A Mountaintop Experience
On September 3, 1941, while flying his Spitfire high above Great Britain, an American pilot only 19 years old named James Gillespie Magee, Jr., wrote the following poem:
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
James Magee was killed later that year, but he left behind this beautiful poem that describes a mystical experience that many of us may never know. Yet, I believe that most of us, in different times and different ways, have had an experience of the presence of the Divine that took our breath away… freed our souls to soar…. and left us… for a moment… for an hour… or for a day… with a profound sense of wonder… and a deep sense of awe. It may have been the first time that we stood in an empty field and witnessed… up close and personal … the towering clouds, powerful winds, and electrically charged pyrotechnics of a thunderstorm. It may have been the first time that we held a tiny infant in our arms and saw the perfection of her tiny hands… or heard her demanding cry… or looked with wonder into her wide and trusting eyes… marveling at this new life. It may have been the first time that we sat in a vast concert hall and heard the majesty of chorus and orchestra… each instrument playing and each voice singing their individual parts… but all united in a spectacular musical performance of a major work of art. When was the last time that you touched the face of God?
Most of my days are rather mundane. There are few that move me to a sense of awe… few times when the events of my life fill me with a wonder that leaves me speechless. But, just when I think I have seen everything… that life has no more surprises for me… God shows me something that reminds me in a powerful way that I have barely scratched the surface of life … and that what remains to be witnessed… like the mass of an iceberg… lies beyond those places that I can see… or touch… or taste.
And then there are those times… much more rare… and sometimes never witnessed in this life… when God comes to us… and deliberately… and carefully… reveals something of God’s divine majesty to us. In scripture, there are several examples of such revelations. God hid Elijah in the cleft of a rock at Mount Horeb so that he would not be harmed by the blazing majesty of God’s person. The Apostle Paul was blinded by such an encounter with our Risen Lord on the road to Damascus. And today we have two stories of such theophanies… two stories of the appearance of God to human beings… one in the Exodus passage that Trish Schreiber read for us… and one from the Gospel of Matthew. What is it like to see God… and to hear the voice of God speak?
Moses went up to Mount Sinai with Joshua at God’s command and, for six days, the glory of the Lord covered the mountain like a cloud. On the seventh day, God called to Moses from out of the midst of this cloud of glory, and Moses entered into the glory of God and stayed on the mountaintop with God for forty days and forty nights. And, according to our scriptures, the appearance of the presence of God to those waiting at the foot of the mountain was like a consuming fire... and the image that comes to me is that of the towering forest fires that often burn thousands of acres of land each summer in our western states. It is not really clear where Joshua is during these forty day, for we don’t hear about him again until Moses descends from the mountain with the tablets of the law. But, at that time, Joshua is at his side…and, together, they discover the children of Israel worshipping the golden calf that Aaron has made for them.
Our second theophany is the story of Peter, James and John who accompanied Jesus up on a high mountain. There, without any warning, Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. We are not exactly sure how he was transfigured, except for the brief description that his face shone like the sun and his garments became blinding white. The verb used in Greek here is the word metamophotay… to be changed in form… to be transformed.
The word metamorphosis is a word we often use when we describe the transformation of a fat ugly caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. I am reminded of a children’s book… the title of which escapes me now… a book that describes this transformational process from the perspective of the caterpillar. I remember reading the story to my son many, many, many times when he was growing up and, what struck me in reading the book was that, prior to his metamorphosis, the caterpillar did not recognize butterflies as any relation to him. After his own transformation, the caterpillar knew where he had come from… and knew that he had been changed… but he had no way to communicate this unique experience to the many caterpillars who still remained untransformed… still munching leaves, still getting fat, and periodically changing their skins.
Jesus was transformed before their eyes. He became clothed in majesty… and a voice spoke from the cloud of glory… and the disciples knew that they were in the very presence of God. But how could they describe that experience to anyone who had not seen it… or experienced it. According to studies that have been conducted, about 50% of professing Christians have had some sort of “conversion experience.” For many, this may have been a moment of conviction that came during Vacation Bible School or summer camp. For others, it may have come during a mission experience that took them outside their comfort zone and allowed them to see their world differently. For still others, it may have been a change of heart that came from hearing a particular person proclaim the gospel and invite them to new commitment. But, within this group, there are also individuals who have had a direct and personal encounter with God… and encounter that allowed them to catch a glimpse of something beyond the bounds of human experience and, sometimes, to hear the voice of God speaking directly to them.
Why don’t we hear more stories about these human encounters with the Divine? Well, I want to pose two hypotheses in answer to that question. The first hypothesis is that, like Peter, James, and John, when we have an encounter with the Divine, we are not quite sure what it is that we should do in response to that encounter. When Peter, the ever-eager and often misguided disciple, sees the transfigured Jesus in the company of Moses and Elijah, he suggests that the three human beings should build three booths for these divine ones. Of course, we who read the story today laugh at the crazy notion that these divine beings could… or would… be housed in booths built by humans. I, personally, have wondered why Peter – a fisherman – would offer to build anything for Jesus – a carpenter… especially after it was revealed that Jesus was more than just a carpenter. I honestly believe that this vision of glory that Peter had moved him to action… but he just did not know what kind of action to take. So, he said the first thing that came out of his mouth. How do we, as humans, respond to the revelation of glory in the presence of God? What is it that we are supposed to do? My guess is that… in that moment… our precise response is unclear. We need time to think… time to understand... time to process… this new information.
After the voice spoke from the cloud of glory, the three disciples were silenced and fell down to the ground in fear, until Jesus touched them and told them not to be afraid. But, by then, everything was back to normal and life went on. I am sure that the disciples had a million questions to ask Jesus at that point, but all that we learn is that they were told not to speak of their experience until after Jesus was raised from the dead. And that was probably a good thing, because I think that the disciples would have had a great deal of trouble putting into words what had just happened to them. And that brings me to my second hypothesis about why we do not hear more stories of theophanies from those who have experienced them.
My second hypothesis is that we simply do not have the words… words that are appropriately descriptive… words that can truly convey the majesty…the glory… the mystery … the awe… of events and experiences that are simply beyond the normal realm of human experience. I know that this is the key reason that many individuals have given for not sharing their own conversion experiences with others. It is simply too frustrating for them to try to describe that experience to someone who was not present. There are no words that fit… no words that truly convey the facts of what happened… and no words to describe the feelings that they experienced. Yes, human beings today have encounters with God… but how can they describe them?
Now, there are two things that I do know about theophanies… these mystical encounters with the Divine… from those who have experienced them. The first is that a theophany happens in God’s time… and not in ours. It is God who chooses to reveal the Divine to us …and chooses the time… and the place… for such revelations. It is God who breaks through the barriers of human comprehension to reveal the splendor of majestic glory to us. We cannot force such a revelation… nor do we fully understand why God chooses a particular person… time… or place… for such a revelation. All of this is in God’s hands.
The second thing I know about theophanies is that they happen to those who hunger for it… who seek it …who long for it… who pray for it. In the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the children of Israel, “…you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.” Through the Prophet Jeremiah, God tells the children of Israel, “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.” And, in the Gospel of Matthew… and in the song that we sing to close our worship service each week… the words of Jesus also reassure us when he says to his disciples: "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened…” in God’s time.
So, as we gather around the Lord’s table today, be open for the mystery of God’s presence in this place. Pray that God will reveal to you God’s divine majesty. And, as we share the sacred feast, be expectant… be curious… and be eager… to see… to touch… and to taste… the wonder of God. Amen.