St.John's Church - An ecumenical partnership serving the needs of the Grove Green and Weavering communities

A Very Brief Reflection
2 points

1. "There is a time to speak and a time to be silent and we often get it wrong".
In both our readings today people are silenced - told to be quiet, asked not to speak - or at least asked not to speak about a certain subject or until a certain time. In our Old Testament reading the prophets who lived in each town were keen to tell the young apprentice Elisha that his old master Elijah was going to be taken up in to heaven. Twice, at Bethel and Jericho, the prophets come out and say to Elisha: "Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?", and each time Elisha replies: "Yes, I know, but do not speak of it". Sometimes saying nothing is a form of denial or deception, but sometimes it is by far the best thing. Elisha is told the bad news, given the prognosis, and says: "I know, but I don't want to talk about it", and that's OK.
But if Elisha says: "I know, but I don't want to talk about it" then the opposite happens in our Gospel reading. Peter says: "I DON'T know, but I'm GOING to say something". In our Gospel reading Jesus take a few of his disciples aside and gives them a glimpse of heaven. This terrifies Peter and he does what some people do when they get scared or stressed: he starts talking.
He blurts, he blathers, he babbles, he prattles. In the end God himself speaks from a bright cloud and says: "This is my Son, I love him, listen to him". Sometimes we need to stop talking and start listening.
One final thing about speaking and silence and listening: sometimes being there is the most important thing - far more important than anything we say.
In the Bible there is the story of Job. Job is a rich and successful man who knows and loves God. But then he has every disaster imaginable happen to him on him in a single day. His houses fall down killing all his family, his property is stolen or destroyed. His body becomes riddled with illness and disease, and then his friends arrive. Three of them. At first they just sit with him in silence on the smoldering rubble. In fact they sit there for seven days and no-one utters a word.
Then after a week Job speaks, a cry of lament and loss, and a stream of questions to and about God. Then the worst thing of all happens, his three friends start speaking. They propose all sorts of causes to Job problems (mostly accusing Job of all sorts of sins and saying that God is punishing him) and then they propose all sorts of solutions to job problems. Oh dear. This makes matters worse, much worse. If only they'd kept silent, and they were doing so well!
In the end, just like in our Gospel reading, God himself intervenes and speaks, and one of things he says is that all these words have been worse than useless(In fact God says he is going to kill Jobs friends unless Job intercedes for them).
Speech - silence - listening: may God grant us the wisdom to know which and where and when.

2. God is great, or as they say in Arabic: "Allah akbar!"
Great means powerful, mighty, in charge and in control. God is great. But ask any child and great also means lovely, wonderful, brilliant, good. God is great.
In both our readings today God is great in every sense of the word. His glory and power break through into this world in an amazing way. There are several points of contact, several overlaps, between the two readings. The most obvious one, of course, is Elijah. He was a prophet who lived about 850 years before Christ. We can't supply exact dates for him - born so-and-so, died so-and-so because we don't know them exactly. But even if we did there'd be an anomaly. Because he didn't die. He was taken up directly into heaven by God.
One of two people in the Bible to whom this happened (Q: Who was the other . . . ?). Now that's very interesting but it tells us one important thing: God can do that if he wants. God can do anything: God is great, Allah akbar. So death is not an absolute necessity or a foregone conclusion. God can just take someone to be with him if he wants, if that is his will. But when it came to Jesus there's no quick and easy escape, no nice exit that avoids death.
God with and in and as Jesus underwent death - the very thing he had spared Elijah. God could have opted out, and there was a precedent for it, but he chose not to. He chose to undergo death, even death on a cross.
We'll be thinking more about that death as we get nearer to Good Friday but for now let's just note that even before Jesus was born God had saved people from going through death. He could have done it for himself, for his son, after all he had done it for other people including Elijah, but he chose not to. Instead, he chose to die, and not just to die but to die a death upon a cross, for me that makes God all the greater: Allah akbar - God is great indeed.

Now I said that this reflection would be a two point talk and I was right. But there is a third point, and it's the point of a nail. (Q: What's the point of a nail?!)
This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. Lent is the season leading up to Good Friday and Easter, and people give things up for Lent. Well I'm inviting you to take something up for Lent. To take up a nail. Use it in your prayers and Bible readings and meditation. Use it especially to reflect on the death of Christ until Easter Sunday in seven weeks' time.

Amen