Glory is all around

From Helen 

I want to begin this morning by saying Dydd Dewi Sant Hapusi ti, Happy St.Davids day to you. It is a day late  but the weekend of celebration can continue ! I also want to say happy final Sunday before Lent.

Lent… the time when we draw closer to God, the time when we spend moments thinking of things that we can change in our lives, and the ways that we want to see the World change and to pray for the World.

It is a very serious time but before lent begins I want to tell you a story about a rabbit.  There is a reason and that is that the story relates to our readings this morning and it is a very good story. The rabbit in the story is called Mr Hopewell.  Hope –well, hop-well ?

Mr Hopewell had been born into a particularly cold environment with a lot of snow.  He was always cold but he heard the other rabbits talking about spring.  Mr Hopewell thought that spring sounded good and he assumed that Springwas a person, a ‘Mr.Spring’. So he asked the other rabbits about when Mr.Spring would arrive and they all laughed at him.

He did not ask any more questions until he saw a daffodil, and he asked the daffodil ‘are you Mr.Spring?’ ‘no’ replied the daffodil ‘but without spring I would not be here’.  Then the daffodil explained that spring was all around Mr.Hopewell and that was why it was warmer.

Now Mr.Hopewell was a very clever rabbit and he became a man.  Not only did he become a man but he kept hearing people talking about life being better with God.  So Mr Hopewell hunted for someone to ask who God was and where he might be found as Mr Hopewell wished to meet him…

Then all of a sudden he found himself on a mountain and saw the most beautiful sight he had ever seen and someone came up to him and said “wow, that’s the glory of God”.  Mr Hopewell asked “where ?” and the man answered ‘the glory of God is everywhere’. The man went on, ‘God made you and His glory is with you, and is wrapped all around the world’.

The readings today have spoken about glory, the glory of God.  Moses met with God in the Old Testament reading and was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights as he was overcome with the glory of God.

Then in the epistle reading we were reminded of the power, majesty and glory of God that means that we should follow Him.

In the Gospel reading we were reminded of the transfiguration, the moment when Jesus dazzled the disciples with Him as He met with Moses and Elijah.

Moses and Elijah were very important figures, Moses had brought the law of God to the people of Israel, and Elijah had taught them how to continue their relationship with God.  Both of them had shown to the people of Israel the glory of God in His law, and in His teaching.  Jesus showed the glory of God in a different way.

His way was not a way that ignored the law, but His was better because His glory was the glory of love.  A love for us that was so great that He would die for our sins, that he would die for us.

I was once asked to define glory for people who did not necessarily believe in God to be used in a presentation.  I have to say it was really hard, but I did find that pictures of Liverpool winning the European cup for the fifth time helped, as did Wales winning Grand slams. I also used a picture of pigs enjoying glorious mud !

Of course, excellent though those things may be, they are nothing compared to the glory of God.  The God we worship is love, He is also the God of glory and to Him belongs our worship and our praise.

I am not sure about you but there have been times in my life when I have been particularly aware of the presence of God and have seen the glory of God all around me. These are those times when you just want to stay in the place you are, so that you do not lose that feeling.  

One such time for me was the first time that we went to the Holy Land, I have to admit that I was a little nervous about practical things such as being a fussy eater ! I found crowds a lot to deal with as they seemed to get in the way of my reflection time. I was so wrong as one day we went to the beach where Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection and you can almost imagine that the disciples were desperate to ask Jesus questions and all He said was,’lets eat breakfast.’ To be in that place was incredible and I could have stayed there for hours looking at the sea of Galilee and thinking of the love of God.

However, reality meant that there was more to see and more to do- which to be honest was definitely worthwhile.

In the gospel reading Peter knew that something incredible had happened, and was happening and somehow, he wanted to catch that moment and to hold onto it forever.

I can understand that feeling, it is what you might call a mountain top experience, that is those times in life when it seems that things cannot get any better.

Reality can often be different to those wonderful mountain top experiences that we can have.  The reality is that somehow we have to take something of those wonderful experiences into our everyday lives.  It is as if God gives us something good to re-energize us to go and do His work.  

The disciples were in fear but Jesus assured them that they had no need to be afraid. Moses knew that God was with him, as he went up the mountain to experience more of the glory of God. There will be times in our lives when we need to take a step of faith, but we take that step knowing that the awesome God whose glory covers the earth loves us.

I believe that God is with us, at all times, he is with us when we hurt; he is with us when we are happy - He is with us in our day to day lives, and our challenge is to remember that and then to allow God to use us as a mirror showing His glory to others by the way that we live our lives and by the ways in which we show His love to other people.

God is a God of glory, He is not just the God of love.., He actually is love; following Him and trying to be more like Him we cannot help but face reality with the love that He gives, because the more time we spend trying to be like God, is the more time we spend becoming like a mirror through which the glory of God can shine in the world and into the pain of those around us dispelling fear.

May we approach Lent ready to transform our lives to become more like God and thereby to transform the lives of all those around us with His love and His glory. AMEN​