Wait and Hear from the Lord

Sermon March 2, 2014  Wait and Hear from the Lord

Scriptures

Exodus 24:12-18

This passage is an emphasis to HEAR God’s voice and connect it to obedience.

During this season of Epiphany the church probes deeply the “good news of great joy”( Luke 2:10) that has come to the world in the birth of Jesus.

He is the light that shines in darkness (John 1:5).  To his light the nations are drawn, and in His light the people who dwell in “thick darkness” (Ex. 20:21) come and see the light of the grace and truth of the triune God.

The Old Testament lesson for the final Sunday after the Epiphany magnifies the image of light with additional images of the revelation of God -  Mountain, Cloud, Fire, and Glory.

These images  come to the “High point” in the Gospel lesson for the day – The Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop.

The revelation of God on Sinai is not offered as a model for religious experiences of the glory of God in general. IT Speaks of a decisive revelation of God to Moses that in time leads to the unique revelation of the glory of God in the “Beloved Son” to whom we are commanded to “listen” (Matt. 17:5

Moses meeting with god on Mount Sinai is essential to the people of Israel as they face a forty-year journey through the wilderness to the promised land.

The transfiguration in Matthew is essential to the disciples as they head into the terrifying time of the passion.

Both texts are critical to us ass we face into our own forty day observance of Lent.

Jesus set out into a spiritual wilderness to face temptations, to overcome our worst fears, to die to ourselves in order to gain faith that God is indeed, present, loving, and wonderfully protective of our welfare.

The Point in this is God let the people know that God would communicate with them through Moses.

An echo of Exodus can be heard in the Gospel of Matthew when God speaks from the cloud: “This is  MY Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased: LISTEN TO HIM!” (Matt. 17:5).

The first time  God calls Moses to come up and worship. The second time Moses is called to receive the Law that will be used to instruct  the people….It suggests a link between the keeping of the Torah and worship.

Come Up to Me…….

On the Mountain…..

And Wait……

And I will give you tablets of stone.

Psalm 99  UMH 819

The story of the Transfiguration illustrates the message of Psalm 2.  Whatever earthly power we may have ultimately is NOTHING compared to the Power of God.

Our human sense of being in contrl is an illusion, as the disciples learned that day on the mountain.

This is not a loss.  Rather , the knowledge that it is God – not we--- who is in control comes as a huge relief.  This relinquishing of  power is the joy of  the life of faith.

While we are called to serve with fear and trembling and awe at the mighty power of god, we do so with the peace that comes with knowing everything rests in the hands of our loving, liberating, and life-giving God. 

As the psalm concludes, “ Happy are all who take refuge in Him (v.12).

2 Peter 1:16-21

Where were you on 9/11?  That day is fixed in your mind. No doubt most of us can go back and remember where we were when we heard the news. We may even remember exactly what we were doing.

Imagine you being on the mountain when Jesus was Transfigured.  It was a fixe transformative event in the lives of these three disciples and especially Peter’s.

We all have experiences that anchor our lives, shape our values, and define our commitments.

We find it frustrating when our narration of these experiences does not seem to influence the behavior of others, As if our stories could have the same impact as the experiences themselves.

The writer of 2 Peter relates the event of the transfiguration as an experience that anchors his life and specifically frames his understanding of the “prophetic message” (V. 19).

The writer of this passage knows that, given the circumstances of life and the various temptations within a world at odds with God’s purposes,

The life of faith requires memory and hope, persistence and perseverance, if it is to manifest a constancy that achieves the level of character.

We have no great certainty of the word itself, until it be confirmed by the testimony of the Spirit.

For God has so knit together the certainty of the Word and the Spirit, that our minds are duly imbued with reverence for the Word when the Spirit shining upon it enables us there to behold the face of God.

Here the text, the Spirit, and the reader’s mind are all knit together. The Word becomes alive with the Spirit of God. It is a transforming transfiguring moment in ones life when the Word of God shines on that moment in time in your life.

Matthew  17:1-9

We glimpse that moment when the evening news reflects nothing but chaos, and then there is one story of a person’s graceful act of healing a broken world by caring for another person the world would rather forget.

These are moments when people begin to understand that where there is suffering, there is Holy Ground.  These are the moments when we realize God is present in suffering and sacrifice, just as God is present in the promise and potential of our lives.

Peter, James, and John accompany Jesus us the mountain after hearing the news of Jerusalem and Jesus imminent death. (Jesus foretold his death and resurrection in Matthew 16:21-28). After 6 days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother and brought them up into a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.

This moment of transfiguration is just such a moment.  On one hand, the transfiguration affirms Jesus divinity; on the other , it begins to give the disciples eyes to see God’s light in the chaos to come: death, loss, fear and resurrection, the work of the early church.

The challenge to the disciples is to live in a world without Jesus’ bodily presence.  The transfiguration anticipates this challenge, inviting us to live in “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corin. 4:6).  As that light shines in our hearts, the incarnate God is made real in the everyday.

The moment of transfiguration is that point at which God says to the world and to each of us there nothing we can do to prepare for or stand in the way of joy or sorrow.  We cannot build God a monument, and we cannot keep God safe.

We also cannot escape the light that God will shed on our path.  We cannot escape God, Immanuel with us.  God will find us in our homes and in our workplaces.

God will find us when our hearts are broken and when we discover Joy.

God will find us when we run away from God and when we are sitting in the middle of what seems like hell. And he says: get up and do not be afraid”( v.7).

God comes into the world as a human hand laid upon a shoulder and the words, “do not be afraid.”

God comes to us quietly, gently, that we may draw near and not be afraid.

God’s glory is majestic and so far beyond our capacity to receive it that we can take just as much of God’s glory as a human hand can hold.

Fear not….Wait… Be still and Know that I am God…..Hear His Voice as He is speaking to each of you at this very moment.

Wait and Hear from the Lord.  Amen.

Hymn of Reflection UMH 451 Be Thou My Vision