Don’t Talk About Things You Don’t Understand

Mark 9:1-10, The Message - Then he drove it home by saying, “This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you who are standing here are going to see it happen, see the kingdom of God arrive in full force.”

Six days later, three of them did see it. 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 clElijah, Mosesoud, a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love. Listen to him.”

The next minute the disciples were looking around, rubbing their eyes, seeing nothing but Jesus, only Jesus.

Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t tell a soul what you saw. After the Son of Man rises from the dead, you’re free to talk.” They puzzled over that, wondering what on earth “rising from the dead” meant.

 

Today’s text, recounting what has been called the Transfiguration, is both incredibly important and inescapably mysterious. What are we to make of this supernatural revelation of glory and visitors from the Hebraic Hall of Fame?  I’ll start by saying, like so many before me, offer no definitive answers.  I’m not even sure such definitive answers are possible.  And maybe that’s part of the message.

                First, Jesus only allows three disciples to go with Him – Peter, James, and John.  The number three is important, because in Jewish tradition, three witnesses are needed to confirm the veracity of an event.  Jesus obviously wants this revelation to be part of the gospel that is proclaimed about Himself, even though He tells the three of His inner circle to not proclaim anything about this event until after the Resurrection.  More on that later. 

                Another important detail is that this event takes place on a mountaintop.  The two visitors from the past, Moses and Elijah, are familiar with mountaintop revelations.  Moses receives the Ten Commandments upon the peak of Mount Sinai.  Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal with a dazzling display of God’s power on Mount Carmel and a few days later, has God whisper a revelatory encouragement to him in a cave up on Mount Horeb (also called Sinai). Moses represents the Law, Elijah the prophets, and Jesus, the fulfillment of both. Mark doesn’t specify which mountain this cosmic huddle takes place on, but to report that it occurred atop a mountain is enough.  The mountain signifies the importance of the revelation.

                As we have said in earlier reflections, Mark’s overarching purpose in writing the gospel is to proclaim and expound upon the conviction the Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.  This event, right in the center of the gospel, has several confirmations.  The presence of Moses confirms several Old Testament allusions to a “prophet like Moses” will come.  The presence of Elijah confirms traditions that Elijah would reappear before the rise of the Messiah.  The audible voice of God is heard from the cloud, confirming Jesus as the Son of God.  Jesus is physically highlighted by the glory/presence of God (Hebrew “shekinah”) All of it takes place atop a mountain, recalling multiple mountaintop revelations from Jewish history.  And it will be confirmed, after Jesus’s resurrection, by Jesus’s three most trusted inner circle leaders. 

                While all of those details seem clear enough, it still doesn’t boil the experience of the Transfiguration down to an answer to the question, “what is the meaning of this mysterious event?”  That’s the thing about mysterious otherworldly experiences;  trying to reduce them to a expedient takeaway misses the point.  Sometimes, all you can do is acknowledge that you have experienced something powerful and holy.  If there is a takeaway, it’s gratitude that you got to be there.  Perhaps Peter should have stopped with after he utters, “Rabbi, this a great moment.”  Sometimes the great moment is the gift.  I’m praying that each of you who reads this has a moment this season that just leaves you grateful you were there. 

 

Question:  Have you ever had a moment that was impossible to explain, but you knew it was a gift?

 

Prayer:  God, deliver us from the notion that we need to be able to explain something in order to be thankful.  Help us embrace Your mystery.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  List and thank God for 10 people you are glad that you know.

 

Song:  Quick note: the church pictured in this video is the “The Church of the Transfiguration,” a church built on the traditional site celebrated as where the Transfiguration took place.  It is so high, that clouds often form inside the church.

Transfiguration – Brian Wren

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJec8-pfVQk

Tough Act to Follow

 

Joshua 1:1-6 - After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide:  “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.  I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.  Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.  No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.                  

 

How’d you like to be the leader to follow Moses?  Such was the task given to Joshua.  Not only that, he is given the task of finishing what Moses was supposed to do – lead the Israelites into the promised land.  Joshua had the blessing of Moses to do this, but still, how hard would that be?  It had to be hard for Moses to not get to finish the task of his lifetime and to still be gracious enough to bless Joshua to do in his place.  How hard for Joshua to try and walk in Moses shoes. 

So today we celebrate leaders with the humility of Moses and the courage of Joshua.  These two Old Testament heroes move God’s promise to Abraham forward through the establishment of a homeland for God’s chosen people that endures to this day.  So have others in our own day. Take some time to thank God for the leaders that have made God’s promise more real to you.  If you have the opportunity, tell them what they have meant to you.  If they have already passed, thank God for them.  I will name one of mine here.

