There are days when I am especially fond of my wedding ring.

It is an uplifting reminder of the happiest – and fastest - day of my life. It reminds me of my wife coming down the aisle, the preacher’s jocular sermon, the steak dinner I was too excited to eat, and, of course, the fainting bridesmaid.  I think of jokes and stories and drinks and conversations with a lifetime’s worth of best friends. I think of the lasting promises made that carry me through those times when everything isn’t going quite so swimmingly.

This Sunday many Christians will celebrate the last Eucharist before Lent by hearing the pinnacle story of Jesus on the Mount of the Transfiguration. It is here where the disciples experienced their most memorable day to date. The image of Jesus, adorned in light, talking with Moses and Elijah would be carried down the mount, in their hearts, so that when the trials of Jerusalem beckoned they might have some sense that all would not be lost.

The Transfiguration stands, for you and me, as a metaphor for that time that Jesus made Himself known to us. Maybe it was in a church – at the Eucharist or an ‘altar call.’ Perhaps it was on a beach, at a sunset, or in the eyes of a newborn.

So whatever mountaintop experience grabbed our heart, the message is to seize it. Re-live it. Know that God IS real. The angels, the saints, the Trinity and the Presence of the Holy One have been made known in our hearts – let’s never forget that.

This is critical for you and me today because of the valley we’re all in. We are consumed by a consumerist culture in which the tainted water surrounding us wants nothing more than to take us places that Jesus doesn’t want us to go. We need to grab hold of these identity-forming experiences, root them deeply in our hearts, claiming our first allegiance – to Christ – because we know that God’s way is always the best way.

What are our mountaintop experiences and how might we make them a more formative part of who we are?

Reading

Sabbath – Wayne Muller

Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins

Generation Ex-Christian- Drew Dyck