MaryAnn McKibben Dana tells of going to a conference once
and seeing this statement written on the wall. The statement is; “when the
system doesn't know what to do, it does what it knows when a system doesn't
know what to do, it does what it knows.”
Now what this is talking about is a technical term for any group of
people. When a corporation doesn’t know
what to do it will do what it knows…when a family doesn’t know what to do it
will do what it knows and that can be whittled down to when a person doesn’t
know what to do they will do what they know.
“when we don't know what to do. When we are faced with
uncertainty, when we have a number of good options, but no clear way of
deciding or when we are fearful about the future or about change, we will revert
to what we know, what is comfortable and familiar. Sometimes that's a good
thing to orient ourselves somewhere familiar, but we need to be aware that
that's what we're doing because sometimes it's not a good thing to follow the
old pattern.”[1]
It is hard to break old habits and or sometimes its just
easier to do what we know as the saying goes why try to reinvent the wheel or
if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. We are
creatures of habit.
“Mark's transfiguration story stands as a transition between
the Sundays of Epiphany, with the progressive revelation of the power and
presence of the good news of God's kingdom in this Jesus, and the season of
Lent, with its progressive focus on the journey of Jesus to suffering and the
cross. This is where this story will take us.”[2]
In today’s Gospel The disciples are led up to the mountain
and then they experience something just beyond comprehension. This story is
rich in imagery there is a high mountain there are clouds there is Moses and
Elijah. So much going on it is mind
boggling. We hear this story every year on this day and yet, and yet no one
seems to know what to do with it.
Commentators want to dive into the old testament symbolism,
others want to point out that Peter is still a clumsy thick-headed man who just
doesn’t get it and still more want to project some headier than conceivable
mysticism on top of it all. Let me just say this…ugh it is exhausting.
So, let’s start simply, gently with the story.
Jesus took Peter, James and John they go to the mountain
top. Most likely Mount Hermon. Just six
days before Jesus had spoken to them of his death and resurrection and now he
takes these three up to the mountain where he is transfigured.
“Peter and the disciples have just witnessed something
completely other worldly. It's so strange. This transfiguration business that
even the explanations seemed downright bizarre. We have this comparison to laundry.
Jesus has the whitest whites, what is the secret? Or we have descriptions that
seem right out of the TV show glee, Jesus is dazzling.
Peter Surveys this scene, mouth agape and is terrified
because he doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know what to do, but does that
stop him from speaking? Certainly not. Let's build dwellings he blurts out
because when a person doesn't know what to do, a person does what he knows and
building dwellings. Pitching tents is part of Peter's vocabulary as a Jew. It
was part of his story. Remember that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness
for 40 years pitching their tents as they went and the Ark of the Covenant
which housed the Ten Commandments, was placed in a special tent called a tabernacle.
In the time of Solomon that tent became a more grand and permanent structure. The
festival of Sukkot is a Jewish holiday in which people build small dwellings
for worship, even eating and sleeping in them. Sometimes when something amazing
happens, when God makes an appearance, if you're a Jew currently, chances are
you're going to want to build a tent.”[3]
With that in mind I cannot help but wonder what we would
do. Cynically we may question what was
in the water we just drank? What kind of
Hallucination is this? More likely we
would be scared, awestruck, and beat a path down the mountain side as quickly
as possible and choose not to discuss it or even admit that we saw anything.
“Sadly, Peter has been beaten up in sermons on this text for
centuries. Clueless Peter, who wants to put God in a box, stupid peter who
wants to stay up on the mountain forever where it doesn't say that he wants to
stay up on the mountain forever. In fact, as anyone who's been on a mountain knows,
you can't stay long. The weather changes fast and you are vulnerable up there.
Peter isn’t saying, let's move in. Peter is responding liturgically,
worshipfully out of the story that he knows best. His own story as a good an
observant Jew. When we don't know what to do, we do what we know. But God is a
god who disrupts what we know. As quickly as Jesus is transfigured before them,
God drops in a cloud just as quickly and says, OK, never mind. Stop looking at
the scene. This isn't about dazzling visions. What I want you to do is listen,
listen to him. Don't build, don't talk, don't do anything. Just listen when you
don't know what to do.”[4]
Just Listen. OK.
