Broadway Christian Church ·Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship ·February 6, 2005

Prayer of the Day

Gracious God, as we worship you this hour and follow your Christ daily, help us to listen with our hearts and open our eyes to the signs and wonders you spread before us.  Amen.

Scripture
Matthew 17:1-9

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  There he was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.  Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.  If you wish, I will put up three tabernacles – one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.  But Jesus came and touched them.  “Arise, and do not be afraid.”  When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Message
 Enjoy the Journey
Rick Frost

Most of us in this room have done some traveling.  Some more than others.  Some of our folks just returned from a pilgrimage to South Africa, as most of you know.  They are showing pictures and telling stories as we speak.  Next week they will be doing that at 11 o’clock.  If there are those who would like to take part in that, it would be wonderful.

Jacob Thorne, our new youth minister, who will be coming to Broadway in June, just returned to the United States from a month of traveling in India, of all places.  What an incredible adventure.  I can’t wait to hear some of those stories.

Of course, there are many folks who are members of this congregation who make up the army of those road warriors who travel for a living and find their business takes them to more destinations than most people can remember.  We are a people who really know quite a bit about traveling.

Two sea tmates were on a plane.  She was in simple attire.  He was in his finely pressed suit and shiny shoes.  Stacks and bundles of carry-ons surrounded her.  He was setting up his aluminum briefcase and laptop.

“I don’t get to do this very much,” she grinned.  “Do you?”

He nodded yes.  And she said, “Oh, that must be so much fun.”

And he groaned.  It was going to be a very long flight.  (Have you ever had one of those?)  She volunteered, of course, that she was going to Dallas, but she didn’t leave it at that.  She was going there to visit her grandson.  She filled in all the blanks.  He played soccer.  He had a black lab named Wilbur.  He had gone to the doctor last week, because he had the flu.

As the plane took off and climbed, she looked out the window and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness; look at all those trees.  They look just like a whole lot of peat moss.”

People turned around in their seats and stared.  The flight attendant came by to take drink orders.  She ordered apple juice.  When the drink came she said she didn’t know apple juice came in cans, but it certainly was delicious.  When the pretzels were handed out, her seat mate offered his to her, and she gladly accepted this wonderful gift.

It went on like this for the entire trip.  This little woman didn’t miss a thing.  She was having the time of her life.

Meanwhile, her seat mate was aware that the people sitting just in front of him were discussing plans for a business trip to Japan.  The guy behind him was ordering two beers at a time.  The lady across the aisle seemed to be pouring over a stack of very important papers.  Then it occurred to him the only person on the entire plane enjoying the trip was this little lady sitting next to him.

The question today is this:  How’s your life going?  Are you enjoying the journey?  Are you enjoying the trip?  Are you enjoying the flight?

In our text today, Jesus takes three of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, up to the top of a mountain.  There they meet, of all people, Moses and Elijah.  Those of you who know your Bible know Moses and Elijah have been dead for a thousand years, but there they meet them on the mountaintop.  It’s an incredible thing.  On top of that, they are so dumbstruck by the voice of the Creator of all that is that comes out of the cloud and says of Jesus, “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.  Listen to him.”

This is called a mountaintop experience.  It is an encounter with amazing things happening.  It turned these disciples inside out.  Their lives were never the same as a result of what they experienced on that high place.

As all of us in this room know, this week millions of Iraqis braved death threats and suicide bombers in order to vote in their country’s first free election in 50 years.  Reportedly, voting started very slowly and then built to a flood as the day progressed.  At thousands of polling places across the country, weeping Iraqis kissed ballot boxes and proudly displayed fingertips smudged with purple ink to show they had, in fact, voted.  A country in chaos?  Yes.  Civil war?  Maybe.  But the fact remains, folks, that millions of Iraqis have been to the mountaintop.  They’ve had their first glimpse of self-government in 50 years.

“It’s like a wedding,” said one of the people.  “It’s a celebration.  We have been to the mountaintop.  We’ve been turned inside out, and we will never, ever be the same again.”

The question today is:  Have you been to the top?  Have you been there?  Have you had just a glimpse of the big picture?  How is your life going?  Are you enjoying the journey?

I know some among us, or persons we know and care about and love are having some very difficult times right now.  Some people that you and I know are at the point where they are literally not able to even act.

