Fields United Methodist Church

Thoughts Along the Way

Pastor Tom Joyce

February 21, 2022

“This is my Son, my Beloved; listen to him.”

Luke 9:35

What would God’s voice sound like? Elijah had great expectations of how God would sound. (I Kings 19:11-13) God’s voice wasn’t in the wind, earthquake, or fire but rather in the “sheer silence.”  In the “noise” of our lives, it is often difficult to discern God’s Word; it does come to us but in profoundly different ways. Maybe the “sheer silence” where Elijah heard God is a slate that has been wiped clean so that God can speak even in the midst of crazy times. Seems like God speaks to us in ways that can be heard where life is happening, in real time. And since God speaks to us along the journey, the “voice” may sound different according to the setting in which we find ourselves. When God spoke to Peter and John (Luke 9:28-36) it was at a spiritual high in their lives when everything appeared to be coming together, at least in their eyes. They heard God from atop a mountain with Jesus, a perfect spot. Our lives, though are not perfect hence God usually finds us in our everyday moments and speaks to us in the moment, at the moment, through the witness of others or in the magnificence of creation. There are times along the way when we are so distracted we wouldn’t hear God speak even if we tried, other times we try to listen with ears expecting words that would satisfy our own agendas. Yet God does speak in merciful and grace-filled ways, we just need to be open to the unexpected ways and places in which God communicates to us. God’s reminder to us when Jesus was proclaimed from the heavens are 3 simple but life-changing words; “listen to him.”