Homily – Second Sunday of Lent March 8, 2009 Cycle B Genesis 22:1-2,9,10-13,15-18 Romans 8:31-34 Mark 9:2-10 Recently I came across a fun article written by a couple of guys titled “One hundred and one things to do during a dull homily.” I suppose I shouldn’t really tell you this, but here are some of their suggestions. v Pass a note to the organist asking whether she plays requests. v See if a yawn really is contagious. v Slap your neighbor; see if they turn the other cheek. If not, raise your hand and tell the priest. v Using church bulletins for raw materials: design, test, and modify a collection of paper airplanes. v Start from the back of the church and try to crawl all the way to the front, under the pews, without being noticed. Hopefully this homily isn’t so dull, but I admit also that it might not be a spiffy as you’d like. Those of us who live here in the state of Colorado know well the majesty of the mountains and the splendor that has sparked the creativity of artists and lyricists alike. Today’s readings have two mountain stories in them. But both of them present a problem. The first one from Genesis has God ordering Abraham to execute the human sacrifice of his son, and then changes his mind. It is a puzzling and alarming episode. Now a days when we know that the Bible is a book of stories, we sense this incident as a parable. A story with a strong point. The way the original people would have understood it. And that point is one that we moderns have a hard time with. Namely, that God is God and we are we. The story says that this is not your usual mountain God that Abraham knew. This is a God beyond the mountains and the sky who cannot be manipulated. A unique God of times and seasons, principalities and powers, of life and death. It is this truth that is revealed in this story in Genesis. Our insufferable pride makes it difficult to bow to this reality. But somewhere along the line, says the story, we must cry out with Abraham and kneel down and say “Here I am!” The second mountain story is of course the Gospel --- the Gospel of the Transfiguration as we call it. This too is a story given to us by the evangelist Mark, and it contains two themes. First of all if you’ve ever been to the Holy Land you know that this so called mountain rises up out of the plains. A bit different than the beautiful Rocky Mountains around us. So here we find Jesus in the Gospel of Mark doing His ministry in the low lands of rural Galilee with no mountain in sight. And without warning, and suddenly, Mark’s narrative turns sharply upward and we find ourselves with Peter, James and John, on a high mountain apart seeing things we never expected to see or missed on the low lands. This event becomes a symbol of the need to come a part and look at things from a different angle of vision. It’s an invitation to scale the heights so that we can see what we cannot see in the valley. In other words this story is the Lenten theme, “Come apart, spend some time in prayer, make a day or evening of recollection. Ascend the mountain to refresh your spiritual vision and recapture the splendors, the brightness, the wonders and the insights you have lost down in the busy valley. The other theme, the second one --- rests on cleverly noticing that only three of the twelve apostles were taken as witnesses to this new vision. Perhaps you have wondered, like myself, why are these three chosen, Peter, James and John? Why didn’t he choose Nathaniel or Matthew, or Jude? Jesus chose Peter because he was the head of the apostles. John because he was the beloved disciple, and James because he would be the first apostle to die for the new faith. Jesus however, knowing human nature, had other reasons more ironic. These three had witnessed a powerful experience and insight on Mount Tabor in to who Jesus really was. And so they were rightly overcome by such splendor, such privilege, but eventually they became cocky, over sure of themselves. Later Jesus decided to test Peter, James and John. When it came time once more Jesus deliberately took these very same privileged three apostles with Him. However, this time Jesus took them not to the stars, but to the mud. Not to the mountain, but to the ground and garden of Gethsemane and then we see how these fair-haired apostles fared. And we know the answer. They failed Him. They fell asleep. But there is even more, for you recall Peter would deny Jesus, James and John would flee and in the promised spots at Jesus’ right and left, two thieves took their places. So much from pride and shallow promises. So once more the Gospel becomes a story. A parable of pride coming before a fall, a warning to us and a reminder that for all of our baptismal promises we too have broken them. Many times we have fled Jesus, we have gone back on our word, and that is why we have Lent: to repent and eventually get a more humble Peter, James and John. As Peter today said in our Gospel, “Lord it is good for us to be here.” So it is good for us to be here on this second Sunday of Lent to be reminded of our need to repent, and to return to the spenders of the mountain.