The Transfiguration Of Our Lord
Devotional
Pause Before The Pulpit
Personal Reflections For Pastors On The Lectionary Readings
Mark 9:2-9
I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like to be Jesus' disciples: at one moment to be growing leaps and bounds in one's knowledge and faith from sitting under his teaching, and at other times be totally confused and full of doubts. Even harder to imagine is to have been one of his inner core of disciples -- Peter, James, or John -- and be taken on this privileged, mountaintop experience where they witnessed the transfiguration of their Lord. Is it any wonder they were terrified?
I find Peter's response to this wonder-filled experience typical of so many people, pastors included. Perhaps you've experienced what I'm referring to. You went to a pastor's conference, or a spiritual growth retreat, or some similar event, which proved to be a mountaintop experience for you. You came back home all fired up to do great things for Jesus in your church. You couldn't stop talking about it to anyone who would listen. You had wonderful ideas and plans that were going to turn your ministry around to be more dynamic and effective than ever before. And then it seemed a heavy, black cloud settled over all your grand ideas. You blamed it on a lack of vision or apathy on the part of the people around you, but if the truth be known, it may well have been God who was slowing you down that you might listen to him. I know, for this has happened to me.
I see some important truths in this text for us, as clergy, to consider when it comes to mountaintop experiences. First of all, we need them. Jesus pulled these three guys away from the other nine disciples and away from the crowds of people for a reason. It may well have been to prepare them for the huge mission that lay ahead of them; that of building Christ's church. These three men needed to know, without a doubt, that they were following the Son of God. They needed to know that his words were true, were worth listening to, worth passing on, and worth dying for (which they would).
So too, we need mountaintop experiences, whether at a major pastor's conference or a private retreat alone with God. We need to be renewed in our calling and be reminded that Jesus is the Son of God, that his words are true, that they are worth listening to, they are worth passing on, and they are (if necessary) worth dying for. We may not be starting a new church, but we need this as much as the disciples did in order to keep growing Christ's church.
Secondly, in these mountaintop experiences, whether with thousands of people or alone with God, we need to be silent and listen; as James would later advise his readers, be quick to listen, slow to speak (James 1:19). How often we need to hear these same words which the Father spoke from the cloud that day on the mountain, This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him! Spiritual growth and maturity seldom happen when we are talking. Nor do new ideas and insights, whether for ourselves or our church, come while we are talking. That's why God told the Psalmist: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
Last of all, it is important to come down off our mountain. Oh how hard that can be, as we love to be on the mountain! Mountaintop experiences are fun! They often give us more joy and energy than the experiences and the people in the valley. However, while it is on the mountain where we get a peek into the kingdom of God with all its glory, it is in the valley where God reflects his glory through us and does his kingdom work. He wants us to go back down to our people, and when we do, he goes with us, even as Jesus did with the disciples.
I hope you will plan into your schedule, mountaintop experiences where you can get a peek into God's kingdom and glory in a new and fresh way. And while you are there, be sure to listen carefully to him. When it is all over, let the experience propel you back to your people rather than keep you away from them.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for providing mountaintop experiences for me. Help me to make good use of them and to listen carefully to you in those times. Show yourself to me, Lord, in new and renewing ways that I may be better prepared and strengthened to serve you in the future. Thank you for the people in the valley. Help me to want to return to them and to share your glory and grace with them for your sake. Amen.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
In this passage, the Apostle Paul used an illustration that Jesus often used, of light and dark, or sight and blindness, when referring to the truth of the gospel versus the lies of the world. Paul wrote that it is the god of this world [which] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Few things are more frustrating and heartbreaking for a pastor than when people don't respond to the preaching and teaching of God's Word. However, there is more to the equation of belief and spiritual growth than our preaching. There is also the listener and what they do with what they hear.
Without a doubt, we have a responsibility to prepare the best we can and preach and teach the best we know how, but the results of that preaching and teaching do not lie completely in how well we do this. They also lie, in part, in how well our parishioners listen, and beyond that, how well they apply what they have heard to their personal lives. How well they do this has a lot to do with which god they are yielding their lives to. Are they yielding to the God of the Bible or the god of this world? The best preacher in the world can't save anyone, or cause them to mature spiritually, if their listeners are yielding their life to the god of this world.
