The Mount of Transfiguration
From the Series—Extreme
October 21, 2003In two weeks we’ll begin a new series of evotionals titled Choices.
This evotional concludes our Extreme series. We explored four dimensions of spiritual maturity—extreme faith, extreme passion, extreme love, and extreme devotion. This evotional ties the series in a knot.
Reality Check
During this series I’ve gotten some pretty powerful emails about the way NCCers are processing and applying this series. Here’s a byte from an email I got following the extreme passion message:
Everyone of us is potentially a Peter or a Judas . Some days I’m Peter. I zealously follow Christ. Passion for Christ and love for the lost consume me. Other days, and they are all too frequent, I’m Judas. I don’t like where I am or what I’m going through. Life is hard, oppressive. I want to lash out, frustrated with God because He’s not meeting my expectations.
That email resonates with all of us because all of us are part Peter and part Judas. We all have good days where we live what we believe. But we also have bad days where we betray what we believe in the most. And that’s discouraging for most of us. But what you need to know is this: that’s normal. I think there are a lot of people walking around with false guilt because of all the ups and downs, the highs and lows in their spiritual life. And what I’m telling you is: that’s normal.
In some ways this evotional is a reality check. Is there any area of your life where you expect to be up all the time? Let me come at from the parenting perspective. I find so much joy in all of our children. Parenting is full of priceless moments. This week Josiah took his little hands, put them behind my neck and pulled my head towards his and planted four kisses right on my lips. It was the first time he’d ever done that. It was one of those parenting highs. I think it was about three hours later that he unloaded a poopy diaper that was off the stick chart. I had to use seven wipes to clean the caboose! And the next morning I discovered that our dog Brewster consumed the diaper and left the carcass on our carpet. That is life!
Bad Hair Days
All of us have bad hair days. We have bad days at work and bad days at home. Some days I feel like I’m a bad dad and a bad husband. And you need to know that you will have bad days with God where you feel like He let you down or you let him down. But you also need to know that’s normal.
There is this false notion that the more spiritual we become the fewer problems we’ll have. And I’m not saying that living within the guardrails of God’s will won’t save you lots of heartaches and headaches. It will. But you also need to know that maturity does not equal immunity. No matter how mature you become there will be highs and lows.
During this Extreme series some of you have experienced spiritual highs. But I’ve learned that what goes up must come down so I want to talk about mountaintop experiences. Let’s climb the mount of transfiguration and mark the trail.
The Geography of Spirituality
Mark 9:2 says, “After six days Jesus took peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them.”
I think it’d be easy to skip over this, but it would be a mistake. This is not a bunny hill. The Greek qualifier makes quite clear that this is a “high mountain.” And here’s what I know about high mountains. When you climb to the top you’re tired. You’re out of breath. You’re out of energy. This is no small accomplishment. So what?
Let me make an observation that could be easily overlooked: where you are geographically affects where you are spiritually. Don’t underestimate the geography of spirituality.
Here is an equation I employ when I’m in a spiritual slump: change of place = change of perspective. I’m not sure why, but when I get on an airplane or cross the bay bridge or check into Rocky Gap Lodge for our Inward Bound retreat that change of place somehow facilitates change of perspective.
I think it’d be easy to read right over this part of the passage, but some of you are in a religious rut and what you need is a change of scenery. Leonardo Da Vinci said it this way, “Every now and then, go away. For when you come back to your work, your judgment will be surer.”
Holy Moments
Peter, James, and John climb the mountain and Jesus is transfigured before their eyes. The word “transfigured” comes from the Greek word metamorphoo which is where we get our word metamorphosis. It’s that process whereby a caterpillar changes shape and becomes a butterfly.
I think the disciples are transfixed as Jesus is transfigured. Scripture records their reactions. Peter says, “Master, this is a great moment.” And it says, “They became deeply aware of God.” All of us need mount of transfiguration moments where God removes the veil from our eyes and we see more of His glory.
