From there they advance to questions about how things work, then onto questions about who brings the Christmas presents and takes their teeth from beneath their pillows.
 
 As I was pondering this Gospel text this week Taylor came to me with a question, and I share it with her permission.  She asked: “If you were standing at the International Dateline with one foot on one side of it and one foot on the other, would you be in today and tomorrow or today and yesterday?”  Give me the days of “Why is the sky blue” again, please!

 This story of the Transfiguration of Jesus talks about living in both yesterday and tomorrow.  It is helpful to have some background, to look at what brought them to this time on the mountain.
 
 Earlier in Chapter 9 of Luke’s Gospel Jesus had called the twelve together, given them power and authority over demons and for healing and sent them out into the world.  As they did this, we are told in verse 6, they went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.  When they returned to Jesus, we are told in verse 10, they told Jesus all that they had done. 

 We can almost imagine how excited they must have been.  “Hey Jesus,  we healed thousands of people and cast out demons!  It worked!  We had that power that you gave to us.  It was amazing”. 

 Then comes the feeding of the 5000 plus, the quiz as to the identity of Jesus, and Jesus’ admonition to them that in order to save their lives they must lose them, daily taking up their crosses to follow him.  All of this in the first part of Luke 9. 

 And so they’ve gone up the mountain to pray, Jesus, Peter, James and John.  Jesus’ ministry is always marked with intentional time away for prayer.  Up mountains and off to deserted places, in gardens and on the sea, Jesus seeks time away to pray. 

 While they’re on the mountain and while Jesus is praying, his face changes, his whole appearance changes.  Moses and Elijah appear to him, to speak to him of his death.  Imagine how Peter, James, and John must have felt.  Imagine what they must have thought, seeing Jesus radiant and dazzling, talking with Moses and Elijah!  The next words out of Peter’s mouth were natural ones, filled with human instinct and emotion.  “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”.  It was totally understandable that Peter would want to stay there.  There were no more sick people to cure, no more dusty roads to walk, trailed by the desperate, sick, demon possessed crowds.  Just glowing Jesus and iconic teachers of the Hebrew people. 

 This is why the phrase “mountaintop experience” exists.  (Isn’t it interesting how phrases used by all of society often have their origins in Scripture?)  We’ve all had them, these mountaintop experiences”, times we wish would never end.  Sometimes they are predictable…the birth of a child, a gathering in of family for a holiday, a graduation, or perhaps an ordination.  Oftentimes they are centered around an intense and particularly meaningful religious experience.  We see them happen in the kids at camp all the time and that is why it’s so important to continue to support the camp ministry.  I saw it this weekend on the faces of 500 plus kids standing on their feet singing praise to God at the top of their lungs and later standing in prayer, holding hands with one another.  One of them even said “I wish we didn’t have to leave”.  Mountaintop experiences.
 
 But leave we must, though we are forever changed by the event.  Even when the intensity fades, we remain changed, we ourselves are transformed by what has taken place.

 One of those places of transformation happens when we approach the table to receive the Lord’s Supper.  I wish that all of  you could see the faces of God’s people here at North Salem as you come to receive the meal.  Your faces are filled with hope, they are filled with love, because you know that no matter what else is going on in life, we are fed with the body and blood of Christ so that we might be strengthened for the work we are given to do, strengthened and kept in God’s grace.  The children come with eager hands, not because they think it’s a snack or mere food…they know, they understand, that this meal is a gift from God.  I am questioned almost every Sunday by our youngest communing members: “Pastor, when do we get communion again?”  When do we receive this outward and visible sign of God’s grace for us?  It is why the early church received communion every time it gathered and why the ELCA recommends weekly communion to it’s congregations.  It’s because, sisters and brothers, when we gather at the table we are transformed.  Your faces shine with God’s love. We are strengthened for the next moment, the next day, and all of our tomorrows.

 For the truth is, we cannot stay on the mountain.  There is much to be done.  There are people who need to hear the story, people who need to be cared for, people who need a loving, healing touch. 

 When Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down from the mountain they encountered a man whose son had been seized by a spirit.  His condition had left his father desperate and he tells Jesus that he had begged the disciples to cast it out, but they could not.  Jesus casts out the demon, curing the boy. 

 Here is the lesson for us gathered here today.  No matter how we may experience transformation, we will still face difficulty in life.  It just happens.  Bad things happen.  Sometimes they will happen to us and sometimes they will happen to people we love or just to people we know and we will not be able to make it better.  Like the disciples, we will have moments in ministry and life when we will know great accomplishment, when what we have set out to do actually gets done.  And at other times, we will fall short.  Our words will fall on deaf ears, our efforts will be all wrong.  Like Peter, we will really want to stay on that mountaintop.  It’s easier there. 

 Taylor and I decided that the answer to her question about the international dateline was that it depended on which direction you were headed whether you would be standing in yesterday and today or today and tomorrow.  But the interesting thing is that we can never stand only in yesterday or only in tomorrow.  We are always in today.

 In verse 23 of Luke 9 Jesus said “If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  Lamentations 3:22-23 reads “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”.
 
 Sisters and brothers, we take up our crosses daily, certain of the mercies and faithfulness of our God, which are new each and every day.  They never change, they never go away.  Whether we are on the mountaintop or slogging our way through the darkest valley, God, who is so rich in mercy and grace, feeds us at the table, and walks beside us on the journey.  
Thanks be to God.  Amen.