Sermon Tone Analysis

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."

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"It's A Wonderment"

(Mark 9:2-9)

*INTRODUCTION:*

            Have you ever said something really dumb?  Have you ever opened your mouth and stood there one legged like a flamingo, with all the grace of an elephant on roller skates with your other foot stuck firmly in your mouth?

I  remember one time when I did.

About ten years ago I was serving the little United Methodist Church in Eureka, Texas.

We were in the middle of building a new Sanctuary.

The pews from the old Sanctuary were solid oak and over a hundred years old.

Money was tight and we couldn't afford new ones, so we decided to refinish the old pews  ourselves.

We told everyone what we were going to do and that we were going to need lots of volunteers for several Saturdays in a row until we got them refinished.

That first Saturday came and 42 people showed up.

We worked until two  o'clock and all but about three people stayed the whole time.

It was great.

The next morning  during the worship service I  was bragging on how many people showed up to work.

I said, /"It was great, we had 42 people up here stripping, yesterday."

/ People laughed but I didn't think anything about it.

But then I corrected myself and said, /"No, it was the women who were stripping, the men were all sanding and doing the heavy work."

/

/            /About that time the whole crowd just busted out laughing.

At first I didn't know what I'd said.

And then, after I realized what I'd said, no matter what I said to try and fix it only made matters worse.

I finally just shut up and let the song leader lead us in a hymn.

Today we see that Jesus' number one draft pick, Peter, pulled the same kind of stunt.

Peter, the one who just a few days before had opened his mouth and uttered a deep expression of faith by claiming Jesus was the Messiah, now turns and is eaten up with a bad case of the dumbs.

Mark tries to let him off the hook by saying it was caused by fear.

But Mark's attempt only reinforces Peter's reputation for opening his mouth only to change feet.

Let's face it, Peter's remark wasn't the brightest thing he could have said.

*I.

ON THE MOUNTAIN:*

*            A.

*Six days after Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus takes His  inner circle Peter, James and John up a high mountain to spend time alone.

It may have been for a leadership conference or simply for prayer.

But he took them to the mountain top, in more ways than one.

And there the most extraordinary thing took place.

There on the top of the mountain, Jesus was changed, right before their very eyes.

He and his clothes glowed brighter than any soap or bleach could ever get them.

Clorox, Tide, Bold, Wisk, none of them could hold a candle to the whiteness of Jesus and his robes.

It was as if he had suddenly become light itself.

Peter, James and John stood there in utter amazement and wonder.

Their jaws dropped in surprise and their eyes bugged out in astonishment.

Jesus was transformed and stood there in all of his heavenly glory.

It was a wonderment to behold.

And if that wasn't enough, suddenly standing with him were Moses and Elijah, the two most influential and respected people of the Old Testament.

They were the culmination of the Law and the Prophets.

The disciples started shaking in their shoes with excitement, awe and fear.

It was a holy moment if there ever was a holy moment.

And what does Peter do?

In his fear and trembling, Peter opens his mouth and says, /"Boy, Lord, it's a good thing we're here.

We can build three shrines; one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.

That way we'll never forget this moment."/

It was more than a Kodak moment and Peter wanted to capture it for all eternity and never leave.

But just as quickly as it began, it was over.

A cloud descended on them and a voice from the cloud, the voice of God spoke and said: /"This is my beloved Son, listen to him."/

Peter, James and John knew it was the voice of God and they hid their faces both in fear and in awe.

And when they finally peaked out again, Moses, Elijah and the cloud were all gone.

All they could see was Jesus.

*B.

*Can you imagine how excited  those three men were?

Their  hearts were racing.

Their blood pressure was up.

Their adrenaline was up.

Their faces were glowing with grins and good feelings.

They were pumped and ready to go tell the others what they had witnessed.

First Jesus wouldn't let Peter build the shrines and then He told them, /"tell no one about what you've seen, until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead."/

Now what was that supposed to mean.

Whatever that meant, it took the steam out of their mountain top experience.

Peter's words really weren't that dumb.

SURE, Peter's style as chief disciple in training seemed to  be open mouth, insert foot, blush, crawfish, remove foot, open mouth insert other foot.

Peter was one of those persons who never knew what to say but always felt led to say something.

He spoke before thinking.

But he really spoke from the heart.

His words were spoken out of both fear and excitement because of the situation.

You and I probably would have done the same.

And if the significance of the event hadn't struck us like it did Peter, we might have just gone  running off, screaming in fear.

Peter just wanted to preserve the moment.

One of the interesting things about this incident is  that Jesus didn't let them build those shrines.

Instead he lead them back down the mountain and back into the hard work of ministry.

In the Jezreel Valley, there is a mountain that juts up out of the middle of nowhere called Mount Tabor.

It's one of the places considered to be where the transfiguration took place.

Scholars disagree but pilgrims all go to Mount Tabor to remember the transfiguration..  What's curious is that  on the summit of Mount Tabor are three churches, not just small brush arbor tabernacles like Peter wanted to set up but three full blown Churches.

Each one commemorates one of the characters of the Transfiguration: Moses, Elijah, and Jesus.

The Church has accomplished what Peter could not.

*II.

MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCE:*

*            A.

*Everything about this passage is ambiguous and the focal point of theological and scholarly debate except for one thing.

Everyone agrees that it was a mountain top experience.

Peter, James and John came face to face with the holy and they were changed.

We really understand why Peter said what he said.

We've all had mountain top experiences of some sort or another.

Some are more dramatic than others but we've all had them.

I had one just a couple of  months ago.

It came in the form of a phone call from my little brother, Scott.

Over the last few years Scott and I have gotten pretty close.

We like the same kinds of music.

We're both computer junkies.

We both like to play golf but neither one of us are any good.

We always consider it a good day if we find more balls than we lose.