Sermon on February 15, 2026
“The Mountaintop”
By: The Rev. Ernie Lewis
Readings:
Exodus 24:12-18
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
This is the last Sunday after the Epiphany.
The baby in the manger has become a grown man. He’s gotten quite a reputation as a teacher and a miracle worker. He’s gathered a small group of close followers who travel the countryside with him. Some of his followers even dare to suspect he might be the Messiah, the One promised so long ago to the Jewish people.
His name is Jesus and he has a growing following, as well as a particular ability to send the religious leaders of the time into fits of murderous fury!
But, sometimes, they aren’t totally sure about him. That “Messiah” thing sometimes seems like a pretty far-fetched idea!
They’ve walked the dusty roads of Galilee with him and witnessed not only the miraculous things he’s done, but also the rising resistance to him and the hostility of the religious establishment.
The people love him. The religious authorities do not love him!
There’s a lot of tension in his life and probably a lot of pressure in the lives of his followers.,
So, every now and again he goes off into unpopulated wilderness areas, perhaps into mountainous terrain, to settle himself and refresh his energy and his sense of “call”. He sometimes takes his followers with him.
He returns revitalized, more deeply committed to and focused on his mission.
We might call those times “mountaintop” experiences”!
We’ve probably all had them at one time or another. Maybe it was at a summer youth camp or a class, or just the discovery of a very special relationship.
But there’s a funny thing about mountains: coming down is easy; going up to the top is often hard!
There’s a long history in the Jewish nation of unique encounters and important milestones occurring on mountain tops:
The Ark of Noah finally comes to rest on the top of Mt. Ararat.
Mt. Sinai is the site of Moses’ encounter with God when he is given the tablets of the Ten Commandments. We heard about that again in our lesson this morning from the Hebrew scriptures.
Jerusalem is located on Mt. Zion.
Mt. Moriah is the site of the testing of Abraham’s faith in his willingness to kill Issac, his own son.
And Mt. Nebo, from which Moses is permitted to look over into the Promised Land he is forbidden to enter.
So, it would not be unusual for Jesus to invite several of his closest followers to join him on a trek up another mountain. They probably assume he’s feeling tired and in need of refreshment and feeling the need to “get away”.
But, of course, something altogether unexpected and earthshaking happens when they get up there.
Jesus is “transfigured”, engulfed in a blinding light like the one that surrounded Moses in his encounter with God on Mt. Sinai. He’s joined by Moses and the Prophet Elijah, and a voice out of the light proclaims, “This is my Son, the Beloved: with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”
And suddenly, in that moment, in that brilliant burst of unearthly light, the whole story of the Jewish nation, God’s chosen ones, comes together like finding the one piece of a vast puzzle that makes all the rest fit together! The ancient founders of their faith, the prophets, all of it, suddenly “clicks” and comes together in the person of Jesus. Messiah!
No wonder they want to stay up there, basking in the glory of the experience they have just had!
But Jesus will have none of it!
“Get up,” he commands, “and do not be afraid!”
Of course, we know that there are more “mountain tops” of another kind ahead for Jesus: the Mount of Olives, the fake trial, and Golgotha, the “Place of the Skull.”
Many of us yearn for some kind of “mountaintop experience,” some kind of respite in these difficult days; a place of rest and replenishment.
It seems so many things we have come to know and to expect are being turned on their heads.
It’s finding that place and getting up there that’s the problem!
Several years ago, Mary Ann and I and some friends decided to try to find and follow the western portion of the Emigrant Trail over the Sierra Nevada mountains into California.
We started in the little town of Verdi, Nevada. The trail was fairly easy to follow in many places. The ruts made by the wagon wheels are still deeply cut into the earth. In some areas we had to look for landmarks described in the diaries of the travelers. Sometimes there were markers on trees left by previous searchers. But, we finally found ourselves in the meadow described by the tired emigrants.
It’s a pleasant place with good grazing for the tired oxen and mules that had been pulling the wagons.
But, there was a problem!
To the west of the meadow rises a wall of rock and granite.
The wall was too steep for the teams of oxen to pull the wagons up and over the crest.
What to do?
Finally, someone suggested that they might be able to pull the wagons up one at a time by linking all the wagon chains they had into one long chain, taking the oxen to the top of the hill, hitching them to the chain and pulling the wagons up one at a time. A felled tree trunk at the brink of the hill would serve as “roller.”
So, with a team of 12 oxen hitched to the chain and the roller in place they were able to get all the wagons, one at a time, up that steep hill and over the brink.
Together they accomplished what appeared to be impossible.
To this day, that place is called “Roller Pass”.
(If you’re hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, you can visit it.)
Why tell this story?
Because I believe if we are to survive in these days and experience the joy and energy of the “mountain top” our faith proclaims, we must pull together. We must be strength for each other in times when the “granite walls” of confusion, disappointment and even fear confronting us seem simply too steep.
Surely Jesus, Redeemer and friend, will give us the strength, not only to gain the mountain top but also to give us the will and the means to lift each other up and onto that high place where we can find rest for our souls and the energy for living we so long for.
So let us set out!
We’re bound for the mountaintop!
Amen!
[1] Phil Hooper, “Ash/Dust, Ash Wednesday,” Sermons That Work, February 18, 2026. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermon/ash-dust-ash-wednesday-february-18-2026.
[2] Genesis 2:7
[3] Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Book Two: The Later Masters (New York, NY: Schocken Books, 1947), pp. 249-50.
[4] Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons (Orlando, FL: Wanton Gospeller Press, 2015), pp. 89-90
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