The Neighborhood Podcast

"A Very Bright, Talking Cloud" (March 2, 2025 Sermon)

• Rev. Stephen M. Fearing

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Preaching:  Rev. Kristie Miles

Exploring the radiant moments of divine encounters can enrich our spiritual lives in profound ways. Our latest episode invites you to journey through the biblical experiences of Moses and Jesus, particularly focusing on their transformative moments in the presence of God. From Moses returning with a glowing face after speaking with the Divine to the dazzling Transfiguration of Jesus, we uncover layers of meaning embedded in these encounters. What do they teach us about connecting with the sacred in our daily lives? 

This episode also emphasizes the dual practice of speaking and, more importantly, listening in prayer. In the rich silence of the mountains or through the stillness of our hearts, we learn to tune into the loving voice of God. By fostering an attentive spirit, we open ourselves to discover God's presence alongside our ordinary rhythm of life. The podcast encourages listeners to embrace their spiritual journey and avail themselves of the bright moments of connection available to all of us. 

Join us for an enlightening conversation that inspires you to be receptive to the divine, no matter where you find yourself. Don't forget to share, subscribe, and engage with us on your own spiritual experiences!

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Speaker 1:

Join me in prayer. God of shining splendor, your voice makes the earth tremble in wonder. Overshadow us with your spirit so that we may hear your word and live as faithful disciples and covenant people. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. Our scripture reading is from Exodus 34, verses 29 through 35. Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him and Moses spoke with them. Afterwards all the Israelites came near and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

Speaker 2:

When.

Speaker 1:

Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with them, he would take the veil off until he came out. And when he came out he told the Israelites what he had been commanded. The Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining, and Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him. Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God.

Speaker 2:

Our second scripture reading comes from the gospel according to Luke, chapter 9, verses 28 through 36. Listen now to these words of holy scripture. Now, about eight days after these sayings, jesus took with him Peter and James and John and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, they saw two men, moses and Elijah, talking with him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now, peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him, just as they were leaving with him. Peter said to Jesus Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three dwellings one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Not knowing what he said, while he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then, from the cloud came a voice that said this is my son, my chosen. Listen to him. When the voice had spoken, jesus was found alone and they kept silent and, in those days, told no one any of the things they had seen. Holy wisdom, holy word, thanks be to God. Holy wisdom, holy word, thanks be to God. I want to begin by just saying good morning and thank you so much for having me here with you.

Speaker 2:

I have moved back to Greensboro after being away for nearly 25 years and it is really good to be back home. So here's a question for you who loves the beach? Most of you, okay, not all of you. On a beautiful day like today, with the blue skies and the sunshine and the flowers starting to peak out, I feel a little tempted to do a car trip to the beach. I love the beach. Nothing says it's time to relax, like sitting by the ocean. I love wiggling my toes in the sand and smelling the salt air. It just makes my blood pressure drop. Just a few points. Does that resonate with a few of you? Yeah, okay, good, but when I want to rejuvenate my spirit, when I want to get reconnected to my maker, refocus my life and get a sense of the transcendent, well, I gotta go to the mountains.

Speaker 2:

And my favorite thing to go to the mountains and my favorite thing to do in the mountains is sit on a rock, because, yeah, I'm a really exciting person. I also like to find shapes in the clouds. I like to breathe that good mountain air, eat freshly picked blueberries one by one. I like to look for bears from a distance and watch out for snakes. I like to splash in the river. It is here in the mountains that I feel most connected to God and of all the scenarios I can fathom, this is where I could imagine Jesus just strolling right up the mountain path and just take a seat right there next to me. I guess you could say that it feels holy when I'm in the mountains.

Speaker 2:

Every time my husband and I go to our favorite mountain spot just outside of Asheville, I say to him we should really buy a place up here and stay. And every year he nods and he says yeah, we should. And then at the end of the week we pack up the car and we drive home to the everyday life, family responsibilities and the regular rhythm of work. You know what I mean. It usually takes a couple of weeks for that post-mountain glow to wear off, but I know that it's permanently in my blood.

Speaker 2:

So perhaps it's not surprising that the people of the ancient Near East considered the mountain to be the pillar of the earth actually holding the heavens up when its head reaches towards the heavens. The mountain, or the high place, is the bridge between earth, which is the realm of humans, and the heavens, which is the realm of gods, and throughout the Bible, the mountaintop is the place for humans' encounter with the divine. For instance, abraham took his son Isaac up the mountain Moses. As we just read in the first scripture passage, Moses encounters God on the mountain in the burning bush. And then, when he receives the commandments, jerusalem is the city of God and it is built on Mount Zion. And for Jesus, the mountain is the place where Satan tests him. He preaches from the mountain and the mountain is where he goes to pray and sit quietly.

