wonder are hard to define but we know when we are experiencing them.
Someone who appreciates art may experience awe and wonder in a Degas’ dancer, a water lilly by Monet, Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” a Georgia O’Keefe landscape, or even a creation by one of the second graders at Saint Luke Academy.
A music lover may experience awe and wonder when a performance all comes together with a grand chord on the end, smiles on the face of the performers, and the silence of an audience that has to catch its breath before bursting into applause.
Someone who loves the outdoors may experience awe and wonder when seeing The Grand Canyon, or the Rockies, or the ocean, or a mighty river, or a wide field of wheat glistening in the sun.
For those who love language it may be that well-turned phrase that makes us roar with laughter, or put down the book, stare off into space for a moment in awe of what we have just read.
You know what I am talking about. “Awe is an open mouth, a sudden gasp of air, wide eyes, a twisted smile. Awe is something that makes our hearts leap. Experiencing awe and wonder seem to be a central part of what it means to be human.”
Also, says Dr. Black Johnson, “Awe calls us to recalibrate our assumptions.”1
May I suggest to you that there were a lot of assumptions being recalibrated by Peter, James, and John as they stood there in awe and wonder of what is going on with their friend Jesus.
For all they knew they were just going on a hike with him. A mountain climbing “outward bound” experience. They may be out of breath when they got to the top but there would be no hint that the experience would leave them breathless in awe and wonder.
Nothing in the immediate topography of Mark prepares them or us for it.
Jesus has been doing ministry in the lowlands of rural Galilee, with no mountain in sight. Suddenly and without warning, the grade in Mark’s narrative turns sharply upward, and we find ourselves with Peter, James and John on a “high mountain apart.”2
Nobody quite knows why Jesus decided to go up the mountain. He didn’t announce to his friends, “Oh, by the way, I have a very important meeting today at 3 o’clock with Moses and Elijah.” We also don’t know why he chose who he chose for the journey we only know that he suggests this excursion and they, perhaps with nothing better to do, decide to go along.
What we do know is that mountains are the traditional locations where revelation takes place but they also can be frightening places. Think about Moses on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments amid the fire and smoke of Mount Sinai. Think about today’s first reading where Elisha watches Elijah being taken up in a “chariot of fire.”
Did the guys trekking up the path with Jesus think about this? Who knows?
We do know what happens next. Our translation only tells us that he was “transfigured” but others say “Suddenly his face began to shine with glory”3 ... “His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes”4
The light wasn’t shining on Jesus it appeared to be coming from Jesus. Talk about a moment of awe and wonder!
And his clothes. “(H)is clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.”5
The Rev’d Sue Eaves, Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia pointed out something I had never noticed before.
In the years before modern washers and dryers and uneatable Tide Pods, clean laundry was a sign of respectability that was a result of lots of hard work. She remembered her mother in England literally boiling the dirt out of clothing, lifting it steaming from the tub, running it through a mangle, and then hanging it in the sunshine until it was “dazzling white.” Dazzling clothes she said were the result of “an intense labor of love, and that was what Jesus was all about.”6
That is what makes us stand in awe and wonder of Jesus – it is his intense love.
Peter wants to capture that love. This is a moment worth preserving. This is a moment that is worth keeping for if not eternity at least as long as possible. How often does one get to witness a meeting of the minds of three great religious leaders? It is as if the four presidents on Mount Rushmore started to speak. At the risk of dating myself that would be a Kodak moment!
In the midst of all this “awe and wonder” there is an interruption. It is no less than a voice shattering Peter’s dreams and reminding him that an intense labor of love was calling. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” booms the voice that we think probably sounded like Morgan Freeman’s and the disciples are wakened from their dreams. For what Jesus says is, in essence, “Let’s go! My love is not love until we give it away.”
Jesus could have stayed on the mountain, but he chose to come down and discover awe and wonder in “the mundane nature of everyday life.
Down into the nitty-gritty details of misunderstanding, squabbling, disbelieving disciples. Down into the religious and political quarrels of the day. Down into the jealousies and [rivalries] both petty and gigantic that colour our relationships. Down into the poverty and pain that are part and parcel of our life in this world.7
That may be the most awe inspiring and wonderful thing about the whole experience. Jesus is where we are. Jesus is right where we live.
Dr. John Buchanan, Pastor Emeritus of Fourth Presbyterian wrote once: “We do our believing in those moments of clarity when God gives us experiences of sharp truth. We do most of our living on faith, on the path, in the fog, remembering the clear picture we were given, anticipating another one but, in the meantime, walking on in trust.”8
If we spend this week and the weeks ahead accepting the invitation to be “Detectives of the Divine” there might be surprising outcome in our walk with Jesus.
We might discover that awe and wonder can be found on our mountaintops to be sure but can also be found in the valleys and even in the level places of day to day living.
Awe and wonder can come as we gather with Jesus in this place around his table but we might discover that awe and wonder can come at home as he shows up when we are eating leftovers at our kitchen tables.
Awe and wonder can come when we realize Jesus is with us at our desks at work and even at home when our partner suggest that it might be time to do the dishes or that the furniture needs dusting.
Jesus is with us always in it all, the dazzling bright and darkest of dark places in which we find ourselves.
The transfiguration shows us that even though most of our lives are lived between moments of great grace and the world’s mayhem there is still the awe and wonder of knowing that, through it all, Jesus is with us.
“Detectives of the Divine” are always looking for awe and wonder in everything, everybody, everywhere, and in their search often seeing Jesus who is now, and ever and always will be, wonderfully awe inspiring.
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1. Scott Black Johnson, “Wired for Wonder.” Sermon preached at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York City. September 10, 2023.
2.Thomas G. Long, “‘Reality Show’ -Mark 9:2-9,” The Christian Century.www.thechristiancentury.org, March 7, 2006, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2006-03/reality-show?code=1xolwfggVUsVMOweivZo&utm_source=Christian%2BCentury%2BNewsletter&utm_campaign=c4d08b43ee-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_SCP_2024-02-05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-31c915c0b7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D.
3, St. Mark 9:2. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Publishing House, 1971]
4. St. Mark 9:2. (MSG) [MESSAGE=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English (Colorado Springs,, CO: NavPress,1995).]
5. St. Mark 9:3. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]
6. Carla Pratt Keyes, “A Transfiguration Sermon,”A Sermon for Every Sunday. asermonforeverysunday.com, January 15, 2021, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Carla-Pratt-Keyes-Transfiguration-Sunday-February-14-2021.pdf.
7. David Lose, “He Came Down,” Working Preacher from Luther Seminary, November 9, 2020, https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/he-came-down.
8. Connie Lauermann, "One Magnificent Church." The Chicago Tribune Magazine, January 10, 1988.
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