Voice of God Sermon (Transfig. Sunday)

Let me take you back to my home in northern Minnesota. When most people think of the northern part of the state, they think beautiful lakes, forests and maybe even Lake Superior. However, my part of the state is flat, and I don’t mean flat with a few rolling hills, but flatter than a pancake. You can see for miles, which means the wind blows without stopping for miles. It’s actually the bottom of an ancient lake bed, Lake Agassi. So it’s not really the part of the state used to create MN visitor calendars or postcards. But, even with the lack of trees and hills and lakes that MN is known for, we do have one natural beauty—the sunsets. They last for an hour and are completely unblocked by nature, or manmade structures. The colors splash across the prairie creating a temporary work of art. As a child, I called the most spectacular sunsets “bulletin covers.” You’ve seen bulletins with beautiful nature pictures and a Bible verse stretched across the front—I believed that the sunsets were the backdrop for God’s words, that God was speaking to someone every time beams of light stretched from heaven to earth. If I was in the car, I would lean towards the window and listen…”what is God saying?” I never heard a “voice” so I figured God must have been sending His voice down to someone else, someone who needed to hear His message using those beams of light. I didn’t understand why the booming, Charleton Hesston “voice of God” never sent me a clear, one sentence command, spoken with a British accent. I kept listening, wondering “what is God saying?” But, as I left MN and left childhood, I think the question shifted to a more “adult” question that we all sometimes wonder “I God saying anything?” I never hear a clear voice, if I did, I’d know God was saying something.
In our Gospel today, the disciples do hear this clear, unmistakable voice of God. They aren’t like us, are they? They shouldn’t have to wonder “is God saying anything?” In 11 short verses, the disciples hear a very clear message from God. Instead of being alone watching a multi colored prairie sunset with faint beams of light coming from the heavens, the disciples experience Jesus in a bright and gleaming white robe standing with Elijah HIM.” It can’t get much clearer than that, can it? But, what do our disciple friends ask on the way down the mountain? “Is God saying anything?” They start to ask all kinds of philosophical questions: “what does he mean, rise from the dead?” ignoring the billowing voice from the clouds, gleaming white robes and long dead prophets standing beside Jesus. And we’re left wondering why God won’t send US such a clear sign, then we would understand what God was saying.
Let me back up for a moment to Mark chapter 8 and list a few of the experiences the disciples just had with Jesus before they went onto the mountain top….in Mark 8 alone, the disciples saw: feeding of the five thousand, they hear from doubting Pharisees, Jesus heals a blind man, Peter confesses Jesus as Christ, and Jesus foretells His death and resurrection. They hear the actual voice of God, they see miracles and yet they still wonder! But, should I be so hard on the disciples? Are we much different from them? Do we not ask “Is God saying anything?” On most days, I certainly do not have the faith of a child, leaning my ear out the car window like I did as I watched God speak through MN sunsets. What about you? Would a gleaming white robe and prophets standing next to Jesus change your faith? We need to stop looking at these short, 11 verse experiences as the only place we see God. We need to recognize that in chapter after chapter of the Bible—and, more importantly—in chapter after chapter of our lives Christ is revealing Himself to us. Through prairie sunsets, through our families, through the bread and cup. All these wonderful places are prime opportunities to see Christ at work.
But what about the dark places? Some of you may be wondering where your prairie sunsets are, questioning where God is in the midst of your illness, job loss, broken relationship or broken heart. I proclaim to you—Jesus is with YOU because Jesus HAS BEEN THERE TOO. Jesus has suffered, like us. He has been abandoned, like us, He has felt pain, like us. The disciples suggest they build a dwelling place for Jesus on the mountaintop. But, Jesus comes down from the mountain because He knows our lives are more than brief, 11 verse, celebratory experiences. If you are far from the mountaintop, far from the prairie sunsets, this Lord and savior is for you because the voice of God isn’t limited to the mountains. God is not just saying anything He is sending us the more extraordinary, and hope filled message we could every hope to hear—I am with you, I am saving you, I am transforming you every day. Amen