His name is John Ortberg.  I don’t know him personally, but I have followed his career, listened to his sermons and read his books since I was a first year full-time pastor twenty-eight years ago.  His ministry has shaped my own and helped my faith to grow more than any other one influence in my life.  He helped grow two different churches into ministries of international significance.  I thank God for him. 

Who are your spiritual heroes and why?  Maybe you never thought about it, but I believe there is value in taking time to remember that you didn’t get where you are by yourself.  It helps you be motivated to do the same for those coming up after you.   I’m guessing that it did indeed pain Moses not to be able to lead God’s people into the promised land.  However, I’m quite sure that if he couldn’t do it, there is no one Moses would have rather see do it than Joshua.  Who are your Moses’s and who are your Joshua’s?

 

Prayer:  God thank you for the leaders that have made us who we are.  Help us to do the same for others.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to raise up a new generation of leaders to carry God’s kingdom forward in this critical time.

 

Song:  Josh Groban – Thankful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEI1F22uqE

What’s With Moses's "Magic" Staff?

 

Exodus 17:8-13 - The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.  Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”

So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.  As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.  When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.  So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

 

Self-reliance is NOT a biblical virtue.  That might need repeating because it is hard for us rugged individualists to hear.  Self-reliance is not a biblical virtue.  The stories of our biblical heroes we are journeying through show over and over that the heroes and she-roes of our faith did not do what they did by their own power and skill.  They relied first and foremost upon God’s strength, but they also relied on other people.  This story of the Israelites battle with the Amalekites illustrates both,

Moses instructs Joshua, his military commander, to go and fight the enemy. Moses’s role would be to simply hold up God’s staff.  This is a crazy strategy if you think about it.  Imagine a modern day battlefield where the only thing the General does is hold up an iPad.  Holding up something brings no advantage UNLESS that act of holding something up is an act of complete surrender and dependence on God.  God had given the staff to Moses to signify that God’s power was with the Israelites.  Moses held the staff up to remind himself and all who fought that God was with them. 

But even this act of faith is not sustainable alone.  If you doubt this, try holding just your arms straight out from your side for one minute.  Go ahead; I’ll wait.  I’m guessing it wasn’t really hard, but imagine doing that all day long.  It’s humanly impossible on our own.  So invariably, when Moses held up his staff, his arms eventually failed him. He couldn’t sustain even this simple act of faith.  So others stepped in and held up his arms.  All of a sudden, an impossible task becomes easy.  The battle is won because God’s power is invoked not just by the leader, but by the entire community.  That is God’s desire – that we trust him together.  We invoke his presence and power together.  It brings Jesus statement into greater focus; when two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Our faith is not an individual faith.  We do our faithing together or we fail.  This is a harder proposition right now, so we have to work a little harder at it.  But there are ways to “hold each up” no matter the circumstances.  I know because many of you have been doing it for me.  You send me encouraging emails or cards in the mail.  You are encouraging and kind in social media posts on our worship services. Some of you have even called me. I want you to know that really helps me. Do these things for each other as well.  We’re all having trouble “holding up our staffs” right now.  Let’s find ways to do it together. 

 

Prayer:  Hold us together Lord. Show us the ways we can rely on your power together in these challenging times.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for churches that are on the verge of closing right now because all that’s happening and thank God that our church is NOT one of them.

 

Song:  United We Stand - Brotherhood of Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=460INShy3BU

Moses

 

Exodus 2:1-10 - Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman,  and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.  But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.  His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.  Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”                               

 

Like Abraham, Moses is revered by many of the world’s faith traditions.  Unlike the story of Abraham, which begins with Abraham already being an old man, Moses’s story begins with his birth.  God’s activity in his life begins before he is aware of it – long before.  Moses is grown before he really acknowledges God’s activity in his life in any meaningful way.  But that’s a story for tomorrow. 

Today, we remember his birth.  The story of Exodus is the story of God delivering His people from slavery in Egypt.  And that story begins with the birth of Moses.  Pharaoh had ordered all baby males to be executed in order to control the Hebrew population, but Moses is saved by his clever mother who actually gets paid to take care of her son for Pharaoh’s daughter.  The irony of this is so thick that it seems divinely orchestrated, which is the storyteller’s point.  Moses, who Pharaoh wanted dead, ends up growing up in his own house.  Pharaoh actually has a hand in preparing Moses to be the leader that will be the incarnation of Pharaoh’s own fears about the Hebrew people.  No wonder so many movies have been made about this story!

Although few of us have lives as dramatically providential as the birth and early life of Moses, the writer of Exodus would love us to see that God works in similar ways in all of our lives as well.  Clever parents, strangers who show us kindness, sworn enemies, and others all knowingly or unknowingly play a role is God’s providential plan for our lives.  God is not above using anyone or anything to serve specific purposes in our lives.

