When my son Isaac was two, he climbed up a mound of cinders left over from the winter. The mound only had an elevation of about two feet; but when he got to the top he said, “Wooooow! I’m really high!”
The kid was not even standing taller than my waist, but to him this vantage point was completely amazing to him. He was about twice his height. To Isaac, the cinder pile was a mountain, and it gave him a new perspective.
Mountains have a way of doing that. They have a way of naturally resetting our minds. Sometimes it is for just a brief moment as you pause to take in the beautiful sight, but other times the experience is life-changing.
Consider that in Exodus 20 the 10 commandments, the laws that were to shape the people of God from there on out, were given on the top of a mountain. On a mountain, God provided a new perspective on how life should be lived in peace with one another. Mountains have a way of doing that.
In addition, just when the people of God seemed to be at an end, with Elijah remaining the last prophet of God on earth, God speaks to Elijah on a mountain with a “still, small voice.” Another way to say it is that God speaks to Elijah in the “silence.” This holy word on the mountain gives Elijah a new perspective and provides all Elijah needs to head back into a hostile world, continuing God’s ministry. Mountains have a way of doing that.
The first time that I topped a mountain I was struck, not only by the sight, it was an amazing sight with signs of life below barely visible to the naked eye, but I was also struck by the quiet. Apart from a little wind blowing across my ears, it was so very silent up on the very top of the mountain. No sounds of cars. No rustling of the trees (we had climbed above timber line). No people talking on phones. There was simply no sound.
That silence, the same silence that Elijah experienced on top of the mountain of God, leaves you free to hearing the only thing that there is to hear: the voice of God.
Have you ever considered that you might be trapped in a cacophony of sound? Have you ever considered that the voice of God is getting drowned out by the traffic of trucks and the endless voices telling you who you are and who you should be, and the political pundits tugging you one way and then another, and the shouting from the house next door, and the advertisements luring you in, and the various ideals and worries and deal makings within your own head? Have you ever considered taking a break from it all just so that you can experience some silence
…so that you can hear the voice of God
…and be set free from all of the noise.
Because, sisters and brothers in Christ, if you were given a chance to take a break and live in the silence, I guarantee that you would finally be able to hear the voice of God. And maybe, God would say to you, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”
“Listen to him.”
You do not have to be held hostage to the noise. Could it be that freedom is found in ignoring all of the noise and listening to the one voice that matters above all else: Jesus Christ our savior.
You see, beyond the mountain stories of Moses and Elijah, the Bible tells us a third mountain story where Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to the top of a mountain in order to hear the voice of God.
They need to hear the voice of God; Peter in particular. You see, the gospel of Mark tells us that Peter has a problem. He cannot accept the serving nature of the ministry that Jesus is being given by God. Jesus lets the disciples know that he must, as the Bible reads, “undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
This is an earth-shattering revelation. After-all, power shown through strength, is it not? The winners are those who struggle the hardest and prevail, are they not? Those who come out on top get to the top because they are first and best of all, are they not?
Peter cannot possibly understand how suffering could possibly lead to life and freedom. In Mark, chapter 8, Peter rebukes Jesus for even implying that winning involves losing, and Jesus, in turn, takes Peter on a hike up a mountain for a new perspective.
While on the mountain, the Bible tells us that Peter experiences the sight of a shining Jesus underneath his very human exterior. Peter sees Jesus in white clothes “such as no one on earth could bleach them,” and he witnesses Jesus standing with the other two biblical mountaintop greats: Moses and Elijah.
And, that is when the crack in Peter’s assuredness starts to form. That is when Peter begins to be open to hearing something new. That is when Peter starts to be open to the possibility that he might have it all wrong and that he might need to listen.
“Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three ‘tabernacles,’ one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” Peter suggests. The Bible says that Peter did not know what to say amidst all of the commotion, but he had an idea of what to do. Jews construct tabernacles during the annual feast of tabernacles to both celebrate the harvest, and to also sleep in their makeshift tent while listening for God. Peter does not know what to say, but he does know what to do.
Have you ever been there? Have the world’s voices and the worrying voices of your mind ever become so overwhelming that you do not know what is up or down?
Like Peter, what you do know is that in times like that the only way to make a move forward will be to have some silence and to listen for another perspective.
Just yesterday a friend posted on social media, “I need to take a break from all of this chaos and just focus on God.”
And, if we were to join him and actually do that, if we were to leave the noise and opinions and convictions of the world and listen what God has to say, we just might hear God’s message to Peter, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”
“Listen to him.”
My friend decided that for Lent he was giving up the opinions and drama of social media so that he would have the silence required to listen to Jesus…to actually listen to the words of Jesus in the Bible rather than the other voices in the world. He is literally going to be reading the sayings of Jesus and then journaling about them.
This is such a great idea, though I would probably write songs based on the words of Jesus. I have always hated journaling and writing songs is more my thing. My wife would probably paint.
It does not matter how it is done because the point is that freedom, true freedom in life, means listening to the one who created you, teaches you, died for you, and rose again all for your sake.
In the same way that the life of the Israelites was shaped by the commandments given on the mountain as a gift of peace to the community of God, the lives of those who listen to Jesus are shaped by the voice of the one who loves his people to the end, suffers for them all the way to the cross, and rises with them on the third day.
Somewhere in there, somewhere in the love filled voice of Jesus we will hear that we have been given the gift of life.
“Listen to him.”
In the next few weeks, I invite you to find true freedom. Find freedom on the mountain. Find freedom in a new perspective. Find freedom in the silence. Find the freedom that is found by ignoring all the other voices in the world and ignoring the conflicting voices in your mind, and listen to the voice of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Listening to Jesus is truly a gift of freedom from God.
No comments:
Post a Comment