Listen to HIM

 Mark 9:2-9 is the lectionary text for next Sunday, February 14, Valentine's Day.

The passing of the mantle.  The fulfillment of Law and Prophets in the flesh.  The New Covenant established on the foundation of the Covenant of the Law.  The Transfiguration is much more than just seeing the glory of Jesus.  It is Jesus' Installation as the new Rabbi, Pastor and even more, Lord of our lives.

In this first Gospel written, in which Jesus' first words are, "believe in the Good News," we now have Jesus presented as God's voice, the Word made Flesh, fulfillment of Moses and Elijah, Messiah and Lord.  With Moses (Law, Liberator) and Elijah (Prophets, Agitator) present, God tells the disciples to "listen to HIM."

Jesus is my authority on how to live faithfully with God.  What Jesus taught, commanded and modeled as faithfulness to God in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now, IS my authority in my life of faith.  This far exceeds the grandeur of a countenance dazzling as snow.  It is the hope of all people who have suffered under the oppression of unjust, unloving, uncivil, unrighteous and un-Christ-like powers and principalities at work in the world around us.  It is the deliverance from our exile under oppressive power.  It is the agitation of truth in the face of the lies of greed and status presented by empire and its devotees.  It is Good News for those who have suffered under the bad news of empire.  It is Good News for me and for most folk who I love in this world, here and now.

And through the Gospels, we have seen Jesus' glory - in teaching, in healing, in casting out demons, in acts of kindness and graciousness, in inclusion, in provision, in protection, in deliverance and in the redemptive Grace of the Cross.  We have seen Jesus' glory in the Cross, in the agonizing, twisted, tortured and fatal execution of the glorified one.  That is Jesus' glory.  After catching the glimpse of Jesus' glorious, splendid image, we see the visage of glory in the gory, bloody brokenness of the Cross.  That is the journey we begin with Transfiguration Sunday and then Ash Wednesday, not up on a mountain with scenes of glory, but in the work, the hard work of deliverance and agitation, and the sacrificial consequences of doing that work, on the Cross.

What wondrous love is this?

Jesus walked this walk.  If we are to follow Jesus, we must get beyond the desire to stay in or obtain some glory, and do the work that will lead us to the Cross.  We must walk the walk and not just talk the talk.  We must go where and how Jesus went.  We must LISTEN TO HIM and follow Him in order to be Faithful to Jesus.

Where is the prosperity, worldly glory and power and status in this?  Nowhere.  It is not in this Good News of Jesus.  It is about sacrifice as liberators and advocate agitators on behalf of "the least," who have been held down, back and out, oppressed and excluded.  THAT is faithfulness to the Jesus of the mountain and the Jesus of the plain, going to the Cross.

Listen to HIM, here and now, in this part of God's Kingdom, if you would be faithful.

Pastor Jamie