The Dead Will Care for the Dead - Transfiguration 2018

Megalithic Monument at Peneda Gerês National Park, February 2018

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. - Mark 9:2-9 

It has been said among the people of the Portuguese mountains that in ancient times, 

when stories were passed on only by the light of kitchen fires, 

that there lived in a certain village a very old and very wise man 

who,

after decades of friendship, 

lost his boyhood friend. 

Stricken with grief, this man went up a high mountain, 

as was the custom of his family. 

There, he placed stones and arranged flowers. 

He made a monument to the friend he had loved. 

The deceased’s family came. 

They muttered prayers and sang ancient songs. 

They tore their garments. 

They marked themselves with dirt and ashes. 

Their weeping and wailing rang out through all of the mountains and valleys so that villages miles away could feel their loss. 

As the sun returned, 

the family descended the mountain, as was their custom. 

They went back to tending to the flocks, to singing, to chores. 

However,  

the old man didn't return. 

Though hunger would nag him, 

though thirst tug at his shoulder day after day, 

the old man’s heart rendered him immovable. 

One night as the sun was setting, 

the old man closed his eyes. 

As he breathed his last he knew that, 

life or death, he would be at his friend’s side 

forever.

To this day as the winter sun sets,

that you can see him. 

There he is. In the mountains, lying on his side. 

You see his elbow there. 

And there his head held up by is hand. 

His beard has mingled with the shrubs, his tears winding downward, watering the streams that flow eternally into the sea.* 

+++

Early this week, Daisy and I were hiking in those mountains. 

As we made our way through the rocky trails, up hills, 

past freely roaming oxen 

and wild orange trees 

and little streams, and avoiding a lot of thorny brush, 

here and there we would happen upon these

super ridiculously ancient sites, 

much like the one’s spoken of in this legend:

sacred places 

literally marked by love and by sorrow and by rocks

that still remain there thousands of years after they were created!   

Today we call these sites “megalithic” sites.

(Think: Stone Henge, for example). 

Here’s one of the ones we saw in Portugal. 

[See picture above.]

Places like this were uncovered by archaeologists 

beginning in the the 1960’s and 1970’s.

And here and there while you are hiking or sometimes driving, 

you will find these little wooden markers with arrows pointing you to them, off the path a little way. 

This one, actually, the marker was burnt, so we had to sort of put it together, and figure out what it used to say, and then found our way down the trail to it.

It’s believed that these monuments

were put there by somebody or some group of people 

3,500-7,000 years ago;

probably (in the case of this one) 

to mourn the loss 

and celebrate the life 

of a friend. 

3,500 to 7,000 years ago someone placed a monument

high up in the mountains,

for someone they lost and loved. 

And they had a funeral. 

As was the custom of their families. 

+++

Jesus, his friends, and his students, 

were no strangers to such ancient customs. 

They, too, ascended mountains to remember. 

They, too, piled stones and murmured prayers 

and wept 

at the passing of those they loved. 

When the Disciples go up and see those heroes of the faith, 

the ghosts of faithfulness past, 

Moses and Elijah, dazzling and full of light, in the Gospel story today,

they are filled with love. 

And with terror of course. 

But they want to stay! 

To admire these sacred and holy saints. 

To pile up rocks and to build dwelling places in the name of love. 

But the voice from the heavens seemed to know better. 

“Here is where we go to remember,” it seemed to say, 

“to touch the past, 

to offer our love.” 

“But when when our offering is complete, 

we’ve gotta return.  

When our offering is complete,

we’ve gotta come back down." 

+++

The story of the old man’s love for his friend may be beautiful. 

As is the story of the disciples’ love. 

But 

what if it’s true that God doesn’t want the old man to die up there?

And what if it’s true that God doesn’t want the disciples to remain sequestered, alone with the saints on a hill, as holy as that calling may seem? 

What if God wants them to come back down?

What if it’s true that God wants them in the village, laughing with the children, eating with their friends, cracking jokes and being healed? 

What if it’s true that God wants them to be a part of the community, broken as it may be,

and certainly not to die of a broken heart? 

+++

I wonder if the voice from the clouds says this then, to us, Christ’s disciples today:

If we are lucky, we love. And certainly we all have loss.  

But a horrible thing happens if we stay on the mountain with the dead. 

It is not, as the disciples wished, a dwelling place. 

If we attempt to make it so, if we try too long to stay, 

we, too, like the old man, will start to die before our time. 

“The dead will care for the dead,” Jesus says.

We the living must tend to the crucified among us.

Come down from the Mountain. Into broken, beloved community. 

"The dead will care for the dead."

We 
the living 

must tend to the Crucified. 

+++

Christ is Risen. 

Christ is Risen, indeed. 

Alleluia. 


*The myth above is written for illustrative purposes. It's not an actual myth from the mountains!