It's time. Today's the day you and I get to decide. In fact, every day is such a day. Today's the day we get to answer Jesus when he asks us, "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus wants to know. He always wants to know how we're going to answer him. No other question compares. No other question is so important.

Today's a special day. Our bulletin announces it with that banner, "Transfiguration Sunday." It's a churchy word. Rarely do any but church folks talk about getting transfigured, and then, not often. But every year on the Sunday before Lent begins we remember that time when Jesus went up on the mountain with his three closest disciples. And Jesus gets a makeover no TV show can compete with. "…Jesus took Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from inside out, right before their eyes. His clothes shimmered, glistening white, whiter than any bleach could make them." (The Message) From here on out, Mark tells us it's literally straight downhill to the cross. But then, that's where Jesus was always headed in the first place. And all along the way people have been asking all kinds of questions. Now what's often unnoted is how Jesus asks questions of his own. Sure, they're meant for those around him. But they're meant for us too. So this is our morning to look at what Jesus asks us comin' up, on the top, and goin' down the mountain to the cross!

Jesus wants to know. Do you say I'm the one who can make you whole? You'll have to decide. Did you hear the story of that woman today? Are you willing to decide to make it your story? There was this lady. Sick for a dozen years. Sick and tired. Sick and tired of bein' sick. ('Ever feel like that in your body, your soul?) Her problem: a little indelicate to mention in church. Let's just say she had lady stuff. Plumbing stuff. Stuff that doesn't come and go like a winter virus or a springtime's allergy. No, you had to deal with this incessantly, and forever! (We all 'got a thing like this about us, somehow, some way. Physical. Spiritual. Emotional. Psychological. What's yours? Mine?) She'd tried every doc. Every everything. HMO, PPO, POS, SOP, you name it. Now… she hears of Jesus. Aha, the doctor is in! And makes house calls. I'll go to him! She does, but can't get through the crowds. "If only I can touch the hem of his garment," she says, "It'll be enough." She does. It is. He asks, "Who touched me?" "Who decided today to say, 'I'm the one who can make you whole?'" The woman says, "I did." Jesus says, "I have. Your faith has made you whole. Go in peace. Be healed!"

It is absolutely fitting that we see the astonishing, healing power of Jesus here. And see how it shows us who he really is, The Son of God! But Jesus turns his own attention on the depth of this woman's faith and trust. He does so to ask us, do you have this kind of faith? If you do, why, you might just find yourself transfigured today, changed from inside out before our very eyes. Three things about this transforming faith. It came on the heels of having taken responsibility for her own situation. This lady'd seen every doc in town. She didn't just see Jesus as her last resort, but as part of the natural progression of self-care. She didn't just sit around awaiting some supernatural miracle; she had the faith to recognize that God provides a community of healing upon which to call. Spiritual, for her, at the synagogue. (Maybe that's where she heard of Jesus); Physical, at the doctor's. Emotional. (In her relationships, she acquired enough strength of character to let nothing stop her. She'd forge her way through the crowds to Jesus). Just like muscles strengthen with exercise, faith strengthens with responsible living. It is trusting God by partnering with him. Could there be a lesson there for us? For you? This woman had the faith to venture. To go where she had not been before. New hope lives on new ground! When we don't know how, it's enough to know who. Where God is calling, it's always good to go. And that third thing about this woman's faith? She didn't insist on seeing, knowing, touching, having all of Jesus. His hem would do. She wouldn't wait to have more of him. She would stake her life on whatever part of him she could claim in the moment, trusting that to be enough! Is that you? Or do we hang back, and ask for more, before we trust him?

What's your sick part here today? We've almost all got one, or more? (E.g.s, people, BJ) Before Jesus heads downhill to the cross, he asks us, "Do you say I'm the one to make you whole? Have you decided yet? Am I the great physician for you? Have you an exercised, strong, venturing, trusting faith in me?

