I Have Come To The Lakeshore: Go On Then!

I remember once when I was very young I was with my mom in the car and we stopped at the bank. She wrote out a check for cash, she handed it to the teller and the teller gave my mom an envelope of money.

This happened a few more times and I thought this process was great. Just write a number on a piece of paper and the lady at the bank will give you what ever amount you write.

So I remember asking my mom, “Why don't you just write down a million dollars?”

That's when my mom explained to me how bank accounts actually work.

I thought I understood the complexities of finance until I learned about Junk bonds, ponzi schemes, and mortgage bundling.

I learned and am still learning that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to finance and economics. There are things way beyond my control that effect me directly. I don't even pretend to understand it all. But I try to understand it enough to put myself in a position where I am less likely to be victimized. I try to understand that there currents that sweep through this life; those currents can either lead you where you want to be or they can sweep you beyond the breakers into dangerous waters.

There is more to this life than meets the eye.

My son Alex and I went in search of the highest elevation
In Mason County Michigan. Not exactly a mountain but
here we are climbing to the top of a rather nice hill.

We think we know. We do the best with the information we have at hand. I my young mind I knew for sure that the bank teller would give my mother just as much money as she wanted, she only needed to write it down on that rectangle piece of paper.

But now I know better.

As a young man I the 1990's. The information I had a hand was that many people believed in God and went to church. I have always believed in God but had no direct experience of God. I had always understood God to be distant. That God set things in motion and just sort of watched us to see how we were dealing with it all..

Then on December 29^th of 1999 I was presented with new information. It was that day that I was baking bread at our restaurant, early in the morning by my self. I had done this dozens if not hundreds of times before. That day was a very different day for me. Because that day I experienced the presence of God like never before. In a moment of realization/enlightenment/epiphany what ever you want to call it I knew that God was present and interested. I knew that God had a purpose for me. It was on that day that I was called into the ministry.

I knew it was that day because when it happened I wrote down everything I experienced. It was paragraph after paragraph of me trying to sort out what had just happened. One thing I did know was that God wanted me to serve Him.

This is part of what I wrote:

This is me on the "Mountain top."

“...its just I don't think I was meant to be a business person, although it feeds me n my family. But now I have a new focus, new goals for my life that give s me new hope. My initial ideas are to get some sort of clergy training. I don't know how practical or possible that is.

It was a very powerful experience that changed my life. However as the days and weeks went on and I was asked by various boards and mentors to explain my call. I found it frustrating because I kept going back to that moment in December 29^th 1999. I figured if they wanted to know about it they ought to go back and read what I wrote about it dozens of times before.

Again things are not as they seem. I didn't understand then that work of God in a persons life is ongoing and thy wanted to know about my call to ministry as it is today.

There is far more going on than meets the eye.

We have to understand that we don't understand all there is. We can only make the best use of the information we have at hand, with the knowledge that more may be revealed to us.

In the Gospel Lesson Jesus takes Peter, James and John to the mountain and shows them that there is indeed more to the world than meets the eye. Jesus is transfigured. His appearance changes the writer of the gospel tries to compare what he sees to what he knows in his world. Jesus cloths are whiter than any cloths you have ever seen. It seems that they are seeing Jesus in His glorified state. They are seeing the true nature of God's son. They are given special knowledge of Jesus identity. O sure they have used words to describe him. They have acknowledged him as Lord. They have even said he is the messiah. But these are things of the head. These are ideas. Jesus gives them the experience. Jesus shows them the reality.

On the mountain top Elijah and Moses appear. Elijah the premiere prophet and Moses the giver of the law are seemingly giving approval; sort of passing on of the baton to Jesus . If there was any doubt the appearance of these two figures should confirm for Peter, James and John that Jesus is the real deal. And further still the voice of God the father comes and instructs them to listen to Jesus.

What an experience that must have been! I don't blame Peter for offering to build dwelling places there as to make permanent that wonderful state of being. However that moment was not the end of their being there. That moment of revelation was not the end goal. It was to move into something new.

When can look backwards at past successes. We con look at past experiences. But we must be careful that we are not spending our time merely trying to hold onto feeling that we once had. And we should not be trying to recreate something that happened long ago. God calls us to move forward. God is calling us into something new. The mountain top experience, what ever it may be, is a gift to give us new information, to move us forward into a new understanding and a new reality.

It was the practice of the ancient Hebrews to place an alter at the place where they experienced god and then to worship God there. We have an alter here. We have a place, geographically speaking, where we gather to worship God. We must be careful however not to locate this place in a particular time. What I mean is we need to be attentive to the revelation of God for us in this time as to the direction he wants us to go tomorrow and the next day.

The true alter of God that we should be building is in our hearts. So that where ever and when ever we are we have the awareness of the presence of God with us.

This week a group of you will meeting to consider the future of this worship space. You will consider changes to the building. You will be dreaming and discussing. You should be focused on what God is calling us to be and to do today and moving forward. We should be praying about how God will make us new and how God will use us to love our neighbors.

Jesus on the mount of transfiguration got the go ahead. His ministry was confirmed by Elijah and Moses and was blessed by God the father.