The Mountaintop Burden
Rev. Delwyn and Sis. Lenita Campbell
God's Mission • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsIt is on the mountaintop where Christ dies for you, but in the valley, where Christ lives in You.
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Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 4202 A Beloved Black Pastor
4202 A Beloved Black Pastor
Charles A. Tindley was born into slavery. Although his slave mother taught him to love Christ, his master forbade him to attend church under threat of the whip.
After the Civil War when he became free, he took correspondence courses and entered the ministry. He began with a church of only 12 members where he had once served as a janitor. In time, his compassionate preaching attracted over a thousand people each Sunday, both black and white. For years he maintained a breadline which fed 500 to 600 people nightly. Derelicts received warm clothing and hot baths in the basement of his church. The mayor of Philadelphia visited his church and was so impressed that he gave the pastor a personal check for $2,000.
Charles Tindley died on July 31, 1933, when people were still receiving bread from his church. There were so many tributes at his funeral that the service lasted five hours. Downtown streets had to be roped off to hold back the crowds from the hearse that carried his body.
And today, more than thirty years later, parents in Philadelphia are telling their children about the black preacher who was a brother to everyone.
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,
About 29 AD. Jesus begins teaching the disciples concretely about His death and resurrection. During this time, He takes Peter, John and James up to an "Mountaintop Experience.”
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
About 15 years later, James is dead.
About 15 years later, James is dead.
About 29 AD. Jesus begins teaching concretely about His death and resurrection. During this time, He takes Peter, John and James up to an event that should have marked them from then on. About 15 years later, James is dead.
About 15 years later, James is dead.
About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
Peter, James and John - three of Jesus’ called Apostles. One would think that being marked out for special time with Jesus would imply a dynamic and significant future in ministry. Having a “mountaintop experience” with Jesus, there are a lot of people that would do a lot to be able to claim one of those.
There is nothing that we can say, however, about Peter, John and James in terms of what they had done to make themselves worthy of such an honor, such attention on the part of Jesus. Nor is there anything that we could say about their lives afterward that marks them out above their fellow-apostles, save the traditions that make Peter the first Bishop of Rome and those that indicate that John was the last of the Apostles to die.
It’s good, right and salutary that we should live in such a way that we are available to God, but we have no guarantee that God is restricting His call to those who do so, in fact, it is the opposite. Many of those whom the Lord chooses, whether it be Moses who begged God to choose someone else, Isaiah who had "unclean lips,” or Peter who turned from bold witness to cowardly denier in quicker than you could say cock-a-doodle-do, struggled with human failings, just like you or I do.
And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
Could this be the basis of the old saying, “ignorance is bliss?”
Our Gospel text today ends, not with the elation of a revelation, but with the burden of a charge.
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
They had seen Jesus unveiled, talking with Moses and Elijah. They had heard the very voice of God. Now they must keep all of this to themselves. When the crowds thronged Jesus on Palm Sunday, Peter James and John could say nothing. When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, they could say nothing. When they beat Jesus 39 times and put a crown of thorns on His bruised head, they could say nothing. There is a reason that the Old Testament prophets talked about “the burden of the Lord....”
The ultimate burden, of course, is the burden that kills you. The burden that crushes the Old Adam with all of his desires for glory, all of his passion for preeminence. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” in .
Blues singer Albert King put it this way when he sang,
“Everybody wants to laugh,
Ah, but nobody wants to cry.
I say everybody wants to laugh,
But nobody wants to cry.
Everybody wants to go to heaven,
But nobody wants to die.”
Baptism is such a simple thing, that it requires you to do nothing - God does all the work - and yet, people resist the waters of Holy Baptism as if it would kill them - because it will.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Some resist God’s gracious call for themselves or for their children, while others resist His gracious gift to them.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Trying to be good for goodness’ sake will only lead to death, [1] because you can’t be good enough to be perfect as God’s Law demands.
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
[2] because your good name won’t save you. Only Jesus’ name has that power.
[2] because your good name won’t save you. Only Jesus’ name has that power.
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
This work in Gary that we are committed to, it isn’t so that people will talk about how good we Lutherans are. It’s so that those who sit in darkness might get a glimpse of His marvelous light. It’s so that those who know only bitterness and struggle might get to discover that -
“tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word.”
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Some would say that there is no hope for Gary, therefore there should be no hope in Gary.
Some would say that there is no hope for Gary, therefore there should be no hope in Gary.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
There is no difference, in God’s the Father’s eyes, between raising His Son from the dead and revitalizing a community. The same Word of God that gives life to us can breathe life into Gary. The same Spirit that caused you to rise up into newness of life through Holy Baptism can cause an entire community to experience repentance and faith.
Christ is risen; we don’t have to keep His secret any longer. Unlike Peter, John and James, we don’t have to keep His Word to ourselves. Instead, what God has promised through the Gospel, we are released to declare to everyone who comes our way. When you realize that you are dead, and you are now living by faith in the Son of God, you no longer have to worry about your reputation. You no longer have to make sure that your love is not taken advantage of, or worry that your mercy will be misused. Like breathing is for your natural man, so walking in the Spirit is for your spirit man. Just as food and drink can sustain your natural life, so Christ’s flesh and blood will sustain your spiritual life.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
“Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His word;
Just to rest upon His promise;
Just to know, Thus saith the Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er,
Jesus, Jesus, Precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more.”