Speaker 2:

And now, in this passage, it is to the mountaintop that Jesus takes Peter, james and John, and they witness something that blows their minds. Jesus' appearance changes. His face glows like the sun. His clothes emanate a bright white light. Now, I gotta say, after all the things that these three disciples have witnessed from tense tangles with religious authorities to miraculous healings, to dominion over demons, teachings that are relevant and full of hope for everyday people this kind of display really takes the cake In the blink of an eye, they witness Jesus gloriously ablaze.

Speaker 2:

Then, in the next blink, he is in a conversation with two of the most beloved and well-known figures of religious, or Jewish religious history, who, in and of themselves, represent the foundations of that faith, the law and the prophets of that faith. The law and the prophets Moses, of course, who experienced that very similar glow on a mountaintop, and the prophet Elijah. Now, I know that you're probably very familiar with that fellow Moses, but we don't talk a whole lot about Elijah in our context, and I wondered why it was Elijah present instead of maybe Isaiah, whom we quote and read a lot, especially in Advent, and even in times of Lent we read a lot of passages from Isaiah. So I thought, well, why not that wonderful prophet? Read a lot of passages from Isaiah, so I thought, well, why not that wonderful prophet? But what I've learned is that Elijah is considered to be one of the greatest, or the greatest prophet, because he is proclaimed by our Jewish brothers and sisters that there is no reality except the God of Israel and there is no other being entitled to the name of divinity. That is the foundation of the Jewish faith that is ascribed to Elijah. So, in other words, there is only one God, and God's name is Yahweh, and it is that monotheistic concept that is the central concept to the Jewish faith. So I can imagine Peter's mouth dropping open.

Speaker 2:

James and John, known as the sons of thunder for their blustery energy. They're silenced. You know, when those two have nothing to say and are just stopped in their tracks, that something big is happening. In that moment they take the scene in. As soon as peter is able to form words, he says something very close to what I say to my husband when we're in the mountains hey, uh, jesus, we should put up some tents and stay here. We'll build one tent for you and for Moses and Elijah. It's good if we just stay here and chill, and I can't blame him, I'd want to stay there too. The words are barely out of Peter's mouth when suddenly a bright cloud overshadows them and a voice from the cloud says this is my son. You know how this goes. This is my son, the chosen one, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased. Okay, good, you know this. And then the last words are listen to him, say this with me, listen to him, yes, and it is this point, not the point at which Jesus's face shines like the Sun, and not when Jesus has a conversation with long dead religious dudes that causes them to faint with fear. It is hearing the voice out of the clouds that does them in.

Speaker 2:

Now, I hope you've been wondering when I was going to get around to my sermon title A Very Bright Talking Cloud. Well, sorry, I'm going to say that this sermon isn't really about a bright talking cloud, because that sounds like something from a children's book. I mean, it is about the cloud, but what it's really about is this atmospheric phenomenon represents. It represents God's immediate presence, perceivable yet not graspable. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever gone into a fog or wanted to be on a cloud and just grab it? You can't. You can only stand back and perceive it with your eyes and receive it with a little bit of awe. And that is God immediately present, perceivable but not graspable.

Speaker 2:

We have precedent for God showing up in the image of a cloud. If you recall the Exodus, the people were not alone in the wilderness. They were led through the desert by a column of fire at night and a pillar of cloud by day. And of course, we cannot forget what we read just a few minutes ago, that when Moses went up the mountain for the commandments, the mountain was surrounded by a cloud and what looked like a devouring fire. It's quite the image. We can also read about God showing up as a cloud in 1 Kings and Ezekiel, but the text seems to tell us that it isn't just God's presence, but it's even more it is the glory of God, it is the beauty and the power of God, it is the inconceivable force of love.

Speaker 2:

So I wonder, is that something that sounds attractive to you, something that you might want to experience? Would anybody here like to experience overwhelming beauty and power and the inconceivable force of love? Raise your hand. Just some of you, no, all of you, okay, good, I hope so, because I know I do so. If experiencing God's glory and imminent presence is desirable to you, how can we make this happen? I wish I had a magic wand and, just you know, wave it over you so we can all have this transcendent experience. But the truth is we can't make it happen. It's a gift from God, but we can be make it happen. It's a gift from God, but we can be open to it and we can have some control over fostering the mental, emotional, spiritual environment that is conducive to receiving that transcendent experience.