(Silence)…. Just as I was writing this at this very spot a thought came to
me…We are Children of God, right? How many here have children, human or
otherwise? How well do they listen? How well do they follow every instruction?
Just think on that for a moment we are children of God…How
often has God told us to listen? “let he who has ears appears in the bible 7
times. How well do we listen? Do we even
know how to listen? Spiritual practices are the best way to listen to God and
yet often we do not take the time or make the effort to engage in a spiritual
life. For many Sunday is enough
Marcus Borg, observes that there is a lack of spiritual
practice. “The notion that God is a reality who can be known (and not simply
believed in) has become quite foreign in the modern world and in much modern
theology. Often there is even uncertainty about the reality of God. In
skeptical form, it leads to a vison of Christianity as primarily “ethics.” In
most generic form, the Christian way of life becomes “being Good,” “being
Nice,” “loving people.” In the strong form, it can become a passion for
justice. But whether in generic or strong form, living the Christian life is
seen basically as being about behavior in the world. But Christian practice
historically is about our relationship to both God and neighbor, about both
Spirit and behavior, about both God and the world.”[5]
Now Borg does go on to point out that there is a renewal in
north America to recover practice as the center of Christian life. He
explains what he means by practice
“By practice I mean all things that Christians do together
and individually as a way of paying attention to God. They include being part of a Christian
community, as church, a taking part in its life together as a community. They
include worship, Christian formation, collective deeds of hospitality and
compassion, and being nourished by Christian community. They include devotional
disciplines, especially prayer and spending time with the Bible. And they
include loving what God loves through the practice of compassion and justice in
the world.”[6]
As the united Church of Christ, we are really Good at the
latter part I mean even denominationally our current campaign speaks to that. # Great Loves a just world for all. This is
the denomination’s opportunity to express how our Love of Neighbor, Love of
Children and Love of Creation work together to address the inequities in our
current world.
Yet without Spiritual practices, without a way to listen to
God, with out a way to just Listen we would never know that this is what we are
called to address. We would never have
the energy to address it. With out
spiritual practice and prayerful listening this …this service would never come
together.
So how do we listen to Jesus today? How do we listen to God? We hear and see
examples of how to be in the world through the Gospels. We know of ways to communicate and listen to
God through praying the psalms. We have
seen examples of monks and nuns who through their daily practice, the everyday
and the mundane can be lifted into and become a spiritual practice. There is
lectio Divina a practice of reading and listening to the scripture
contemplatively. Of course, there is the contemplative practice itself.
Thomas Merton believes that “Contemplation is the highest expression
of man's intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake,
fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is
spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life,
for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life
and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant
Source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that Source.
It knows the Source, obscurely, inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes
both beyond reason and
beyond simple faith. For contemplation is a kind of spiritual
vision to which both reason and faith aspire,
by their very nature, because without it they must always remain
incomplete. Yet contemplation is not vision because it sees "without
seeing" and knows "without knowing." It is a more profound depth
of faith, a knowledge too deep to be grasped in images, in words, or even in clear
concepts. It can be suggested by words, by symbols, but in the very moment of
trying to indicate what it knows the contemplative mind takes back what it has
said and denies what it has affirmed. For in contemplation we know by
"unknowing." Or, better, we know beyond all knowing or
"unknowing."[7]
Oops just got all spiritual and out there but really if we
take thomas Merton’s words and put in God it may be a bit clearer … “Contemplation
is, above all, awareness of the reality of [God]. It knows [God], obscurely,
inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes both beyond reason…”
I think that is what happened to Peter James and John. The realty of Jesus’ absolute divinity is
seen, and the voice of God is heard. They experienced this reality of God in
the world in a brief and most sacred moment.
No wonder Peter was flustered.
