"Listen to him"-Sermon for the Last Sunday of Epiphany, Mark 9:2-9
So, as the Season of Epiphany began, I did not intend to use my three preaching dates as a sort of sermon series, in what was this year a 6-week Epiphany season between Christmas and Lent. But, I think perhaps the Holy Spirit did! My three preaching dates sort of nicely fell on the first Sunday of Epiphany, about the middle, the 4th Sunday of Epiphany, and now, today, the 6th or Last Sunday of Epiphany…so about 2 weeks between each. And, as I have looked back on those first two sermons and began my work on this one…again a common theme…if not intentional series…seems to run through my musings. And, if I could sum that theme up, it might be this: “Words have power”.
As a quick recap…on the First Sunday of Epiphany I told the story of my epic prank/scare, if you will, of a girl’s cabin at Camp Allen…and used the story to talk about the metaphorical gremlins that hide under our beds. Those are the voices that seek to control or manipulate us…that want to keep us small, keep us second guessing ourselves, that want to keep us down as a means of lifting themselves up. And, further, I implored us to be a different sort of voice in each other’s lives. Still using the Camp Allen story I told…I called these voices “milk and cookies” sorts of voices…the warm and satisfying nurture that comes from those who have earned our trust and will tell us the truth about ourselves…that we are capable and competent, good-hearted and beautiful beyond imagination. That Sunday we read the story of Jesus’ baptism, and I talked about God’s words to Jesus, as he emerged from the waters of his own baptism, as just such “milk and cookies” sorts of words. Words of blessing, support, and unconditional love…shared from a parent to a child. As God says to Jesus at his baptism, “You are my child. I love you. I am so very pleased with you.” I said these words were just the sort of warm and satisfying spiritual nurture that Jesus needed to hear as he stepped on to the stage to begin his earthly and most challenging ministry that began at his baptism. And, I encouraged us to be just these sorts of “milk and cookies” voices for each other…to fight back against the gremlins under our beds, for we all have them, with words that speak one to another, again, the truth of who we really are…capable and competent…good hearted and breathtakingly beautiful.
Then two weeks ago, we heard the story of Jesus exorcising a demon from an unwell man. And, in that sermon, I shared wisdom from the poet Padraig O Tuama, who said in a lecture of his that I attended, that the only way a demon is put into a person is if we put a demon into a person. Which I described as untrue and wounding language that people, at times, use toward one another. I used the example of person who believes they are a failure, perhaps you could say suffers from the demon of failure, and I suggested that the experience of failure is not what leads a person to believe such a thing about themselves…for we all, from time to time, experience failures…but, instead, being told one is a failure…perhaps over and over again by someone or someones…is what leads a person to make the mental move from “I experienced a failure” to “I am, at my core, a failure”. I hope you see the difference there…it’s huge! And, I then suggested an addition to the poet’s wisdom and said that the way good and Godly things are put into a person is if we put those good and Godly things into a person. Thus, similar to the sermon before, I encouraged us to be very thoughtful about the words we use with each other. Such that our words would participate with God in filling each other…placing within each other…all the courage, confidence, joy, strength, conviction, affirmation and vision we need to live the very life we were made by God, in the image of love, to live…to be.
So, indeed, words have power. As James writes in his New Testament Epistle, “[T]ake ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire…”. Indeed, the tongue, by which James means the words it produces, are a fire that can bring life…burning away untruths and deceit…unlocking seeds that lead to new growth and hope for the future. But, that same fire can also just burn each other down. Thus, again, words have power and we should attend to them…most especially as we direct them one to another…for they have the power to kindle in one another the fire of love that makes us whole, healthy, full to overflowing. Our good and Godly words have the power to shape in one another the very life God made for each of us to live…a life of meaning and purpose and good adventure and joy.
