Listen to the Beloved
Mark 9: 2-8
Transfiguration Sunday
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
Epworth United Methodist Church
The story of “the Transfiguration” of Jesus is read each year on the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. Biblical scholar Ched Myers describes it as “a kind of salvation history summit conference.”
We’ve heard the story twice this morning.
Hear now Eugene Peterson’s translation in the Message:
Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. His clothes shimmered, glistening white, whiter than any bleach could make them. Elijah, along with Moses, came into view, in deep conversation with Jesus.
Peter interrupted, “Rabbi, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials – one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking, stunned as they all were by what they were seeing. Just then, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and from deep in the cloud, a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love. Listen to him.”
Prayer:
The story of the Transfiguration seems to be all about vision … seeing the vision … holding on to the vision … glory shining on a mountaintop in the person of Jesus --fully human, fully divine. But when we seek to understand the meaning of the transfiguration, when we seek to learn God’s purpose for our lives, it’s all about … listening.
At the culmination of this astonishing experience, the only command to the disciples from the voice of God is … “listen.” “From the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my son, the beloved, listen to him!’”
Frederic Brussart in his book Spiritual Literacy wrote, “We begin our lives listening to the many sounds surrounding us in the womb. When we are dying, the last faculty to shut down is usually hearing. In between, there is so much to see that we seldom take the time to cultivate the art of listening.”
The season of Lent – is a season to let go of all that keeps us from listening to the Beloved, to let go of all that impairs our hearing the voice of Jesus. The story of the Transfiguration invites us to consider that the word of the Beloved will be as unpredictable as it will be wondrous … voice transformed in shape, form, content and style.
The voice of the Beloved comes to us in so many ways. It comes to us in the voices of our brothers and sisters. Listening to one another can change our lives.
As we reach the end of Black History month, voices call us to make history.
Just yesterday a symposium, the State of the Black Union 2006, was held in Houston, Texas. This is the 7th year of this touring symposium organized by TV/Radio host Tavis Smiley. Another symposium will be held next Saturday morning in Oakland. Whether you go to Oakland or watch C-Span, I invite you to listen to these voices. The first six years symposia have been collected into a book titled, the Covenant for Black America. It is essential reading for all who seek to listen to the beloved in the voices, vision, challenges, and realities of America too long ignored.
The voice of the Beloved comes to us in questions:
Martin Luther King posed the disarming question on the eve of his death, “If I don’t stop and help the sanitation workers, who will?”
Theologian Paul Tillich wrote, “All things, and all men, so to speak, call on us with small or loud voices. They want us to listen. They want us to understand their intrinsic claims, their justice of being. But we can give it to them only through the love that listens.”
Jamal Harrison-Bryant, Pastor of Empowerment Temple Church in Baltimore asked, “Are we doing things for credit? Or are we doing things for change?”
I’ve watched a bit of the Olympics … not a whole lot, I confess, … but before the closing ceremonies, I want to listen again to the words in action of speed skater Joey Cheek who won the 500 meter speed skate early in the games.
Joey Cheek announced at the press conference following his victory that he is donating his gold-medal winnings ($25,000) to a refugee camp in Chad, where over 60,000 Sudanese child refugees are being held. He went on to challenge any Olympic sponsors to match his donation. Over $300,000 dollars have been contributed so far.
Joey Cheek could have been deafened by the roar of crowd, or the calls for endorsement deals. But he said, “… it is empowering to think of someone other than yourself. What I do is great fun – I love what I do. It’s honestly a pretty ridiculous thing. I mean, I skate around on ice in tights; right? But because I skated well, and because I now have a few seconds of microphone time, I have the ability to raise some awareness and raise some money and, maybe, God-willing put some kids on a path that I’ve been blessed with.”
The voice of the Beloved comes to us in love that listens.
On the mountaintop, Peter’s first impulse was to make the moment into a monument, to take the vision of God’s glory and erect a visitor’s center. But Jesus didn’t want them to dwell upon it let alone dwell in it. He told them not to tell anyone about what they had seen. And he led them back down from the mountaintop… into the valley of troubled souls in need of healing.
Holiness is not apart from this world. It changes the way we live in this world … for the sake of this world.
The World Council of Churches has been meeting this week in Porto Alegre Brazil. Two days ago delegates joined over 2000 young people in a candle light march for peace. The youth held a banner that read, “Let God change you first, then you will transform the world …” Our mountaintop experiences, our epiphanies, our glimpses of God’s glory transform our lives for the transformation of the world.
One leader said, “God is challenging each one of us. ‘This is the moment. I am waiting to see what you can do together.’
Christ who shines on the mountain top … whispers words of hope, and healing, sings blessed assurance, asks questions, cries out for justice and calls us to change and challenge. There is a voice … coming not just through mountain’s clouds, but through every day encounters …
May Lent be a season of serious listening.
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