“Listen To Him”
Exodus 34: 29-35
Luke 9:28-36
2 Corinthians
3:12-4:2
Listen to him! What an incredible
endorsement when someone says that others should listen to us.
We all want people to listen to us, whether we are giving advice to
a friend, direction to an employee, or guidance for a child. We
want people to think that we have something of value to say, something
worth their hearing, something that might affect their lives.
It is a nice compliment when the value of our words is affirmed.
But, who do we really listen to?
What are the results if we do listen? We may scan the airways
to find a radio or TV personality who is saying what we like to hear.
We'll listen to them so long as their message continues to confirm our
preconceived ideas. The more they agree with us, the longer we
listen to them, the more impressed we are with their wisdom since they
agree with us, all resulting in a hardening of our own views.
A hardening, for when we have found someone important who accepts our
views there is no reason to change.
Perhaps we sign up for courses with
good professors. Yet, what does it mean to be a good prof?
Is it the amount of homework assigned, how entertaining the lectures
are, the approach to grading exams, or actually the amount that one
might learn? We want to listen to the most entertaining professors
who grade easily, don't assign too much work and yet we still manage
to learn something. We want some change on our terms: an increase
of knowledge in our chosen field.
Or we may have heard from a friend about
the latest diet fad or self help advice. Because we trust our
friend, we check it out, buy the book, see if it might help our efforts
to change ourselves, to heal our weaknesses and let us forgive our own
shortcomings.
Peter is on a mountain top along with
Jesus and James and John. As is often the case, Jesus has found
the need for a quiet time of prayer. He is looking towards that
final road to Jerusalem; preparing himself for his final weeks.
Suddenly, as Peter battles his sleepy eyes something incredible occurs:
Jesus is changed, is totally different. His clothes are glowing
white; his face is shining with the glory of God. Moses and Elijah,
the law giver and the prophet, are standing next to Jesus, the lamb
of God, the offering for the sins of all mankind.
Peter must have thought about the Scriptures
describing Moses when his face started to shine. Whenever Moses
talked to God in the meeting tent he would come out with his face glowing
just as Jesus' face now glowed with the glory of God. The meeting
tent was God's dwelling place, where a distant God came to visit earth,
and Moses was his messenger. People insisted that Moses cover
his face for they were terrified of the glory of God.
With that in mind, Peter made a few wrong assumptions. First, Peter thought that God still wanted to be confined to a tent, to a single dwelling place. But the entire life of Jesus said otherwise; God had come in human form to be with humanity, with us, not to remain distant or confined to a tent. Jesus refused to be confined to a single place, to force people to come to him. Rather, Jesus went to people. Jesus especially sought out the most needy people, people who desperately sought to be changed: healed, accepted, forgiven.
The second wrong assumption was that
this mountain top would become a New Jerusalem, a new place for the
world to come and encounter God. After the time of Moses, the
Arc of the Covenant had been brought to Jerusalem: God's footstool and
dwelling place was in the Holy Temple. The Lamb and the Lawgiver
and the Prophet all gathered in one place surely made this a holy place.
But times had changed; people now encountered God, Jesus, most anywhere.
The presence of God was no longer confined to a single place.
Holy ground is wherever Christ stood.
Peter's third false assumption was that
Jesus needed a tent to go into, a place in which Jesus could talk to
God, be God's messenger. That is what Moses did. But Jesus
did not need to talk to God, Jesus was, and is, God.
Peter also missed the impact of those
critical words spoken from within a cloud: “This is my Son, my Chosen.
Listen to him.” These words were spoken about Jesus alone, not
about Moses and Elijah. Such an incredible set of words that changed
all the old patterns of thinking, of thinking about tents and dwelling
places. “This is my son.” This is what I am like when
confined to human form, this is how I act. This is how close I
am to you; how I love you. Do not focus on the shining glory of
the Lord, the glowing clothes, the need to hide from me by building
a tent. I am with you daily, wherever you are and whatever you
are doing. Listen to my words, words of healing, acceptance, forgiveness.
Do we make the same mistakes as Peter:
bad assumptions, failing to understand the importance of the words spoken
by God? Do we also attempt to keep Jesus in a tent?
Perhaps we try to keep Jesus in a nice tent like this. We can
safely come on Sundays for our weekly, even sleepy, encounter, confident
that God is here but also confident that God's glory won't overwhelm
us or disturbingly appear elsewhere during the week. Do we think
that people still need to come here to a single holy place to encounter
God? Or is everywhere that Christ is present in us Holy Ground?
And who is this Jesus? Is Jesus like Moses, needing to go into
the tent to talk to God? Do we try to reduce Jesus to a prophet,
lawgiver or rabbi, merely human? Or do we proclaim that Jesus
is God?
We need to check, recheck, our assumptions.
And how do we hear those critical words
today? “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him.” Sure,
Jesus is the son of God; but aren't we told that we are all adopted
into the family of God? Aren't we all daughters and sons of God?
Yes, we are. We are adopted into the family of God solely because
of and through his one true son, Jesus.
Do we listen to him? Or is the
voice of Jesus just one more voice calling out to get our attention?
Do we pick and choose to listen to him, or to only some of his words,
much as we pick a commentator or professor or self help expert?
Do we seek and trust the recommendation of God: Listen to my son?
Christ came to be among us, to bridge the gap between God and mankind,
to show the world what God is like in person. Jesus came to demonstrate
that we do not need to be terrified when the glory of God shines around
us. Among us. Within each of us.
When we encounter the glory of God,
here in a dwelling place or on the streets of our daily lives, do we
listen? Can anything else transform us into the image of God,
change us so fundamentally that we are new beings, no longer like we
had been? Only God's words change us to the very core of our being,
changing us in ways we can not imagine, nor control. Only God's
words offer complete healing, acceptance, forgiveness. When we
listen to Jesus, the Word of God, we are confronted with our false assumptions,
as was Peter. When we listen to God, we can no longer remain on
a mountain top, unchanged. God's glory is not to be restricted
to those who might visit a mountain but is to be taken to all those
who need to hear God's loving words. Empowered by the Holy Spirit,
we are the ones who are to take those words and seek out the most needy
people, people who desperately seek to be changed: healed, accepted,
forgiven. We are the ones who speak God's loving words to them.
Listen to him, to Jesus, God's Chosen.
As we enter Lent, take God's own advice and listen. Reread the
Gospels. Pray that you may truly listen anew to the Word of God.
Let them confront your assumptions; be open to change. Ask God
how you can show the world, whether that world be your home or Logan
or the entire planet, that you too have been transformed by Christ.
Because we have listened, we come to
this table to celebrate the glory of God among us, with us this morning
and every morning. We come as people changed by what we have heard,
as people being healed, accepted, forgiven, transformed by the glory
of God into the very image of God.
Come. Let us celebrate.
February 18, 2007
Rev. Al Hammond
First Presbyterian Church
Logan, Utah