Sermon at Parish Mass Sunday next before Lent 2017

Exodus 24.12-18

2 Peter 1.16-21

Matthew 17.1-9

For the last few weeks we have been following Jesus through the Sermon on the Mount, but the Sunday before Lent we go with him to a different mountain.

We are further along the Gospel story here. Jesus is about to start his last journey to Jerusalem, and a dramatic scene has just taken place. Peter has confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, and Jesus has confirmed him in this faith. But Peter has then intervened to try and stop Jesus saying what seems to him nonsense, that the Messiah must suffer and be killed and rise again. That earns Peter the sharp rebuke from Jesus: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

In spite of this it is immediately after this scene that Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him up the mountain. Jesus has not rejected Peter, but Peter needs to learn how to set his mind on divine things rather than human things. And he can only learn that from Jesus.

There is comfort and reassurance in that for us, and for all disciples. Jesus has called us to follow him, and he never takes back his call. Even when we get it wrong, even when we set our minds on human things rather than divine things, Jesus still calls us to follow. But we need to learn from him how to convert our minds, so that they can be set on divine things instead. We need, in fact, to learn how to see the glory of God in Jesus who was rejected and crucified.

There are two possible sites for the transfiguration. One is Mount Hermon, above Caesarea Philippi, the place where Peter made his confession of faith. Caesarea Philippi was a pagan place, a center of worship of the nature god Pan, and a mountain resort where the wealthy Roman elite had their holiday homes.

The other possible site is Mount Tabor, further south, but it still fits within the time frame of the story. It is a striking conical mountain that rises abruptly from the valley of Jezreel, also known as Megiddo, or Armageddon. Many battles were fought beneath that mountain in ancient times, so that the name became a byword for conflict and war. From the summit of Tabor you can see the Horns of Hattin, a sinister looking rock formation where the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was defeated by Saladin in 1187 - and the locals still talk about it. it’s impossible to look at the scene below without thinking of all the violence that has unfolded there.

So whichever mountain was the actual site of the transfiguration, it is a place of sharp contrasts. On the mountain Jesus appears in glory, supported by Moses and Elijah. The whole of God’s revelation to Israel is there in those three figures: the law and the prophets, but in the middle, in the superior place, stands Jesus, the Messiah, the Law in Person revealed on the holy mountain.

Down below, in contrast to the divine light revealed on the mountain, there is spiritual darkness. Whether it is the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, the worship of created things exemplified by luxurious but pagan Caesarea Philippi, or whether it is the darkness of violence symbolized so potently by the plain of Armageddon.

This is why the voice of the Father is heard, as it was at the baptism of Jesus, declaring him to be his beloved Son. But on this occasion the voice adds a command: “listen to him!”

That command is needed, because to listen to Jesus involves a choice – between the light on the mountain, and the spiritual darkness below. There is an alternative voice, that tells us that the Messiah must not suffer, that the kingdom of God can come about in the same way as the kingdoms of this world, through seizing power, through violence and casting out. This was the voice of Peter, in the scene before, and he has to learn, as must we, that this is not the Father’s way, that this is to think of human things and not divine things.

Peter and the disciples must follow the Messiah in the school of suffering, along the way of the Cross. That is the way to learn divine things, to be trained to see the light of glory in the crucified Messiah. It is no easy road. The disciples will stumble on it, and fail in the test many more times. Indeed these three, Peter, James and John, will be called apart by Jesus again in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before Good Friday. Then, they will be overcome by sleep, not so much the weariness of the body as the sleep of the soul, the inability to see what God is doing as Jesus voluntarily undergoes his passion and death for the salvation of the world.

But they will see, when Jesus is raised from the dead. The risen Messiah will open their minds to understand the scriptures. The old human ways of thinking will give way as their minds are transformed to understand divine things. But that is the end of a long path of repentance, of continually turning away from the darkness and towards the light, of letting themselves be transformed by the renewing of their minds, as St Paul puts it in Romans.

Lent is a journey of transformation and repentance, a time when we draw back from unnecessary things to learn to depend on God alone once more. It is a time of training and testing, so we can learn to distinguish between the light on the mountain and the spiritual darkness we are called to reject, and be strengthened to choose the light. It is a time when the path of rejection, humiliation and suffering reveals itself to be the one path through the kingdoms of this world that leads us to the glory of the Father in the crucified and risen Messiah. Lent is a season of grace, of learning divine things in place of human things.

Our Lent programme at St Peter’s this year will focus on what it means for us to flourish as a church. For us, as for any disciples of Jesus, this can only be found by following the path of transformation, by learning to see the glory of the cross. We will look at different aspects of that each Sunday at the Parish Mass.

We will do this because a church can only flourish the way that Jesus flourishes, by following the Father’s will. Which means seeing through and rejecting the alternative paths of power, domination and control. It is about centering ourselves on Jesus, and learning from him. Lent calls us to attend to the Father’s voice, and to do what he says: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”