Building

Matthew 17:1-9

Let us build three dwellings. Not a problem, right? What dwellings have we built? Lets face it. We all do it. Remember when...fill in the blank. We want church to be this way or that way or what it was in the past and this is the dwelling we build in our mind.

Sure, it doesn't have physical walls or is something which stands in front of us. It still keeps us from coming down the mountain. From living life fully and faithfully because we hold onto that ideal.

C. S. Lewis puts it this way in his story Prince Caspian. The children travel back to Narnia where they were once kings and queens and nothing is the same.  Cair Paravel the once castle lies in ruins, creatures who were enemies are now allies, Aslan doesn't come to them they way they think he should. So, they struggle. They struggle to understand why everything is different, why everything is not the same. They have built this up all in their minds and its not until they lose a lot before they understand they have to let go and do something new.

We aren't any different. If only church were more like this. If only we had more children. If only we had a choir. If only it could be what it once was. We dwell on what should be and shore it up with more walls until we aren't going to church because its just about me and God or until we've buried it in inaction because we want it to remain the same in our minds.

We have to come down the mountain. We have to hear the voice which says Jesus is the beloved. Not our ideas of what could be. Jesus. Maybe this is how Peter drops it all. After all this is six days after he confesses who Jesus is. He has to let go of the ideal and come down the mountain.

No matter what changes here, no matter what we dare to try Jesus is and should be the center. Not we've never done it this way before. Not can't we go back to. Not build another program, another blast from the past and it will work. What is it to follow Jesus down the mountain?

We might be afraid to come on down. We might feel assured its alright as long as we don't risk anything. Yet coming down the mountain risks it all. It is the only way to follow. So follow we must. Follow or die with our ideals being grasped onto. We aren't the one who can make anything. We just have to trust and take that first step. Will you come down?