Sermon
delivered at St. Mary’s Church, Alderbury, Wiltshire – Sunday 7th February
2016
Exodus
34:29-35; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36
May
I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a
blessing to all who hear them. Amen
In the Old Testament reading
we heard first, this morning, Moses returns down from the summit of Mount Sinai
after having conversed with God and having been given the law (in the form of
the tablets containing the Ten Commandments).
Totally unbeknown to him, the skin on his face was shining so brightly
following this divine encounter that Aaron and all the Jewish leaders were
afraid to come near him. Such was the
glory of God reflected in his face that Moses had to place a veil over that
face in order to converse with the leaders and congregation. The passage goes
on to suggest that every time, afterwards, when Moses went to converse with God
he would remove the veil only to cover up his face again when returning from
the mountain.
Quite a story. Here the
glory of God is revealed by the light shining from Moses skin which is also mirrored
in our Gospel reading by the account of the Transfiguration when Jesus appears
to be joined by Moses and the prophet Elijah. Again we read how the figures
appeared to glow dazzlingly white and the two prophets are described as
appearing “in glory”. Any Jew seeing
this amazing sight would have immediately been transported back in time to our
earlier reading – an acknowledgement that these figures, just like Moses himself
on Mount Sinai, had been clothed in the light of God’s glory. Only Peter, and
his companions, James and John, were present to see this. They also heard the
voice of God coming from a cloud, “This
is my Son, My Chosen, listen to him”.
It must have been awesome – perhaps
terrifying. For Peter, it was clearly a revelation and an affirmation of his
faith in following Jesus, recognising the importance of this event. But Peter, like so many of us, brings it down
to basics and the factual, rather than the spiritual. He thinks of it as some
permanent state requiring the building or three shelters. He thinks the moment can be bottled and
preserved – perhaps just like the way his fish can be salted. He misses the point – here is a short revelation
of God’s glory through his Son who is soon to make the journey to Jerusalem and
the horror of rejection and crucifixion.
And here too is a parallel,
Moses himself was rejected several times by those he led out of Egypt. Many believing that they might have been
better off staying under the control of their slave masters than traipsing
through the wilderness on a “wing and a prayer”. Indeed, you will recall that whilst Moses was
up the mountain conversing with God, the people built and started to worship a
golden calf idol.
In our Epistle reading from
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, the author refers back to our first
reading. Such was God’s glory revealed that it proved too dazzling to the
people and it seemed Moses reserved his glowing face only for conversing with
God. Paul, writing to the early Christian church members, who would have been
Jewish in origin, would have known their Hebrew Scripture and recall this passage. Paul suggests that the veil
which separated the people from a realisation of God’s glory was not the veil
over Moses face but a veil across the hearts of the people themselves – a
hardening of their hearts. Such a veil would prevent the glory being reflected
in the faces of Moses’s hearers – just as if we were to place a curtain over a
mirror so we could no longer see our own reflection.
Paul is saying that the veil
should be removed so that God’s glory can shine in the faces of us all. I am reminded of two further pieces of
scripture when I read this – the tearing of the veil of the Temple at the
moment of Jesus’s death on the Cross – symbolising that we all have access to
God’s forgiveness and grace without shutting him away behind a screen and also that
piece in Matthew 5:15 “Don’t hide your
light under a bushel”.
When I was a young lawyer I
used to commute most days between Brighton and London Victoria. As time went on
I would travel in the same carriage each morning with the same travelling
companions. One of those was a young lady named Val whom I discovered was also
a lawyer working in the city. But what struck me about her was that she didn’t
look like the average business commuter – the lawyer, accountant, business
executive. Whilst most commuters would be quiet, reading their papers or
asleep, she would read her daily devotions and she literally beamed as she sat
there and engaged in conversation. I got to know her over a number of years
commuting and discovered that she was an Evangelical Christian, a member of the
Christian Lawyers' Association, which through her I later joined, and she made
it her business not to undertake any legal matters in an adversarial way but
only undertook pro bona work or constructive work to help people. I tell this
story because there was surrounding her a glow of God’s grace.
You can often see this same
glow in the faces of people in love. And
what greater love can there be than to love God with all your heart and soul.
Indeed, Jesus himself, when questioned, relayed this to the teachers of the law
as being the greatest of the commandments, followed by loving each other. From
these two simple yet, often for us humans, quite difficult things to achieve,
will flow the glory of God.
When people are in love they
will feel fully alive. St. Irenaeus is often quoted as saying “The glory of God
is a human being fully alive”. When we love God we should feel fully alive and
that should be seen by others. When I saw Val on the train and saw the love and
compassion she showed to others, even towards grumpy fellow commuters, I really
felt that I wanted some of what she had got.
Just as Peter wanted to bottle the moment of the Transfiguration –
keeping Jesus and the prophets there - we too would love to be able to stay up
there on the mountain top. But these are
often only just that - mountain top experiences – in the case of Moses and
Jesus quite literally.
Being a Christian
is hard work – nobody ever said it would be any different [and if they did they
were misleading you]. The disciples often found it hard to believe and follow, hard
to heal, hard to minister and were often chastised and challenged (sometimes by
Jesus himself). In today’s world there is a great revival of Christianity – not
in the western world but in Africa and Asia. There the poverty and war and
famine could hardly be described as a mountain top experience yet in amongst
all those dark valleys towering mountain tops do appear – miraculous healings
and steadfast faith. As we have seen
both Moses’s and Jesus’s mountain top experiences preceded very difficult and challenging
times indeed. People like Val glowed in
amongst the tired and grumpy commuters. Moses shone amongst the disgruntled
wanderers, Jesus’s Transfiguration came at a time when he was about to be
crucified. We shine brightest when our surroundings are dark.
I can speak from personal
experience too. After my licensing as a
minister I was on a high – right at the top of the mountain. I remember our
curate telling me (and others too) to be wary for it is when we give our life
to God’s ministry we will find Satan just around the corner to pull us down.
Six months later my world seemed to collapse around me when I encountered a
major personal storm. I was determined, however, that my faith would remain
steadfast and that experience (entering a deep and very long and dark tunnel)
tested my faith to the utmost. I needed a light to see me through that tunnel
until I could see natural daylight at the end of it. I never felt alone during that time but it
was not easy. Now, thanks to God and the power of the Holy Spirit I am out of
the tunnel, into the bright sunshine and the tunnel is not only behind me but
round a corner where I can no longer see it – or to use another metaphor, I am
now once again standing on the summit with the dark valley down below me.
At some stage I will be
forced to come down again, just as Jesus and Moses and Elijah had to come down
from their mountains but that glory which God has shared out to us, that light
which we have received through the power of the Holy Spirit, we must bring down
with us and spread through the dark canyons of this bitter dark and sometimes,
it appears, Godless world. With the Holy Spirit in us and shining from us we
have a piece of God’s chosen Son also in us. A Son in whom God the Father is
well pleased.
Let us pray:
O God, Glorious and Faithful
To those who seek you with a sincere
heart
you reveal the beauty of your face
Strengthen us in Faith
to embrace the mystery of the cross
and open our hearts to its
transfiguring power;
that clinging in love to your will for
us,
we may walk the path of discipleship
as followers of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
MFB/70/05012016
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