LISTEN TO HIM

FATHER JIM FOSDICK

ST. MARY OF THE SNOWS ANGLICAN CHURCH

FEBRUARY 3, 2008

Lord of light - shine upon us. God of love fill our hearts with your wisdom. Holy Spirit, bring yourself closer to us in my words and how we hear them, in our thoughts and how we think them. Use this time - and use us to accomplish your good will. Amen.

            For four days last week I was on a silent retreat. Other than singing and responding during worship we were silent from Monday night to Thursday. Interspersed with our worship were meditations by two Benedictine monks. The largest block of time was personal prayer and meditation in our rooms. Be still and know that I am God. Recently I’ve preached about how to hear God talking to you. One of the Benedictines said the purpose of a silent retreat was to Experience God. He said the best way to experience God was to listen. Sound familiar? I spent a lot of time listening and reconnecting with God. It’s something I would encourage all of you to do. I think one of the primary reasons we don’t hear God is we are so busy and there is so much noise in the channel we just can’t hear. We’re always moving from one thing to another. It’s like we have spiritual ADD…attention deficit disorder.

I found the following story that I think is a good place to start this morning. John Henry Patterson didn’t have an attention problem. Back in 1884 he formed the National Cash Register Co. it’s called NCR today and he led the company to prominence and profitability. He made it successful because he paid attention to details and kept an eye on each dept. in the company. At one point, it became apparent that the factory was having a high number of burglaries. Patterson was convinced that the security staff was not doing their job. So, one night, he put on a phosphorescent suit and rode up to the plant on a white horse. He jimmied opened the door to the tool room, helped himself to several spare parts and rode off, without being challenged. The next morning, he replaced the security staff. Now, why did Patterson replace the security staff?
He did that because they weren’t doing their job. They weren’t paying attention.

In today’s gospel from Matthew 17, we have God trying to get the attention of Peter, James and John. It’s fairly obvious that this was the reason Jesus brought them to this mountain. A lot of times, Jesus would take his men aside for a time of teaching or prayer, but this time, it’s a little different. No sooner had they reached the top of the mountain than Jesus turns around… and his entire appearance has changed. His face shines like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light. As if that weren’t enough, two men appear beside Jesus. We’re not told how the disciples knew who they were but they suddenly realized these two men were Moses and Elijah.

The apostles are understandably excited. Notice what Peter says to Jesus in Matthew 17:4, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters— one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." Suddenly a cloud descends on them and surrounds them. Matthew 17:5 tells us a powerful voice speaks from the cloud “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

The excitement of the disciples turns to trembling and fear and they fall facedown on the ground. Verses 7 & 8 tell us “Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up’ he said. ’Don’t be afraid.’” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

Now there are three things that I saw in this passage.
1st - God wanted to get Peter, James and John’s attention
Can you imagine how dramatic this experience must have been to them? God designed this encounter to be something they would never forget… and they didn’t. Long after Jesus had risen from the dead, this scene was still burned in their minds

· John might have been referring to this event - of seeing Jesus transfigured - when he wrote to fellow Christians: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."

· And Peter writes in 2nd Peter   “…we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” God wanted their attention… and He got it.

God has always put a high priority on getting our attention.
In Isaiah 28:23 He tells His people: “Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say.” In Deuteronomy 7:12 He tells Israel: “If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you…” Why should we pay attention to God? Well, Deuteronomy 7:12 says: God has a “covenant of love” He wants to share with us. He wants to give us the full measure of His blessings in our lives because He cares for us. But the only way we’re going to be sure of getting those blessings is by paying attention and following His commands and desires for our lives. When we do that God declares in Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  So, the question then becomes, do I want God’s plans for my future… or would I rather do it myself? Here’s another story that tickled me.  A boy and his mother were in a drug store and there was candy on the counter and the owner spotted the boy looking at the candy, when the mother went up to pay, the owner said to the boy “you want some of this candy”.
The boy nodded, and the manager said “well go ahead and take some”. Well the boy just stood there, and again the owner said “go ahead and get a handful of candy”.  The boy still stood there, then the owner reached in the jar and pulled out some candy and gave it to the boy and the boy filled his pockets. When they got outside the mother said “Why didn’t you get a handful of candy? The man told you it was O.K.” The boy said, “Because his hands were bigger than mine”.

