Jubilate Monday - Devotion in Exile

Lection for Jubilate Monday 
Leviticus 9:1-24     Luke 9:18-36

Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

How many times have you slept through the sermon?  Yeah, I know, you weren’t sleeping, just nodding in agreement. Either that, or you were just trying to work out a kink in your neck. OK, you weren’t sleeping, but you certainly weren’t coherently paying attention. Maybe you were day dreaming, or watching someone nearby. Whatever it was, you could not have told anyone what the sermon was about.

There is much in our live that we could say we sleep through.  No, not sleeping with eyes closed, heavy breathing, or loud snoring, but sleeping through it through in terms of missing it altogether.

I remember and evening I was sleeping pretty soundly when the phone rang. I ran out of the house that Tuesday morning hoping it wasn’t one of the families from church that was losing a home to fire and was missing children. I came around the corner, I did see that it was a home I had visited. Maria and Jaqui were children I’d spoken to briefly, inviting them to Sunday School, but I had not met mom. They asked if I could come back another day to talk to her. I got to meet her that night, only to have to be the one to tell here that the bodies of her two daughters had been recovered.

What’s that got to do with sleeping?  I had stopped by a couple other time, but nobody was home. So, I sort of gave up trying. I got comfortable in my own life. How many days had I been too busy with this, with that, or with my own family - and I hadn’t gone back to visit them? My life peacefully sleeping away.

Thankfully, they had been at VBS at St. John Lutheran Church in Pulaski. Their grandmother spoke about their faith and desire to be more involved in a church. It still plagues my thoughts at times.

What do you sleep through? How many things in your life are just so routine, you don’t think about what is going on anymore? Even more specifically, how many times, like the disciples in our text, do you sleep through God moments. You know, those times where God does great things for you, but you miss them because you were dozing off, mindlessly wandering somewhere else.

Three disciples, Peter, James, and John were with Jesus up on the mountain again – to pray again.  Can you picture the scene?  How long will the prayers go on today… Lord, in Your mercy.... Hear our prayer.... How many times will we have to say it? Someone told me that there are usually ten different petitions each week.  Do you count them, just waiting for them to be done? Maybe not, but do then you really hear them? Maybe it is dirty fingernails that get our attention and we mumble the appropriate response automatically.

How often have you slept through the prayers, just like the disciples did on the mountaintop? Moses, Elijah and Jesus were in the midst of them, they slept through the conversation.

Maybe it’s the liturgy. You’ve said it and sung it so many times, you don’t think about it any more? That you don’t have to think about it to recite it isn’t a bad thing. In fact, that is a good thing. Doing something new every week, struggling to just to read it, means you certainly cannot claim to know what you are saying – you haven’t thought about it. If you don’t know what it is saying, can you be certain that you believe it. So, having it memorized, so that you speak the words Christ imprinted on your heart is a good thing.

But, there are times you sleep through the liturgy. Sometimes the different parts are just mile markers, “OK, we’ve made it to the Sanctus, looks like maybe only 10 minutes to commune everybody here, we ought to be out of here by quarter till.  I should be able to get home in time for the pre-game show.” Or maybe you’re sleeping through the liturgy because Betty Sue has got on a new hip hugger skirt and while your head is bowed, your eyes, and with them, your mind, are glued elsewhere.

Then comes the sermon. Pastor mentioned fishing, so your body is in church, but your mind’s eye sees you with a Shimano combo in your hand and a nice walleye on the end of the line – it was just opening weekend after all.

You recite the words of institution with pastor, just mumbling along. Your pew is released to commune, but as you get up to the rail you notice, “what’s that smell?” You ate, you drank, but that smell is stuck in your mind.  When you sit back down again, you are still trying to figure out what it is, and who had it on. Ginger root, that’s what it was! But, you don’t even remember having feasted on the Body and Blood of Christ.

What will you sleep through?

Jesus was glorified, His divinity shown forth in radiant glory - and the disciples slept.  Moses and Elijah appeared too, they spoke with Jesus about what He was soon to accomplish – for them. He was about to accomplish salvation. They conversed about the fact that the fulness of time had come, God’s redemption was about to be accomplished – and the disciples slept.

Moses, Elijah, and Christ discussed His coming departure, that He was going to suffer at the hands of evil men who would falsely accuse Him. They’d abuse His body. They’d crucify Him and He would die. Then, He’d rise from the dead three days later. Finally, He’d ascend again to His Father’s throne.

And the disciples slept.

Moses, the Law, would be fulfilled in Christ. Elijah, the prophet, would be fulfilled in Christ. God’s own Son would fulfill the Law to grant forgiveness and bring forth the prophesied peace of forgiveness in His own flesh.

Peter, James and John were sleeping. Upon fully awakening, the Father speaks to them. He does not say, “Get some new disciples, these guys sleep through the important stuff.” He says, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him!”

What have you slept through? God does not convict you of your sin, instead, He says to you, as He said to the three on the mountainside, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him!”

Even as we might lose focus when we gather together, Christ is at work, present in Word and Sacrament – forgiving your sin and building you in the true faith by His Spirit’s work.

 Christ invites you to the mountaintop. You ascend to hear Jesus speak gracious words to you and to be united with Him in prayer.

Even though you may sleep through things, Christ comes to you. He comes to speak His gracious words of forgiveness into your ears. He comes to feed you His own body and blood, awakening you to life forever in Him alone. “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him!”

Let us pray:     O God, in the glorious transfiguration of Your only-begotten Son You have confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of the fathers, and in the voice that came from the bright cloud, You foreshadowed the adoption of sons in a wonderful manner.  Mercifully make us coheirs with the King of His glory and bring us to the enjoyment of the same; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.