(This sermon was preached on Sunday March 5, 2017)
It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood. One of my favorite inspiring people was Fred Rogers. I share his words with you and I think you will find them familiar.
“I have always wanted to have a neighbor
Just like you!
I’ve always wanted to live in a
neighborhood with you
So let’s make the most of this beautiful day;
Since we’re together we might as well say.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won’t you be my neighbor?”
Mr Rogers spoke about neighbors also. I wonder if Jesus and Mr Rogers were both to join us this morning and speak to us about neighbors, how similar their messages would be.

In our scriptures this morning someone is testing Jesus. What must I do to inherit eternal life? The man essentially has to answer his own question. So the man then asks who is my neighbor and Jesus answers with the parable that we know as the Good Samaritan.

We, as devout Christians sit back rather smug and say, yep that’s right. The guy was looking for a loophole, some wriggle room….

Don’t we all! My neighborhood is fine….we have a smiting God. And it just works. Things seem right, in order, by the rules. We don’t need anything, or at least I don’t.
I like this set up.

But
I’m not broken…..
If I get beaten, if I get grabbed, if I get stripped and left for dead, then a smiting God isn’t going to do me much good.
Stop and think about that….

The only kind of G that I will need or desire is a G who can draw near and be moved by pity to rescue the broken.

But the neighborhood is fine. I will help.

But I spent years hearing Mr Rogers telling me he wanted a neighbor just like me.
What makes a neighbor-relationship.
Micah will have many neighbors.

We also have the Mary/Martha story that follows. The Samaritan story was about hospitality of action. M/M is a story of hospitality through listening.

Both stories come down to relationship. Not to-do lists but relating to one another.

In both these parable we see people who are focused on their role and no one else. They are not out of it, they are no ditzy. They are focused people, so focused that they forget that there is anyone else there.
These best days in life is when you lose you focus and find your neighbor.
That is hospitality. That is welcoming the other. That is what Mr Rogers means when he says he wants a neighbor like you. It’s about a relationship and not a schedule or a project.

Hospitality many times means action for neighbors……

Hospitality also means hospitality though listening to others…..

End with Mr Rogers quote.
“The purpose of life is to listen-to yourself
to your neighbor, to your world and to God
and, when the time comes, to respond in as
helpful way as you can find…from
within and without.”

Mountaintops are grand, they are glorious, who doesn’t like a mountaintop? The views are just awe-inspiring. The noise is hushed. It is to live different when you are standing there. It is a perfect mix for experiencing the holy. That is precisely the experience for Jesus and three disciples, Peter James and John. Mosses and Elijah appear and then the cloud and the voice of God….This is my son, my chosen listen to him! Then just Jesus and the disciples are left standing there. A most Holy experience.

I know we do not climb mountains with a physical Jesus with us nor are any of us THE disciples. Yet we have all had those mountain top experiences…even the flat-landers. We crave that experience of being somewhere that is all together not ordinary. Someplace for quiet, some solitude, a place with a view of creation and beauty. We wait for that holy encounter-that moment when you know that God is God and that you are not, that moment when you can just rest in and with God, no prayer, no request, no agenda—just to be. You don’t know if it was a brief moment or a millennium but you were there. That is our mountain tops. I think all of us have experienced. I believe the mountain top is accessible for all of us but sometimes those mountain top experiences get few and far between.

The majority of our day are lived out in the valleys and the flat lands. And we have work to do. That work is done with precision and grace, through love and relationship….at times. Well, then there are the other times. Times or perhaps seasons when we get boughed down with the world, the predictions, the news, the studies and responsibilities and our work becomes difficult, ineffective, even just a plain ole mess! Have you been there?

Life in the valley or in the flat-lands is….well flat at the very least and may be filled with shadows of confusion and uncertainty. That is life…at least some of our days. We know our job is to heal, to help, to love but it isn’t that simple. Like the disciples we lose our focus, we lose our God given gifts of power.

I sounds like a discouraging rhythm of life, sounds like drudgery. Resembles hopelessness. I am the first to confess to you today that my life can be that exact situation. I get bogged down in just how life is. The mountain tops are high but I slide too easily into the valley of despair the flat land of monotony.

Yet just below the surface of this glorious scripture reading is a rhythm for our life. It is the rhythm of worship. The passage begins with saying on the eighth day they went up the mountain to pray. The eight day in Christian tradition quickly came to mean the day of the resurrection, and the day of worship. So the went up to pray and as Jesus was transfigured Elijah and Moses appear and the focus of the discussion is the upcoming crucifixion. In worship it always centered around the cross and the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection.

As with all worship the very word of God is heard…This is my son, the chosen, listen to him. Said not to Jesus but to those that were with him, commanding them to listen to Jesus. A similar rhythm that we experience each Sunday in this very place. We meet on the resurrection day for prayer, focusing on Jesus good works and listening for the word of God and listening.

Then we depart, down the hill. I think the story today has other important things for teach us, to share with us. For as surely as comes the mountaintop of worship comes the return to the everyday world. A world that is filled with human needs where Jesus heals the sick and opposes the forces of evil and injustice. If worship is our retreat, if is a retreat in order to come back to the world in love, mercy and grace. We worship to come back to our callings of to love and to heal with renewed energy and compassion. What happens in here is only to prepare us for what is out there.

A number of years ago a young couple that was relatively new to the church I was serving explained to me how important church had become for them. Whenever one of them could not make it – if, for instance, of their children was sick – they’d do a quick two-minute drill to check in on the week they’d just been through and the week about to come to determine, as they said, “who needed church more.” “Church is what helps us make sense of our lives,” they explained, “it’s that pick-me-up that connects us with God and our calling and sends us back into the week.”

So on this Transfiguration Sunday the challenge, or the question for us is what did we come her for? We need to be here for the whole story, the entire journey not just the flash of a mountaintop. The view is great and God’s word is exciting and frightening. But it’s not for the show, it’s about the ministry, it’s about Jesus calling us from the mountaintop and into everyday life and world. Will we cast out demons? For some we will, other times not. Jesus says get this, I suffered for you, for your life, life abundant.