Matthew 17:1-9
God is talking… time to let God blaze through our history, present and future.
Anyone who dares to go up to the mountain of the Lord gets a tablet of stone instructing the course of life. It is the hard copy of the rule of life as no more cables and air waves can be trusted.
What are the stone tablets you have received in your life from God? Have you received one? If not, it is time to actually work towards walking to the mountain of the Lord to receive your own tablets of directions and short cuts.
We are all equipped with high tech communication system with God unlike the cable technology that got cut under the sea two days ago making most of Asia, Middle East and Africa to go down. Man made businesses are standstill as a result of this under the sea cable cut in the last 72 hours.
We are blessed with direct communication with God that provides Instant Messaging, Chat and Audio-Video conferencing.
Once there was a magician who was performing in an ocean liner. There was a smart parrot in the ship which every time he did a magic would shout, “It is a trick. He’s a phony. It’s not magic”. Well… During one of those shows in a storm the ship sank and the magician and the parrot happened to be in the same lifeboat. For a few hours both stared at each other and finally the parrot said, “OK. I give up. I couldn’t figure out what you did last. How did you do that?”
This is exactly what happened to Peter. He was lost for words. He didn’t know how this happened. Peter thought he was in control of things and even to the point to ask the Lord not even to think about the saving death God had in plan for Jesus. Peter was aware of what all was going on for a few minutes and then lost it. In that second when Moses and Elijah, the two most important people of the Old Testament appeared, Peter was without words. He said what came out of him without thinking. He was just babbling. It was a mountaintop experience for Peter.
Mountaintop experiences are very common in people’s life. So are the mountain valley’s experiences. Each of these experiences is awe striking and makes us lose words, the gift of communication between man and man. But it can easily open the system of communication with God.
The birth of a child is such an occasion.
The death of a child is such an occasion of valley of death when no words can give you peace.
The experience of September 11th is one of such.
The experience of Pearl Harbor was such an incident.
The experience of the World War II tragedies is such a low point.
The landing on the surface of moon was a mountaintop.
The climbing of the Everest was a mountaintop.
The lint goes on and on. We all go through such experiences of life.
See what happens though. God envelops him in a cloud while Peter was still babbling. While man was going on speaking all what runs in his little mind, God intervenes to tell him exactly what and where he is. It was to the point and it is about the essential.
Let me quote one of our recent political presidential hopefuls who bowed out of the race saying “It is time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path” Step aside of God’s blazing path. Keep out of God’s way.
Recently when I was talking with one of our parishnors she said, “Much of my job is to keep out of God’s way”. Yes, it is. For if we can keep out of God’s way, and be enveloped by God’s grace, then we will all have the power of the strong, non-erasable tablet of stone, which is the law of the Lord.
Today’s reading is greater than anything else before. For today God comes in first person to prove the lineage of Christ. It is not like a third party verification process that we go through each time we change our profile. God is not here to change His profile and progeny. He is here to establish once and for all his intention to involve in human history. It is a first party identification. It is a DNA matching process for humanity.
Secondly on the top of the mountain God shares his eternal love for Christ and Christ’s unfailing commitment to love God back. Yes, there were several people in the biblical history who loved God. Adam, who disobeyed God, Abraham who slept with Hagar to twist God’s hands for a child, David, the king who abused the power, Solemn, the wise who brought idolatry into the land, Peter, who denied Christ, Thomas who doubted Christ’s resurrection. The list goes on and on. No one except Jesus himself loved God back fully and completely.
In the third place, we see, God asking Peter and company to listen. Listen carefully to the one He has chosen and sent. Listening is a hard thing. We all hear and some of us listen. Listening is a process through which we go deep into ourselves and our tablets of our hearts, which we have gathered from the mountaintops and mountain valleys of our life. Listen to the voice of the one within us and that is what the Lord is asking us all today.
In short it is all very simple.
1. It is about recognizing Christ as the son of God, our redeemer.
2. It is about recognizing God’s love for him and us, that can give us the grace to get out of sinful living.
3. It is about listening to God’s voice within us.
To those who are willing to allow God to blaze through their life’s history, present and future, will begin to see Moses and Elijah sharing the deepest secrets of eternal wisdom carved out of God’s heart.
It is about today.
It is about tomorrow and all what awaits tomorrow.
It is about the future that God has in store for us.
Going to the mountaintops is a time to get closer to the plan of God for you.
It is about praying with the tablets of stone, the laws of love engraved in our hearts.
