Glimpses of Another World – Mark 9:2-9 – February 22, 2009

Our passage for the day comes to us in midst of a remarkable section of Mark’s gospel.  Peter has just confessed Christ to be the messiah and then turned right around and showed he had no idea what that means.  No sooner had Peter said to Jesus (snap) “You are the messiah” then we get that famous episode where Jesus tells Peter “Get behind me Satan” after Peter rebukes Jesus for predicting his own suffering, death, and resurrection.  It is also packed into this section that Jesus gives the disciples the invitation that “If any of you want to be my followers, deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow me”.  Swirling around these exchanges are the essential questions of Mark gospel and our Christian faith: Who are we? And who is Jesus Christ?  And for better or worse we see Peter trying to answer these questions. “Messiah?” But then not knowing, not having the knowledge to fully comprehend what that even means.  Peter and the disciples have been with Jesus for some time.  They have seen glimpses of who Christ is.  They have even seen glimpses of who they are as followers of Jesus, but only glimpses. Enough to confess “You are the messiah” without knowing the depth and power of that confession.  Little bits have been revealed until the Transfiguration.

When I was youngster, I was musician, at least as much as a musician as a drummer can be.  At Sapulpa Middle School where I started my music education, if you wanted be cool a drummer by junior high or high school, which was my goal, you had to start off playing the xylophone.  The idea being that you needed to learn to read music and basic techniques before you got to the rhythm of a snare drum. To a 12 year old wannabe drummer, a xylophone pales in comparison to the coolness of playing the snare drum.  It especially pales after weeks and months of slow progression and particularly so if you were to have a large hand-me-down xylophone that is as big as you are,like I did.  Sensing our growing frustration our music director was playing his snare drum one day as we entered for class.  We walked down the hallway and heard the drumming coming from the band room, peeked cautiously in and were motioned to come in and set up.  And he just kept on playing.  Another ten minutes went by until the point was really driven home.  You can play like this too, if you just keep with it. He was motivating us, giving us a glimpse into the future, maybe our future, if we buckled down, worked hard, and stop being quite so frustrated.  From that date forward not only did we know what was possible, we saw our practicing, as rudimentary as it was, as preparing us to be like that.

Before our passage for the day, there is a promise that Jesus makes to the disciples.  It is at Mark chapter 9 verse 1.  Chronologically it seems to go along with the end of chapter 8 more than chapter 9, but in a way it just seems like an island of a verse.  One verse floating around that does not really connect with the stories around it.  The verse reads, “And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”  Then Mark 9:2 where we started is six days later. This has always been a mysterious verse in Mark, not simply because of its placement, but because so many believe that all those people standing there did die before seeing the Kingdom of God coming in power.  They witnessed the suffering and death and resurrection and everything afterwards, but was that really the Kingdom of God coming in power?

I think one hint we get is what happens in the text next: The Transfiguration.  That there is an essential connection between Christ’s promise of the Kingdom of God and this vision of the transfiguration.  In the midst of all these questions about who Jesus is and who we are, there is a revealing that takes places.  Sure Peter and the disciples have been fumbling around and sure they are still working on the basics, but Jesus jumps ahead and shows them what it could be, what it will be like.  Transfigured on a high mountain with Peter, James, and John looking on, Jesus’ clothes became a dazzling white, whiter than anything on earth, and Moses and Elijah appeared with him. “Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”"  Scholars and preachers alike have acknowledged that this scene is like fast-forwarding through a movie.  We have been watching along for an hour or so, we want to know how it ends, whether a particular character makes it all the way through or not, so we cheat a little, we hit the forward arrow on the remote to see how it turns out.  It has even been noted that the way Jesus is described after the resurrection is strikingly similar to way he is described here.  These three disciples and by extension us, get to see the way it is going to be.  That in the midst of fumbling around to figure out who Jesus is and who we are supposed to be, we get a glimpse of the answer.

