Recently I discovered I could buy Heaven for just £2.49p.  I think you will agree that this is a bargain not to be missed – though in the interest of not gaining any more weight, I did, in fact, resist.  The ‘Heaven’ on offer was provided by British Home Stores in their restaurant , where for the said £2.49p I could purchase a traditional cream tea – Scone, jam, clotted cream etc –which the poster claimed, was ‘So Heavenly’

BHS are not alone in claiming to make Heaven so accessible. You may remember that Thornton’s offered ‘Chocolate Heaven’ as part of their Christmas advertising campaign and, of course there is the Fairtrade version, available at any time of the year through the ‘Divine’ chocolate range.

I have been known to be irritated at this high-jacking of religious language to describe something which is clearly a long way off the real thing. More recently, I have become more tolerant. Perhaps we mellow with age!

It struck me that though BHS scones are not in the least bit ‘heavenly’, the word itself gains prominence through the advertising poster and in an increasingly secular society that is no bad thing.  Also, the word and its associates , is usually applied to an experience that in some way is tasty and good. ‘Heaven’, ‘heavenly’ and ‘divine’ are words used to promote something that is a bit special so perhaps we shouldn’t knock the advertisers too much. They are, at the very least, reminding people that there is something beyond our normal experience which is worth seeking.

Though a long way off, they do at least take the first tentative step on the right road.

In today’s Gospel, three of  the disciples were also taking a tentative step along the right road.  Taken up the mountain by Jesus they had an experience which if they had reported it to some daily newspaper, was bound to be described as ‘heavenly’ , ‘divine’ or ‘out of this world.’  So much so that they wanted to keep hold of it – prolonging it as much as possible. Perhaps they didn’t realise a truth we know all too well – chocolate doesn’t last for ever!

Without doubt, the Transfiguration experience was for them a taste of heaven – the real heaven this time.  What they witnessed was the glory of God as the person of Jesus was transformed by heavenly power. It was a case of Heaven come down to earth.

It happened on a Mountain – the traditional place for an encounter with God. This is emphasised by the presence of Moses who met God on a mountain to receive the tablets of the law – what we know of as the Ten Commandments. During this encounter with God, the face of Moses was transfigured – the story in Exodus says that his face shone.

Elijah too met God on the mountain. When all seemed lost and he was being hunted by his enemy King Ahab he was told to stand before the Lord on the mountain and there, in the still small voice, he encountered God.

It is not without significance that both Moses and Elijah are see on the Mount of Transfiguration – as representatives of both Word and Prophecy but also because their own experience of God on the mountain lends weight to what is happening to Jesus.

Mountains, in the Bible, are symbolic places representing that point where earth meets heaven.  Physically, of course, mountains soar causing us to look upwards. As the Psalm writer of Psalm 121 puts it:

I will lift mine eyes to the hills : from whence cometh my help

This help, continues the Psalmist cometh even from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

So Jesus stands at that intersection between heaven and earth and we are given a glimpse into his true nature.  He is both God and human but the Mount of Transfiguration lifts our eyes to his God-likeness.  This is emphasised by two things:  his face was changed and his clothes became dazzling white. This is the Angel colour – a true sign of God’s presence. Jesus is touched by the hand of God, his Father, and his glory is confirmed.

Then comes the voice, speaking out the cloud – yet another favourite bible image of both God’s presence and of divine confirmation that Jesus acts for God. This is my Son, my Chosen ,listen to him.

We are reminded of that moment when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the River Jordan when the heavens opened and God confirmed the role of Jesus – You are my Son, my beloved heralding the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry.  The Transfiguration takes this further and we get a clue as to where this is leading when Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah talked to Jesus about his departure which he is about to accomplish at Jerusalem.  The disciples, Peter James and John, heard this without really understanding but we have the benefit of hindsight.

