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Small Group Devotional Study Guide
For theWeek of February 22nd, 2009 - BradGustafson
Lectionary Text of Focus for February 22nd, 2009: Mark 9:2-9
The Sermon This Week: Dazzled Into the Truth
Our study this week will take on a unique form, as it is the last week before Lent – Transfiguration Sunday! Under the 'Calendar' tab above, you will find the schedule of worship readings for the entire Lent/Easter season. This week I am going to suggest together we read through the ENTIRE SEASON of readings in ONE SITTING. We have already done this together as a worship and planning team, and we will be offering the opportunity to do so for everyone in the congregation at special Sunday morning times during March. The idea is to embrace the discipline together, of taking the time to consider the entire flow of the story of the season, to enrich our immersion into worship and our own faith journey.
But first, a thought about the connection between Transfiguration and the Lenten journey of Christ toward Jerusalem. As you read through this week’s text from Mark 9, you will notice one thing in common with all our previous weekly texts from Mark 1: How short a time Jesus ends up spending in any one place at any one time. He is in the wilderness; then walking along a sea, calling disciples; then he’s teaching in the synagogue; then he’s at the home of Peter’s mother-in-law; then he is out in a solitary place praying; then he is traveling to new cities; then, and then, and then…and now…he leads three disciples up on to a mountain and is transfigured before their eyes – what we have come to call a truly mountaintop experience if there ever was one! However, as soon as Elijah and Moses appear with him, they are gone, and Jesus’ appearance is back to ‘normal’, and they are on their way back down the mountain. Jesus finishes off the eye-opening encounter with an admonition not to tell anyone about it ‘until the Son of Man is resurrected from the dead,’ just as in earlier passages he has so often admonished people not to talk about what he has done or who he is. What can we make of this?
First, the mountaintop experience is obviously given by God, but is not the ultimate gift. The ultimate gift is faith, not spectacular vision.
Second, the mountaintop experience is obviously for a purpose that awaits the disciples and Jesus ‘down below’ in the mundane everyday – given to them for encouragement, we might say, but not to be mistaken for fulfillment.
Third, can it possibly be that the transfiguration moment is meant as a foretaste of glory to give the disciples something to remember as they follow him down the mountain on his unglorious pathway to the cross? If so, how can we read the following passages in this light? In what way does the transfiguration event give meaning to the Lenten story of a Jesus in increasing danger – yet determined to carry on with his mission to his very death?
If you are reading with a partner or with your group, I want to suggest that you move steadily through the season's readings, starting with ‘week one’, without undue delay nor undue haste. Take turns volunteering to read one passage at a time in order. Let the passage be followed by a moment of silence or two. If there is any discussion, let it be more to mark impressions rather than to explain a text fully – letting the story be incomplete, thereby letting it lead to the next episode/reading. The point is simply to let the story itself sink in. After a moment or two of reflection, read the next heading and let someone read the next week’s passage.
By the way, one facet of our theme this year ‘Confessing Christ on the Road to Jerusalem’ is the reminder that it is not ultimately our own confessions of sin – but rather the confession of Christ who bore our sins – that saves us! Read…and drink in the story of the gospel of our salvation.
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