Caesarea Philippi is yet another favorite spot of mine in Israel.

It has a long and influential history.

Located on one of the main travel routes between Palestine and Damascus, it was viewed as a kind of a gateway to the Golan Heights and beyond.

It was a center for trade and commerce

 and thus a prime location for tax collectors and those who imposed certain customs duties on traveling goods.

And Caesarea Philippi was also an extremely influential cultic center.

Over time, a number of temples were built there to honor both Greek and Roman gods,

 Niches were carved into the hillsides, making it possible for pagans to bring their house gods there, place them up in a niche, and then worship and praise these false house gods in this particular location.

It was a major center for the worship of Pan, a Greek and Roman god figure who oversaw nature,

 shepherds, partying, companionship, and accompanying fertility.

The ancients believed that the god and goddesses that oversaw fertility traveled to the underworld to reside during the cold and barren winter months.

 And at Caesarea Philippi, at the Grotto of Pan, there is an incredibly deep cave that's filled with water.

And the ancients used to come and sacrifice all kinds of things, including unwanted children, to these gods that they believed were located in the underworld.

The grotto was literally known as the gateway

 To hell.

And it's there, it's there that Philip, son of Herod the Great and ruler over the Galilee area of northern Palestine, kind of co-opted the city of Banias as it was known then, renamed it Caesarea in honor of the emperor, and designated it as Caesarea Philippi to distinguish it

 from the Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast.

And it is now a very important administrative site.

And it maintained its cultic flavor.

And it was viewed as an infamous location by faithful Jews.

And one can criticize the pagan influence of the area, but it is Caesarea Philippi

 or Banias as it's known today, is that location as a center of alternative gods really any different than any other location of accumulated gods of our own making?

And it's here, in the midst of all of these competing gods,

 that Jesus initiates this major transition for his disciples.

This group has seen Jesus feed thousands, heal the sick, raise the dead, and walk on water.

They've listened to the teachings that redefined what it meant to be an active citizen in the kingdom of God.

 They have often been confused as Jesus gave them new insights on the Old Testament.

And they've also become fearful at times as they watch their master do battle with the professionally religious.

And the disciples, they're just trying to figure this all out.

They're trying to put it all together.

 They're struggling with what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of Man, the Christ.

But now, as Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week loom on the horizon, as a final meal, a rest, trial, suffering, and death begins to take shape,

 Jesus seeks to clarify everything that he has been all about, first with a simple question that he's just posed to Peter.

Who do you say that I am?

And Peter has responded rightly, faithfully, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 And then the text tells us that Jesus, for the first time, in explicit fashion, begins to tell his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, experience a horrific death, and then he'll be raised from the dead.

Peter doesn't get it.

Peter doesn't want it.

And in a stunning display of arrogance...

 We're told that, can you just visualize this?

Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus.

Rebukes Jesus for telling his disciples of his upcoming passion.

You gotta love Peter.

Impetuous Peter.

 sometimes so amazingly faithful, and sometimes so dense.

And a few days later, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, his inner council,

 with him up to a high mountain.

Now, tradition has this high mountain as Mount Tabor, and indeed, since the fourth century, there have been churches and monasteries on the top of Tabor commemorating the Transfiguration story.

But in the first century, Mount Tabor was an occupied site of Roman military encampments and settlements.

 It was hardly the place of isolation that's described in our text.

Far more likely, Jesus has taken them up to Mount Hermon, a massive mountain that ascends over 9,200 feet and sits at a connecting point for Israel, Jordan, and Syria.

And it's there on this mountaintop

 that Peter, James, and John encounter a transfigured Jesus surrounded by Moses and Elijah.

And they're enveloped by a cloud out of which they hear God saying, this is my son, my beloved, listen to him.

And the disciples are terrified.

 And Jesus ministers to them, and then down the mountain they came.

A few things to let this story kind of shine in its full glory.

First, it's no coincidence that Moses and Elijah are connected with a story about the Messiah on a mountaintop.

Both Moses and Elijah have significant consequential encounters with God on a mountaintop.

 Moses receives the law from God on Mount Sinai and is himself reflecting the glory of God on his face as he comes down to encounter the tribes of Israel.

Elijah is called by God to meet with him on Mount Horeb.

And there he hears that still small voice of God speaking to him.

 encouraging him, sending him.

And both Moses and Elijah are connected with the coming Messiah in Jewish tradition.

Moses is revered as the one who brought the law.

Elijah is promised to appear, actually appear at the coming of the long-awaited Messiah.

Indeed, it's Elijah that onlookers believe Jesus is calling to

 when he hangs on the cross and in a stunning display of continuity with the Old Testament the disciples awaken to find Jesus speaking with these messianic Old Testament giants about the events that awaited Jesus in Jerusalem

 And Peter, impetuous, speak before you think, foot firmly in his mouth, Peter, applauds the wisdom of Jesus in bringing the disciples to witness this transfiguration event.

