Exodus 24:12-18 Matthew 17:1-9
An interesting thing has been happening at a small Christian school in Kentucky, Asbury University. On Wednesday February 8, students gathered in the chapel for morning prayer service. This is a normal part of college life at Asbury, like many religiously based schools. People say it was routine. Ordinary. Unremarkable.
Then, when the service ended a small group of students stayed behind to continue praying together. All morning, they prayed. All afternoon. When evening came, they were still there and more students were joining them. They continued in prayer all through the night and the next day, and the days after that. And they are still praying.
Some people posted videos on TikTok, which caught the attention of the world. Pretty soon, young people were dropping their plans and heading to Asbury. Flying in from Hawaii, driving down from Illinois, college students are being drawn to this place to be a part of the experience. They have filled the 1500-seat chapel and overflowed into other spaces. They’re calling it a spiritual revival.
This is not the first time such a thing has happened at Asbury University. Since its founding there have been more than a half dozen revivals. Back in February of 1970, there was one that ran for eight days. Revivals are in the Asbury DNA, you might say. The school is named for the Methodist preacher Francis Asbury, a circuit-rider in the 1800s. His preaching drew large crowds and tremendous enthusiasm. Spontaneous revivals sometimes grew out of these meetings.
The people at Asbury are saying that this thing happened spontaneously. There was nothing special about the day it started. There was no plan to begin a revival. It just happened. But here’s the thing: there is a definite tension between, on the one hand, the understanding that authentic spiritual revival can only happen spontaneously and, on the other hand, the desire to make it happen.
Another circuit-riding preacher, George Whitefield, preached to large crowds as he traveled around the colonies in the early 1700s. He also had a powerful impact on the people who came to hear him. But I recently read that after each of these meetings, someone would report to Whitfield on the numbers who repented of their sins, whose lives were changed by his preaching. And each time Whitfield would say, “Allegedly.” Because he knew that high emotion was sometimes the work of the Holy Spirit, but sometimes it was just emotion.
Sometimes, people just want to get swept away. Sometimes, people are just looking for an escape.
That doesn’t mean that every sign of spiritual revival is fake. It just means that it takes time to tell the difference. No one should go out and write the book about the historic Asbury revival of 2023 just yet. But for people with hearts hungry for the Spirit of God to move through our world, there is fervent hope.
We call things like this mountaintop experiences. Lots of us have had them a time or two. Maybe at a large church conference or church camp. Maybe even alone on an actual mountaintop. The powerful sense of the presence of God touching you and changing you – it does happen. And it may feel so good, you want it to keep on happening. You want to stay in it forever.
But, as they say, eventually you have to come down from the mountaintop. Back into the world. Because the purpose of mountaintop experiences is not just to feel good. It is to make real and lasting change for good.
Jesus didn’t bring Peter, James, and John with him up to the mountaintop because he wanted to make them feel good. They all went up there with him to bear witness to his glory. The sight of Jesus shining like the sun, surely much too bright for them to look at comfortably. The presence of Moses and the prophet Elijah standing beside him, talking amongst themselves, must have been intimidating.
It was thrilling, even if not comfortable. So thrilling that Peter wanted to stay up there. He wanted to build little shelters for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, and enjoy this glorious gathering forever. But it was a bad idea. And if Peter remembered what Jesus had said to them six days earlier, he would have known that.
Six days before this mountaintop experience, Jesus had spoken with his disciples and told them that he was going to Jerusalem, where he would undergo great suffering at the hands of the religious leaders – the scribes, the elders, the chief priests. He told them that he would be killed and rise again on the third day. And he said to his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
If he remembered that, Peter would have known that the mountaintop was not the destination. But it was a very important sojourn along the way, because on the mountaintop Peter, James, and John had a glimpse of the power and glory at work through Jesus.
They went back down the mountain and returned to the others. Jesus continued his work of healing the sick, casting out demons, and teaching – all the way to Jerusalem.
The ones who were caught up in it couldn’t necessarily tell what it was they were a part of. Only time would tell, and it did.
One thing we can say with certainty is that spiritual revival leads to something bigger than itself. The historic revivals we have known in our nation have led to historic changes. The first Great Awakening, as it is called, led to the evangelical movement in America, creating new forms of worship, casting a wide net for Jesus. The second Great Awakening led to the abolition of slavery in our nation. The Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in the early 20th century led to the Pentecostal movement that has taken the gospel all around the globe.
On the morning of February 8 when this current movement began at Asbury, there was a multicultural gospel choir singing in the chapel service and I can’t help but wonder about the significance of that. The movement of the Holy Spirit is always expansive and inclusive. The movement of the Holy Spirit always leads to greater love. As Jesus’ life very clearly showed, it does not come without sacrifice, but sacrifice that shows forth the glory of God.
Presbyterians aren’t big on revival. Maybe because we like decency and order too much. The Holy Spirit wants to disrupt our order and make something new.
It turns out Asbury University likes some order too. The administration announced this weekend they will be imposing a schedule in the coming week. No more round-the-clock praise and worship. They will set the times for it to begin and end and some limitations on who will be welcome to attend. They will have time for students only, and some time set aside for the general public. There seems to be some concern about safety, which I can sympathize with, but we will see what happens. Will the revival just spill over into other, unrestricted areas? Will it go on about the same, only in a slightly more orderly way?
Or will they effectively stifle the work of the Spirit? I hope not.
But maybe what we will see is people moving down from the mountaintop and into the world with the engaging, inspiring, inclusive, and loving Spirit of God, doing the work, just like Jesus did.
The truth is the church needs revival, as often as we can get it. We need revival to remind us what we are for, why we are here. We need revival because we get tired and hungry for God’s goodness, thirsty for God’s Spirit.
We need the mountaintop experiences, even if they are a little scary. We need them so we can go back down the mountain refreshed, renewed, and ready to change the world in Christ’s name.
May it be so.
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Photo by Bree Anne on Unsplash
