Lent Day 17

Mark 9:2-8Living Bible (TLB)

2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain. No one else was there.

Suddenly his face began to shine with glory, 3 and his clothing became dazzling white, far more glorious than any earthly process could ever make it! 4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus!

5 “Teacher, this is wonderful!” Peter exclaimed. “We will make three shelters here, one for each of you. . . . ”

6 He said this just to be talking, for he didn’t know what else to say and they were all terribly frightened.

7 But while he was still speaking these words, a cloud covered them, blotting out the sun, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

8 Then suddenly they looked around and Moses and Elijah were gone, and only Jesus was with them.

 Poor old Peter!  Can you imagine anything worse than being told off by the audible voice of God?  Its bad enough getting a dressing down in front of your peers by someone senior, but by God Almighty in a booming voice from heaven.....?   Oh dear.

Its funny that this should be the reading for today because Im actually preaching on listening tomorrow.  As part of a series on prayer I shall be thinking about the fact that in our relationship with God the communication should be two way.  We should talk to God and expect Him to talk back to us.  Peter is just like most of us.  He feels the need to be doing stuff - he wants to be part of what God is doing and to join in with something which is clearly way beyond him.  You have to feel sorry for him - his enthusiasm is very endearing.  But he somewhat missed the point.   He was witnessing something spectacular and holy .  He just needed to shut up and listen.

How often do we prattle on to God and miss the very thing He is doing right in front of us?  How often are we trying to answer our own prayers as we speak to Him without it ever occurring to us that He might actually want to give us an answer there and then? 

The other thing to say about this passage is that Jesus takes his friends up higher in order for them to have this extraordinary encounter.   They have to climb - to put in the hard work in following Jesus - before they get to witness the transfiguration.  Apart from the bigger group, just the three of them .  A prayer triplet in fact!!!   I think we all long for ' glory' moments.  We all wish that God would just appear to us and do something amazing and we imagine that if He did that would make everything somehow easier.  Didnt seem to work that way for Peter or the others.  Just saying.  :-)