This Week's Thinking bit

Moses receives the ten commandments up a mountain; Peter speaks of the transfiguration;
the Transfiguration itself!

The story of the transfiguration finds poor old Peter opening his mouth without thinking first. A man who seems to walk in those footsteps is President Bush and people have collected some marvellous Bush-isms over the last few years. We trust the man in question will forgive us if we share a few of them here...

*"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."*
*"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."*
*"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."*
*"The future will be better tomorrow."*
*"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."*
*"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."*
*"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."*

Ever had those occasions when things just don’t go right for you? When you seem to say the wrong thing or be in the wrong place? The sort of days when you wish you could just go back to bed and forget about it all? Well poor old Peter - the Rock - the one on whom the church was to be built, the first pope - was having a week like that...

In Matthew’s gospel the Transfiguration comes after Peter’s confession of Jesus’ divinity and Jesus talking about his death: so there they are, Jesus and the disciples, in Caesarea Philippi and Jesus asks his disciples who people think he is, so the disciples kind of hedge their bets by saying John the baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, so Jesus asks them what they think, and rent-a-gob Peter blurts out that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

And straight after this Jesus starts talking about his death and explaining how it must happen; good old Peter - the man born with a golden foot in his mouth - tries to stop Jesus and Jesus calls him satan (“the adversary”, the personification of opposition to God’s royal rule)... then a week later, with this strange incident still ringing in the disciples’ ears, Jesus and the inner three (Peter James & John) trot up a mountain and even more bizarre things happen involving clouds and two of the most significant figures from Israel’s past - law giver Moses and chief of the prophets Elijah.

And poor old Peter - the man who opens his mouth to change feet - does it again and suggests they all stick around and prolong - or try to bottle! - the experience.

It’s clearly a story echoing parts of the Exodus story when the people of Israel were brought out from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land by Moses, God’s agent and “God’s friend”.

a.	they go up a mountain - just as Moses did
b.	God speaks out of a cloud of “shekianh” glory - just as there was with Moses
c.	just as Moses’ face shone with glory when he had been meeting God face to face, so here Jesus’ face shines like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white...
d.	there is God’s voice - not this time giving commandments but bearing witness
e.	the reaction is one of fear
f.	Peter tries to set up a tent, as Moses set up the tent of meeting

The idea that Jesus’ death - of which Moses & Elijah speak in Luke’s account - is a second, greater Exodus where all people trapped in the slavery of sin, would be liberated...

Moses and Elijah make an appearance - to represent the Law & the Prophets giving approval to Jesus - and then a voice from heaven gives God’s very seal of approval to the course of action.

But also it was thought that both Moses & Elijah would make an appearance before the Messiah came (Deut 18.15-18 & Malachi 4.5)

Was it significant that the three disciples were there? Following on from Peter’s confession - which maybe he was saying without actually knowing the value of the words he was speaking - this was the demonstration of the glory to which Peter had pointed.
But it was again a glory that was tinged with the passion: the glory of God is becoming slowly but inevitably linked with and welded to the cross... John’s gospel constantly refers to Jesus passion as his “hour of glory”... and here in the transfiguration we see that link between glory and suffering underlined.

I don’t know whether you remember when the final part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy hit the cinemas, but in the trailer there was this marvellous phrase they flashed up as we got a glimpse of the scenes: “there can be no triumph without loss; no victory without suffering; no freedom without sacrifice”.

The transfiguration again draws our attention to the way in which glory and suffering are linked. There are some Christians who will tell you that following Jesus keeps you safe from nasty things happening, or that health, wealth and happiness are the blessings which are our rights as disciples - so anything short of that suggests we are failing our Lord... but such opinions are not rooted in the scriptures, such opinions are at odds with the Lord of Glory whose ministry and life are only to be understood fully in his death and resurrection.

Just as Peter is called “satan” for trying to prevent Jesus walking the way of the cross, so not just Moses - the Law, and Elijah - the Prophets are confirming this course of action; but God himself speaks to confirm that Jesus is doing the right thing in the right way.

This is a very powerful affirmation story which links glory with death and underlines Jesus' purpose.

Now that’s not to say that there aren’t ever moments of glory divorced from suffering and pain - indeed we’re often better at being able to identify those moments than we are at spotting the glory in the pain or suffering. God grants us many blessings and I hope that all of us can look back to “mountain top moments” like the transfiguration - up lifting experiences in which we felt particularly close to God.

Perhaps our faith felt so real or so significant... A moment at communion or confirmation; on a pilgrimage, in a special place, at an ordinary service, in prayer etc.

Our faith doesn’t always feature great buzzes and they are more elusive if we try to seek them, but feelings and emotions do play a part in any relationship - so why should our friendship with God be different?

...and living in the real world

Beware of having the experience and missing the meaning (was that Peter?)

We can be so caught up in the moment, or re-living the moment that we forget to reflect on it, or understand it, or we miss the point...

The church I grew up in was hit by the charismatic renewal of the 1970s and 80s, and charismania swept St Margaret's... it was a bizarre experience to grow up in, especially since St Margaret’s was quite a catholic Anglican church. But two things have always stood out in my mind that came hand in hand with the charismatic experience - one was that it led to a division into “first class Christians” - i.e. those who could speak in tongues; and “second class Christians” - i.e. those who couldn’t. And the second was that it didn’t lead to outreach - the church grew by attracting Christians from other churches, but it didn’t lead to the kind of evangelism that immediately followed Pentecost in the book of Acts... and reflecting years later on that I do find myself wondering whether we had the experience but missed the meaning...

The second thing about religious experience is the challenge to be able to integrate the experience into our everyday lives... and not try and prolong the experience to avoid the hum drum. The Mount of Transfiguration is always going to be more attractive that the via Dolorosa - the “way of sorrows”, the way of the cross... Maybe that was what Peter was getting at when he wanted to build a tent - he wanted to hang on to the fantastic glory of the mountain top, and not go down - literally and emotionally - into the valley of the shadow of death.

But this challenge not to seek religious experiences but to be able to live with the dry times as well as the exciting times demands of us a trust in God, space to reflect on our own journey and an ability to see the bigger picture of our total life as disciple sof Christ.

The Transfiguration links glory and suffering; it accepts the religious highs without trying to provoke or prolong them; it challenges us to integrate the highs and lows into our lives; and it leaves us with some profound material to contemplate Christ’s passion and purpose... Maybe this is why these readings - so closely linked with the Exodus wanderings in the desert for 40 years - are set for us as we turn this coming week into the reflective period of Lent to contemplate our liberation in an even greater Exodus from oppression...

Fr Andrew J Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea