Transformed...

There are debates over many of the sites of Biblical importance within the Holy Land, and one site that is hotly debated is the Mount of Transfiguration. Today Mount Tabor is the place most closely associated with the Transfiguration. It is there that a Church has been built, along with a monastery on top of the mountain.

However it appears the more likely site was actually Mount Hermon – this was on the northern border of the Promised Land in Biblical times. This mountain is situated relatively close to where, shortly before, Jesus had declared that he had to go to Jerusalem and would, when he was there, be put to death.

It seems that for the first few centuries after Jesus lived on earth Mount Hermon was the assumed place of the Transfiguration, but after that time pilgrimage to the Holy Land became increasingly popular. Mount Hermon was not easy to get to as it was well away from the popular sites of Nazareth and Galilee, and so Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem in AD348 decided that the Transfiguration, rather than taking place on Mount Hermon, had actually taken place on Mount Tabor which was much more convenient to reach... Who says that commercialism is a thing of the 20th and 21st centuries !?!

When I was staying in the Holy Land a group of us spent a night up on Mount Tabor in the monastery, and it is an incredible place. There, in the peace, you really do feel you can sense God. It is one of those places where you really do feel that you are close to God. Celtic spirituality describes such places as ‘Thin places’ – places where the distance between God and ourselves, or heaven and earth, seems very short.

And as we were there, we reflected that it really doesn’t matter where the transfiguration happened. The happening itself and the meaning of it was more important than the place....

And there were many different meanings to this event. Firstly there was obviously the need to show the power of Jesus, and that in him, we could see the fulfilment of the law and the prophecies as represented by Moses and Elijah. 

Another aspect was that as Jesus had so recently proclaimed that he would go to Jerusalem to die, there was confusion amongst the disciples and Peter, James and John were invited to witness an event which they wouldn’t understand at the time, but which would have some meaning as events unfolded.

There were also the lessons that could be learnt from the event – the recognition of Jesus as the chosen Son of God, hugely powerful and yet willing to surrender it all to suffer on the cross for us. There was the lesson from the disciples as they sought to preserve something which could never be preserved – wanting to keep an idyllic mountain top experience.

All of these things were and are tremendously important but one of the greatest lessons of all from the transfiguration is the recognition of our need to put ourselves in the position where we are willing to recognise transformation and be transformed, creating for ourselves the ‘thin places’ where God seems really close to us.

For all of us, I’m sure, there are times when God seems really close, where the world seems to make sense, when we feel calm and at peace with everything..., and then there are other times ! Times when nothing seems to make much sense, when all around us things seem to be crumbling, and when God seems absent.

The Christian calendar recognises this as we move from the season of Epiphany, a season of revelation and explanation, a season of realisation as we recognise Jesus in the world, to Lent, a season of reflection, a season of trial in many ways as we look for and recognise our failures to live as God would have us live, and our failure to seek ways in which we can grow closer to him.

And this reading of the Transfiguration reminds us that as we progress from one season to the other, we must do so with open minds and open hearts, seeking the power of God to be changed into someone new, and it’s a change that continues as we go through our lives. 

Day by day we begin new journeys in our lives - maybe some sad or difficult, hopefully lots which are good, and as we think of this reading we’re reminded of the joys and the strength of being able to take our journey now and into the future with God at our side....

The experiences of the transfiguration were a huge challenge for Peter, James and John. They couldn’t understand or explain it, they perhaps couldn’t even see why it was important. 

They were challenged by what they saw, awe struck, and that challenge would continue as they watched Jesus go to Jerusalem and accept the punishment handed out by corrupt courts and supported by shouting crowds. 

But later they would receive the joyful message of salvation as Jesus rose from the dead, but even then they would face challenges as they struggled to share the message of Jesus in a hostile world.

Their experiences were full of mountain top joys and deep valley lows – change was something they faced daily as they sought to build a closer relationship with God, and to share his message to a wider group….. 

Today we will inevitably face the same highs and lows, mountain top and deep valley experiences, some which we’ll understand, others which we may not... These things are part of human life, and yet our willingness to be changed by experiences, to learn from them, to try and see God in them, is a willingness to be transformed, and that is the call of Lent, that is the call of transfiguration.

Too often we talk of change, but don’t really want to do it. We talk of the need for humanity to change, and ignore the reality that the change can often begin with ourselves.

It’s been suggested that Peter wanting to build dwellings on the mountain top as he did in the gospel reading was a desire from him to preserve things just as they were and that that desire is often what we do in Church to protect our comfort zones. Comfort zones were continually challenged by Jesus, and his gospel challenges us to challenge them today.... Change and transfiguration is good if we do it with a desire to grow closer to Christ, and to each other, and to extend his kingdom.

There’s a story that I think I’ve shared before about a man from the mountains of Tennessee who found himself one day in a large city, and for the first time standing outside a lift. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman marched smartly out... The father immediately shouted to his youngest son, "Billy, go and get your mother !"

In spite of our fears and reluctance, change can be good and change can be powerful if it is done with the right motivation and so as we approach Lent, let’s do so not with a desire just to see it through, and certainly not with a desire to punish ourselves, but with a real desire to see God more closely, to give the time and the space to create for ourselves situations where the distance between heaven and earth seems short, where God seems more visible, and we can learn from him his purposes and receive from him his strength for our journey of life. AMEN