Master, it's good for us to be here.

If it would have just stopped there, he would have just gained the title of Captain Obvious and then we could have moved on, but he doesn't.

Let us put up three shelters.

 one for you one for Moses one for Elijah to be fair Peter is only continuing in the Jewish tradition of building shelters booths and tabernacles to commemorate significant religious events

 And then these constructions were places for people to visit, to remember, and to celebrate.

And particularly the tabernacle was a place that housed the presence of the Lord as Israel wandered in the wilderness.

Peter wants to commemorate.

Peter wants to celebrate.

Peter wants this institutional structure

 that could then serve a religious purpose.

Sounds a lot like the institutional response of building churches across our landscape.

These places are institutional, and they are religious at the same time.

They may or may not be fully serving both of those faith purposes.

But Jesus isn't looking for institutions or buildings.

 He's not looking for a place of remembrance.

No, he's looking for something much more dynamic.

A cloud envelops the mountaintop.

Just as a cloud signified the presence of God in the tabernacle that accompanied Israel in the desert, just as the cloud signaled the presence of God at the dedication of the first temple, so now this cloud signals that God is present.

 And for the second time in the New Testament, first it is baptism, and now it is transfiguration, the disciples hear the voice of God.

God speaks to them.

This is my son, whom I love.

 Put the Greek words together that we're reading and we get the idea that God is affirming the unique, intentional, much beloved place of Jesus, yes, in the Godhead, but also in the mission that he's all about.

The mission that he just told the disciples about.

The mission that he just got rebuked by Peter over.

 Jesus shines with the brilliance of his own divine deity, glory, and purpose, affirming, justifying, substantiating what it is that he has just told the disciples.

And God says, listen to him.

 Jesus is turning his faith towards Jerusalem.

Jesus has told his disciples clearly and plainly that he's going to suffer, die, and be raised again.

These disciples who've been watching Jesus do battle with the professionally religious time and time and time again, and when?

Now they are clearly expecting a triumphant, a conquering Messiah.

 to go south to Jerusalem and reinstitute the glory of Israel.

Christus Victor, the victorious Jesus, the triumphant Messiah, the anointed conqueror of God.

But Jesus has just said that the faithful disciple must imitate Jesus, must pick up his own cross,

 and walk the path of obedience, of service, of sacrifice.

Faithful followers of Jesus must be willing to give up their own prerogatives, their own prestige, their own pretensions to power, and instead find life in the humble pilgrimage of faith and obedience.

Friends, that's a hard message.

 That's a message that is radically different than the ones that these Jewish men was expecting from their long-awaited Messiah.

They had brought all of their own expectations to the task.

They brought their hopes, their dreams, their traditions.

They brought with them 1500 years of longing, of suffering, of waiting for the conquering Messiah.

 And the Messiah has come, but just not as they expected.

In the general location of the perceived gates of hell, he has told them that redemption will come through his death and resurrection.

And this teaching has been reinforced by this vision of Jesus surrounded by Moses and Elijah and affirmed by God.

 And the disciples are having a hard time putting it all together.

Their spiritual vision of the future has just been transformed, transfigured before their very eyes.

Let's be fair.

The disciples are struggling with all this in real time, in all honesty.

Would we have been any different?

Are we any different today?

 Friends, here we are at the beginning of Lent.

Here we are at the baptism of this dear baby, John Mark Joachim.

Both of these events are entry times, entry into the thoughtful and reflective season of Lent.

And for John and his parents, entry into the church and a lifetime, lifelong commitment for Mark and Nadine.

 to raise John Mark in the faith.

And let's not forget our promises to support Mark and Nadine in their efforts.

Here we are at the beginning, knowing what is coming.

Here we are at the beginning with a transfigured Christ in all of his glory, ready to turn his face towards Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week.

What new thing?

 What new understanding, what new set of behaviors and commitments is God calling you to today?

Maybe it's some form of new study.

Maybe it's some kind of service.

Maybe it's a recognition that the long-held traditions of the past

 need to be transfigured faithfully in the light of a new day maybe it's just a willingness to move beyond our comfort and our familiarity we can't just keep doing the same old things and expect them to bring us new understandings yes the Holy Spirit can and does

 break into even the most tired, the most neglected of faith lives, and brings about new vitality.

God doesn't give up on us when we've given up, perhaps, on our faith selves.

Like Peter, James, and John, we've seen a vision of Jesus transfigured in glory.

 We've heard Jesus describe for us his mission of mercy and redemption.

And now it's up to us.

What will happen as we turn our faces towards Jerusalem?

What will we become?

How I pray that we can move into a new level of faith commitment, of service and fellowship.

 in light of this renewed opportunity for us as we enter Lent.

Amen.