Monday, 27 February 2017

SERMON 91 - SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2017

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean  -  Morning Worship  – Sunday 26th February 2017

Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Peter 1:16-21;  Matthew 17:1-9

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord.  Amen

A common theme running through each of this morning’s reading is that each is saying something about God’s glory being revealed on a mountain top – “a mountain top experience” which is where one might expect to see God’s glory being revealed.  Yet as we know, the Gospel story of the Transfiguration occurs shortly before Jesus reveals that he will be betrayed, handed over and killed.

Recently I visited Madeira and like most visitors was impressed by how mountainous the terrain is – mountains in excess of 4,000 feet and impressive engineering feats evident to cut properties and roads into the seemingly impossible terrain.  My wife and I took a cable car and various buses up into the mountains from where we glimpsed the most amazing and breath-taking views of the capital Funchal and out to sea across the Atlantic Ocean.  With the beautiful flowers and plants around us in the cool clean air we felt at times very close to creation and the wonders of God’s world.  Yet also, at times, the low clouds which can envelope the island would blot out our heavenly views and obscure the beauty we had discovered.  The clouds could appear menacing and dangerous as our bus traversed the narrow winding roads with, at certain places, sheer drops of 400 to 500 feet below us.  I certainly felt vindicated in not having hired a car but equally fearful at having placed the lives of my wife and myself in the hands of, what I hoped was, an experienced , confident driver and sober driver.

Mountains, therefore, are places of glory and of fear.  In this morning’s readings we first of all see Moses with his assistant Joshua (“Jesus” in Greek) on the top of Mount Sinai with God.  We read in Verses 9-11, immediately before this morning’s extract that Moses was with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the Elders of Israel but at God’s command only Moses and Joshua (described as his assistant in our translation) went up as far as the summit, leaving Aaron, Hur and the other Elders below, to meet with God.  We read further that just like those mountains on Madeira, the cloud suddenly covered the mountain for six days and it wasn’t until the seventh day that God called out through the cloud to Moses.  Is this a parallel to the six days of Creation; God not giving his message, the tablets containing the law until the Sabbath?  Is this therefore a representation of a New Creation; a new Covenant?  We learn at the end of this piece of scripture that Moses stayed up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights – just like in the story of Noah it rained for 40 days and 40 nights – meaning a very long time.

In our Gospel reading we have a direct parallel – Jesus with Moses and Elijah.  Our passage starts with “Six days later” just as we had six days of Moses being on the mountain and a link with the six days of Creation – so we once again read that it was on the seventh day of a week that the Transfiguration occurred.  Just as in our narrative of Moses on Mount Sinai was accompanied by the Elders, so Jesus is accompanied by his disciples but leaves most of them at the foot of the mountain only taking up Peter and James.  Here, once more, God reveals his glory and Jesus is seen too in that glory when God announces that Jesus is his son in whom he is well pleased:  the same message given to John the Baptist and those at Jesus’s Baptism when the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove. At this point, Jesus’s true divinity is once more revealed especially to Peter, Jesus’s assistant. This time, however, we learn that the cloud which envelopes them is a bright cloud and Peter and James are fearful.  Jesus tells them not to be afraid but to get up and they see that Jesus is once more on his own.

It is also clear that at the beginning Peter really doesn’t understand what is going on.  He suggests that as this is such a good place to be – in the presence of Moses and Elijah, - he offers to put up three dwellings – probably tents, so that they can stay there for a long time. He doesn’t at that stage realise that this is a one off occurrence, it is to show the true glory and divinity of Jesus placing him above the status of Moses and Elijah whom the Jews revered as great prophets and Fathers of their Nation.  How many times have we had those wonderful mountain top experiences and wanted to stay up there, on a high for ever.  Unfortunately life is never like that and we all have to come down into the valley again. 

Peter, writing about this event, in his second letter, some years later, has become much clearer as to the significance of the event.  Peter now a much older, wiser and less impetuous individual appreciates how privileged he was to observe the Transfiguration shortly before his whole world seemed to come crashing down amidst the Passion and his Denial. Peter tells his readers that he and the apostles did not follow the myths and legends only associated with the Old Testament stories but had seen their truth as revealed on the Mountain of Transfiguration – that he as an eyewitness had seen Jesus’s glory revealed with his own eyes.

When practising as a court lawyer, I was always at great pains to tell my clients that an eyewitness to an event was worth 100 times the testimony of circumstantial or hearsay witnesses; so here Peter is underlining the point by saying “Yes I was there when I heard God say ‘This is my son, the Beloved with whom I am well pleased”.  “I heard it; I can vouch for the truth of this”.  This is a wonderful testimony and something which we should take great care to remember when our own Faith is challenged by others in this ever more secular society in which we live.  “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our lord Jesus Christ”. In other words, and in the language of 2017 “We are telling you the truth, we are not following and disseminating False News”.  We as Christians and disciples can, therefore, be assured of the truth of the message which Peter tells us.  Now that is powerful stuff and makes the Transfiguration such an important event even today in 2017.

In Verse 19 Peter takes us deeper theologically and tells us that as we have the prophetic message fully confirmed – that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Saviour - we need to be attentive and act as would a lamp lighten a darkened place until, as Peter says, the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts.  A couple of weeks ago we heard a similar message from Jesus himself in his Sermon on the Mount – how we are to be salt of the earth and light of the world.

Peter acknowledges in his letter that the world has its dark places – the valleys into which we all descend from our mountain top places, but just as we descended back down into Funchal from the Madeiran mountains so the sun shone and the temperature rose. 

Psalm 119:105 tells us that “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”; a lovely piece of poetry – but how true.  Peter repeats this by telling us that we should shine brightly and should carry our Faith as a light to the world until the True Light of Jesus returns – as he puts it “the morning star rises”. Peter also warns us to guard against putting our own interpretation on Scripture because true prophecy comes from or is moved only by the Holy Spirit, that third and equally important member of the Holy Trinity. One of the greatest gifts, if not the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit is discernment – the ability to discern what is of and from God  and what is from our own human thoughts and desires.  It’s a great gift because we can often so easily get it wrong.

In these days of much uncertainty and global fears, I am excited that throughout the world the Christian message is growing and thereby the lamp of Christianity continues to grow bigger and brighter.  We may be few in number here in West Dean but in China, for example, the number of Christians has grown to around 200 million (including Catholics) from about 1 million in 1949 and the rate of growth is increasing annually despite much persecution and State restrictions.  Perhaps the morning star will rise in the east both actually and metaphorically!

When the few of us pray together here this morning, we may be geographically small in this church but in reality we are a huge number globally.  When we pray and worship we add our own prayers to all those other Christian voices worshipping and praying be they in Bedford or Beijing. That is such a wonderful thought and one I ask you to hold on to whether you pray and worship in a small community, large mega church or in home group or individually at home.  You never pray alone but in the company of all Christians on earth and in heaven.

Whatever mountain you might have to climb during these forty days and forty nights of Lent, whatever heights you reach or depths you might have to plunge, remember that God is with you through the close companionship of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray;

Lord Jesus Christ, you appeared to your servants Peter and James transfigured with the prophets Moses and Elijah on a mountain top.  As we enter a period of prayer and reflection through Lent and remember the trials which you endured for us, so might you appear to us through the Holy Spirit to help us discern your words of scripture and the mission which you would have us fulfil. We thank you that you have already come into our lives and that we are a member of that wonderful family of your church. May the lamp which you have given us shine brightly in this world of dark valleys and enable us to see clearly until at last your great morning star rises.

Amen



91/22022017

No comments:

Post a Comment