Both experiences were times of awesome passion, demonstrations of extreme spiritual tension, one of ecstatic glory and the other of ugly humiliation.

And both times, the disciples fell asleep!

Sleep is a wonderful blessing. I enjoy sleeping. I can sleep sitting in my car if I arrive a few minutes early for an appointment. I can sleep sitting in the doctor's office waiting to be called. I can sleep in my bathtub!

But to sleep in the very presence of Jesus? To fall asleep when he is praying such passionate prayers? It seems unbelievable, doesn't it?!

Why were they sleepy? The answer is really quite simple: they were sleepy because they did not realize what was happening. They simply didn't know the significance of the hour.

Do you get sleepy? Do you find yourself bored when important things are happening around you? Do you ever have trouble concentrating on something really important, something you really want to capture?

Let's look at the mountaintop transfiguration. This was somewhat early in his ministry. Not long before this, Jesus had sent his disciples on a missionary journey. They came back with diaries full of successes . . . and a few failures. Then Jesus took them into the countryside for a private seminar on ministry.

When the crowds saw them leave town, they followed. They stayed all day. Jesus fed them from the five loaves and two fish.

All that, so recently in their experience, and the disciples were sleepy! The disciples were not ignorant, indifferent, insensitive men. They were just tired human beings.

Nothing wrong with being tired. We all get tired. That is usually a sign we have been busy. They had indeed been very busy, much busier than they had ever been as fishermen.

You can remember when you went for extended periods of time without sleep, and still didn't get sleepy. When you were courting, you could stay up half the night talking about quite insignificant things, and still you didn't get sleepy! Because you were in love!

Or you attended a meeting of the astronomy club, or a bridge party, or a band rehearsal, or the model railroad club, or . . . and could have stayed for more hours. When we are engaged in activities of real interest, we rarely get bored, or sleepy.

Now let's look at our scriptures for today. Isaiah had a vision. He saw the Lord. The whole earth was full of his glory. Glory!

An alternative Old Testament lesson for Epiphany 5 is in Exodus 34. It is the story of Moses coming down the mountain with the Law of God. Because he had talked with God, his face reflected the glory of God. When the people saw him they asked him to veil his face because of the glory. Glory!

In our Epistle, Paul refers to the experience of Moses and says, "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed in his likeness with ever-increasing glory . . ." Glory!

And, of course, the Gospel lesson is the story of Jesus transfigured before the disciples. Glory!

Our closing hymn today is The Glory Song. When Charles Gabriel was in a city mission in St. Louis, they had a prayer meeting. One old fellow shouted "Glory!" Then again he shouted "Glory!" Every time he got excited by the sermon or by someone's testimony, he shouted "Glory!"

Gabriel was so inspired by that old fellow that he wrote the hymn.

The manifestation of God's glory puts human beings in a juxtaposition which is necessary for effective ministry. When we see ourselves in apposition to the glory of God we become both humbled and empowered!

Moses, after the experience with God, was prepared to intercede for the people. It is one of the most passionate prayers in the Bible. Without question, it was the glory which prepared him for the grace. It was his being with God that prepared him to intercede for the people, even when they didn't really want his intercession!

It was Isaiah's vision of the Almighty which prepared him for his ministry. Isaiah is, by the way, a very good, literal example of transfiguration to disfiguration. His ministry closed when he was martyred, according to one tradition, by being sawed in half!

It was Paul's Damascus Road experience, when he experienced God's glory, which prepared him for a life of rejection and finally martyrdom.

It was Jesus' transfiguration which made his Gethsemane disfiguration bearable.

Glory, light, brightness. Light dispels darkness. Jesus used this metaphor to illustrate righteousness. "I am the light of the world." "You are the light of the world." By "let your light so shine that all may see your good works" Jesus was saying, Do what is good, right, just . . . and let people see those "works" in such a way that the Father is glorified. What a challenge!

In the Genesis story, light was the first thing created, even before the sun or the moon. Light filled the entire universe. There is no region in the universe which is not crisscrossed by complex patterns of electromagnetic radiation.

