“Glimpses of
Glory”
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A
sermon preached Readings: II
Kings 2:1-12; Mark 9:2-9 |
“There in their presence he was transfigured”
(Mk 9:2)
Glimpses
of Glory
Before turning to that
familiar story of the transfiguration of our Lord,
a few cameos and word pictures:
·
The Olympic gold medal winner stands on the winner’s podium –
a face shining with joy and pride.
·
More topically, a Kenyan cricketer celebrates another victory -
so excited, absolutely over the moon,
Moments of joy and
achievement –
and the radiant faces say “This is how it should be!”
·
A couple walk into the room hand in hand –
Try as they will their faces give away –
you know they have just fallen in love just by looking at them
·
Or watch an oh-so-proud parent cradling a new born babe
Moments
where joy and achievement and love meet in a tangible moment of sheer
exultation.
·
Now sit in a meeting and listen to a complex discussion in which
everything seems muddy and diffuse –
never mind the answers, even the questions are confused.
Then someone offers a sentence or an image which gives you a handle on the
whole debate,
and everything falls into place.
·
Or go back 50 years this week and sit in a laboratory with two unknown
scientists
and feel the atmosphere as they realise that they have cracked the mystery of
DNA
Moments
when suddenly the world seems to make more sense, a place where suddenly the
pieces fit.
·
Go and stand on a stormy headland,
put you head to the wind and watch the ocean breakers roaring in
·
Sit in the concert hall and hear the exquisite resolution of a final
spine tingling chord
Moments when suddenly you
are almost overwhelmed by the majesty and beauty
·
Or stand with Keats on first looking into Chapman’s Homer:
…
like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific, and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien
Moments
when suddenly your vision is extended
and the world is so much more than it was a moment before.
Maybe if we put all those
experiences together,
we are getting close to a feel of how it must have been
for Peter and James and John that day as they climbed the mountain.
All moments of
transfiguration, transformation –
·
moments when suddenly the world seems a different place,
·
moments when we see the world in a new way
·
moments when everything suddenly seems imbued
with meaning and beauty
and potential for good
·
moments when others see in our face the thrill and ecstasy
of the moment.
·
moments when if words do not absolutely fail us
say perhaps little more
than “Oh!”
The Gospel describing the
Transfiguration of Jesus
says that his face shone, his clothes were white with light,
he was there with Moses and Elijah –
Who knows literally what was
going on? –
the disciples certainly didn’t.
They are with Jesus – they know him well –
probably knew him way back in his woodworking days in Capernaum,
when they sold their fish to Mary as old Joseph would repair their boats….
But this is different.
Today on the mountain top
they see him in a new way –
They had seen for the first time
a depth, a beauty, a meaning, a power, an awesomeness,
that they had never dreamed of -
something exciting and thrilling –
yet so powerfully present as to be almost frightening -
they experience that fearful yet joyful exultancy known as awe.
You
may know the story told by Mary Ann Bird.
Mary Ann Bird grew up knowing she
was different, and she hated it.
She was born with a cleft palate.
When she started school, her classmates made it clear to her how she looked to
others:
a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled
speech.
Perhaps understandably,
she was convinced that no one outside my family could possibly love her.
There was, however, one teacher whom everyone adored --
Mrs. Leonard by name. She was short,
round, happy -- a sparkling lady.
Every year Mrs. Leonard gave a hearing test to everyone in the class.
Each year Mary Ann had her hearing checked.
It worried her, because she could not hear well –
yet another problem waiting to mark her out.
It was a very simple test - Each year each child was told to cover one
ear.
Mrs Leonard would whisper something into the one ear
and the child had to repeat it back to show she had heard -
just a simple phrase like “The sky is blue” or “Do you have new shoes?”
Many years later Mary Ann would tell the tale of the hearing test she would
never forget. –
how she waited for the whisper, so anxious to hear the
phrase aright.
And, she says, I heard
“those seven words which changed my life.
Mrs. Leonard said in her whisper, ‘I wish you were my little girl’. ”
You don’t have to be on a mountain top with Moses and
Elijah to have a glimpse of glory –
to know in a flash of revelation that
the world is a richer and deeper and more connected and meaningful and
beautiful place
than you had ever realized before…
Remembering
the Moment
Of course these moment are like seeing a rainbow -
you can’t capture and keep them.
And so James and John and
Peter are soon on their way back down the mountain.
They may not have fully
comprehended or assimilated the experience,
but they have seen something which they will never forget,
and which will always colour their world.
When they were back in the
shadow of the valley below, I wonder -
did they look sidelong at the Rabbi Jesus, and say to each other –
just think - there is more here than we or the world had known….
The moment of glory has
gone, but the memory remains.
And for you and me too –
What moments have we been
given?
Maybe you might reflect for a moment on your special moments –
your glimpses of glory, your trip to the mountain top, the whisper in your
ear….
For us like the disciples,
these moments may pass –
but they remain with us as potent and defining memories.
For us like the disciples,
the memories are there for us especially when we are lost and low.
“These
moments are given to us so that we can remember them
when God seems far away
and everything seems empty and useless.”
[Henry Nouwen,
Bread for the Journey, 1996]
·
I wonder what was going through the mind of poor Derek Bond last week –
banged up for a fortnight in a South African police cell by the FBI – told he
wasn’t who he was…
But of course he know his real identity,
and amidst the nightmare, he held onto the truth about himself.
·
Martin Luther king fighting the forces of racism which
(did he know it?) were about to claim his life –
lived his last days still struggling in a dark and dangerous world –
down in the valley of the shadow -
But his oratory was able to soar over his pain, for, as he said
”I have been to the mountaintop … I have seen the Promised Land”
Back in the valley, he held on to the vision.
Sometimes our life descends into the abyss,
but we need to hang onto the God given truth –
that we are precious in God’s eyes, that he loves us, that we are his beloved
children,
he is our Lord, and the Promised Land awaits us.
Nancy and Trevor sang about the Prodigal Son –
Out there in a far country, everything has gone wrong.
The world is a dark, grasping and loveless place,
The road is a dead end.
But the Prodigal remembers his Father’s house -
that he is his father’s son -
The memory of his Father’s glory has been sadly dimmed,
but thankfully “he came unto himself” and remembered.
When the disciples come down from the Mountain,
they too come to a dark and difficult part of their lives.
For the Gospel story begins to turn to Jerusalem and
the Cross.
The story becomes darker and more threatening.
It moves from major to minor key.
The storm clouds start to gather.
I wonder, how often in a
dark sleepless night did Peter and James and John stave off nightmares
recalling that moment of glory on the mountainside?
And so
what of us?
We now approach Lent –
a solemn and demanding season -
We are called to think of our sins and failings,
our impaired vision, our clouded sight, the dark and sinful valley we traverse.
We are called to take up our cross and follow…
It is a demanding journey
through the dark valley -
It is good therefore to meditate on the glory of God –however fleetingly
glimpsed –
at the start of our Lenten journey.
So is this a day when you
might stand on the mountain top and glimpse the glory of God?
Look well, and then look down below you to the valley -
and think of
·
a pensioner in a South African gaol,
·
a prodigal son in a pigsty,
·
a young girl who believes no one loves her
·
Martin Luther king awaiting the assassin’s bullet,
·
Peter and James and John heading inexorably to Jerusalem.
Then go down into the valley
again yourself
and begin your Lenten pilgrimage in these coming weeks….
And as you do so, rejoice
that God is good –
And as we face the valley,
let us remember the mountain
As we shoulder the cross,
let hold fast to the glimpses of glory
So may walk our path
fearlessly,
Until that great day shall
come when finally we see face to face -
the glory of the Lord.