Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday
2 Corinthians 3:18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
Luke 9:28 - 9 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.
The first line of
a popular song from the Musical Joseph
and his Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat, goes like this:
“I closed my
eyes/pulled back the curtain/to see for certain/what I thought I knew…”
Today’s Gospel
shows us the peeling back of a curtain between earth and heaven as Jesus is
revealed in all his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.
It’s a glimpse of
glory, which is very tantalizing.
We’ll firstly take a look at the word GLORY, then
have a digression on the difficulty of imagining Eternal Life
and thirdly, we’ll ask where in our lives do we experience glory?
1. Glory is a
fascinating topic in Scripture – I wonder what images the word conjures up for
you?
Perhaps something
akin to a bright light, something white and blinding, maybe images of a
coronation service…certainly not an every day occurrence.
The Westminster
Catechism talks of glory: to the question: ‘What
is the chief end of man?’ the answer goes:
‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.’
Today is Transfiguration
Sunday, a Sunday all about GLORY.
It’s a Sunday when
we think of Jesus, an otherwise ordinary looking man, who had no particular physical
attractiveness, and who experienced all the common emotions and troubles known to
humankind, being suddenly revealed to be who he truly was, behind the curtain
(so to speak).
The word ‘glory’
in Greek is doxa, from where we get our word ‘doxology’.
A doxology is what
we say after a psalm: ‘Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, Amen’.
Saying a doxology
is a little repetitive reminder that despite all appearances to the contrary,
the glory of God is his very nature, and that nature is something we can fully rely on to
be real.
‘Glory’ in the Old Testament has
a special word: Shekinah.
The Shekinah of
God was His manifest presence in a local place, like the Temple.
It was said that
when Moses came down from his mountain top experience, after receiving the 10
commandments, that his face shone with glory, the glory of having been in the
presence of God.
The glory shining
in his face was so bright he had to put a veil over it when he talked with
ordinary people; otherwise they could not bear to look at it.
On Transfiguration
Sunday we see Jesus revealed for a moment in all his true glory.
It’s a moment to
savour, because soon we will enter Lent and it will be a while before the resurrection
glory of Easter Day dawns (though let’s not forget that every Sunday is a
resurrection morning really).
We can picture the
mountain top scene perhaps:
Jesus has taken his
closest three friends up the mountain to pray.
Can you imagine
going up a mountain with Jesus to share a time of prayer?
It would be pretty
special.
While he was
praying the appearance of his face changed and suddenly his clothes became
dazzling white.
Now strange things
can happen at the top of mountains.
There’s a lot of
cloud up there, the weather might be unpredictable, the atmosphere might be a
bit rarified; you might be worn out from the climb…
Can you really
believe your eyes as Jesus’ appearance begins to change – is that the sun
bursting through – or just Jesus getting whiter and whiter till you can hardly
look,
As the curtain is
peeled back for a moment….
…..the curtain
that separates this age from the age to come?
2. A little digression on the nature of the afterlife…
We have problems
in our language describing the afterlife/heaven/eternal life etc.
We think we live
here now, then we’ll progress to something that comes after.
We struggle when
we use time-related words.
But another way to
think of it, is that Life Eternal is present alongside ours and that’s possibly much more helpful.
There’s a scene
from the Harry Potter movies where Harry sees his godfather die in a battle
against the forces of evil.
In the film the
sequence is slowed; in slow motion you see the fatal blow fall on the godfather, Sirius;
you see him stop for a moment, fall backwards slowly, and a curtain appears – a very
flimsy curtain - and he falls through it and into the other side,
wherever that is…
 |
| Sirius falls through the curtain... |
Harry, in that Harry is distraught and cannot see his godfather anymore; but in fact he is apparently only on the other side of the curtain…
That’s a good
visual image of Life Eternal being just out of sight, NEXT to ours…
Or imagine you’re
at a theatre, and the scenery is stacked up one screen behind the other, each
screen ready to be brought out at the right time.
As the scene
changes, the scenery that you can see now, is lifted for a moment to reveal
something much more spectacular behind it.
On the Mount of
Transfiguration, the reality behind the ordinary mountain walk is suddenly
revealed, and the disciples ‘see’ the Old Testament prophets alongside the exalted
Son of God, talking with him about his forthcoming death.
They suddenly see
reality. And NOTE: when this happened they were praying.
3. So finally, when have you suddenly glimpsed spiritual
reality right in your midst?
Sometimes it’s at
our most testing moments that we see the reality behind the curtain…
Moments when I
have glimpsed the glory have often been at funerals, or with the bereaved who
are reaching out to God; as well as the moment when couples make their wedding
vows, or a baby is christened, or I’m singing an uplifting hymn, or sitting in
silence in the presence of a flickering candle….you will have your own moments.
Be encouraged that probably the times
when we’re most likely to glimpse the glory poking through the curtain are the
hard times – so we mustn’t
lose heart.
Suffering leads to
glory if we let it.
Paul says that we
reflect the glory as we are being made into God’s likeness,
That’s a huge privilege
and also a challenge.
That challenge is
that the transformation he speaks of needs our co-operation.
Lent is a perfect
time to reassess this; to reassess our spiritual lives, our walk with Christ.
The Lent Course a
perfect format in which to be open to each other in power of the Spirit.
But if you can’t
come to the Lent Course, find a way to make room for Christ, especially in your
prayer life this Lent.
Is there a book, a
task, a daily discipline that you can practice to deepen your relationship with
Christ?
Can I put in a
plug for not just the usual ‘I’m giving up chocolate’?
There’s nothing
wrong with a type of fast, but the reason for doing it is to draw nearer to
God.
In Lent we pray
for the grace to catch the glimpses of glory.
"I closed my eyes/pulled back the curtain/to see for certain/what I thought I knew..."
Amen.
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