One of my favorite movies, it came out a number of years ago,
Perhaps some of you have seen it.
It was called Dead Poets Society.
And the lead actor in that movie was a man
By the name of Robin Williams.

The film takes place in a kind of very stuffy
English boarding school for young men,
Strict with discipline.
And here is Robin Williams, who comes as the teacher.
And he teaches in a new way and in a new light.
Actually, he teaches very unconventionally.

And at one point, he got frustrated with the students.
They were so disciplined in looking at life
In a particular way and in the discipline of the classroom.
And so, to kind of stun their senses,
He goes and he stands up on a desk.

Now you can imagine what the students
Were thinking when they saw that.
And he begins to teach them from standing on a desk.
And he invites them to look at life
From a different perspective.
To look at life from a different perspective.

As he teaches from standing on top of a desk.
And Robin Williams, as he’s looking around the classroom,
He says, “From this position, I can see things differently.
I can see things that I’ve never seen before in the classroom.”
And that’s the point that he’s trying to make.

In the Gospel today, we’re going to go up into the mountain.
We’re in this Season of Lent,
This time of prayer and fasting and doing acts of kindness.
And Jesus is going with his best of friends up into the mountain.

And what we know from the Scriptures always,
When someone goes up into the mountain,
There’s going to be an encounter with the Divine.

Moses goes up into the mountains to receive the Ten Commandments.
Elijah goes up into the mountains
And hears the whisper of God in the wind.

So here is Jesus with his disciples,
And they’re going up into the mountain.
And the teaching is going to take place.

And while they’re in the mountain,
You heard it as I did in the Gospel today.
Jesus is Transfigured.
He’s seen differently.
He’s seen literally in a new light.

And standing next to him is Elijah and Moses.
Now it’s not by happenstance
That you have Elijah and Moses standing with Jesus.

Elijah was the great Prophet.
Moses was the great Lawgiver.
And what is being said in this moment
Is that Jesus is the Law and the Prophet coming together
In the person of the Christ, in the person of Jesus.

A new teaching, a new understanding will take place.
And they’re on the mountain and they see Jesus
In a new way and in a new light.
A fulfillment of the promise of God,
A fulfillment that the Law and Prophets
Are going to come together.

In and through the teachings of Jesus.
It’s a powerful moment.
And the disciples are aware of that.
They’re so taken by the moment. They’re in a holy place.
They’re with the Lord.
They’re with the great Prophet and Lawgiver.

They don’t want to go anywhere.
And can you blame them?
They want to set up tents
So that they can stay there for a while.

And it doesn’t happen that way.
There’s a revelation that takes place on the mountain.
And then we hear this powerful voice coming from the clouds,
“This is my Beloved Son.
Listen to him.”

So the word “listen” is the word “obitari.”
And obitari means to obey, to listen and to obey
What it is that the Lord is saying and doing
And teaching in that moment.

Of course they want to stay, but you know and I know,
We all know, that’s not how life is lived.
There are these moments of exaltation,
These moments of deep insight and awareness.
And they say they want to stay there.
But that’s not how it happens.

Jesus calls us as Disciples and he says,
“We’re going to go back down the mountain.
And we’re going onto the level playing field of life.
And you and I together are going to proclaim
The Good News of the Gospel.

We’re going to continue to teach
The love of God in this world of ours.
We’re going to teach our family members and our friends
And those who are Disciples, who are Believers,
That this is where life is encountered,
On the playing fields of life.

It’s wonderful to have these moments of ecstasy,

These powerful moments, the transcendent God.
And then you take that, and the whole purpose
Of those expressions of God’s love and Epiphany
Is so that that love might be preached and taught
And spread amongst all the people.

That’s what you’re called to do.
That’s what I’m called to do.
As Disciples of the Risen Lord.
To see who it is that he is—he is the Christ.
And to see who it is that we are in relationship to the Christ,
We are Disciples of the Lord.
And our duty is to go out and preach
The Good News as he has taught.