Speaker 2:

But again, how Well? I don't think that we must take a church-wide retreat to a mountain cabin and hike up the tallest peak although if anybody's into taking a road trip to Montreux, I'm all in. Nor do we need clouds, puffy or otherwise to experience the presence of God. Perhaps this is a little bit of a downer if you were hoping to have a transfiguration moment yourself, or maybe it's good news to you because you never expected to experience what the disciples did. But you are hoping to hear how this otherworldly experience has anything to do with your life now. Have you ever wondered that? What does that story in the Bible have to do with my life now? Well, you're in luck. Here we go.

Speaker 2:

I think we can do three things. I'll give you the third one first. I'll give you the third one first. The first one is that we can imitate Jesus and his disciples' practice of taking time out of the busyness of life in order to pray. And I don't mean just here on Sunday morning, I mean a regular practice, dare I say, daily practice, maybe even, depending on your needs, an hourly practice of taking time to pray. So I want you to think to yourself what will your practice be during the next seven weeks of Lent, which begins, of course, on Wednesday Perhaps, instead of giving up a vice day? Perhaps, instead of giving up a vice? How about designating a daily time to pray, to quieting the noise of the world, of the demands of your daily tasks, and focusing on God for a designated time every day? Number two, specifically when you pray. I want to encourage you to enlist our second item, which is when you pray. I want you to be sure that you are listening to God.

Speaker 2:

In the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, jesus tells Peter, james and John, when they come down the mountain, not to speak about their experience on that mountain. He says tell no one about this vision until the Son of man has been raised from the dead. So until Easter, you're not to tell anybody about this experience. The Gospel writer of Luke omits this instruction, but we are told that the disciples are indeed following these instructions. They do not speak of what has happened that day, and this strikes me as being a little bit odd, because when I have a transcendent experience, you know what I want to do. I want to tell everybody, I want to tell you all about it. I want to tell you how awesome it was and how wonderful it felt and how transformed I feel. But that's not what Jesus instructs them to do. And here's why I think he said this, because the disciples obviously did not fully grasp yet who Jesus is and what his mission is. They won't come to a full realization of that until the resurrection, seven weeks from now. Oh sure, they have glimmers of the truth. Just a few lines before this passage, peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah. But when he blurts out that they should stay on that mountain camp out and stay there, he shows that he still doesn't fully get it.

Speaker 2:

And when we don't fully understand something, it's best that we keep silent until we do have a full understanding. Otherwise we risk spouting half-truths or missing the point entirely. Have you ever heard of the reason why we have one mouth and two ears? It's because we're supposed to listen twice as much as we speak. So I want to encourage you to take time this Lenten season to really listen to what God is saying to you. Now note that I did not say listen to find out if God is saying something to you, because I do believe that God is speaking to each of us all the time. Of course I'm not suggesting that we go mute for the next seven weeks, but do be aware of that ratio between moving our mouths and listening with our ears and not just hearing but listening.

Speaker 2:

In this age of talking heads talking over one another, of being the loudest voice in a verbal brawl over social or political hot-button issues, perhaps this is good advice for our prayer life and in all our communication with one another. Maybe and this leads me to my third point by listening, by tuning our minds, our hearts, our spirits and our ears to Jesus, we respond to what God says from that very bright talking cloud. This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him. We must tune our ears to hear God's voice. And this is how we do it. We read our holy scriptures, we read them again and again to tune our ears to the voice of Christ. We regularly engage in prayer. We regularly come together and pray with and for one another. This is how we tune our ears to the voice of God.

Speaker 2:

It's like the child who's told by his father to listen during a symphony orchestra concert. Listen, for the flutes in that song, don't they sound beautiful? And the child, unable to distinguish the flutes, looks up at his father and says with a puzzled look, what flutes, father? The child first needs to learn what flutes sound like on their own, separate from the whole orchestra, before he is able to hear them in a symphony. And so it is with us as the children of God. Unless we take some time to hear the voice in the quiet moments of our lives, we will not be able to hear him in the symphony sound of life. So, my friends, it is my prayer for you that you indeed experience some moments of transcendence and transfiguration as you listen to the voice of Jesus. And this is something to which, my friends, I can say amen.