Just as the glory of Jesus was veiled to most of the people around him, with the exception of those who yielded their lives to him and followed him faithfully, so too, his word (and especially the gospel) is veiled from those who refuse to believe it, live it, and faithfully follow it.
What then are we to do? Paul urged us to keep proclaiming the truth of God's Word, for we are not proclaiming ourselves, but Christ Jesus. This makes all the difference in the world, for if we are proclaiming ourselves and trying to gain a following for us and our ministry, then we will get discouraged (unless, of course, you are one of those charismatic types who seem to be able to get a huge following just by your personality). But if we are proclaiming Christ, we've done all that God asks of us. We don't preach Christ so that we can have a bigger church or look better in the eyes of others. We preach Christ because he commanded us, in The Great Commission, to do so. The end result of that proclamation is in God's hands, not ours.
How freeing this is as we step before a group of people week after week, faithfully proclaiming God's Word the best we know how, after having studied and grasped it the best we can. God merely asks of us, like the Nike commercial, to "Just do it." He will take it from there. There will always be those who resist the proclamation of the gospel, but remember, they have rejected Christ Jesus, not you. We will not be held accountable for those who do not believe, but we will be held accountable if we do not preach the word in truth whenever we have the opportunity.
Whatever we do, let us follow closely Paul's stern advice in verse 2, which precedes our text: refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
Far too many pastors are buckling under the pressure of the world around them, and the people in their church, to merely tell them what they want to hear, for fear of offending anyone. The end result of that fear is an inevitable use of cunning words and a falsifying of God's Word. This is a grave sin and we will be held accountable for it. Let us pray, every time we are to preach and teach, that God will help us to proclaim his word in truth and leave the results up to him.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for your word, that it is truth, and that through it people are saved and grow in their knowledge and faith in you. Please help me to proclaim this word, without ever falsifying it, and to preach and teach it the best I can with the knowledge and gifts you have given me. Help me, Lord, to leave the results in your hands and not take it personally when people to do not respond positively to it. Yet, dear Lord, I pray that many will hear and believe before it is too late. Thank you. Amen.
I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like to be Jesus' disciples: at one moment to be growing leaps and bounds in one's knowledge and faith from sitting under his teaching, and at other times be totally confused and full of doubts. Even harder to imagine is to have been one of his inner core of disciples -- Peter, James, or John -- and be taken on this privileged, mountaintop experience where they witnessed the transfiguration of their Lord. Is it any wonder they were terrified?
I find Peter's response to this wonder-filled experience typical of so many people, pastors included. Perhaps you've experienced what I'm referring to. You went to a pastor's conference, or a spiritual growth retreat, or some similar event, which proved to be a mountaintop experience for you. You came back home all fired up to do great things for Jesus in your church. You couldn't stop talking about it to anyone who would listen. You had wonderful ideas and plans that were going to turn your ministry around to be more dynamic and effective than ever before. And then it seemed a heavy, black cloud settled over all your grand ideas. You blamed it on a lack of vision or apathy on the part of the people around you, but if the truth be known, it may well have been God who was slowing you down that you might listen to him. I know, for this has happened to me.
I see some important truths in this text for us, as clergy, to consider when it comes to mountaintop experiences. First of all, we need them. Jesus pulled these three guys away from the other nine disciples and away from the crowds of people for a reason. It may well have been to prepare them for the huge mission that lay ahead of them; that of building Christ's church. These three men needed to know, without a doubt, that they were following the Son of God. They needed to know that his words were true, were worth listening to, worth passing on, and worth dying for (which they would).
So too, we need mountaintop experiences, whether at a major pastor's conference or a private retreat alone with God. We need to be renewed in our calling and be reminded that Jesus is the Son of God, that his words are true, that they are worth listening to, they are worth passing on, and they are (if necessary) worth dying for. We may not be starting a new church, but we need this as much as the disciples did in order to keep growing Christ's church.
