Listen To Him

Listen To Him!

Sermon for Sunday March 8, 2009

1. Good Morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

2. Opening Comments: Well it’s the season of Lent and according to my count we have another 28 days to go – 28 days to Palm Sunday on April 5^th!

So how is your Lenten experience going? The violet color for lent is dark for good reason isn’t it?

This is a season for intentional spiritual growth! Therefore it’s a time of repentance, reconciliation, penance and disciplined discipleship.

And therefore it’s also a time for Prayer, Fasting and Charity which radically war against the three universal temptations we all constantly dealing with - Pleasure, Power and Popularity. Oh how these temptations war against our best Lenten intentions! These minions of these temptations bombard us every day!

And so you and are given this annual 40 day opportunity to do some work on our spiritual lives!

With this in mind we’re going to reflect upon what is arguably the most important realization we can ever make if we’re ever truly going to grow into maturity as Christians!

Let me put that another way – without this fundamental realization you and I are destined to play at Christianity and never really do it! Without this pivotal realization we’re either not Christians at all or are destined to remain very very immature ones.

So what is this fundamental realization? I wonder if anybody can guess? Perhaps those of you who love a bit of a challenge may want to write it down on a piece of paper to see if you’re right when I finally tell you – ha!

Let me tease you a bit more and see if you can get it OK?

It’s the underlying theme in our Readings today.

3. Focus on Scripture – Please turn with me to our First Reading - In our First Reading from the Book of Genesis chapter 22 God put Abraham to the test. Think about it. God had promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars and yet here was God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his first and most beloved miraculous seed – His son Isaac . . . . And what did Abraham do?

Well I’ll tell what I would probably have done – I would have tried to renegotiate this clearly unwise decision of God! I might even agree but figure out a way to whisk Isaac off to the outer territories of my domain – just to get him out from beneath God’s gaze!

I mean God must be crazy to ask such a thing of Abraham – right?

Remember now God the Father sent Jesus His one and only Son to die for the world!

“But naaaaa! God would never ask that of me! God is a God of love and kindness and mercy – naaaa – I must have heard it wrong. God – you would never ask that of me.”

But our reading tells us that Abraham did in fact do what God had asked of him and as he was about to cut his son’s throat God stopped him.

Why did God do this? Look at verse 1 again – it’s says “God put Abraham to the test.”

He tested Abraham! He gave Abraham a test in which Abraham in his free will could have disobeyed . . . with what would seem to have been very very good reasons. This just didn’t seem to fit into what God had already told Him – that through Isaac Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars!

Think about what’s happening here – God gave Abraham a promise. Abraham thought he understood that promise and then God seemed to renege on His promise. So do you think that you and I and Abraham have every right to hold God to His promises?

Had Abraham thought and acted that way what would have happened? That’s a whole other reflection. Let it be sufficient to say that Abraham chose God’s way and because of that his offspring are almost as numerous as the stars – ha!

You see St. Paul was right when he wrote:

Rom. 8:31 . . . If God is for us, who can be against us? - certainly not God! 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

And so the Psalmist can sing – “I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living – even when I am greatly afflicted! . . . My vows to the LORD I will pay in the presence of all His people. . . I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living!

4. Focus on the Gospel reading – And now turn with me to our Gospel reading – Mark chapter 9 beginning at verse 2. It’s here that we receive our best advice when dealing with God and it answer’s my initial focusing question which was:

“What is the most fundamental realization we need to make as we continue our Lenten pilgrimage into greater and greater spiritual maturity – as we fight against the 3 universal temptations – Pleasure, Power and Popularity?”

Please listen and try to envision the scene as I read about it from “The Message:”

Mark 9:2-10 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Now try to see that scene. Was Jesus astonished? I don’t think so. This sort of thing wasn’t strange for Him. After all He really was – is - God – God the Son. So this event probably didn’t really astonish Him but it certainly astonished Peter, James and John. They were shaking in their boots!

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, ahhhhhhhhhhh . . . it’s good for us to be here. Let’s put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Parenthetically we read in verse 6 6 (He didn’t know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” There’s an exclamation mark here – God said this with force - How does God sound when He is commanding and not just communing?

Listen to Him! I love Him – Listen to Him! This is God’s word to you and to me this morning! Listen to Jesus!

You see if Jesus really did come back from the dead then He can speak to you and to me right here and right now!

Has He ever done that to you?

He can – He will if you invite Him and listen until you hear Him!

Christianity isn’t a religion – it’s a relationship!

Listen to Him! He will tell you what to do!

The real question of this Lent is this “Will you listen for Him and when He speaks to you – will you obey or will you negotiate or just walk away like the rich young ruler did!

You see the real fear of entering into relationship with Jesus is this - “Who’s in charge?”

It can’t be you and me!

If that were true then Christianity would just be another religion!

But Christianity isn’t that – it’s about listening for and obeying God Himself!

It’s about letting God be God and about you and I not playing God any more.

Not writing God’s script for ourselves but rather listening for His Script and no matter how insane it sounds to follow in humble submission.

Yes, this is the deep and abiding realization that makes for a deeper and deeper faith – “obedience to God.” It’s the realization that “He is God and I am not!”

Listen to what Dietrich Bonheoffer had to say about this:

"Christianity without disciplined discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. … There is trust in God, but no following of Christ."

Listen to a prayer from the Trappist Monk Thomas Merton as he prayed through this reality:

“MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

The dark somber days of Lent will turn us away from ourselves towards God. Let God have His way with you not only during the next 28 days but the rest of eternity and you will live happily ever ever ever ever ever after. Amen.

Let’s pray!