Now about eight days after these
sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the
mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed,
and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and
Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his
departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his
companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they
saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving
him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make
three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing
what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and
they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice
that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had
spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no
one any of the things they had seen.
In my teens I once climbed a mountain in Switzerland –
courtesy of a cable car, and sat with my friend Bob in a suitably enclosed
café. He was delighted by the experience and commented how much more easily he
could appreciate the creative nature of God as he surveyed the view. As I was
unable to raise my eyes further than my glass of gluhwein, this was not an
experience I felt able to enter in to. I’m not a great fan of mountains:
they’re usually beautiful I admit – from a distance, but as someone who doesn’t
enjoy heights, being up a mountain again would definitely not be top of my list
of 100 things to do before you die. In fact, following my Swiss experience, I’ve
a strong sense of self-preservation which suggests the very fact of being up a
mountain would in itself contribute to my death! Even watching a film about
mountaineering gives me palpitations.
Mountains, of course, are very symbolic in the Bible: they
are the places where key people encounter God, as my friend Bob did. We have
Moses in Exodus climbing Mount Sinai and receiving the Ten
Commandments and in Luke’s Gospel we have Jesus climbing another, unnamed
mountain, and encountering his Father.
I know that “mountain” is a bit of a stretch when used to
describe the geography of the Holy Land but when I read these passages again
and try to imagine myself into the scenario, I can’t find any resentment that
Jesus should only take a select group of his followers with him. In fact had I been invited to be in that select group I would
probably have declined.
“Me? No you’re fine thanks. You go ahead. I’ll stay here.”
There are a couple of nice comparisons in these readings
about the effect of encountering God on the mountain: Moses, we read, did not know that his face shone because he
had been talking with God and the Israelites noticed this. Jesus is
revealed in his glory, the appearance of
his face changed and his clothes became a
dazzling white. Why? Because they had a religious experience.
I remember many years ago coming out of my youth group’s
Bible Study to be greeted by the vicar’s wife who noted, “I can see you’ve been
with God. Your faces are shining.” I thought that was rather odd because I
didn’t then understand the reference: an encounter with God transforms us.
This gospel passage is about transformation but is more
widely known as The Transfiguration. The supernatural and glorified change in the
appearance of Jesus is itself a witness to who Jesus was and is - even if the
disciples didn’t quite join the dots at the time. The Transfiguration is a
pivotal moment, and the incident on the mountain is presented as the point
where human nature meets God, with Jesus himself as the connecting point,
acting as the bridge between heaven and earth. The Transfiguration not only
supports the identity of Jesus as the Son of God, but the
statement "This is my Son, my Chosen [One]; listen to him!" identifies
him as the messenger and mouth-piece of God, just as it did at his baptism.
Today this is enhanced by the presence of Moses and Elijah, (Moses representing The Law and Elijah, The Prophets) because it shows Peter, John and James then, and us now, that Jesus is the voice of God above all others. Jesus surpasses and supersedes all the key religious leaders who have gone before and their teaching!
Today this is enhanced by the presence of Moses and Elijah, (Moses representing The Law and Elijah, The Prophets) because it shows Peter, John and James then, and us now, that Jesus is the voice of God above all others. Jesus surpasses and supersedes all the key religious leaders who have gone before and their teaching!
I wonder if anyone here has tried to re-invent themselves.
It’s more easily done during some big life change that has an element of
geographic movement: leaving home to go to college, changing jobs, moving
house, starting at a new school, changing churches and so on. Sometimes that
physical movement of place is the impetus for change. Occasionally as a teacher
I saw youngsters who were desperate for change but who had backed themselves
into a corner. Without the geographic change they were locked into a cycle of
self-defeating behaviour because of the expectations of those around them –
others wouldn’t let them change. If you have the reputation of being the class
clown, or the year group’s gobby girl it’s really hard to transform and in all
areas of life the more close-knit the community, the more difficult
transformation is.
And yet transformation is a part of the Christian life:
through the power of the Holy Spirit we are being transformed from what we once
were into what we shall one day be. It is a work in progress. We are all works in
progress. As 2 Corinthians tells us, If
anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new. And this happens – is happening – because
of our encounter with God regardless of whether we were up a mountain when that
encounter took place.
The problem here is that we can’t see the wood for the trees:
it’s like being a parent or grandparent who sees the children daily and because
of that doesn’t notice the subtle changes that take place. It takes the visit
of a family friend or other relative who hasn’t seen them for a while to say,
“Aren’t they growing up?”
I remember as a teenager hearing the testimonies of other
Christians who told dramatic tales of transformation when they made a Christian
commitment. It both excited and disappointed me that these testimonies told of change
from a really lurid past: excited because of the possibility that God can
change anyone, however dodgy their previous lives, and disappointed that my
life was so dull and ordinary in contrast. I’m not doubting the truth of those
testimonies but they were so far removed from my own uneventful upbringing that
they were hard to identify with and yet the Holy Spirit was still at work in my
life. I was just too close to the wood to see the trees. So, slowly but surely,
attitudes and behaviours changed.
I know I’ll never know the answer to this but I sometimes
wonder how very different from the current me the old me would have been at
this stage in my life had I not made a Christian commitment. I suspect not
very. As I try to analyse my own life, and as I look at the lives of other
Christians I have known for a long time I am increasingly convinced that there
aren’t that many of us who need a radical transformation of the Holy Spirit, although that's not to say that we don't need any transformation.
What the Holy Spirit does, though, is to take the essential us, the essential
you and me and works with that God-given material and life's experiences to challenge and effect
incremental transformations that we may not even notice. The fact that we don’t
notice that transformation mustn’t be taken as a sign that it isn’t happening.
Perhaps every once in a while we should surprise our friends
here, maybe during the Peace, by affirming what we admire and value about their
spirituality and Christian witness. We are a work in progress. We are being
transformed by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit but it’s
not going to be accomplished this side of the grave so let’s not look for or
expect perfection.
Just one minor point to finish on: Jesus chose to take
friends with him. They were there to witness the event and talk of it to
others later. Let’s not be afraid to do the same. Lets talk to others of the
Transfiguration of Jesus – Jesus as the
link between the human and the divine certainly, but let’s not forget to talk
about what God is doing in our own lives: our own little transformations by
the Holy Spirit, particularly at this time when we are looking at church growth:
and if we can’t recognise it in ourselves let’s make more of a point in
affirming it in each other. Sometimes it’s the personal rather than the profoundly
theological that pulls others in.
Amen
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