A science writer says light extends from radio waves, thru visible light, to ultraviolet rays and on up to gamma rays of energy. Light is highly efficient in encoding and transmitting information -- telephone conversations, television programs and telecommunications can all travel on a single fiberoptic channel.

There are scientists who are studying bioradiation and believe that photons, quantum particles of light are emitted from the DNA molecule.

DNA is the key molecule in every cell, and it apparently gives off a certain level of radiation. They say it is like a laser, producing vibrations in an electromagnetic field.

That is far and away above my understanding. But it is exciting that scientists keep discovering new and awesome insights which give more and more intricate details of God's creation, his handiwork.

They are asking why the central molecule of life should give off laser light. What could be the purpose?

If you want to read all about this, F. David Peat has written a book, Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and the Mind.

The thing that strikes me as most exciting is that some of these things which people have relegated to esoteric experience are becoming more and more scientifically substantiated.

Isn't it thrilling to realize that God, creator of light, used light in so many ways and so many instances to manifest himself to us? We understand now that such healing techniques as therapeutic touch are based on God-given phenomena! Real loving touch is healing.

Spiritual healers have for a long time known that there is an aura of energy that surrounds us and indicates our state of health. These auras have on occasion been photographed, using ultraviolet rays. Now scientists find that the radiation given out from a healthy person is quite different from that given out by an unhealthy person!

Peat asks, "Could it be that health is an active flow of information within the body, whereas sickness is a breakdown in that flow, an impoverishment of information?"

On the subject of light, we are told that there are distant stars 27,000,000 times the size of our sun! And that there are stars 200,000 light years away. That would be more than a quintillion miles away, or 1 followed by 18 zeros -- 1,000,000,000,000,000,000!

Light! Without light this earth would be a blackened cinder of frozen tundra. And without Jesus, the Light of the world, we would be but blackened bits of hopeless humanity.

That, dear saints, is why we begin our worship with "I am the light of the world" as we light the altar candles, and close our worship with "You are the light of the world" as we take the flame out.

An American teacher was hired to teach in Japan, but was told not to mention Christianity. His character and example were so bright that 40 of his students met privately in a grove near the school and vowed to accept his faith! Twenty-five entered Kyoto Christian School and some became ministers. His only "Christian" teaching was his example, his life.

There is, I am told, a lighthouse in the Hebrides off the shores of Scotland. The light that shines from that lighthouse is a reflection by special prisms of another lighthouse some 500 feet away.

That's what we are to be. We are but reflections of the true Light, Jesus. When we model our lives after Jesus, we will reflect his love, and in that way we become lights.

There is a story of a famous preacher who invited an atheist to come for a series of sermons on the great doctrines of the church. He came. At the end of the series, the skeptic told the minister that he had decided to become a Christian.

"Wonderful! Which of the sermons convinced you?"

"Actually, it wasn't any of the sermons. While I was coming to your meetings, I met an elderly lady who radiated such warmth and happiness that I asked her about it. It turned out that she has many problems, but she said, 'If you knew Jesus the way I know Jesus, you would be happy, too.'"

When Jesus told us to let our lights shine, he was talking about that little lady! If you and I can radiate warmth and happiness, positive and optimistic attitudes, others will be attracted to the source of our happiness.

The mountaintop experience of transfiguration prepares us for the disfiguration which may come later.

Jesus told his followers that they would suffer humiliation, mortification. Few of us have ever had any such experiences. If and how and when they will come, I don't know, but since Jesus warned us of them it behooves us to prepare. "He calls us to accept the cost and joy of discipleship." The way we prepare is to go to the mountain! Experience the presence of God in Jesus Christ. Share in his glory that we may share in his grace.

Let us go often to the mountain of God, that we might see Jesus in all his glory. Then we will see ourselves as we are . . . and we will be prepared to be reflections of the Light of the world. Then we can reflect to others his love and his life.

Let us pray . . .