The choice we have in this life is: do we want God’s plans for our lives, or do we want our own plans instead?  If it comes down to a choice, I’d prefer God’s plans. God’s hands are bigger. God’s plans are bigger.

The 2nd thing I saw in our gospel account of Jesus on the mountain was this; it’s possible to focus on the wrong things in life. God wants our attention… but too often we get distracted by other things. We can suffer from a spiritual form of Attention Deficit Disorder. This spiritual ADD was reflected in Peter’s comment to Jesus: “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters— one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Matthew 17:4 Now, follow me here. Moses represented the Law. Elijah was a symbol of the Old Testament prophets.
And Peter – misunderstanding the message God wanted him to see -- wanted to put Jesus on the same level as these great men of old.

But then, the cloud descends… and God makes His intentions clear: “This is my beloved Son… LISTEN to Him”. And when the cloud vanishes… the only thing they see is Jesus.

Peter had been focusing on “good” things. Moses and Elijah were important men who represented the greatest revelation that God had ever given to man up to that point. But as important as Moses and Elijah were… they paled in comparison to Christ. Moses’ face didn’t shine like the sun. Elijah’s garments weren’t as white as snow. Oh you may say that when Moses came down from the mountain his face was shining. Moses face had the reflected glory of God and the rest of his body was normal. The light at the transfiguration came from Jesus and it poured out of every part of him from head to toe. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

It was Jesus that shone with light and glory… not Moses and not Elijah. My point is this: It’s easy to get distracted by “good things” in this life and neglect the best that God wants for our lives. Jesus needs to be our focus.

I’m in a pastor’s group that meets every Tuesday. We talk about what we are going to preach about the following Sunday. Lately we’ve talked about two things when we’re not talking about our sermons. One thing is the Eucharist. Actually two of them have brought this up at different times. One a Bible church pastor and the other an Evangelical Free pastor and both of them are wrestling with why they don’t have communion more often. Communion is a primary way that as Anglicans we focus on Jesus. Jesus is there and we spend 50% of every service on Him in the Liturgy of the Sacrament.

The other issue the pastor’s group has been discussing is worship. The mega-churches have bands or orchestras, big screens with movies and really incredible entertainment. But Bill Hybels the pastor of one of the largest of these churches, Willow Creek, has just written a book where he says they made a mistake because in their zeal to entertain and draw people into the church they didn’t spend enough time focusing on the Bible and helping people to learn to read the Bible themselves so they could nurture their own relationship with Jesus. I wanted to scream YA THINK when I read that. It’s not enough to have religion that gets our attention. Our attention has to be focused on Jesus and His Living Word.  

In the Episcopal Church in my opinion, too many priests spend too much time on topical issues… social justice, the Millenium Development Goals, you name it and not enough time on Jesus. Jesus can save lives. Nothing else can. Now, if this kind of lost focus happens to preachers and churches, you know full well it can happen to you.

How many of you have a job? Would you like to keep your job? So would I. But it’s possible to have your job be so “important” that you allow it to keep you away from church. When that happens, you have a problem. In the days of the early church people didn’t get Sundays off to go to church. They often had to worship in the evening because that was the only open time in their day. Acts tells of Paul coming to preach for one such gathering and he preached well past midnight. The people gathered at that time of night to be with Jesus because that was the only time on Sunday they could do so.

If you can’t make it to Sunday morning worship... do you plan on coming Wednesday nights? Attending a mid-week Bible study? Having worship in your home? If you don’t, you’ve got ask yourself the question... is my job more important than my time with Jesus?

