Listen to Him

The more I sat with the readings for this Last Sunday after the Epiphany, the more I kept thinking that the operative phrase spoken from the cloud on that mountain top was "Listen to him!" I mean, if those who claim to be Christians would just listen to what Jesus says and then do those things, we'd be a lot better off.

But instead, we have the likes of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had the gall to sport a gold cross on her necklace as she sat before the House Judiciary Committee, and rather answer questions, berated the Democratic members as they asked her simple and legitimate questions regarding the lack of information coming out of her department about the child sex trafficking ring once run by the late Jeffrey Epstein. Worse, when asked to turn around and apologize to the survivors of Epstein's sick and criminal activities, Bondi refused. Her callousness and coarseness make a mockery of that cross she wore around her neck and what it stands for.

Clearly, Pammy Jo doesn't listen to Jesus. She listens to only one person: the president who appears in the Epstein files over a million times from some accounts. 

Shame. 

Text: Matthew 17:1-9

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I want to start with us taking a moment…each one of us…to do a thought exercise.

You can close your eyes if you wish or just soften your gaze.

Try to remember a time when something happened that made you stop in your tracks.

An event or an occurrence that left you transfixed by the wonder or the awe of the thing.

Do you remember the sounds in the air?

Any colors that you associate with that moment?

The sense of time and space: were you standing or sitting or lying down?

Are there certain aromas or other smells that you associate with whatever this moment is?

These sorts of sensory details live on in our memories long after a major event.

Often…we associate them with tragedies.

Whenever we come up to the anniversary of some catastrophe…there are always retrospective reports and people asking each other on social media,

“Do you remember where you were when “x” thing happened?”

And usually…people share in vivid detail.

There was no Facebook or X or Instagram on the day Jesus led his friends Peter, James and John up that mountain.

But as we heard in the account in Second Peter…the vision of seeing Jesus almost exploding with light…flanked by Moses and Elijah…the cloud descending around them and that voice booming, “This is my Son, the beloved, with him I am well pleased: listen to him!”…that all left a pretty significant impression on those witnesses.

In this moment…God is pulling back the veil and showing these three disciples that Jesus is not merely the Son of Mary.

He is God’s Beloved Son…the one sent to bring salvation to all the world...

Listen to him.

The lead up to this moment of the transfiguration is important.

 In the chapter before this morning’s reading…Jesus had quizzed the disciples about his identity.

“Who do the people say that the Son of Man is?”

And they give him lots of answers.

“Well, let’s see…Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist…”

“Yeah, OK, but who do YOU say that I am?”

And…that’s when Peter pipes up with saying Jesus is the Messiah.

But when Jesus tells them what being the Messiah means…that he will suffer and die in Jerusalem and then rise on the third day….Peter doesn’t like that idea and tries to tell Jesus to come up with a different ending.

And Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind me Satan.”

He also reminds all the disciples that to follow him…to be on Team Jesus…means to experience suffering.

It will mean sacrifice.

But he assures them that there is more to gain in losing their life….that false sense of security… for the sake of following him …because there is a better more abundant life if they live into his Love-ethic of compassion…mercy…and justice.

That brings us to today’s reading when they ascend the mountain…and have this mountain top moment with Jesus…and that voice:

Listen to him!

Listen to what he has told you:

“Those who want to save their life will lose it…and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

We may not be standing on a mountain top in the territory of the Golan Heights.

But on this Last Sunday After the Epiphany… I want to suggest that we are in the same spot as Peter…James…and John.

We have had five weeks to hear…read…mark…learn…and inwardly digest the words of Jesus.

We have had time to consider the call that God is making on our lives…to align our day to day living in such a way that others can see something in us that makes them think, “I want to know that person. There’s something about them that says, ‘I am kind. I am trustworthy. I will see you.”

We’ve been reminded that it’s the people…the ones who don’t have all the power…or the answers to the biggest questions…who are blessed…who are the salt…and the light.

It’s the ordinary ones who have within in them what is needed to make things right in the world…and to do the work of repairing the breaches in society.

These five weeks have been building to this moment where we are now…the moment of this foreshadowing of the risen Christ…a brilliant light shining into the darkness of a world marked by violence and corruption.

We are summoned here to this instance…to fix the eyes of our hearts on this transfigured Jesus.

We’ve been brought here to prepare ourselves for the next step.

Because as wonderful as it might be to hang out on a figurative mountain top…basking in the light and delighting in the awe of it all…the truth is this is just a moment. 

There is still work to be done in the valley.

And indeed…the next scene in the Gospel that follows Jesus’ transfiguration is a father asking Jesus to heal his possessed child because Jesus’s disciples couldn’t do it.

Seems that once they are back in the valley…away from the mountain top…. they become people of “little faith.”

We…too…face similar challenges when we leave this place each Sunday.

While we’re here…gathered together…we’re fed both with the Word and with the bread and wine…the body and blood of Jesus…at this table.

We may leave here with the last hymn still playing in our heads.

And then we face the circumstances of the world around us…the needs of our families…friends…and communities.

And our “little faith” gets put to the test repeatedly.

We pull back from others.

We stay silent when our voice is needed.

And instead of listening to Jesus…we listen to that nagging critic that tells us the lie that we don’t matter…we can’t change systems.

We forget that Jesus talks about having the faith the size of a mustard seed…and that we still can accomplish amazing things.

“Listen to him.”

Jesus keeps reminding us that we can’t avoid the difficulties of the world.

But…placing our faith in God…we have all that we need to make things better.

And we are to not hold back…but to give and share our Love…a love that comes from a God who loved us first.

That powerful light of God that was glowing through Jesus is the beacon for us…that lights the torch we are to carry into those times and places when things are look their bleakest.

Listen to him…and remember his words…and take this light out to others.

It’s the light to enlighten all nations…all peoples…and it will not be extinguished by any darkness.

In the name of the One Holy and Undivided Trinity.