Down from the mountain-top

A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton BC // Sunday last before Lent , March 2, 2025 // The Very Rev. Ken Gray

My long time organist friend, Curt, grew up in a very conservative evangelical family in Vanderhoof BC. Following high school he attended college at Prairie Bible Institute (PBI) in Three Hills Alberta. Now called “Prairie College” with a student base of 440 students and a network of 17,000 alumni it continues to train men and women “to know Christ and make Him known.” It is dubbed “a little piece of heaven here on earth.”

In Curt’s first year campus sidewalks were coloured: blue for males; pink for females. Students were required to keep to their own gendered path; otherwise, well you, crossover might lead to dancing. 😊 More seriously, students were required to pray daily, to learn a life discipline, and to specifically and intentionally seek the Lord. They were encouraged to go outside, even in winter, and savour God’s creation. Curt described a variety of responses to this activity. For some, it was cold outside and folks couldn’t wait to return to the dormitories. Others, he said, “came back transfigured.” They radiated God’s love.

“Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him.” (LUKE 9:28-36)

Wow; what a heavenly council, here on earth. Scripture often takes us, imaginatively, to liminal spaces, where heaven and earth are joined together. Yes, it was Jesus who was transfigured as a witness to these disciples; Peter, James, and John witnessed the grace of God, focused in and through Jesus, as a blessing, as an encouragement, as a confirmation of God’s real presence in the history and geography of earth. Wow.

The only downside to this story is that everyone, including Jesus, had to go back down the mountain again. So-called “mountain-top experiences” don’t last forever; doesn’t matter who you are. Whether we attend a religious retreat, or read an inspirational book, or meet an amazing spiritual guide, in the end we need to take such gifts into our self, to incorporate the gift into our person, our thoughts, our actions. Where spiritual growth is concerned, integration is the key to maturity—in courage, in insight, in passion. Our story continues:

“On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”

Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? (LUKE 9:37-43A)

The criticism bites, doesn’t it. You faithless and perverse generation. I suspect we’ve all been there; I certainly have. We hear stories of God changing the lives of others, stories of transformation, after dinner rags-to- riches stories of bikers who become bishops, of addicts becoming advocates, of persons-lost finding love. In our own case, possibly, life doesn’t feel all that different. What is this thing called “faith?”

I am working my way through a marvellous book: “The Afternoon of Christianity: The Courage to Change” by Czech Catholic priest, philosopher, and theologian, Tomáš Halík. Halík poses all sorts of questions about today’s pressing topic here in the South Okanagan, the future of church. He also has some excellent reflections on Faith.

Referring to Mark 11:22 which we read as “have faith in God” he prefers an older translation “have the faith of God.”   On first reading I thought, what’s the big deal? It’s just a small difference of words. After all, Isn’t faith something we acquire, over time and in the midst various life circumstances? Isn’t it like learning to swim or ride a bike? Well, think again.

Of the thirty or so translations available at BibleGateway.com a half dozen dating back to the nineteenth century use Halík’s wording. There seems to be a reluctance to suggest that we acquire something OF God as we mature in the Christian walk. While I have yet to fully unpack and appreciate this insight myself, faith now seems more powerful to me, and possibly to you.

Halík  takes his argument a step further: “Faith is a journey toward certainty;  but perfect certainty, the fullness of faith, comes only in the embrace of God beyond the horizon of this life and world, in the beatific vision (visio beatifica) in which faith and hope are both consummated and brought to completion: they are engulfed by a love that does not cease even then.”

I love that closing line: Be engulfed by a love that does not cease. This is so much more than a statement of faith or belief, an intellectual discovery, so much more than a task learned or discipline obtained. It is God with us in every way. As the Trinity Sunday hymn goes:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.