How many of you like to have money to pay your bills? So do I. But it’s possible to regard your finances as so important that you build your life around money – then you have a problem. Paul wrote to Timothy that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Not “Money”, but the “love of money.”

 Do you consider your family as “important? Me too. But if our family distracts us from our responsibility to God, then we have a problem. Jesus said "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

In Mark 8:36 Jesus said “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” You can have all kinds of “important” things in your life but if they crowd out Jesus or if you’re tempted to build little tents like Peter did… one for your job, one for your family, one for your finances… and another one of EQUAL value for Jesus - you’ve got a problem.

God expects to have first place in our lives. Nothing else will do. (pause…)

So, what I learned from this passage are these things:
First – God wants to get our attention. He has a plan for our lives and He wants to bless us immensely. But in order for that to happen, He’s got to have our undivided attention.
2nd – we tend to suffer from spiritual ADD. We get distracted by “important” things.
The third thing I noticed about our gospel reading from Matthew 17 was that God has one central focus; God said: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

It occurred to me – as I looked this passage over that Peter, James and John had been in church for a long, long time. The Mount of Transfiguration took place toward the end of Jesus’ ministry… and so His disciples have been worshipping with Him and studying with him for about 3 years now. Heck that’s the length of a seminary education with Jesus himself as the only professor.

Do you realize: it’s possible to go to church all of your life… and still not listen to Jesus? I’ve seen people who’ve done it! I’m not thinking of anybody here at St. Mary’s but at other churches I’ve seen it and it could happen here too. They’ll have perfect attendance. They’ll be involved in various committees and activities in the congregation. They’ll teach Sunday School… or be a member of the vestry. But it’s their Church that’s the “Important” thing in their lives. They go through the routine of going to church and they say all the right things… at church, but the rest of the week they don’t live what they just said in worship. They love their church but - never seem to be listening to Jesus.

If you go to church every week but drive right past someone who’s stranded with a broken down car on highway 45 you’re not listening to Jesus. If you go to church but aren’t bothered by the slaughter of innocent Christians in the Sudan, you’re not listening to Jesus. If you listen to the scripture reading, I am the way, the truth, and the life and then lie at work, you’re not listening to Jesus. The early Christians were recognizable for their love for each other and the way they loved others outside their religious community. I want us all to listen to Jesus. I don’t just want us to go thru the routine of going to church and fulfilling our religious obligations. I want to actually pay “attention” to what He wants of us.

But, how do I know what He’s saying? Well, it’s all right here. Not just the “red letter” sections where Jesus gets quoted in the Gospels but every single word in this Book. All these words, all of them, belong to Him. That’s why it’s called THE WORD OF GOD!  SO, if you want to hear God speak to you…if you want to “listen” to Jesus here’s where you start… read. Read the Gospels, Read some of the New Testament Letters. It doesn’t matter where you start. What matters is that you read it with the intention of LISTENING to Jesus. To find out what He wants you to do in your life. And then OBEY it. Do you remember the great commission from Matthew 28? “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus expects us to do what he tells us. That’s the mark of a follower.

Get involved in Adult Education. We’ve got a great study going on called Experiencing God. Or you could attend either the Ladies Bible study Tuesdays at 10:30 AM or starting this week the Men’s Bible study Wednesdays at 4:00 PM. Come to the Wednesday Healing Service with Holy Communion Wednesdays at 5 PM. During Lent you can come to the Stations of the Cross on Fridays at noon. There are a lot of ways to respond if God is trying to get your attention and I guarantee you He is. None of us are above the need to be involved in this way.

You’d think Jesus would not have needed to go “church”… but He did. Do you know where He was every Sabbath day? He was either at the synagogue or temple. And do you remember where He was at age 12? He was at the temple… asking questions. If it was necessary for Jesus to do this, how could we possibly presume that we wouldn’t need it?