I know a number of people from the church are keen walkers, and some of you will have climbed high mountains. I'm not such a great walker but have been up some mountains, mountains where there is a convenient cable car to save the walk !
It's not that I like cable cars - I really don't, but they're worth it for the view you can often get on the mountain top.
In Scotland recently we went partly up Ben Nevis. On the ground the view was a bit dull with the view obscured by buildings and trees, but further up the view was tremendous as you could see for miles around.
It is the sort of transformation you can see when you light a sparkler - unlit it just looks like a dull piece of metal, but when it's lit it gives off tremendous sparkling light.
The view from the mountain top is always there, just as the potential for light from the sparkler is also there, and today we are thinking about the light of Jesus - a light that is always there but a light that some choose to leave hidden.
The gospel reading of the account of the transfiguration is one that seems to come up a few times each year in the church calendar now ! But it's an important reading. In the account Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain to pray - there his appearance is transformed, and Moses the great law giver and the prophet Elijah appear as well.
It's an incredible moment - a moment that confirms the importance of Jesus - we hear the voice of God proclaiming, 'this is my Son, listen to him.'
It must have been a life changing experience for Peter, James and John - all that they had thought and known of Jesus was revealed before them - it was a true mountain top experience. They could see more and what they could see was a vision of a new world, transformed by God's glory - a glory that was right there with them.
One of the most famous speeches about a mountain top was Martin Luther King speaking on the night before he died. He spoke in that incredible accent of being to the mountain top where he had seen the promised land. He spoke of what he saw - a place where black and white people would live together in peace.
He spoke of living a long life but of the fact that having glimpsed the promised land he had no fear of his earthly life being cut short. He had seen a vision, a vision of a new and transformed world, and that vision was worth living and even dying for.
The transfiguration account is about vision. It is about Peter, James and John being offered a vision - a vision that said that Jesus was more important than Moses and Elijah, more important than the Old Testament laws, more important than the prophecies of Elijah. It wasn't that those things were unimportant but Jesus came to bring a transformed world, a new vision, a new hope...
Being on the mountain top can often offer us a clear vision, a bigger picture, and it's a place we all need to visit. All of us need to take time out to pray and reflect on our vision for our lives, for our church, for the world...
The gospel message of the transfiguration begins with us being told that Jesus took the disciples to the mountain to pray. And prayer is something which must underpin all of what we do. In the Anglican Church we can quite often get used to praying in a fairly regimented sort of fashion. There's nothing wrong with set prayers but prayer is bigger than that - prayer is constantly talking to God, sharing our lives with him,our hopes, our fears, our needs.... Prayer is a constant dialogue that can take place wherever we are and in whatever we are doing. It isn't something that needs elaborate words, but heartfelt offerings.
William Barclay reminds us that when we pray we are to remember :-
1. The love of God that wants the best for us.
2. The wisdom of God that knows what is best for us.
3. The power of God that can accomplish it.
And so prayer must underpin all we do. The second aspect of the transfiguration account that we recognise is this incredible transformation - Peter, James and John were given a privileged glimpse which they would never forget. It would surely have transformed their lives - we're well aware that it didn't change their lives to mean they would be perfect or even that their faith would be unbreakable in the future. There were times when they became scared, times when the vision seemed more blurred..., but it was still there.
In our lives what picture do we have of Jesus - how clouded is our vision ? Jesus came to transform the world but he wasn't just interested in the big picture - his love was and is personal for each one of us. When he went to the cross, he went thinking of you and me... When he died, he died for you and me and when he rose, he rose to make a new offer of life for you and me...
Today our lives may be filled with light, or they may be filled with darkness, or more likely there'll be bits of both - but Jesus makes the promise to be with us always - to share our joys and to comfort and support us in our sadness or worries... He doesn't simply offer the way of peace - he is peace...
And so when we think of transformation we think of our vision. We can be filled with confidence because Jesus lives, and because he lives we must put aside any distractions that get in our way as we seek to follow his path.
William Booth said, 'Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again - until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other.'
In the church we often worry about buildings and about money and lights and heating, and those things are important, but more important is knowing and proclaiming the love of Jesus. That is the vision we must focus on - a vision that transforms us, our community and the world.
We are part of a living church, and a church that is growing - the papers will talk of decline, and sadly even some in the church talk of decline, but the church is still growing in the world - lives are still being transformed.
I have said this to some of you already but a few weeks ago I heard a little about the Church in China – a church that 40 years ago was seemingly wiped out. Now 5% of the population of China are Christians – it doesn’t seem a great proportion, but it is something like 67,500,000 people – and its still growing. And the church continues to grow in many parts of the world, and even in many churches in this country…
It grows where we speak of a gospel of hope. It grows where we speak of resurrection. It grows where we have faith and confidence in God to change things. It grows where we are prepared for God to use us…
And it grows where the church is truly proclaiming and being engaged in the things that Jesus speaks about – supporting the poor, helping to release captives and people caught in oppression, offering hope, support and comfort to those who are suffering – it grows when the church is continually proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour…
It is an incredible message – and every one of us in the church shares in the power of that message, and the joy and hope it brings and offers…
And there is a third element to the transfiguration account. Peter was so amazed by the vision on that mountain top that he wanted to stay there. He wanted to preserve that vision forever. But that wasn't the message Jesus was offering. The mountain top experience was to set up the disciples to work in the valley below.
Martin Luther King in that famous speech spoke of being on the mountain top and seeing the promised land but he knew he had to return to the valley to continue his work. For us, for Martin Luther King, for those disciples of Jesus there was and is work to do in the valley.
The mountain top experience is an inspiration. It offers a vision of what can be and what should be. But it reminds us that there is work to do below. And that work will be in our own lives, as we journey through our lives seeking to grow ever closer to God through prayer and bible study and through our own life experiences. And it will be in the world.
Looking at any news programme or reading news papers there are all too frequent reminders of a broken world - a world damaged by sin... Our vision of the transforming power and love of Jesus offers hope into these situations... And it's not a glib sort of hope. We don't just offer passages of scripture to cheer people up - we offer ourselves and our stories of how God has transformed us.
All of us need mountain top times in our lives. Places where we can go to literally or figuratively cherish the vision of God - to grow closer to him, to seek his will for us, to seek the strengthening power of his love - to renew our faith and vision that Jesus Christ is the mind of God, the heart of God, the Son of God, the truth about God. To know what it truly means to be loved by him and to love one another.
But all of us too need to live in the valley as well - seeking to share the transforming story of God's love - seeking to offer his message of hope, peace, comfort, strength and love and knowing those things in our lives... So that in all that we do and think and say we can confidently trust in the fact that God walks with us into eternity. AMEN
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