Jesus wants to know. Do you say I'm the one who is worthy of all your praise? You'll have to decide. We've heard the story. Jesus on the mountain with his own. And then this startling vision. Moses arrives. And Elijah. Lawgiver! Chief of prophets! Both conferring with Jesus. Both approving his journey to the cross. I know. We usually hear this is how we know Jesus as the true savior. They confirm for Jesus what the disciples hear the voice of God saying to them, "This is my Son; listen to him!" I admit a little different view. Maybe this miracle speaks as much to how human Jesus is, as how divine. Have you ever asked, "What am I doin' here? Where am I headed? Am I goin' the right way? Is this what God has in mind, in store, for me?" Maybe there's somebody here today asking these very questions. Does it hurt anything, might it not help, to see Jesus on the mountaintop going to God with the same questions we send to heaven? God send his best, Moses and Elijah to lift up Jesus. And then God gives his very, very, best, Jesus, to lift us up. No accident that first he declares, "This is my Son." And then he leaves us with the words, "Listen to him," ringing in our ears! O, we may not fully get it 'til we see him on the cross. 'May not take it in until we see him risen from the grave (he tells us so), but from that moment on, we know who's worthy of all the praise our hearts have to give.

Jesus wants to know today. Have you decided, have I, that he and he alone, is worthy of all the praise we have to give? Is he really, truly the Savior in your heart? God's only begotten Son? Are you listening to him? Let's try that old, old question a new way. Have you been watching the Olympics? The shushing skiers, the jumpers, those snow boarders (what's up with that), the bobsled sliders, the twirling, leaping skaters and the rest? Something new this year: They're Ipod totin', Itune listenin', earplug connected. They draw their inspiration from their music. The beat bears them energy. It's their lightning, and maybe their light. (And they won't be unhooked from it!) I heard one snow boarder put it like this, "Oh, man, with this dude in my ear, I know I can fly. And even if I don't stick the landing, I won't get wiped out." Have you got Jesus in your heart like those kids have that music in their ear? That's our mountaintop matter! Do you trust Jesus as unreservedly as that skier leaping in the air? Do you hear him screaming, "Go for it," when you feel your life somersaulting in mid-air without a net? Have you decided to trust him when you see a crash is coming?
Jesus wants to know. Do you say I'm the one you're willing to follow back down to the valley? You'll have to decide. You know what I pray for all of you? I really do pray that every Sunday here is a mountaintop experience for you. 'That in your Sunday School lesson, the music you hear, the songs we sing, the Scripture we read, even in the messages we receive, there's healing. And assurance when you believe in Jesus you can fly. Even eternally. And you can even crash-on-earth but not be crushed. Literally, we can trust in Jesus to have the devil take the hindmost! That's what I hope. But I know there's one more thing.

We gotta come down off that mountain. The question is, and Jesus wants to know, is he the One we're gonna follow down the slope? 'The slippery slope, the slidy, even sobbing-side, where the valley floors come up to meet us like the-ground-in-the-face-a-fallen-ski-jumper? Below are always dangers, agonies, others to be lifted. Mark tells us that. Even Jesus and his own return to troubles, and to others to be served. There's a papa with a problem, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit… and I asked your disciples [while you were up there] to cast it out [down here], and they were not able." It appears we will need to stay near to Jesus to have the power to heal, ourselves, much less others. And we will need to stay Ipod close to the Father of our Lord as well. Afterall, when they asked Jesus, how come we flopped in the face of evil spirits, Jesus says, "Some can only be cast out by prayer!" And then too, there looms the cross. Will we follow there? Will we put it all, all we are, all we have, all we wanna be, there at the foot of the cross with him? Once we know Jesus, will we grow in him, show him in our everyday lives; go for him, tell others he is Lord?

Bob was in a Catholic hospital. Heart attack. In pain. I asked him how he was doin' at 81, upset he couldn't help his mother, 102! He pointed to the crucifix on the opposite wall. "I've been lookin' at him for hours up there," he said. "He just hangs there, 'never comes down, or gives up. I just know there's healing up there on that cross for me. He's the only doctor I need and the only Savior I know." Bob healed. Walked with Jesus 5 more years, including 3 teaching kids at church. And helping a neighbor every week. And all, he said, for Jesus' sake. I hope I've decided like that. You, too. If not, this could be our day: Jesus our healer. Jesus our Savior. Jesus the Lord we follow…. 'You got decidin' to do?

Posted Sunday, February 26th, 2006