Secondly, in these mountaintop experiences, whether with thousands of people or alone with God, we need to be silent and listen; as James would later advise his readers, be quick to listen, slow to speak (James 1:19). How often we need to hear these same words which the Father spoke from the cloud that day on the mountain, This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him! Spiritual growth and maturity seldom happen when we are talking. Nor do new ideas and insights, whether for ourselves or our church, come while we are talking. That's why God told the Psalmist: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).
Last of all, it is important to come down off our mountain. Oh how hard that can be, as we love to be on the mountain! Mountaintop experiences are fun! They often give us more joy and energy than the experiences and the people in the valley. However, while it is on the mountain where we get a peek into the kingdom of God with all its glory, it is in the valley where God reflects his glory through us and does his kingdom work. He wants us to go back down to our people, and when we do, he goes with us, even as Jesus did with the disciples.
I hope you will plan into your schedule, mountaintop experiences where you can get a peek into God's kingdom and glory in a new and fresh way. And while you are there, be sure to listen carefully to him. When it is all over, let the experience propel you back to your people rather than keep you away from them.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for providing mountaintop experiences for me. Help me to make good use of them and to listen carefully to you in those times. Show yourself to me, Lord, in new and renewing ways that I may be better prepared and strengthened to serve you in the future. Thank you for the people in the valley. Help me to want to return to them and to share your glory and grace with them for your sake. Amen.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
In this passage, the Apostle Paul used an illustration that Jesus often used, of light and dark, or sight and blindness, when referring to the truth of the gospel versus the lies of the world. Paul wrote that it is the god of this world [which] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Few things are more frustrating and heartbreaking for a pastor than when people don't respond to the preaching and teaching of God's Word. However, there is more to the equation of belief and spiritual growth than our preaching. There is also the listener and what they do with what they hear.
Without a doubt, we have a responsibility to prepare the best we can and preach and teach the best we know how, but the results of that preaching and teaching do not lie completely in how well we do this. They also lie, in part, in how well our parishioners listen, and beyond that, how well they apply what they have heard to their personal lives. How well they do this has a lot to do with which god they are yielding their lives to. Are they yielding to the God of the Bible or the god of this world? The best preacher in the world can't save anyone, or cause them to mature spiritually, if their listeners are yielding their life to the god of this world.
Just as the glory of Jesus was veiled to most of the people around him, with the exception of those who yielded their lives to him and followed him faithfully, so too, his word (and especially the gospel) is veiled from those who refuse to believe it, live it, and faithfully follow it.
What then are we to do? Paul urged us to keep proclaiming the truth of God's Word, for we are not proclaiming ourselves, but Christ Jesus. This makes all the difference in the world, for if we are proclaiming ourselves and trying to gain a following for us and our ministry, then we will get discouraged (unless, of course, you are one of those charismatic types who seem to be able to get a huge following just by your personality). But if we are proclaiming Christ, we've done all that God asks of us. We don't preach Christ so that we can have a bigger church or look better in the eyes of others. We preach Christ because he commanded us, in The Great Commission, to do so. The end result of that proclamation is in God's hands, not ours.
How freeing this is as we step before a group of people week after week, faithfully proclaiming God's Word the best we know how, after having studied and grasped it the best we can. God merely asks of us, like the Nike commercial, to "Just do it." He will take it from there. There will always be those who resist the proclamation of the gospel, but remember, they have rejected Christ Jesus, not you. We will not be held accountable for those who do not believe, but we will be held accountable if we do not preach the word in truth whenever we have the opportunity.
Whatever we do, let us follow closely Paul's stern advice in verse 2, which precedes our text: refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
Far too many pastors are buckling under the pressure of the world around them, and the people in their church, to merely tell them what they want to hear, for fear of offending anyone. The end result of that fear is an inevitable use of cunning words and a falsifying of God's Word. This is a grave sin and we will be held accountable for it. Let us pray, every time we are to preach and teach, that God will help us to proclaim his word in truth and leave the results up to him.
A Pastor's Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you for your word, that it is truth, and that through it people are saved and grow in their knowledge and faith in you. Please help me to proclaim this word, without ever falsifying it, and to preach and teach it the best I can with the knowledge and gifts you have given me. Help me, Lord, to leave the results in your hands and not take it personally when people to do not respond positively to it. Yet, dear Lord, I pray that many will hear and believe before it is too late. Thank you. Amen.