This is a holy moment. And like all holy moments, you never want it to end. I think Peter’s reaction is pretty normal. He says in Mark 9:5, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here let us set up three shelters —one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” When you experience the glory of God you want to camp there. But Oswald Chambers has a fascinating perspective on this passage. Don’t get me wrong. We need times where we linger at an altar or take worship into overtime. But in My Utmost for His Highest Chambers says, “We are not built for the mountains. Those are for moments of inspiration. That is all. We are built for the valley and that is where we prove our mettle. Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount.” Chambers says, “The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have the power to rise only, something is wrong.”
I hope you have mountaintop experiences. We desperately need more of them. But the goal of spiritual highs is not get high. The goal is to descend the mountain and make a difference. And that’s where the challenge comes in. Most spiritual highs are short lived.
We climb the mountain at a conference or retreat or missions trip and we become “deeply aware” of God. But that spiritual high is short lived. We celebrate communion and ask God to help us break a sin pattern in our life, but the next time temptation knocks on the door we answer it. Communion is short lived. Or we feel like God births a dream in our hearts during a spiritual retreat, but once we get back into our normal rhythm of life the dream just gathers dust. The retreat is short lived. How do we sustain the spiritual highs?
That’s the battle I’m fighting right now. This week part of our team went to the Catalyst conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a life-changing experience for me. You can read some of my blog reflections in the resource section of our website.
I felt like God revealed some anger issues and jealousy issues and guilt issues in my life. I feel like I’ve got some holes in my heart. And I need to relentlessly pursue health and wholeness. Here is the challenge. It’s one thing to be in an environment where you’re surrounded by 4,000 passionate people and you’ve got an amazing band leading worship and you’re getting some of the best teaching the church has to offer. That’s easy. That’s the mountaintop. What’s tough is getting on a plane and coming home and sustaining what God has started in my life.
There is a fascinating story in Luke 8 where Jesus casts out a legion of demons from a demoniac. Scripture says, “It was a holy moment and for a short time they were more reverent.” But that “holy moment” is short lived. “Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave — too much change, too fast, and they were scared.”
All of us have seen that pattern in our own lives. So much seems to be changing so fast that you end up retreating instead of retaining what God has started in you.
It reminds me of the parable of the sower. The sower sows seed in four places. Some of the seed falls on the path and it was trampled on. Some of it falls on the rocks and it doesn’t take root. Some of it fell on the thorns and it was choked. The spiritual high is short lived. But I love Jesus’ description of the good soil. He says, “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” The key to coming down the mountain is retaining and sustaining what God started in your heart.
God started something in my life at the Catalyst Conference. And I’m determined to retain it and sustain it. God has started something in your life during this extreme series. You need some good old-fashioned determination to retain it and sustain it.
31,000 Feet
A few weeks ago I received a fax from an NCCer. It was written at 7:25 AM at 31,000 feet.
Dear Pastor Mark,
Thank you for the extreme sermon series. It has changed my life. I am currently on an airplane headed west to meet a man I haven’t placed my eyes on in twenty years. The man is my dad.
Your first sermon on “extreme faith” began the process that brought me to this point. It became evident to me that the single greatest fear in my life was abandonment. This fear shaped every aspect of how I viewed the world. There has always been a lingering sense in my heart that I was likely to love someone, not have my love accepted and then be abandoned. My perception short-circuited every meaningful relationship I’ve ever had. It was through your first sermon I realized the root of my destructive thinking and began to do something about it.
The second sermon on extreme passion was equally meaningful. My passion was being short-circuited and stealing my joy. I can recall a profound two week period prior to my thirtieth birthday when I struggled with the question, “Have I spent the last thirty years, the majority of the time, hating everything and everyone?” I couldn’t answer the question definitively. I could look back over my life and see the carnage left in my wake of hurt and destruction.
