You might have looked at the message title in the bulletin for this morning and wondered what was going on. Or you may have immediately begun to try to unscramble the letters to make a word. If you did that second option, then you probably already know what the word is. So, what is it? (wait for responses) These letters can be put together to spell four different, relatively common words. The two most pertinent to Luke’s rendition of the transfiguration of Jesus, and for this church, are listen and silent. God tells the disciples in the midst of the cloud, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” And right after that, Luke tells us that the three disciples “kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.”

One of the things I love about this church is how well people listen to one another. But even more so than that, I love how well the people of this church listen to God. This church has been through a lot in 125 years. Just in looking back at the 9 ½ years April and I have been here, there are just so many things that we’ve done as a body, difficulties we’ve navigated together, joys we’ve shared. And all that we’ve done as a church has been done by trying our best to listen to God and to one another. And that is how we must continue to act as we move forward from here. God is speaking. God has a plan for this church. We simply need to take the time and space to listen.

Luke says that the disciples who’d been with Jesus on the mountain kept silent after they’d come back down. That statement stood out to me in my reading of this passage. Why were they silent? I don’t know that I have an answer, but I do have a thought. Silence in Jesus’ day was associated with wisdom and deep consideration. When we look ahead at the future and try to see our way forward, what we often find is silence. Have you ever prayed for something and looked to God for an answer and all you got in return was silence? Some call this “unanswered prayer.” But I think it is simply a blank space between the present and the future. We know the present and we don’t know the future, but there is a space between them that is neither present nor future. That is the silence. And that is the place where we look for the wisdom of God.

Don’t fear the silence, but see in it the opportunity to listen to God and to be transformed. It is my prayer that this church will continue to do that for many years to come. I have a tremendous amount of hope in the future for First Pres. and I can’t wait to see what God has in store. Amen!