Imagine that you are walking through K-Mart, shopping list in hand, looking for a fuse for an old fuse box. Do they even sell fuses at K-Mart anymore? You are turning your head looking for the fuse, but what you are actually thinking about are the stresses at work and home.
Consumed with the stresses, suddenly the floor quakes and the ceiling tiles rain down around your feet. You look up to see a heavenly ray of light shine down through the roof...of K-Mart...and you here a voice boom through the hole.
“Jesus is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”
Then as quickly as it started, it is all over. The aisle is suddenly clear of the debris of ceiling tile, but the voice’s words still echo in your head. Listen to Jesus. Listen to the beloved.
Why did God do this here? Why is God do this now? What does Jesus have to do with the stresses at home and work.
What if I listened to him?
What if I truly listened to him as I consider dealing with the stresses?
It happens in other places to other people. A young man was stopped in the hall at the high school by the falling debris of ceiling tile. He too was told of Jesus the Beloved. He too was told to listen to Jesus.
It is kind of strange. The kid was not the religious type. You never would have pegged him for a divine message. Yet, he got one. His life, strangely, seems to have changed. He seems, I do not know, a little more focused on life you could say.
The smile on her face was all you needed to see to know that it happened to her. She had been sitting on her walker in the elevator when the elevator suddenly stopped, the tile came down, and light poured down the elevator shaft.
She had been slowly working her way to lunch in the personal care home. Her table mates were not looking forward to her arrival.
“I don’t think the woman has ever had a positive thing to say during dinner,” one of her table mates quipped during her brief absence.
But when she finally arrived at the table, she smiled. Her table mates did not think the frown lines in her face would even allow a smile, yet there it was.
It was as if something changed in her. It was as if God had moved some mountain of sadness or anger or something from in front of her life. It was as if she had stopped complaining and started listening to God.
An encounter with the divine changes you. Every year orthodox Jews set up tents (the Festival of Booths) to remember the days that their ancestors wandered in the wilderness. But, they also do it so that they can intentionally listen for God’s direction and God’s voice. While living in the tents during this festival, they wait for the voice. They pray for the guidance. They hope for the change.
When the divine tears through the atmosphere on that beautiful day with Jesus on the mountain, Peter offers to pitch those tents of listening for everyone on the mountain. Perhaps, God was about to speak?
Little did Peter know, God would not wait for the tents to be pitched. Clouds gather over Jesus whose drab and dusty long shirt had been morphed before their eyes into a sight of true divine white and light. Words rain down from the gathered clouds: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”
Those who climbed the mountain with Jesus are changed.
It is not that they failed to hear Jesus' voice before. He taught all the time, and they even followed him up the mountain when he told them they were going for a hike. But, there is a difference in hearing Jesus and listening to Jesus.
Listening has to do with trust. Listening has to do with investment. Listening has to do with following, even when you do not know the outcome. Listening has to do with your life being transformed from one where you do everything the way you have always done it (where you react the way you always react) to a life that is shaped by Jesus and all that Jesus cares about.
The teen who usually walks around the skirmish in the hall suddenly sees the weak getting kicked by the bully and steps in front of the punch.
The father who usually avoids those who get on his nerves, including his family, steps from the sanctuary of his garage and actually asks his son how his day was with a basketball in his hand.
The lady who only sees the worst in people looks out her window and actually sees, as if for the first time, the joy on the faces of the kids playing across the street. She wonders if they would like a soda to drink.
In all of these ways, big and small, the voice of God breaking into our world changes us.
The command to listen to Jesus finally gives us direction and hope, where we previously had none.
In addition, the hope of the resurrection, the promise that darkness and death will not have the last word, gives us the strength to reach beyond what we know and what we expect, and try something new under the guidance of Jesus.
Maybe, forgiveness instead of building a wall is a better option. How do you know unless you listen and then try it?
Maybe, caring for the sinner instead of chiding them can change a life. How do you know unless you listen and try it?
Maybe, touching the untouchable, talking to the un-talkable, and seeking the lost cause will change their lives? Maybe, it will change our life.
You do not have to wait for the ceiling tiles to rain down on you at work or while you watch television at home in order to get this revelation. You have already heard the story of the atmosphere being torn into two so that the voice of God might come down and change your life.
“This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”
The revelation is for you. The words are intended for you. Do not just go to church, sit as you always have, and hear the words spoken. Rather, listen to the words. Let them enter your soul as you walk from your place of worship.
Let them interrupt you as you go to lunch.
Let them interrupt you at work, or school, or while doing chores.
Let them disturb you as you contemplate your next move.
Let them transform you from who you are now to who God wants you to be.
In other words, let Jesus guide you in all that you do and say. He is, after-all, the one who can change your darkness into light. He is, after-all, the one who can change the evening of death on the cross into a resurrection in the morning. If he is the one who can do all that, why would you listen and trust in anyone else?
“This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.” In all that you do, take time to listen to Jesus. It will change everything.
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