And to go back for a second, we get a glimpse of the coming Kingdom of God.  Because at its root, Peter’s difficulty is not that he does not know that Jesus is the Messiah.  He has already confessed that.  The problem is that he does not know what that looks like.  And for the people who say that the Kingdom of God has not come perhaps the lesson applies for them too.  Jesus does not say, as he does elsewhere, “the Kingdom of God is like this”, he shows it.  The messiah is to usher in the Kingdom of God.  John the Baptist laid the foundation.  Jesus is showing it forth and here it is.  In the Transfiguration, the Kingdom of God touches this world.  The expectation might be for something else, for chariots and horsemen and armies of angels. They might be expecting something like Charlton Heston at the beginning of the movie the Ten Commandments coming into the Egyptian capitol with an army behind him and crowds cheering, but here is a glimpse of something else.  Here is a glimpse of the Kingdom of God breaking into this world.  We are on the outside; briefly looking through a window at the other side, but there it is right in front of us.

Even after seeing Christ transfigured, Peter and the others still do not get it.  In the fullness of time it will all make sense, but in this moment they just do not get it.  They offer to build tents.  They want to stay in that moment.  They do not realize that this glimpse is fleeting.  They do not realize how this moment fits in with that moment just days before, where Jesus said he must suffer, die, and be raised up first, before the Kingdom of God comes.  They do not get it.  But they get a glimpse and that glimpse will make sense soon.  All will be revealed in time.

Kati told me a story the other about a teenager on a basketball team.  The teenager had just lost his mother to cancer after a long battle.  The teenage son had been by her side when she died and the basketball coach had even come to offer his support.  That night, the team had a basketball game.  The coach left to go to the game, but was late for the start.  The other coach, knowing the situation, knowing that one of the players’ mom had died, said take your time, get the kids warmed up, do whatever you need to do,  and we will start when you are ready.  So they did and ended up starting late.  Unknown to them, the boy who had lost his mother had driven from the hospital with the intention of playing.  His mother would have wanted him to play the game he loved so much and that she so loved watching him play.  He arrived at the game and at halftime told the coach he wa ready to play.  Well, he was not on the roster.  If he played it would be a technical foul.  So the coach talked to the other coach and they agreed wholeheartedly that he should play.  As he checked in, the referee was forced to call a foul.  The other team would get to shout two shots and then get the ball.  As the player made his way to foul line, received the ball, instead of shooting the shots, he rolled the ball across the floor, once and then again.  The boy got play that day.  He was able to fulfill what he knew his mother wanted for him.  And the other team show more compassion and good sportsmanship than we have learned to expect these days.  It was remarkable.  They knew that the moment they were in had the power to change a life. It may not be Christ transfigured in dazzling white robes, but I think for the people at that court that night it was special, almost miraculous.  And I know it was beyond expectations for others, because this local story that began in a hometown newspaper ended up being celebrated in the national media.  It is as if, we are looking around, wanting, craving, hungering for stories like this that defy our expectations so that we can celebrate them.

In Matthew and Luke’s gospels, when the resurrected Jesus is encountered by the women and then the disciples, they worship him.  They know then who he is and what has taken place.  They know whole story and significance.  They sense the two worlds colliding, that the Kingdom of God is here, so they celebrate in worship.  In this remarkable moment, they celebrate.  Because you see our passage for today is not just about encountering the transfigured Christ or even seeing a glimpse of another world, our passage challenges our response.  That when you come face to face with the miraculous, the holy, when you come face to face with God incarnate, what are you going to do?  Are you going to try to stay in that moment at all costs?  Make your own little tents, only to see the glimpse of something else disappear?  Or will you celebrate that glimpse? Will you worship God in that moment?  Will you worship God with us in celebration of that moment? When you are miraculously healed in the hospital, will you give thanks there and celebrate it with us later?  When you are shown unexpected and great kindness, will you recognize it as coming from God and find joy in it?  When you are forgiven for the greatest wrong you have ever done, will you see that the Kingdom of God has come?  In so many moments, we are like Peter and the disciple stumbling around not knowing who we are, not knowing who Christ is, but in those moments when we do know, when it is as clear as a transfigured Jesus dazzling in white right in front of our face let’s gather together a worship that.

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