Much, much later in the history of the world, John Wesley would call this attribute of God prevenient grace – grace that works in our life before we know from where it came.  This grace has been at work in your life just as was in the life of Moses.  Take some time today to look back on your history to see God’s fingerprints.  It might just change your life. 

 

Prayer:  God of prevenient grace, help us to see how you’ve been up to something in us long before we were aware of it.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God’s protection of children today all over the world – in poverty, in cages, in broken homes, in “the system,” or wherever children are in danger.

 

Song:  Through Heaven’s Eyes – Brian Stokes Mitchell (From “The Prince of Egypt” soundtrack)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mSCu4DRMHo

Matthew 17:1-13 - The Gift of Glory

 

The Gift of Glory - November 25, 2021

Matthew 17:1-13, The Message - Six days later, three of them saw that glory. Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.

Peter broke in, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?”

While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.”

When the disciples heard it, they fell flat on their faces, scared to death. But Jesus came over and touched them. “Don’t be afraid.” When they opened their eyes and looked around all they saw was Jesus, only Jesus.

Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t breathe a word of what you’ve seen. After the Son of Man is raised from the dead, you are free to talk.”

The disciples, meanwhile, were asking questions. “Why do the religion scholars say that Elijah has to come first?”

Jesus answered, “Elijah does come and get everything ready. I’m telling you, Elijah has already come but they didn’t know him when they saw him. They treated him like dirt, the same way they are about to treat the Son of Man.” That’s when the disciples realized that all along he had been talking about John the Baptizer.

 

                There’s an awful lot to talk about here, and yet, there is only so much that can be said about this mysterious account of Jesus’s transfiguration.  The primary encouragement I have here is for you to imagine that you are Peter, James, or John as you read the story.  What it must have been like to witness the glory of God revealed right in front of you.  I’m guessing that those three held this experience deep in their heart for the rest of their lives.  It’s the kind of experience that would sustain them through very difficult times.  Only three of the disciples got to experience this, which reminds us that not all get to have these mystical, otherworldly encounters.  So when they do occur, we know they are a precious gift. 

Yesterday’s passage ends with this promise; “that some of those standing here will not die before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28).  Peter, James, and John were those Jesus was referring to because that promise is fulfilled here on the mountain encounter.   Moses and Elijah are present as Jesus is transfigured.  This signifies that Jesus is the precursor and predecessor to the Law(Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah).  Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Hebrew scriptures.  God speaks from the cloud and echoes the same sentiment that was expressed in God’s voice when Jesus was baptized and confirms Peter’s recent confession of Jesus as the Son of God.  An interesting scriptural parallel here is that Moses spends six days preparing to go up to Mount Sinai where he also encounters the glory of God before receiving the Ten Commandments.  There are also six days between Peter’s confession of Jesus and this revelation of glory.  Just as the Ten Commandments (the Law) was given to sustain and guide God’s people, Jesus is now revealed to fulfill that same  purpose from now on and forever. 

Peter offers to build three shelters (for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah).  This is generally understood to express Peter’s understandable desire for this experience to be permanent.  Anyone who has had a “mountain top” spiritual encounter can identify with the desire for that great spiritual high to last forever.  The immediately heard voice of God out of the cloud is signifies that Peter will not get his wish.  After God is finished speaking, the glory recedes and the experience is over.  The three disciples are again alone with Jesus on the high mountain.  While this experience is incredible, it can’t last forever. 

On the way back down from the mountaintop, Jesus and the three men discuss the experience.  One of the issues that come up is a prophecy concerning Elijah returning before the Messiah. Jesus points out that this has already happened with the ministry of John the Baptist.  He also foreshadows the fact that just as John the Baptist meets death because of the resistance to his message, so too will Jesus be killed.  But this experience on the mountain top serves to prepare the three core disciples for those tough days ahead.

As I expressed at the beginning of this reflection, there is lot to see in this passage, but saying too much takes away from the impact of this powerful text.  Imagining what it would be like to experience the glory of God firsthand can sustain us in the same way it must have sustained the fortunate three that were there that day.   If nothing else, it gives us a foretaste of what we will all experience someday – an encounter with God in full glory, what is referred to in Hebrew as “the shekinah.”   I look forward to that.  I’m guessing I’m not alone in that anticipation. 

 

Question:  What do imagine encountering the full glory/shekinah of God would be like?

 

Prayer:  Show us Your Glory God.  Sustain us for the days ahead.  Make us thankful for all You have given.  Prepare us for whatever lies ahead.  We trust You, Lord.  Help us to trust you more.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  As today is Thanksgiving, spend some intentional time counting your blessings and thanking God for them.

 

Song:  Shekinah - Cory Asbury and Jaye Thomas (Forerunner Music)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaiQ8KiyM8k