This Is My Son, Listen to Him

2-11-24

Hoonah-Hadley

Mark 9:2-9

Call to Worship Psalm 50:1-6

Daily Verse Mark 9:7

As we follow our Savior from the manger to the empty tomb and beyond, we have before us, the transfiguration of our Lord.  As with many of our lesson’s we are simply unable to write, speak, preach, or teach in any way remotely close to that which heavens glory reveals to us.  These verses in Mark show us what only faith can reveal, trust will secure and hope will see with a heart of understanding. Some things we can feel better than we can tell, or better yet, be still and listen to the very voice of God.  And by the way, with all the voices, all the noise that is vying for our attention (and getting it) we’d do well to take the ear buds out, put the ear plugs in, go into our chambers, the mountain top, the river, and listen to that still small voice that is more than sufficient to fulfill all our needs.  In fact, if we truly had ears that hear and feet that make haste to run to Thee, there would be less racket and more peace on earth. There is a peace that surpasses all understanding and it comes from the one whose radiance requires welders goggles to look upon and a refiners fire to gather in.  Mark 9:7 “This is My Son, whom I love, listen to Him.” No arguing, fussing, or fighting required, just trust and obey.  There is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and there is the voice of the One that created the wilderness, that calls us there to see His glory shine round about us. Oh, that we would have eyes to see and ears to hear the wonder of it all.  “There’s the wonder of sunset at evening, the wonder as sunrise I see; But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul, is the wonder that God loves me.” (George Shea)

-2-

In 2 Kings 2 Elisha and Elijah go for a walk. They go to Bethel, Jericho and then to the Jordan river, each time Elijah tells Elisha to stay but each time he says, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.”  So, they come to the Jordan, Elijah strikes the water with his mantle, the water parts and they cross on dry ground.  On the other side, Elijah asks Elisha, “what may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?”  Elisha responds, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”  And as they walked along “suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”  Elisha cries out, takes up Elijah’s mantle, goes back to the bank of the Jordan River, strikes the water with the mantle, and says, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?”  The water divides and he crosses back over to the other side.  Out of the 4 offerings today, these are the Old Testament verses, a real treasure chest of blessings and lessons crying out to be discovered. Oswald Chambers in his devotion titled “This Experience Must Come”, hits a homerun with his commentary.  He says it is not wrong to depend on our “Elijah” as long as God gives him to us, but there will come a time for him to leave because God does not intend for him to stay.  In life, when we feel we cannot go on without our Elijah, God says you must continue.  When you come to your Jordan alone, there is no one else to take the responsibility from you, the experience is here, and you must go through your Jordan alone.  When you come to your Jericho alone, you have a strong reluctance to take the initiative, but if you trust God, you will receive a sign as Elisha did that God is with you.  When you find yourself alone at your Bethel, your wits end, the beginning of God’s wisdom, don’t panic, practice what you learned while with your Elijah, use his mantle, trust God and pray.

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In our call to worship in Psalm 50 we hear the voice of God our Lord.  “The Mighty One, God the Lord, has spoken and called the earth…Our God shall come and not keep silent…He shall call to the heavens above…Hear, O My people, and I will speak…” (NKJV)  Herein the cliff notes if you will, the cutting to the chase, the moral of the story, the simplicity of our lesson, God speaks to us, and bids us to listen.  Isaiah 6:8-10 “…I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I, send me!’ And He said, ‘Go, and tell the people: Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.  Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.’”  Healing requires hearing, seeing, understanding and turning.  When God says, “This is My Son, Listen to Him”, He’s talking about the red letters.  In Mark 1:15, the beginning of our Lords ministry, the first thing He tells us, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Did you hear that?  Were you listening?  Repent = turn.  Believe=believe.  1 Sam. 3:10 “Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times…Samuel answered, ‘Speak Lord, for your servant hears.’”  Romans 10:14-17 “…And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach unless they are sent…So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  In Genesis chapter 1 God speaks.  “Then God said” is repeated about 10 times.  I call chapter 3 the “He said, she said” chapter.  We don’t get far along in the bible before the voices are multiplied.  The serpent said, the woman said, Adam said, God said.  Proverbs 8:6 “Listen, and I will speak of excellent things.”

-4-

Our epistle offering comes from 2 Cor. 4:3-6, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose mind the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them…For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  Herein the transfiguration of our Lord.  2 Cor. 4 preaches itself, there are those who are perishing and those who God commanded light to shine upon.  Psalm 104:2 “He wraps Himself in light.”  John 1:14 “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.”  In our lesson in Mark 9 the transfiguration ties the old covenant with the new, linking Moses and Elijah, representatives of the law and the prophets, with Jesus and His apostles.  In the old, the radiance on Moses’ face was a “reflection” of his interaction with God, and that was fading, perishing.  In contrast, the light shining forth from Christ in the transfiguration is a new glory, one that comes from within, Emmanuel, God with us, an ever-increasing radiance.  Jesus said, “who do men say that I am?”  Some said, “Elijah”.  In fact, Elijah was a type and shadow of things to come.  The old was the new concealed and the new is the old revealed.  When Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind, Elisha “saw him no more.”  And so it is with the old, it fades away, passes away, in Christ, behold all things are made new.  2 Cor. 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.”   Isaiah 43:18-19 “Do not remember the former things…Behold, I will do a new thing.” When God says, “This Is My Son, Listen to Him”, he is doing a new thing, and we are that new thing.  His radiance is not a reflection, but Christ in us. 

Be the light.  Amen.