Mountain Movers

Tomorrow is the story of the transfiguration (Matthew 17), when Peter, James and John went to the mountain top with Jesus and he was so completely filled with God’s light and love that he literally shone. And God’s voice was heard, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

I find what follows in the scripture to be fascinating. A man begs Jesus to heal his son. He had brought him first to the disciples, but they weren’t able to provide a healing. When we think of Jesus getting angry, we usually think of the time in the temple, when he overturned the money changers. But Jesus is pretty livid here, and this time the focus of his anger isn’t those outside his social circle. This time, his anger is directed at his own disciples. In the Message version, Jesus responds saying, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this?”

It is only after Jesus heals the boy and he and the disciples move on to be by themselves that the disciples finally get up the nerve to ask, “Why couldn’t we heal the boy?”

Imagine yourself a disciple. Imagine having walked all through the Judean hills and valleys learning from Jesus, wanting to know still more because clearly you’ve missed something. How would you feel if Jesus answered your question by saying, “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously. The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a mustard seed, you would tell this mountain, “MOVE!” and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”

We are the disciples of Jesus. We are the ones Jesus is speaking to. We are the ones God is wanting to move mountains.

Are you ready to move mountains?

This is the question that is held before you and me as followers of Jesus every single day. When we rise in the morning, God has an expectation of us. There are needs within our churches and communities that only you can respond to. Do you have the right stuff? It doesn’t take much, only the faith the size of a mustard seed.

I have been a church goer and a pastor long enough to know that oftentimes we don’t focus on what’s really important to God. We care more about the number of people in the pews than the state of their souls. We treat our churches like museums rather than triage centers, where wounded people can come for healing and not worry that they are messing up the feng shui of the place. We worry more about filling in all the bodies needed for the nominations report than what the people who inhabit those bodies are called to do in the world and whether or not we are equipping them to go do it.

We don’t make the main thing the main thing. We allow ourselves to get distracted by the small stuff. But God doesn’t call us to the small stuff. God calls us to the things that are crushing, bruising, damaging God’s beloved children. God is calling us to make a difference in the world. To move mountains, not molehills.

You and I know what is going on in our world. We see the needs around us. We know that there are people in our pews whose homes resemble battle fields. We know there are people in our churches and communities that struggle with demon addictions. We know that poverty is taking a terrible toll on those around us. We know that schools don’t need armed teachers, they need teachers that are armed with enough money so that they don’t have to buy the basic supplies for their classroom instruction.

But do we possess faith, yes, even the smallest amount of faith, to respond to the needs, hurts and hungers of our world. Do we believe we can move mountains?

St. Teresa of Avila reminds us:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.

We are called to move mountains. God expects nothing less of us. May our faith strengthen us, inspire us, and move us, so that we can usher in the Beloved Community God desires of us.