Resting

Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a]

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.  And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

Here’s what I read this week on the Great Barrington Community Facebook Page: “The silence from local progressive groups and the public at large regarding the potential end of the world is stunning. What the hell is wrong with people? This is the issue you need to focus on.”  That was it!  I thought (but did not write), “Dude, there’s at least half a dozen end of the world scenarios in the works right now.  You wanna be a bit more specific?”  The news, even for those of us who have turned the news firehose down to a tiny trickle, has been overwhelming this week.  But our faithless and perverse generation is not the first to walk the earth, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t expect it to be the last either.  

Jesus faced his own faithless and perverse generation as he came down the mountain.  He felt everything for his generation that we feel for ours.  Every generation, it seems, churns out demons and as a consequence, each generation’s sons and daughters get convulsed and mauled and thrown to the ground.  What Jesus saw then is EXACTLY the same thing we’re seeing now.

The only difference is that Jesus’s perverse and faithless created just generic “unclean spirits” and “demons” whereas in our day, the names of our demons scroll by in HDTV 24 hours a day!  Their names are Invasion, Pandemic, and Climate Change.  Transphobia, Homophobia and Xenophobia.  Fascism, Gun Violence and Civil War and the list just never ends!  Our demons are literally Legion!  So how, Oh Lord, are we to deal with our faithless and perverse generation? I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that we might want to try handling it the Jesus way!

To figure THAT out we need to go back to the beginning.  “Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.”  Translated for us, this passage says, “Jesus took his best friends, left the crazies behind, unsubscribed from 90% of his news apps and went to a place where there wasn’t a signal to anything!”  Now, would you say that going up the mountain was ignoring his call or being unfaithful?  Of course not!  So if that is EXACTLY what Jesus did then, why do we so often think we’re ignoring our call or being unfaithful when we do exactly the same thing?  Taking a break… turning off the fire hose of news… walking away from the people and their drama?  That’s how Jesus did it!  Why don’t we allow ourselves to do that too!?

“And while Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.”  Translation: Jesus went full stop.  He stopped and prayed.  Jesus knew that prayer doesn’t change the other guy… prayer changes us, so Jesus stopped and didn’t move or worry, or plan, or try to figure anything out.  He did that until his face relaxed, the dark circles went away and even his appearance had changed.  That’s how Jesus did it!  Why then do we think that if we ever just completely stopped, the world would stop as well?  When Jesus stopped, the world didn’t stop.  Why don’t we allow ourselves to stop too?

“The next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son.”  Translated, this part says, “Jesus took one, whole, entire, additional EXTRA day, AFTER he had started shining again with God’s Glory.  Only THEN did he head down the mountain.  There he met the very same faithless and perverse generation he had left when he had gone up the mountain (a week, a month, maybe even a year ago… who knows) and Jesus found they were all still just about the same.  Then Jesus, staring into the eyes of the entirety of the world’s brokenness, found one face… just one… in that whole entire crowd… and did what he could do for them.  That’s it!  Just one!  He didn’t fix Ukraine, or humanity’s fear of the other, or try to debunk Q.  He found the one person who needed something he had, and in that moment did what he could.  Boom.  Done!  That’s how Jesus handled his perverse and faithless generation.  That’s how Jesus handled the evils that generation produced.  That’s how Jesus did it.  Why then is caring for the one in front of us not good enough for us?  Why then is the whole Way that Jesus handled his perverse and faithless generation, not good enough for us?

Now that… THAT my friends, is an excellent question… for next week.  Amen.