Rediscovering the Joys that Trauma Can Box Up; Matthew 28:1-10

Rev. George Miller
April 28, 2019
Matthew 28:1-10

2019 has been a milestone year for me.

April marked 25 years since I moved to Minneapolis.

It was not a positive move, but one based on severe trauma.

As some of you know, in 1994 I was stalked by an ex-boyfriend, an experience that included death threats, car damage, and many police reports.

As a result I packed up my life and moved from Long Island to the many streams, rivers and lakes of MN.

But not my entire life went with me.

Besides friends and family, I also left behind things that seemed trivial but were actually monumental- like my fish tank, record player, and a box of LPS.

I was raised in a family that always had fishtanks and always had music playing. But because the trauma of being stalked was so damaging, I never brought a fishtank into my home again, lest I had to leave for some reason.

That changed this month when I realized I’d be darned to go another day not having what I love.

So a 10 gallon tank with fish now resides in my home.

This simple act of victory allowed me to take a bigger step- purchasing a record player.

I plugged it in, took out the box of records that had been stored away for 25 years…and it was heaven.

I danced, I sang, I smiled. But something else happened, something I had forgotten about and buried in the recesses of my mind because of the trauma I had endured.

These weren’t just records I was playing; they were the means through which I had experienced God while growing up.

See- for me, God was not found at the church I attended. I never found God in the preacher’s sermons, or the uncomfortable pews, or the tired hymns.

God, for me, was found in the Bible I read, and in the music I listened to in my room; the drums, the beats, the vocals, the lyrics.

God was found in the tactile way of picking an album up, taking the record out, placing the needle down, and the kinetic joy that came from dancing around in a room filled with rhythm.

So this week I’ve had the unexpected experience of re-encountering God in a way that is so elemental, so authentic to my particular walk of faith, but had been buried away and basically dead to me.

It felt like a Mountain Moment…

Today we come to the end of our journey through the Gospel of Matthew, and perhaps you’ve noticed that mountains play a very important part in Matthew’s Gospel.

And for good reason.

See, the author of Matthew was a Jew writing for other Jewish people, encouraging them to see Jesus as the Messiah.

So Matthew relied upon the roles that mountains played throughout scripture.

How Moses was called upon a mountain. How Moses received the 10 Commandments upon a mountain. How the prophet Elijah fled to a mountain and experienced the Still Speaking God.

For Matthew, a mountain did not just represent a specific geographical location. A mountain was not a location on a map, or a specific spot you plugged into your GPS to find.

For Matthew, mountains represented a place where good triumphed evil, where God was made known, and where something good was bound to happen.

It was on an exceedingly high mountain that Jesus triumphed over temptation, finding the strength to say “No!” to Satan’s “Why don’t you…”

It was on a mountain that Jesus gave his first public message, calling the people blessed, teaching them how to pray, how to live authentic lives, and how to do unto others as they would do unto you.

It was upon a mountain that Jesus went to pray in solitude and to spend private time with God.

It was upon a mountain in which he offered healing to the sick, and miraculously fed the masses.

It was upon the mountain he was transfigured and stood beside Moses and Elijah while the voice of God called him Beloved.

Again and again we see throughout Matthew how mountains play such a vital role in the ministry of Jesus, his interactions with humanity, and the revelation of God.

So, it would make sense that in Matthew, after the victory of the Resurrection, it would be upon a mountain that Christ meets the remaining disciples.

And what an experience that must have been for them.

Now keep in mind, that the disciples had had undergone their own trauma as well.

The fear they must have felt, wondering if they were next to be crucified.

The anxiety over what to do now. The shame over what they did and didn’t do.

The confusion about hearing Christ had been raised. The worry that maybe he would seek revenge for them deserting and denying him.

Though a few days had passed, how much they must have missed Jesus.

How much they must have hungered for another moment with him; how much they must have felt that a piece of themselves were gone…forever.

And now? Now here they stood, on a mountain, with Jesus Christ before them!

He was not dead! He had been risen!

And here he was; here they were, on a mountain that symbolized so much.

A mountain that represented the overcoming of temptation, a place to pray, a place to be fed, a place to be healed, encouraged, and transfigured.

And now the place to witness God’s victory over death, and to receive the promise that Christ will be with us always, until the end of time.

Mountain Moments, where God is so clearly known.

Mountain Moments, where Jesus shapes us into our authentic selves.

Mountain Moments, where the Resurrected Christ reminds us of who we are and empowers us to share the word and the work of the Kingdom.

What is your Mountain?

I’m not asking you what is the place in which you experience God now, or what are the things you currently do that connect you to God.

I’d like us to go a bit deeper today.

What is the Mountain Moment from your past, that you have lost or forgotten about, or boxed away?

What is the symbolic mountain in which you most experienced God while growing up before work or bills or adult responsibilities got in the way?

What is the metaphorical mountain you used to go to alone, to spend private time with God before a traumatic event disrupted it or stripped it away?

I already shared my mountain- the music from my old albums played in a room I can dance in with no apology.

What is your Mountain?

The thing, the event, the act, the task, the chore, the toy, the movie, the song, the person, the place in which you felt the most connected to God.

Can you recall it? Can you reclaim it?

Can you find a way to resurrect it without being stuck in the past but being in the “now” and stepping into the future?

See, when the Resurrected Christ met the 11 disciples on the mountain, it was a way to reaffirm all that had gone on before- the meals, the ministry, the lessons, and the good times.

But Christ did not mean to keep them on the mountain, or to have them stuck in the past.

He did so to remind them of their roots, both as a historic people and a contemporary community.

But Christ also met them on the mountain so they could be sent out into the world to carry the Good News, be part of a new creation, and to move forward The Message.

We should all be ever so grateful for the Mountain Moments we have each had in our own lives; Mountain Moments that connected us to Christ in our own unique way.

And if we have lost sight of those Mountains, the Resurrection allows us to reclaim them.

If we have forgotten what those Mountains were, in Christ we can be reminded.

And even if we were to never see or experience those Mountains again, we can be thankful that we had them to experience.

For as long as we keep living, there will be many more Mountains to climb.

As long as we keep breathing, there will be many more Mountains in which we can experience the Resurrected Christ.

Even if 25, 50, 75 years go past, we can be assured that Christ will be with us always, even until the end of time.

Amen and amen.