Hearing God on the Mountain

Do we need a mountaintop experience to hear God speak? Can we miss hearing God’s message, even if we have a mountaintop experience? Does God also speak in the valleys? 

God speaks in mountaintop experiences and God speaks in the valley. God is always speaking to us. God’s message of love and his revelation of himself never changes. God’s message is the same whether we are on the mountaintop or in the valleys of everyday life. 

We are to listen to God when he speaks to us, whether we are on the mountaintop or in the valleys between. 

The Apostles Peter, James, and John heard God speak on the holy mountain. In his second letter, Peter tells us of his eyewitness account, saying, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.” (2 Peter 1:16-18, ESV). 

God spoke to Peter, James, and John on the mountain, affirming his son Jesus, and encouraging the disciples to listen to Jesus. Peter understood this encounter to be confirmation of the truth of who Jesus is as God’s beloved son. Peter understood this encounter as an affirmation of his faith in the identity of Jesus. Peter and the others were eyewitnesses of the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were eyewitnesses of God’s majesty and the glory Jesus received from the Father. 

Like these disciples, we can trust in who God is and in what God says to us through listening to Jesus. 

May we follow Jesus wherever he leads us and listen to him when he speaks, wherever we are in life. 

A Collect for the Last Sunday of Epiphany: Transfiguration: “O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019). 

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