What Am I Doing Here?

Mark 9:2-13

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Manmust suffer much and be rejected? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

“What Am I Doing Here?”

Study Notes:

‘Everything depends on how we read; on how we enter the magic circle of a text’s meanings; on how we smuggle ourselves into its words, and allow the texture of a text to weave its web around us.’ -Michael Fishbane (Text & Texture, 141)

Reading is never a passive exercise. The Bible invites readers, like us, to imagine the world depicted and to enter it—to step in and ask questions and wonder alongside characters. In Mark’s gospel the reader is addressed directly (13.14) and indirectly through the disciples (9.5). In the passages listed below you will find connections to our sermon text and topic. I invite you to read actively by looking for connections, rewrite a word or phrase in your own words and recite it throughout the week. Imagine yourselves as active characters in God’s unfolding story. 

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Genesis 28.10-22
Exodus 24-25
Deuteronomy 6
Isaiah 43
Malachi 3-4
Mark 1.1-17; 8-10
John 1; 13-15.17
Luke 9
Acts 2