May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.
Collect
Almighty Father, whose Son was revealed in majesty before he suffered death upon the cross: give us grace to perceive his glory, that we may be strengthened to suffer with him and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Confession
When Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. As he is pure, so all who have grasped this hope make themselves pure. Let us confess the sins that mar his image in us.
Your unfailing kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Lord, have mercy:
Lord, have mercy.
Your righteousness is like the strong mountains, and your justice as the great deep.
Christ, have mercy:
Christ, have mercy.
For with you is the well of life: and in your light shall we see light.
Lord, have mercy:
Lord, have mercy.
May the God of all healing and forgiveness draw us to himself, that we may behold the glory of his Son, the Word made flesh, and be cleansed from all our sins, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God’s Word - 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 3 to 6 :-
If our gospel is veiled at all, it is veiled only for those on the way to destruction; their unbelieving minds are so blinded by the god of this passing age that the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, cannot dawn upon them and bring them light. It is not ourselves that we proclaim; we proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For the God who said, ‘Out of darkness light shall shine,’ has caused his light to shine in our hearts, the light which is knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mark, chapter 9, verses 2 to 9 :-
Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And in their presence he was transfigured; his clothes became dazzling white, with a whiteness no bleacher on earth could equal.
They saw Elijah appear and Moses with him, talking with Jesus. Then Peter spoke: ‘Rabbi,’ he said, ‘it is good that we are here! Shall we make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah?’ For he did not know what to say; they were so terrified. Then a cloud appeared, casting its shadow over them, and out of the cloud came a voice: ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’
Then suddenly, when they looked around, only Jesus was with them; there was no longer anyone else to be seen. On their way down the mountain, he instructed them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
Reflection
A fairly constant theme in scripture is the hiddenness of the truth. The Old Testament prophets are voices in the wilderness, speaking God’s uncomfortable truth, but ignored by many if not most of the people, who would rather listen to the self-serving false prophets whose message is soothing and pleasing. In the New Testament we have Paul writing to Timothy about those who would rather have their ears tickled than listen to the truth. And Jesus talks to his disciples about the narrow gate by which they will enter the kingdom, compared to the wide gate and easy way of the world, whose end is destruction. And about parables - stories everybody hears, but not everybody gets the message.
Paul himself was going the wrong way, and not seeing what was really there, until on the road to Damascus God broke through very forcibly to convert him. I remember hearing the former gang leader turned international evangelist Nicky Cruz speaking about his conversion many years ago; his was a story of having to reach the lowest of low points before he could begin to hear the truth, and of God’s saving grace experienced and received at the point where he believed himself to be beyond salvation.
The world is a very testing place, always, but rarely more so than now, as we look to enter our second lockdown Lent. Lent is a time when we choose to be tested, but also perhaps when we choose to make ourselves more aware than we generally are of God’s hidden glory in our dark and fallen and often broken world. These days in which winter hangs on grimly but spring drops hints of the coming warmth and brightness and colour seem to me a good time to have Lent: I don’t imagine it works quite so well in an Australian autumn. Out walking a few days ago, I found myself in a landscape virtually without life or colour: washed out greys and browns at best. But then there was a single star of yellow, a celandine determined to break out ahead of the rest, but a sign of what is to come.
Signs of what is to come. Jesus was constantly talking about the Kingdom of God. Theologians sometimes call this a message of “now but not yet” - the Kingdom of God is happening around us, wherever people’s kindness and love, and their generous and open-hearted response to our generous Lord, wherever these things change hearts, open minds, heal hurts, and brighten our world. And that’s like my celandine, a sign of what is to come - when God’s reign is complete, and when God’s love reaches and touches and enlightens every heart.
Till then, what we have is glimpses of glory: and that takes us to the story of today’s Gospel reading from St Mark, the event we call the Transfiguration. On the mountain as Jesus prays, three of the disciples see him transfigured, his clothes and face shining with a brightness too strong for their eyes. It’s a glimpse of glory so sharp and bright it terrifies them - but it is just a glimpse. The next time they raise their eyes all is as it had been before; and Jesus tells them on the way down the hillside to say nothing for now of what they have seen.
I’ve always understood this as being not so much that Jesus was changed, as that for a moment the disciples were able to see the true glory that was always there, but which their eyes and minds couldn’t comprehend. And indeed they still didn’t truly understand what it was they’d glimpsed; they would only really begin to understand that after Easter. For what glorifies Jesus is his complete obedience to his Father’s will, and the fact that, having set his face to Jerusalem, he doesn’t turn back or aside from that road, even though he knows it must lead to the cross.
The American singer-songwriter Jim Croce had a song called “Time in Bottle”: ‘If I could save time in a bottle / the first things that I’d like to do / is to save every day till eternity passes away / just to spend them with you.’ Lovely words about being in love, appropriate for Valentine’s Day. We are of course, prisoners of time, and that, more than anything, is what limits our vision. And on that mountain-top, for a brief space, those three disciples were lifted out of time and into eternity - for even time, the dominating factor in our lives, is just part of God’s creation.
‘We are such things as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.’ so wrote Shakespeare in “The Tempest”. But what if those limits to what Cardinal Newman called “this troublous life” were removed? The glimpses of glory that come my way matter a lot to me. They don’t remove all doubt, they don’t banish all fear, but they do restore and rekindle my hope, and keep me travelling on. John was one of the three disciples up there on the mountain that day. Later he wrote that “there is no room for fear in love; perfect love banishes fear,” and “We love because God loved us first.” Knowing that I am loved frees me to love; and each act of love plants a new flower, and lights a new star.
Statement of faith -
We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer Pointers -
We pray for the Church everywhere to be a sign of God’s glory and a channel of God’s love. We pray today for Christians in Canada, and for the Anglican Church in that land. We pray for our own diocese, and for Richard our Bishop, and for all that helps develop and establish our parish churches within the communities they are called to serve. In the week that commemorates Thomas Bray, we pray for the work of USPG and SPCK.
We pray for the dark places of our world, the places blighted by poverty and hunger, by injustice and conflict, and by greed too. We pray that those who misuse the power or the wealth they hold may realise the futility of what they do. We pray we may quickly help poorer nations to vaccinate their people against Covid-19.
We pray for all who are ill, and for their care and recovery; we continue to pray for all who work in our hospitals, health centres and care homes, and for their safety and protection. We pray for a considered response to the new variants of Covid that are emerging, and for all engaged in the process of vaccination.
We pray for our families and friends, and for the life of our churches and communities. On Valentine’s Day we pray for all who are in love, and for those preparing for marriage in our churches. We pray that people may observe the Covid rules, and that we may we look out for each other through this testing time, and keep safe ourselves.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing -
May Christ the splendour of the Father and the image of his being draw us to live in his light and share his glory; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen.
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