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Let light shine out of darkness
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 22nd February 2009
Revd. Canon David Pickering
II Corinthians 4: 6. For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The account of the Transfiguration of Jesus, which we have just heard, is one of the amazing gospel stories, and a rather unique event. It is unusual that the miracle is not happening to someone else, but to Jesus himself. He is the one who is changed.
For Aaron it's a truly wonderful reading to have at his baptism. I hope it will be a bible story that will go with him for the rest of his life.
Jesus, along with Peter and James and John, three of his closest, pals, mates, confidants, friends go off for a bit of time alone together, and something quite amazing takes place. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Not only that, there were two other fellers on the scene as well, Moses & Elijah, two of the most revered figures from the ancient Jewish faith. Then there was the cloud; perhaps not such a rare occurrence on a high mountain. But it gets a bit strange when a voice comes from the cloud.
What do you do in such event? You've got to mark it with something. So Peter, in his usual impetuous manner, comes up with the idea of building three commemorative shelters. Peter said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' 6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.
All very bewildering!
A great deal has been written about the transfiguration, and is still being written.
I'm not sure what the human Jesus would have made of the internet, but I make a Google search for "transfiguration means" I come up with 334,000 links (when I preached this sermon in 2006 it was just 154,000 links). Most quote preachers or theologians, both ancient and modern, who have grappled with what the transfiguration has meant down the ages.
And, obviously they don't all agree!
Faced with thousands of diverse opinions, none of them authoritative, you take your pick and make up your own mind, and form your own view and possible conclusion.
This may sound threatening to the Church. It has a duty to teach a truth. But Jesus would probably approve, for while the Church may be dogmatic, Jesus was interactive.
Jesus does not teach his disciples anything about the transfiguration.
He just invites them to experience it, even if it is frightening and mysterious.
For those who followed Jesus throughout his earthly ministry, there was constant puzzlement as they followed him as a man of action. He was usually reticent to explain himself, and his teaching was mainly in parables, which left things hanging in the air, for listeners of all subsequent generations to interpret for themselves.
The open-endedness of the Gospel means every generation is free to interpret the transfiguration, the miracles, the parables, the crucifixion and the resurrection in their own way, finding meaning according to their own experience of life and their own cultural setting. This means Christianity in India is a different animal from Christianity in Africa, or our secular multicultural western society, or the Bible Belt of the USA.
Our Christianity also means different things to us at the various stages of our life.
If it does not, then we lose it as we move one from one age to another.
The faith of the searching and reaching out child has to move on and grow into the challenges and responsibilities of adult life.
We have to use the world and life in which we live to understand and explain our faith.
Mark, along with the other evangelists, could only explain the transfiguration experience in his own terms his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them..
Think of all those soap powder advertisements!
None can fully explain the transfiguration.
We may all have our own ideas of what heaven may be like and vague perceptions of the beatific vision, but for now we have to be contented with this life.
But there is room for a form of transfiguration in our lives. It comes in the fruits of the Spirit as found in Galatians 5. 22. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control.
This is one of my favourite themes, which will crop us at regular intervals. Suffice it to say for now that when the fruits of the Spirit our evident in our lives, then we are transfigured as the glory of God is revealed through them.
So in the transfiguration story it is most appropriate that God's glory, seen in Jesus, shows him being lit up, bright and seemingly pure.
In the final verse of this morning's gospel there is a hint of what is to come. He ordered them not to tell no one about what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
This is a key turning point in the gospel story. Jesus is revealed in all his heavenly glory – well as far as we can perhaps handle it in earthly terms.
Now he goes forward to the Cross.
On Wednesday we begin the solemn season of Lent.
The time when we try and sort ourselves out, especially with regard to where the glory of God falls short in our lives.
The transfiguration is a glimpse of heaven.
Lent is the opportunity to try and recapture the qualities of heaven on earth in our daily activities, especially in relation to the world around us.
I am never sure about the standard practice of giving up things for Lent.
I think it is far more spiritually healthy to consider what should be taken up.
What bit of heaven can we bring to our world in terms of healing, peace, care, kindness, love and goodness?
We all need to be transfigured so that the glory of God will shine in the world of today through our lives and the way we live them.
The transfiguration is a fitting beginning for Aaron's life.
In our prayers for him we ask that God's glory will shine in and through his life. At the end of the service he will be given a candle with those wonderful words 'Shine as a light in the world to the glory of God'.
He will have challenges. He will have troubles, but with the grace of his baptism strengthening and guiding him, the glory of God can and will shine through.
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