Robert Fulghum writes about a man who was in that kind of condition and went to see a therapist.  After listening to the man for a long time, the therapist wrote out a prescription.  Do you know what it said?  It said, “Spend one hour on Sunday walking in a cemetery and watching the sun rise.”  That’s not a bad prescription.  Against his better judgment, he followed the advice.  On Sunday, as the sun came up, he found himself standing in the cemetery listening to the birds sing, watching the world come alive all around him, and, as you might guess, he found something.  He was in touch with his life again.  It was something he desperately needed to do.

Have you been to the top?  Have you had even a glimpse of what it’s all about – the big picture?  How is your life going?  Are you enjoying the journey?

While there are some in our midst who need to act in these kinds of ways, others of us, quite frankly, need to disengage.  Many in this room are quite active, motivated, productive, highly-effective people.  You have goals and objectives, dreams and destinations.  You’re cooking on all cylinders, 24/7, going places, doing things.  And what those persons in our midst need to do is disengage.  We need to take some time to actually disengage.

Folks, in the Bible, the whole point of this life is to spend some time at the top, to meet and encounter the Spirit of the Living God.  In order to do that, we have to take some time.  We have to do certain things that disengage.  The Bible calls it the Sabbath.

In a wonderful little book that our small group just started this week, Mud House Sabbath, Loren Winner says that we Protestant Christians could take a few tips from our Jewish brothers and sisters.  We need to keep Shabbat Shalom.  We need to remember the Sabbath is a holy day and keep it that way.  We need to keep a Sabbath.  It is one of the eight keys to being a disciple of Jesus that we’ve talked about around here. 

Loren argues that Sabbath is not just trying to work in an hour to spend in church.  Sabbath is a basic unit of Christian time.  It’s a 24-hour period in which the faithful, for thousands of years, have sought to devote themselves to the reverence of God and to rest from work.  That’s the cornerstone.  Sabbath.  No work.  Do not create.  Cease from interfering in the life of the world.  Why?  Because when we cease creating, when we cease interfering, when we stop working for one 24-hour period out of seven, we are consciously and intentionally acknowledging to ourselves and to others that this world is God’s world.  It is not yours, and it is not mine.  It is the center of our week.  It’s time set apart.  It’s time that is oriented towards God, and it’s a day that we also, in part, go to church.

Carlyle Marney use to say, tongue in cheek, that God doesn’t come to church every Sabbath, because when you’re God, you don’t always need to go to church every Sunday.  But, for the rest of us, we pretty much need to go to church every Sunday, because he said, “Some Sunday when you least expect it, the Eternal One is going to walk down that aisle and is going to sit right next to you.  You are going to get turned upside down and inside out, and you’re never going to be the same again.”

Have you been to the top?  Have you made room for the One to come and sit next to you?  Have you got just a glimpse of what the big picture is all about?  How is your life?  Are you enjoying the journey?

Folks, 24/7 is a sure recipe for missing the trip altogether.  You know that.  I know that.  Spiritual growth is not just about showing up and listening.  It’s about showing up, and practicing, practicing, practicing.  It’s a lot like music lessons, they tell me.  I never took music lessons.  I don’t read a note of music.  But I have taken a fly-fishing lesson, a snow-skiing lesson or two.  Those things take years and years of practice.

Fred Craddock tells about a time when he was the guest preacher at a church in Texas.  It was a wonderful worship experience.  The songs, the prayers, the Scriptures, everything included in that worship experience fit together just right so that it was a mountaintop worship experience.  Dr. Craddock preached his heart out.  Right after worship a gentleman came up to him, just moments after that wonderful worship time and said, “Do you think Tom Landry is going to coach the Cowboys next year?”

He missed it.  He was there, but he missed it.  He missed the trip.  He was somewhere else.

Have you ever had an experience that just turned you inside out?  An experience that simply immobilized you?  Have you ever had an experience that having had it, you are never going to be the same after that event?  Now I know there are some people in this room whose life circumstances have forced them into that position, but what I want to suggest to you is that is a choice we can all make by keeping Sabbath.  Keep a Sabbath.  Start small, but keep a Sabbath.

Have you been to the top?  Have you had even just a glimpse of the big picture?  How’s your life?  Are you enjoying the journey? 

Some of us need to disengage.  We need to keep Shabbat, the Sabbath, because when you least expect it…  Life’s journey is all about the trip, folks, and not just about the destination.  Isn’t that right?

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

You, God, are the beginning, middle, and end of our walk.  Turn the minute into a moment as we pause to drink in your holiness; on a mountain, through a valley, and in the plain old day.  Thank you for making the journey with us.  Amen.