C. Clifton Black professor of biblical theology at Princeton
observes
“For the first and only time in Mark, the voice from heaven
orders Jesus’ disciples. This command recollects Moses’ directive: Israel
should heed a prophet whom the LORD God would raise up (Deuteronomy 18:15). In
Jesus, God has done this; Israel’s successors should respond appropriately. To
what should Jesus’ disciples pay attention? Presumably, everything in Mark that
Jesus says and does. Immediately it refers to God’s design for the Son of Man’s
suffering and vindication (Mark 8:31), the adoption of cross-bearing
discipleship (8:34-35), keeping mum about what has been seen until after the
resurrection (9:9), and assurance that all proceeds according to the divine
plan (9:11-13). These are the very things that his disciples find so hard to
understand, to accept, and to obey (9:31-34; 10:32-37; 14:26-31, 50, 66-72;
16:1-8). As suddenly as it struck, the mountaintop vision fades: a handful of
disciples are alone with Jesus (9:8).”[8]
What should we contemplate to start? What should we pay attention to how about
“everything in Mark that Jesus says and does.”
For the Lenten season what if one just took on mark as a contemplative
practice. Lectio Divina, it is a good
way to start a contemplative practice.
It is a good way to listen to God through Christ and see what is just
being said to you.
“Lectio Divina (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a
traditional Benedictine practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer
intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's
Word. It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living
Word.
Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read;
meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its
meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the
Word of God.
The focus of Lectio Divina is not a theological analysis of
biblical passages but viewing them with Christ as the key to their meaning. For
example, given Jesus' statement in John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you; my
peace I give unto you", an analytical approach would focus on the reason
for the statement during the Last Supper, the biblical context, etc. In Lectio
Divina, however, the practitioner "enters" and shares the peace of
Christ rather than "dissecting" it. In some Christian teachings, this
form of meditative prayer leads to an increased knowledge of Christ.”[9]
In Lectio Divina many people believe the first step is to
read the scripture but actually the first step is to still oneself. A group I use to go to always started with be
still and know that I am God. Lighting a
candle, one begins “be still and know that I am God” and then there is stillness.
Be still and know that I am. And there is stillness…Be still and know…and there
is still ness be still and there is stillness…be… (offer quiet time) after the time of silence the passage is
read and we listen but not with our ears but with our hearts. There are moments
of silence as it is read about three times often by a different reader every
time and perhaps a different translation every time so one can hear it the way
each one needs too. This becomes less a practice of reading and more of
listening to the inner message of the Scripture delivered through the Holy
Spirit.
In between each reading is the time when one meditates or
ponders the scripture. The scripture is held lightly and gently considered from
various angles. Again, the emphasis is not on analysis of the passage but to
keep the mind open and allow the Holy Spirit to inspire a meaning for it.
Another part or the 3rd movement of lectio is prayer. “In
the Christian tradition, prayer is understood as dialogue with God, that is, as
loving conversation with God who has invited us into an embrace. The
constitution Dei verbum which endorsed Lectio Divina for the general public, as
well as in monastic settings, quoted Saint Ambrose on the importance of prayer
in conjunction with Scripture reading and stated: And let them remember that
prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that God and man
may talk together; for "we speak to God when we pray; we hear God when we
read the divine saying.”[10]
The fourth movement is the contemplation or holding silence
and experience God’s love I always say it is like lowering your spirit into a
warm quite bath of God’s spirit.
With Ash Wednesday we enter the season of lent it is a good
time to seek out and develop some spiritual practices. Also, if you do not have one you may want to
seek out and try a spiritual director at this time a spiritual companion to
walk with you on this spiritual journey. All this so that we may Listen to
Jesus and prepare to meet the resurrected Christ in all his radiant Glory.
[1] http://asermonforeverysunday.com/sermons/b12-transfiguration-sunday-year-b-2/
[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=243
[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=243
[4] http://asermonforeverysunday.com/sermons/b12-transfiguration-sunday-year-b-2/
[5]
The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg page 188
[6]
Borg 189
[7] Thomas
Merton The new seeds of contemplation,
pages 1-2
[8] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3561
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina
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