Mountain-top experiences, Part 2; Luke 9:28-36
So, is that something to be aware of – that incredible times of experiencing God during prayer may be seen by others as being unbelievable?
Where was everyone else while this was happening on the mountain? We presume it was toward the end of the day, or maybe very early in the morning, as indicated by the disciples’ tiredness. Could anyone else see the light show, the supernatural cloud, and hear the Voice of God? Did God shield these events from anyone else’s prying eyes?
What does this say about eternity breaking into real time during prayer? What does it say of the nature of eternity as it connects with real time during prayer? And then, how do we respond to it?
Peter seems to want to somehow contain the experience by building huts for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Why? Was it to prolong the intensity of the experience? Why was it that Peter suggested it, and not the others? Why was it Moses and Elijah? Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt, while Elijah showed God to be God in the battle on Mount Carmel with the priests of Ba’al.
Moses met God on a mountain, Elijah proved God on the mountain. And now Jesus is proclaimed God’s own beloved Son by none other than God Himself, on a mountain.
And Jesus’ mission was also to set captives free, to point the way to God as Lord of all.
How long did that experience last? How much could the disciples take in? What did Jesus receive from the experience? Truly, it must have been an amazing time of prayer.
I wonder how much Jesus needed that experience on the mountain. Did he know what was going to happen before he got there? What is it about ‘mountain-top experiences’ that are so awesome?
I imagine it must be amazing for mountain climbers to sit at the summit and look around. Do they sense God as they sit there? I bet they marvel at the awesomeness of creation and how beautiful it is. I wonder how changed they are by the experience of the mountain-top.
I’ll bet Peter, James, and John were never able to look at a mountain again in quite the same way.
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About
I’m an Anglican priest, working in north-east London.
revtc 
Thanks for part 2.
Every blessing
Maria in the UK
http://www.inhishands.co.uk
Some people climb mountains to experience something magical and mystical and beautiful. I use to do so myself. But now as a sixty year old I simply go and watch a pantomime, and your “wonderful” and “awesome” picture allows me to continue talking about Pantomime.
The Snow Queen Pantomime (Part Two)
Pantomime at the Theatre Royal in Stratford is done by a company of hungry young actors. They are willing to portray the sheer horror of life on stage. There are no aging former stars of TV soaps wanting to sentimentalise or trivialise Life with cheap laughs.
The “Snow Queen” (by Hans Christian Andersen) is a typical fairy tale, showing the absolute dreadfulness of Life. Gerda and Kai are childhood friends in Northern Scandinavia. However the Snow Queen secretly abducts Kai away to her palace in the island of Spitzbergen, on the edge of the Artic Circle. And I know as I write children today are being abducted for use in the sex trade. So it is a very modern and true life story.
And no one in the village knew what had happened to Kai – he just suddenly disappeared one night. They all assumed he had drowned in the nearby river. Many tears were shed, and little Gerda sobbed hardest of all. And I know as I write, many tears are being shed in many parts of the world – maybe even in Walthamstow, at the disappearance of a child.
Is this pantomime suitable for children? Should children be exposed to these horrors?
However, the children are in the theatre with their parents or other adults, so they can feel safe and secure and protected. And before the horror story unfolds, there has been much colour and light and laughter. And despite the certainty of the adults, little Gerda believes that Kai may still be alive. But is that just “Wishful Thinking” as the adults kept telling her?
WISHFUL THINKING (Part Two)
(An attempt to reconcile our Scientific and Spiritual Worlds)
Our aged eyes may only see
The world of fact.
Dull and grey and cold.
The Child within may see the same
Dull and grey cold World
But with a Sun
Giving Dawn and Noon and Sunset
The same world, but with light and colour
A fourth dimension to our world
A fourth dimension we have lost …..
………………..Or have not yet found.
Is there a fourth dimension to this world?
Is there another world?
Is it only ourselves setting free
Our true selves, our buried soul?
LIVE – Feel Connected (sometimes) – Be Joyful (sometimes)
Lawrence