The Edge of Glory

“I'm on the edge of glory, and I'm hanging on a moment of truth / Out on the edge of glory, and I'm hanging on a moment with you...” Have you ever witnessed something glorious? Maybe it was the birth of your first child. Maybe it was that child’s graduation from high school. Maybe it was someone who let you have that parking space up close, or let you go through the grocery line first.

Check out the glory witnessed in 2 Kings 2:1-12 and Mark 9:2-9. Three of the disciples – Peter, James, and John – are on the edge of glory in our Gospel passage this week. Jesus is transfigured – transformed, goes through a metamorphosis, becomes radiant, shining – before their very eyes. The disciples contribute nothing to the transfiguration – they are merely witnesses, absorbing what is shown and told to them up on that mountaintop, watching on the edge of glory.

Many of us, particularly those going through a spiritual wilderness, hunger for this witnessing, for a mountaintop experience, for hearing God’s voice so clearly and directly, for seeing with our eyes the transfiguration of Jesus. We hunger and thirst to just be on the edge of glory. And then, when it happens, when we are dragged to the top by Jesus, when we are finally on the edge…all we want to do is cling to that moment of truth, to hang onto that moment forever. We are frozen in terror, in awe, as we glimpse a part of the divine, a new reality. Peter, nervous and a little confused, begs Jesus to stay – to make dwelling-tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. They don’t understand the edge of glory – but they don’t want to leave it and return to the ordinary, mundane, day to day existence.

Chances are you’ve heard this story once or ten times before. You might think the most important part is Jesus being transfigured, or Moses or Elijah (the Law and the Prophets) appearing, or God speaking from a cloud. I would argue that the first part of verse 9 holds the most power: “ As they were coming down the mountain…” The disciples were on the edge of glory – Jesus was in the middle of it. And yet they all came down the mountain to continue the journey to the cross, the journey to death, to transforming the world through the ministry of Jesus and the witnessing of the disciples.

When you’re on the edge of glory, will you cling to that moment? Or will you travel down that mountain to continue the path of discipleship, the path of learning and struggling, the path of working for the kin-dom of God in our ordinary world?

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate