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When I was in my final year at theological college, I was on placement in the small country parish of Tunstall, near Sittingbourne. Father Vernon Allen was a wonderful example of priesthood to an ordinand on the verge of ordination. One day he took me into the local church school and we were greeted enthusiastically by the children. As they scrambled to sit at his feet, they clearly loved him and very soon I was to see why. He talked to them simply about Jesus and then he asked them a few questions. The children were all keen to answer and hands shot up excitedly. He pointed to one little boy who, sadly, gave a hopelessly wrong answer. Fr Allen beamed at him and said: Well, you're nearly right. He then got the other children to help the boy find the right answer. What struck me was that he didn't put the boy down. Instead he encouraged him and I have never forgotten the importance of the lesson which I learned that day.
Years later, the bishop in my last diocese addressed a church full of churchwardens and sidespeople at a visitation service. In his sermon he told of a meeting with a young curate. "I walked with him round the parish and I told him what marvellous things he was doing." With a twinkle in his eye, he added, "by encouraging him, I got twice as much work out of him the following week."
Encouragement is something that we can see in the Gospel of the Transfiguration which we have just heard. Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and there they witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus - the moment when, in the presence of Moses and Elijah, God bathed his Son in glorious heavenly light.
Some biblical scholars consider this is a displaced Resurrection story which can be mirrored int eh Ascension of our Lord after Easter. It certainly has an Easter feel about it. However it is perfectly placed by all three synoptic Gospel writers in that period before Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem and to his passion and death on the Cross.
It helps to set this event in its context. In Chapter 16 v13-20, Jesus had a conversation with his disciples about who people say the Son of Man is. That he is referring to himself is made clear after the disciples replied that some thought he was John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He then asked them who they say that he is and Simon Peter makes his famous response that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. This response earns Simon his name change to Peter - a name which means rock. As always in the Bible, a change of name heralds a change in the direction and purpose of life. For Peter, he is to become the rock on which Jesus will build his church against which hell will not prevail. Even more, Peter would be given the keys to the kingdom of heaven with power to loose and bind - the power of judgement over who could enter the Kingdom.
Peter's euphoria at this amazing proclamation was, however, short-lived. When Jesus went on to say that he would endure great suffering, be put to death and on the third day be raised again to live, Peter protests that he must never happen. Jesus rebukes him and calls him satanic and one whose heart was not on divine things but on human ones.
This was a confusing time for the disciples made all the more so by what Jesus then said. They, and any of us who would be disciples of Jesus, had to deny themselves and take up their cross - a cross which demands sacrifice at a deeply personal level. If that cross is refused, then, when the Son of Man comes with his angels in glory, there will be consequences of judgement for all who had failed him. It's very hard to escape the feeling that in this section of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus first lifts up his disciples to have a glimpse of who he really is and then slaps them down with the foretelling of his coming Passion. So much of the Gospel is about the wonderful ministry they shared with Jesus and the great adventure, but every so often dark clouds appear and reality sets in.
There is evidence that they didn't always understand him, nor what he was about. They kept getting it wrong and they were left bewildered and even fearful - something that grew as the conflict with the religious authorities became more pronounced. There was a great contrast between the Galilean ministry of Jesus and what later happened in and around Jerusalem. What is especially hard for us, perhaps, is that despite all the teaching he gave to his followers and all the explanations and insights into God's purpose, they kept missing the point. With hindsight we can see what they couldn't and understand what they didn't. Why were they so obtuse!
I am left agreeing with that marvellous poet, U A Fanthorpe, who in her poem Getting it across in which Jesus laments his
Keystone cops of disciples, always
Running absurdly away, or lying ineptly
Cutting off ears and falling into water ...
Pete with his headband stuffed with fish-hooks,
His gift for rushing in where angels wouldn't
... James and John who wanted the room at the top
Not surprisingly, in the poem, Jesus calls them numbskulls. Yet this was the
flesh on which Jesus wasRunning absurdly away, or lying ineptly
Cutting off ears and falling into water ...
Pete with his headband stuffed with fish-hooks,
His gift for rushing in where angels wouldn't
... James and John who wanted the room at the top
Tattooing God on their makeshift lives.
Whist that's a poetic insight into the motley crew Jesus called to follow him, the Gospel is kinder. Jesus is infinitely patient with them and keeps offering explanations in simple language even though that is not always understood.