And now, today, we encounter Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. And, this is indeed, a pivotal moment in his earthly ministry. In fact, his three-year journey of healing and teaching the way of love is quickly coming to its end. For soon after this time on the mountaintop, Jesus will enter into Jerusalem. And, though his time on earth is drawing to a close, his most challenging days still lie ahead. Jesus’ cross is looming large. In fact, in Luke’s version of this story, he tells us that the reason Jesus makes his trek up the mountain to confer with the two Old Testament greats, Moses and Elijah, is specifically to discuss his exodus at Jerusalem, which can be translated as his departure from Jerusalem. Jesus has given everything to his love-spreading, life-giving ministry among us humans and, now, all he has left…his very life…is required of him. For, he will go to the hard wood of the cross and give up his life to finally and forever defeat sin and death for all time, for every person, for the whole universe…for you…even for me.
Thus, in this moment on the mountaintop, as Jesus prepares for his awesome and terrible departure on the cross, we have, in a sense, come full circle to my first sermon, or more specifically, to Jesus’ baptism. For before coming down from the mountain, God speaks to his child again…words he needed to hear as he began his ministry at his baptism…and, even more so, I believe words he needed to hear right then, as he faces the end…the most challenging part…the cross. God says, once again, to his beloved child, “You are mine…my child. I love you.” And, again, I think these are the very words Jesus needs to hear to face his death…to really feel every part of his suffering on our behalf…and finally to even prevail over all the darkness…sin, death, violence, and hate…this world can muster…to rise again at Easter. Jesus, first born from the dead…not the last…but the first. And, I will continue to say to us, the goodly fellowship we call St. Julian’s, that we are to follow God’s lead with and for each other…when in our own night time moments in life…when facing our own great challenges…when feeling beat up and beat down…to lift each other up…fill each other up…using our words. That we might speak into each other’s lives reminding each other of the truth of who we really are competent and capable, good-hearted and breathtakingly beautiful. For such words provide light in the darkness…hope in the storm…joy in our sadness. They are the power, God’s own power of love, to prevail over each and every challenge set before us.
But, today, I want to note one small twist or addition to what I have already shared. Perhaps you noted, that there is a slight difference in what God says to Jesus and is overheard by those with him and even us who hear these stories today…one slight difference between what God says at Jesus’ baptism and what God says, today, at Jesus’ transfiguration. In both cases, God begins almost identically. But at Jesus’ baptism, God concludes with the phrase, “[W]ith whom I am well pleased.” “You are my son, the beloved; with whom I am well pleased.” And, today, at Jesus’ transfiguration, God concludes emphatically with the phrase, “[L]isten to him!”. “This is my son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Listen to him.
Friends, my own children are often quick to remind me of the old adage, “You have two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak.” And, understandably so, for I, like some, suffer from the gift of gab…an occupational hazard of mine. But there is great truth here. For often what those we love and care for need is not well intended advice or opinion…but just a listening ear. For, when we listen well, it provides the space for those we listen to…to find their own voice…to speak the truth about themselves. And, in doing so, they find within themselves God’s own voice resonating with their own that speaks, again, the truth of who they really are…so very good…so very capable…so very beautiful. Our words have power. But, the power of active and reflective listening that helps someone else find their own voice…well that is divine. So, indeed, we should really listen to each other well.
But, to hold even more closely to what God says to us today, we are to listen specifically to Jesus…both the life he lived and the words he shared. For, when our words are necessary and needed by others…for they surely are…even if they should often follow using our ears first…those words should be shaped by Jesus’ own. Words like, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Words like, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all other things will be added to you as well.” Words like, “I have given you a new command that you love one another as I have loved you.” Words like, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” Words like, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” Words like, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Listen to him…God implores us today…for Jesus’ words learned, studied, memorized till they are written on our bones…provide wisdom for when to listen and when to speak. And, when time to speak…for we need to hear you…I need to hear you…Jesus’ words are the deep and unending well of love from which our own words find their intended power and their divine purpose…to be life…to be spiritual nurture…to provide the power to prevail…God’s own words of love that fill us all the way up…lovingly shared from one to another. Amen.