Dear All
Today we celebrated the Transfiguration, the last Sunday before Lent.
This Week
Tuesday – 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Wednesday, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. As in recent years The Ignatian Spirituality Centre is offering a course for Lent, available online or from a book. This year the theme is “Lives to Inspire” it is set in the usual context of a piece of art, music, biblical text and reflection. The ISC courses are always excellent, so I thoroughly recommend this as a resource for Lenten Devotions. Books are available at church or online at onlineprayer.net.
Wednesday – 11.30am Said Holy Communion for Ash Wednesday with Imposition of Ashes at All Saints followed by soup lunch
7.30 – Book Group at Clare’s
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes at St Andrew’s followed by coffee in Friendship House
Saturday 25th February – 10-2pm St Joseph’s Hall Coffee Morning in aid of Syrian / Turkish Earthquake Emergency Appeal
Readings for next Sunday – 1st Sunday of Lent – Genesis 2:15-17,3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11
Today’s readings – Exodus 24:12-end Peter 1:16-end Matthew 17:1-9
This year it falls to the NWRC (North West Regional Council) to host the clergy conference. To that end Dom Ind the rector of Helensburgh and I have been charged with finding a suitable Hotel. No mean task to find accommodation for several people plus conference facilities on a diocesan budget. But it will be worth it, the conference is usually an enjoyable event and retreats of any description are an important part of our spiritual life and wellbeing.
In today’s gospel account Jesus retreats. We are told in the gospel “Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain by themselves’. It seems that Jesus needs to get away from it all, and what better place to get away from it all than a mountain? Only his closest confidants are invited to join him.
This retreat comes at a turning point in Jesus’ ministry. For months Jesus has been travelling around the Galilean countryside, preaching, healing, performing miracles and proclaiming the kingdom of God. But then the focus and the mood shifts. It all starts when some Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus for a sign from heaven, essentially questioning his authority.
This must have led to some self-reflection on the part of Jesus, for shortly thereafter, he asks his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And then, ‘Who do you say that I am?’
Peter gives a clear and inspired answer, ‘You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.’
It is in this context that Jesus then retreats up the mountain with Peter, James and John, his closest apostles.
While they’re up on that mountain, something extraordinary happens. Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” A moment later, a divine voice speaks: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Matthew 17:2-5
This is the moment of the Transfiguration. Jesus lit up like a spotlight, visited by Moses and Elijah, identified as the Son of God. But it’s all temporary. Before long, Jesus is back to normal, walking back down the mountain with his disciples. So, what happened? What was this strange, inexplicable moment, a flash of glory, a glimpse of something divine?
This is Peter’s question. He wants to know what this extraordinary event means. He wants to understand it. He wants to stay in this moment, at least for a little while. So, Peter says, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Specifically, the word for “dwelling” means “tent,” or “tabernacle.” Peter’s not offering to build three houses, three permanent structures. Instead, he wants to build tents, something temporary, movable.
Peter’s suggestion tells us a lot about what he’s thinking. He has had this brush with the divine and he wants to stay with it for a while —to hold on to the moment, to try to grasp it, to understand it. But a brush with the divine can’t be grasped, it can’t be understood. It can only be experienced.
In scripture, it does seem that these divine experiences often happen on high ground. In the Exodus reading today, Moses goes up Mount Sinai to encounter the presence of God in cloud and fire. Exodus 24:15-end
In the story of Elijah, Elijah goes up Mount Horeb and has his own brush with the divine—wind, and earthquake, and fire, and silence as the Lord passes by. 1 Kings 19
And in Matthew after the resurrection, Jesus’ disciples go to a mountain in Galilee and find the risen Christ. This, at the very end of Matthew, is the moment when Jesus gives the great commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Matthew 28:16-20
Perhaps some of us can point to moments in our own lives when we’ve had that encounter with the divine. Maybe it was some sort of miraculous event, something we could not explain. Or maybe it was more of a feeling, a sense of God’s presence coming close, an experience of peace and comfort. Maybe we’ve encountered the presence of God in another person, in prayer, in scripture.
We need these divine experiences. In the gospel of Matthew, just before the Transfiguration, Jesus tells his disciples that he will be arrested and killed. The road Jesus is travelling, the road he is asking his disciples to travel with him, leads to the cross. They need spiritual strength for the journey ahead. They need this brush with the divine. They need to experience God’s presence to sustain and affirm them in their calling.
Mountaintop experiences are high points in our lives, times when we are lifted out of ourselves and given a glimpse of something that transcends our normal existence, these moments can be rare, if at all, and short lived, but the fact is they do give us strength to return to the valley where Christ asks us to take up our crosses and follow him and it is not easy. And we are asked to do it with only glimpses, only brief encounters, with the God.
So, when we get those glimpses, when we have those brushes with the divine, we should treasure them as much as we can, holding them in our hearts because we need those moments to give us strength for our journey to the cross and beyond.
Amen