But God always goes further and today's Gospel is an example of that. Words alone won't reach their hearts, even Godly words. So Jesus supplements his teaching with amazing displays of God's glory - as in the miracles of healing, deliverance, feeding and quelling of natural forces. They didn't have to rely on words alone. Jesus was constantly demonstrating God's power.
Our Gospel today misses out three words - six days later - which form the link between that conversation about Messiahship, our Lord's death and the carrying of crosses. but those words help us to fill in the gap and to understand what Jesus was about to do. Sometimes in the Gospel we have to fill in the lines and we can perhaps imagine that immediately following his doom-laden words, the disciple went into a bit of a decline. The dark picture Jesus painted of what was to happen to him, and to them, couldn't have made things easy for them.
We might understand if from our own journey of faith. There are things that happen which leave us feeling flat, dispirited and unenthusiastic. Faith journeys are not always about the highs of religious experience and those who want a religion that's always about creating a feel-good factor will not find Christianity a very helpful at times. If we are always seeking what Dave Tomlinson, in his book Re-enchanting Christianity calls simplistic spirituality we are going to be disillusioned. Dave goes on to say that
many long for an expression of the
Christian faith that reconciles heart and head, that offers a positive,
engaging spirituality which is also committed to grappling honestly
with difficult and painful questions ...
Or to put it more graphically - when Gonvill
ffrench-Beytagh, a former Dean of Johannesburg, who was imprisoned
during Apartheid, was taken into a London church which specialised in
simplistic spirituality designed to make everyone feel that they should
be happy, he demanded to be taken outside. In that church, he said, there is no corner to weep in!So the disciples spent six days in a kind of dark despair. It wasn't all as wonderful and exhilarating as they supposed. And I guess Jesus felt keenly their anguish and though he did not deal with it immediately, he knew he had to encourage them again. So, as we heard, he took Peter, James and John up a mountain. There the dazzling cloud of God's presence surround them and the voice of God was heard bearing witness to the divine nature of Jesus. After a time of darkness they were given a unique and stupendous experience of glory. And it was given to encourage them - to re-spirit them and to revive in them enthusiasm for the mission and ministry they were caught up in. Whatever happened next, they could not forget that just for that moment, heaven opened for them and they saw the bigger picture of the glory of Christ, transformed on the Holy mountain.
Such encouragement can be life-changing and life-enhancing. And it need only happen once. Peter tried to capture the moment and hold on to it but Jesus needed them to move on - to remember what they saw but to carry it with them into the journey of the Passion that would soon follow.
So, three quick things we can draw from this.
The first is that no matter how dark life can become, God will not leave us comfortless. He will find a way to come and whisper to our soul how much he values, loves and cares for us.
The second thing is that whilst he may give us a religious experience like the mountain of transfiguration, it won't always happen that way. More often he uses other people. And this is a very important point - He uses each of us in this ministry of encouragement. We are called together to look out for each other and to be there for each other and to hold each other. The little boy in Kent and the curate in Blackburn were encouraged by words spoken to them which made them feel valued.
That is something we can all do for each other - not least when we see someone struggling with life or faith. In a sense we must always be ready to become that corner for others to weep in when they are in need. But also, of course, we can simply encourage each other by true Christian friendship which is unafraid to speak God's words to each other. If you look at your own life, your faith journey has probably been transformed by significant conversations or experiences when the love of God has shone into your life through another. If you do nothing else this Lent, be that sort of God-centred person for others. Encourage them in the faith.
Thirdly, we have to note where this Gospel story has come. Normally we would expect to hear of the Transfiguration on August 6th, but it is placed here by the Church of England on the cusp of Lent. As a Church we are about to enter the solemn period of Lent which draws us toward the Passion and death of Christ once more. In our Lenten journey we are being called to follow Christ to His Cross and to meditate on those things which are more than words demonstrate God's love for us and for the world. This journey through the darkness of betrayal, injustice, dereliction and suffering is shot through with glory. At its beginning we are reminded that the bigger picture of Holy Week is to be found here, on the Mount of Transfiguration. There is something here that should encourage us in our Lenten journey together.
In his Passion and death, Jesus is glorified - and so are we. If we understand that - then we shall understand the joy and glory of Easter all the more. Not only Jesus, but each one of us will be Transfigured - transformed by God's glorious love. That is surely something that will truly encourage us.