Listen to Him

Mark 9:2-9

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. 

There are all sorts of people around who will tell you they KNOW EXACTLY what God wants.  Most of them coincidentally claim that God wants EXACTLY what they want!  Yeah, I don’t think so either.  But here, on top of the mountain with Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all super glowy, we hear directly from God what God wants.  “This is my son.  Listen to him!”  LISTEN TO HIM!  Direct, clear, simple.  God wants us to listen to Jesus.  Simple, right?  Just listen.  But what DID Jesus actually say?  

Well, the first thing he said was don’t tell anybody about this transfiguration thing until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead.  Now, Jesus HAS risen from the dead so we’ve listened to him on that one… maybe by accident… but let’s take a win where we can get one!  From there though, Jesus says a lot more.  JUST here in chapter nine you’ve got:  Faith is more powerful than we could ever imagine and can get anything done.  Prayer is also powerful and can work when everything else doesn’t.  We are to be servants of all, not bosses.  Don’t make life hard for people who are not yet Christians.  But, more than that, be helpful and welcoming to all people.  Making faith hard for them or exclusive for you is worse than loosing body parts or being thrown in the ocean with a giant stone tied around your neck.  Both of which, to be honest, sound pretty bad, and then finally Jesus says we should be salty.  Which I thought at first was a big vindication for me, Pastor Potty mouth, but it turns out that when you actually LISTEN to Jesus, he meant we should bring out the best in the people and the world around us, like salt brings out the best of the flavors in the food we eat.    

That’s just chapter nine but it’s plenty to get started with, I think.  So how are you doing?  How are you at LISTENING to Jesus?  Not just hearing his words… but LISTENING to him… hearing what he says, then processing it, letting it sink in, letting it shape and mold and change you?  So-so maybe?  Well, my job description actually REQUIRES me to LISTEN to Jesus and I’M not great at it either and that’s because IT’S HARD!  It’s hard and the world out there is not that helpful.  More than HALF of Americans now call themselves “Nones” which means when asked about their connection to a faith community they say they have “NONE”.  No connection.  None.

I’m not mad at the Nones.  I think probably the Church NOT listening to Jesus has created more Nones than anything else but for those of us TRYING to listen to Jesus, the world out there just isn’t going to be that helpful.  So, for those of us who WANT to listen to Jesus… what do we do?  Well, Peter’s idea was to build a little retreat center on top of the mountain.  Another idea is to wallow in guilt for not listening to Jesus.  We could even combine the two and build little guilt wallowing shacks on top of a mountain and stay in there for the duration.  Another classic is blaming someone else individually for our trouble listening to Jesus.  If blaming one person for our problems doesn’t work, we could try blaming another entire group of people!  HEY!  I KNOW!  We could make it Taylor Swift’s fault!  Or, just maybe, we could listen to Jesus and do what he told the disciples to do on top on that mountain and start walking down the mountain and step after step begin walking into a very different season of life.

This Wednesday at noon we will begin the season of Lent right here with Ash Wednesday worship.  If you are interested in walking into a very different season of life… beginning a journey of deeper LISTENING to God’s Son, THAT would be a good (and traditional) place and time to start that journey.  Ash Wednesday worship will also have, concentrated into this one convenient space, a group of other people looking to make a very similar journey.  With a little courage, you could even ask a couple of them to keep you company along the way.  

What would happen if we did that?  It’s interesting to think about… What WOULD happen if we all gathered together on Ash Wednesday with that shared purpose of getting better at LISTENING to Jesus… not just to get together to HEAR his words… but to LISTEN to Jesus… to let what he says marinade in our noggins, to roll those words, ideas and stories around in our minds and share our thoughts and wonderings with one another?  What would happen?

I’m really not sure what would happen, but that’s what Jesus asked his disciples to do when he led them down that mountain toward Jerusalem.  So, if this is the Lent you are up for that sort of journey I’ll leave you with just a couple of travel tips for the road.  First, it would be good to remember that you’re unlikely to get much help with this journey out there in the world.  They might ask you what you’re giving up for Lent, but that’s about it.  So if you’re going to take this trip I’d recommend coming here.  In fact I’d recommend coming here RELIGIOUSLY as the place you are most likely to find the companionship you’ll want on this journey.  Second, stay a while after worship and talk to someone.  Ask them “what did you hear Jesus say today in the Gospel lesson?”  I know that’s about 100X harder than giving up chocolate for Lent… which is why people give up chocolate for Lent because the other is SO HARD!  But what would happen if you did that?  What would happen if we all began deeply listening to Jesus? Amen.