Community Church Sermons
February 3, 2008
Fourth
Sunday After the Epiphany
2 Peter 1:16-21
Listen to
this Sermon!
Have you ever heard God’s voice?
I haven’t. I’m not sure I know anyone who has, although from time to time some of my religious friends have said, “The Lord told me to do this…or that…” But they are usually referring to some intuitive guidance that comes by way of an internal whispering of the “still small voice of the Holy Spirit”. They’re not talking about the big, loud voice of God Almighty like Bill Cosby heard when he played the role of Noah. Remember?
“NOAH! HOW LONG CAN YOU TREAD WATER?”
I’ve never heard anything as loud and clear as that, have you?
And if God did speak out loud to you, what do you think his voice would sound like? Morgan Freeman? George Burns? Bob Puckett with his microphone turned on??
And what do you suppose God would say?
Even in the Bible, God doesn’t carry on a lot of audible conversation with people. In the New Testament, it happens only twice – at the time of Jesus’ baptism, and that other time up on the mountain with Peter and James and John when Jesus was transfigured before them and his clothing became dazzling white and Moses and Elijah showed up for a strategy session. That was quite a moment! Scared the heck out of the three disciples!
And yet, it was that experience on the mountaintop that years later became the anchor point for the fledgling Christian Church. As the message of Jesus spread throughout the Middle East, and up into Europe, and over to Asia Minor, there were some who dismissed it as so much hocus-pocus. Like some in our day, there were people in those days who thought the Jesus experience was nothing more than a cleverly made-up story – walked on water, healed the sick, crucified, dead, buried, and raised! It IS rather mind-stretching, isn’t it?
And as young Christian communities struggled with the critics who sought to destroy the faith of the believers, the voice of the disciples rose up and inserted itself into the debate. Did you hear it in our reading from 2nd Peter?
“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses to his majesty.”
And listen to this:
“For he received honor and glory from God the Father when…the VOICE came from the Majestic Glory…”
They were speaking of that night on the mountaintop when Jesus was transfigured, and Elijah and Moses appeared, and God SPOKE OUT LOUD!
“We ourselves heard this voice,” they said, “that came from heaven when we were on the sacred mountain.”
Have you ever heard God’s voice? Our faith is built upon the eyewitness experience of those who did!
And what God said is – well, it’s just plain WONDERFUL!
“This is my son. I love him. Listen to him.”
When I was a boy, my father – who did all the grocery shopping in our family – used to let me tag along. I loved going to the supermarket with my dad! I think if he was alive today, he’d make a great TSA airport screener because back when we went shopping together he had a tremendous knack for spotting any contraband I tried slipping into the basket without him noticing. “Put those cupcakes back!” he’d say without even turning around to look! It was like he had eyes in the back of his head!
Well, my favorite aisle in the grocery store was the cereal aisle. It was like the Grand Canyon of sugar! And not only did the brightly colored boxes offer the sweetest delights, but they had prizes buried inside! Nowadays, it might be a ring or a little Shrek figurine or something innocuous like that. But back in those days – the days of the Cold War – the prizes inside cereal boxes were things like intercontinental ballistic missiles and other child-friendly things.
One day as my dad and I strolled down the cereal aisle, I was so bedazzled by the lights, the colors, the prizes, the coupons that I lost all sense of time. When my eyes came back to earth, my dad was gone! I was lost in a sea of legs! So I ran – I ran all the way down to the end of the cereal aisle – but he was not there. I rounded the corner and sprinted up the next aisle. He was not there either. Up and down every aisle I ran, starting to cry now. “Dad! Dad!”
And just as I was ready to collapse in convulsions, I heard him call my name. And his hand touched my shoulder. And he said to the curious onlookers, “This is my son.”
I don’t know what cereal aisle you may be lost in today. I don’t know what of life’s circumstances you’re facing – the good, the bad, or somewhere in-between. But I believe God is speaking to you today, and if you could hear God’s voice, it would be calling your name.
“This is my son. This is my daughter. This is MY child.”
Then the voice says, “I love
him.”
We live in a world that is captivated by the idea that we are the enemies of God – that God doesn’t like us very much. Over in Memphis, Tennessee, there is a billboard a church has erected that pictures a bunch of people and says, “God loves you, just the way you are!” The minister who inspired that sign is now under fire by some in his congregation who dispute that message. They have their own web site where they list all the scripture passages they can find that suggest that God doesn’t love us as we are because we are sinners.
I can understand this because in my earlier life I would have been right there with them, writing down all the verses that give voice to human condemnation. In those days, I understood God as a Judge sitting in judgment over the world, finding fault, and dosing out punishment.
Then I became a dad. And my whole view of God started to change.
My son Peter used to sit in the back row at the old First Congregational Church and raise hell while I was preaching. He and his friend Mike had the ability of taking worshipful things like Sunday bulletins, or hymnals, or Bibles and turning them into toys. Did you know a Sunday bulletin can make a very cool paper airplane?
So there I stood in the pulpit, preaching about God’s amazing unconditional love. And there they were, working for Satan. And all the while I spoke the words of God’s amazing grace, I knew I was going to kill him as soon as we got home.
But I didn’t. Yes, we needed to deal with his sins, but he was still my son.
“This is my son. I love him.”
I wonder if you can pull yourself away from the world’s ideas of God as Judge long enough to see God in another way – as a Dad – as a Mom – as a Parent whose judgment is used to guide children in the ways of goodness and life, but whose love for his daughters and sons never fails.
To hear that voice would be a gift to you. And to bring that voice to others would be a gift to the world.
“This is my son. I love him. Listen to him.”
We have all listened to many people as they weigh in on God, people, life, death, eternity. We’ve listened to parents – and teachers – and preachers – and friends. Some of you have even listened to me when you weren’t making paper airplanes in church.
But in the two times that God’s voice is heard in the New Testament, God tells us to listen to someone else.
Listen to Jesus.
“This is my son. I love him. Listen to him.”
We say we are a church whose only label is “Christian” and whose only Head is Christ. We have chosen to cherish and honor our many diverse denominational and theological backgrounds, but to center our life on Jesus.
Each of us needs to hear the voice of God in our lives. Life is hard. It’s full of complexity. It is larger than our ability to fully comprehend. And it is far beyond our ability to control.
So what does God tell us – his beloved children - to do?
“Listen to him.”
Listen to Jesus.
As this Lenten Season begins on Ash Wednesday, would you commit yourself to the practice of listening to Jesus? Come to the Wednesday services. Join one of the devotional groups. Take out your Bible and read the four Gospels.
Listen to Jesus.
Like no one else who has ever lived, it is Jesus who opens our ears to hear the voice of God.
“You are my children. I love you.”
“Listen to Jesus!”