What Jesus was to accomplish at Jerusalem was nothing less than his dying on the Cross for the human race.  The conversation on the Mountain is about the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus.  It is a conversation in which God the Father tells Jesus that their Divine Plan for the salvation of the world is now to be put into action. Its significance became clear to the three eavesdroppers only after they had seen Jesus die on the Cross.

The Transfiguration, then, is a picture of glory but it is only a foretaste of the glory that is to come. Its final fulfilment takes place on a very different hill from the Mount of Transfiguration. It will happen only on Calvary. That is where heaven and earth finally unite and where the Kingdom of Heaven becomes not an idea for biblical theologians and rabbinic scholars to ponder over but rather a reality for all of us to enter into.

Normally, we would not hear of all this until the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 6^th so we have to ask ourselves why it has been repeated here on the Sunday before Lent.

It is given to us today as a foretaste of heaven. It’s God’s ‘commercial’ acting like a trailer of a film in which it sets out the plot in such a way that we want to hang around to see what happens – how it all works out.  But unlike with a film trailer in  we are not watchers of a drama but are people central to its action.

A good film may move us and affect us in ways which leave us, sometimes drained, sometimes exhilarated, and often thoughtful but we walk away at the end of it and, basically, we aren’t all that much different than when we entered the cinema.  This is very different.

We are totally involved. It is all about us. It is about God’s plan to save us from sin, from selfishness, from death and from just being bits of dust that were formed out of the very substance of the earth to which, after death, we return. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

That is not our destiny, says God – our destiny is glory.  We are to share in the glory of Christ and become citizens of the Kingdom.

The foretastes of heaven that we have through our worship and our encounters with God throughout our lives are just that – foretastes. The real, final thing is to share in heavenly glory. That is God’s promise to us and his one heartfelt desire.

So, as we stand at the threshold of Lent, we are being given a reminder through the Transfiguration, that we are on a journey to God and to Glory and this is at the heart of our Lenten journey.

So often, Lent is a time of looking at ourselves and at what is wrong with us. We undertake Lenten discipline – perhaps by giving something up or doing something extra.  All to the good, of course. As long as it’s not just an exercise in self-improvement nor, God forbid, a way of increasing our self-righteousness.

Lent is about drawing closer to God in a loving relationship which is a positive and fulfilling experience of God’s love for us.  The Mountain of Transfiguration asks us to look up not down. Don’t wallow in guilt but seek that kind of repentance that turns you back towards God’s love – a love which promises total forgiveness.

Don’t give something up for the sake of it but rather because it clears a space in your life to spend more time in prayer and study of scripture – both of which reveal God more to you.  Don’t do extra things (even if you have time to do them) just to feel good about yourself. Do everything with extra love so that you are reaching out from yourself towards others and, particularly towards God. 

Lent is a time of growth – a dynamic, creative time, when you think not so much how much you love God but rather, how much he loves you. If you get that right, your own love will follow.  So we are bidden to  LOOK UP – look towards Calvary where the Love of God meets all human struggle and pain and uncertainty and lack of fulfilment – and transforms it all, changing us all, with Love.

Transfiguration is a sign of change but even more so is the Cross the reality of that change. The Cross is not just a sign of God’s Glory but ours too.  Nobody need stay as they are. Nobody is without hope. Nobody is so bad that God abandons them. None of us are yet what God wants us to be. We can all grow. We can all recognise and accept more fully that God loves us – loves us so much that he gave us his only Son  to die for us that we might truly, abundantly and excitingly, live and live to the fullest potential possible for us.

The encounter with God on the Mount of Transfiguration is set within the context of Prayer and it is in prayer that we shall find God’s changing love waiting to transform us. If you want to be changed this Lent then turn that desire into Prayer – Prayer that leads to action. Yours in desiring to grow in love – and God’s in desiring to answer your longing – because it is His longing for You. That’s what Lent is about.

You want heaven – forget chocolate, forget cream teas, forget the false promise of the world and turn your hearts to God’s love. It doesn’t cost £2.49p. It’s totally free -  but for Jesus, it cost him everything.