Last week’s message on extreme love only heightened the Lord’s preparation for revealing fully to me how to remove from my life the anchor keeping me from accomplishing what he has in store for me. The sermon revealed to me if I was going to love anyone “who least expected it and least deserved it” that person needed to be my dad. So here I am on a plane bound to meet a man I last saw in 1983 trusting the Lord and desiring to realize the fullness of seeing His work with all of my heart.
I was so impacted by that fax that everything I was doing that day came to a screeching halt. I called our staff together and we prayed that God would begin a healing process, a process of reconciliation. And I still remember what I prayed. I felt like it was what God put in my heart. I prayed that this person would see that you don’t change twenty years in one day. I was believing and praying that it’d be a miraculous moment—a mountaintop experience. I so desperately wanted to see that relationship restored. But I also knew that there would need to be a sustained effort to restore a relationship that had been dead for twenty years!
Some of you are in similar circumstances—God has started something in your heart. But it needs to be sustained. My prayer is Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1:6: that He who began a good work in you would carry it to completion.
Issues
Here is one of the greatest challenges coming down the mountain: you may have changed, but you’re walking back into the same situations, the same relationships, the same problems, and the same temptations.
Here is the first thing that happens when the disciples come down the mountain. They walk right smack into the middle of an argument. Mark 9:14 says, “When they came down to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them.” I think a lot of spiritual highs end in an argument. God does something in your life on a Sunday morning but you have an argument in the car on the way home. The external events in your life short-circuit the internal change that took place.
Sometimes we feel like a spiritual high ought to erase all our doubts or erase all our problems. But the issues you take up the mountain are the same issues you bring down the mountain. Some of you will go on the Crossroads retreat in November and it’ll be a mountaintop experience. But if you’ve got anger issues or you’re addicted to pornography or you’ve dug yourself a financial hole, you’ve got to work on those issues and break that addiction and climb out of that hole.
It’s interesting to note that before the inner circle climbs the mountain and after they descend the mountain Jesus tries to explain that he’s going to be betrayed and crucified and resurrected. And the disciples don’t get it before or after. Mark 9 says they were “puzzled.” The disciples didn’t come down the mountain omniscient. It didn’t answer all their questions. It didn’t erase all their confusion. They took confusion up the mountain with them and they brought it back down with them.
So what good is a mountaintop experience? Mountaintop experiences don’t resolve our problems. They reveal our issues. They enlighten us and empower us to do something about it—to be transfigured into the people God wants us to become. But we need to go down the mountain and go to work on them!
Spiritual Pride
Mark’s account of this story records that shortly after coming down the mountain the disciples don’t just walk into an argument, they start an argument —the subject of which is anything but coincidental. I’m not surprised in the least that right after this spiritual high they argue about who’s the greatest. Mark my words: when you experience a spiritual high you need to guard against spiritual pride.
One of the dangers of spiritual mountaintop experiences is thinking that they somehow make you superior to someone else.
I read a fascinating book a few years ago titled Saints and Madmen. The author, Russell Shorto, made a fascinating distinction between saints and psychotics. I’ve never forgotten this. He said, “A mystic is humbled by his experience, a psychotic is inflated.” The psychological term is grandiosity. The only appropriate response to mountaintop experiences is humility. I love the way Sherlock Holmes put it. “The chief proof of a man’s real greatness lies in his perception of his smallness.”
Let me give you my definition of spiritual pride. Spiritual pride is when your last experience with God becomes an obstacle to your next experience with God. We do what Peter wanted to do—we want to memorialize it instead of use it. We want to stay there, but God wants us to descend the mountain and make a difference.
I grew up in a tradition where emphasis was given to being filled with the spirit. And I think that’s a good thing. But in too many instances it became an end instead of a means. It became a measuring stick instead of a match stick.
The purpose of being filled with the Spirit is not so that you can say that you’ve been filled with the Spirit. The purpose is to empower you to resist temptation when you go down the mountain. The purpose is to embolden you to share your faith when you go down the mountain. When you turn a means into an end you become infected with spiritual pride. All it does is puff you up!
Mountaintop experiences are means not ends. Oswald Chambers said, “We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for his glory there.”