St. Paul’s On-the-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

Transfiguration; February 22, 2009

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Mark 9:2-9

LISTEN TO HIM; IT’S THAT SIMPLE

Savior, In the Mountains, in Practicality, in Living Everyday

Let us listen to him. Let us listen to him on the holy mountain of worship. Let us listen to him on the practical plains of the day to day. Let us listen to him every day, in every day lives and every day work and every day play.

Let us listen to him in the kitchen washing dishes, in the living room reading or watching TV, at work balancing the books or interacting with other employees. Let us listen to him on the street interacting with strangers.

Let us listen to him wherever we go and whatever we do.

Of course, to do that, we have to listen a little less to everyone else. We have to listen a little less to government, as if it knows everything that must be done. We have to listen a little less to ‘the market,’ as if it knows what it is doing.

We have to listen a little less to the media and even to our friends as if they – as if we – have any sense of what we are doing or where the world is going.

We have to listen to him.

“This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Listen to him.

Don’t even worship him! Certainly don’t argue about him. Listen to him.

Peter and James and John were led by Jesus up to a high mountain apart, “and he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white . . . And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus (his voice rising in fear), ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here: let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.”

They were terrified! So Peter started babbling. The man he had followed as a prophet and teacher turned out to be God! He did not know what to think. He still felt somewhat familiar with him, somewhat comfortable talking to him – on this mount of terrifying, abnormal holiness – but he was still terrified.

All he could think of doing was to bow down in worship; construct a sacred temple, probably to visit in later times, and worship there.

No. A voice comes, and just says to listen. And the holy cloud disappears, and the visions of the holy figures vanish, and all that is left, is “only Jesus” – the same man he knew before, but clearly more than a man.

They go together down the mountain, back into ministry. Peter listens as he did before, but probably more than before, because he knows who this truly is.

Listen to him.

The disciples now listen to him more than to the demons who say they can’t do something, or to the government that says they shouldn’t do something, or to their own hearts that say they’ll never be able to do something.

They listen to Jesus who says: this is what you should do, this is how, and this is why.

We listen to Jesus who says: you should care for the helpless and the stranger; and this is how – by loving and helping them; and this is why – to turn the world into the kingdom of love, the kingdom of God.

That is the end result of listening to Jesus. We become God’s assistants, God’s partners in bringing about the kingdom of God; and so in communion with God every day in everything we do! We turn the world around us, gradually – person by person and task by task, with everything and everyone we touch – into a part of the kingdom of God; extending His love with ours, His help with ours, His care with ours.

What a marvelous mission we have. It begins just with listening. It continues with doing. That’s the hard part.

But we have him with us to help us in it. We have his power next to us. We have his love within us to call upon when we have none left to give. We have his voice beside us to listen to ever more closely when the voices of the world, the market, the government threaten to drown it out.

Of course we could always turn off the TV, move away from the computer, even put down the book.

We could come away to worship, go “up to a high mountain” – or a church – “apart,” by ourselves, and worship. There we will be reminded to listen. Our heads will be cleared of distractions and refocused on what we do and with Whom we do it.

‘Oh, yes, “only Jesus;” just this man who taught just these things.’ All we have to do, is do them.

We don’t have to do them to get into heaven, mind you. Heaven has come to us. “This is my Son, the Beloved.” Yup, that’s him on the mountaintop. That’s him on the plains. That’s him at the wedding party at Cana. That’s him in the bar with the sinners, forgiving the woman caught in adultery, healing the man with palsy. That’s him in every aspect of our lives whether we’re sinners or good and righteous people.

The Son of God has come. There is no keeping him out. Mary saw to that when she said yes to God’s question of if she would accept his presence.

Now it’s our turn – to extend that presence, to extend that love to other people with our actions, when we listen to him.

I realize it’s easier for Christians to argue about him than to listen to him. It’s easier to argue about who he was – to what degree Son of God, to what degree Son of Man, what miracles he did and how he did them and how we should believe.

It’s a great deal harder to listen to him, and do what he said. That would involve actually changing our lives and our behavior – so it would be oh so different from what the government or the market forces or our own fearful hearts might advise.

But that’s what he advises. That’s what he actually commands. “Listen to him.” That’s how we bring his change farther and farther into our world, until it touches everybody: neighbor stranger, enemy, government, economy, our own fearful hearts.

God has come. Listen to him – to every word which that Man, that God spoke to us in that Book. Bring his change farther, and farther, and farther into our world.