Sermon St Mary Mary Tavy  Sunday 23 May 2021  Year B        Pentecost         John 15v26-27 & 16v4b-15                  Acts 2v1-21         Rom 8v22-27

Let us pray;
Journey with me back some 2000 years to Jerusalem in the early summer of the year AD30. The streets were bustling with many pilgrims who had gone up to Jerusalem to obey God’s command to keep the second of the three principal feasts given by God to Moses in the Torah, the feast of Shavuot or Pentecost.

Jesus disciples and followers, numbering around 120, may have assembled in that same upper room where Jesus had shared with them the last supper, although some think that they may have gathered in the Temple precincts. They were waiting just as Jesus had told them at His ascension ten days earlier, waiting for the promise of the Father. And what was that promise to be? I wonder if they had any idea of what was about to hit them as they pondered their Lord’s recent resurrection and ascension, and they waited.

And then it came, a sudden sound from heaven, that of a rushing mighty wind, then tongues of fire came and rested on each one of them, and each began to speak in strange tongues as the Holy Spirit descended and gave them utterance. Well, what would you make of that I wonder if the same should happen to us right now here in St Mary’s? But it could!

Those standing around who heard this commotion going on said that the disciples were drunk. But no, as Peter pointed out it was early morning and only 9am. Moreover, these strange tongues were recognised as actual languages, but how could such uneducated Galileans speak them, and what could all this mean?

Peter was quick to recognise that this was rather like a prophecy spoken some 800 years previously by Joel, the first of the minor prophets. “I shall pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

When one reads the full context of Joel’s prophecy, some of us believe that Pentecost was just a partial fulfilment of that prophecy, and that it may also be especially applicable to our own time in God’s salvation history.
It is an issue that has caused division within many churches and across all denominations.
However, there are many stories of people and churches speaking in tongues today. Robbie Meredith of BBC news NI, wrote “there are estimated to be nearly 600 million Christians worldwide, a quarter of the world’s Christian population, that practice this same phenomena today. Many of you will know that it is a practice of the Pentecostal and other charismatic Churches, but it also extends across all denominations.

Some years ago when in Jerusalem I visited the Syrian Orthodox Church of St Mark. St Mark’s is tucked away along one of the small back streets of the Old City and is said to be built upon the site of the house belonging to Mary, the mother of John Mark the evangelist.
When speaking there to a Nun who had come from Iran, she shared a tale of a visitor who had entered the church some time before and was listening to her tell the history of that church. Some while later that same Jewish visitor returned with a friend and went up to the Nun as she was again telling the history of the church. He asked her not to speak in English but to speak in Hebrew as she had done before. The Nun replied that she did not speak any Hebrew, “but I heard you last time speaking in Hebrew” was the visitors response. What do you make of that? Sounds rather like what we have just read was happening on that first day of Pentecost to me.

Again as in Joel’s prophecy, we hear today, especially in some closed muslim countries, that there are reports of many people who are truly seeking after God of having visions and dreams pointing them to our risen Lord Jesus.

So what did St Paul make of ‘speaking in tongues’? He wrote to the Corinthian Christians, “I want you all to speak in tongues” (1Cor14v5) and “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all” (1Cor14v18).
We each have to make up our own minds if this were just a phenomenon for the early church, or a practice that God still has for us today, and if that is so, what should we do about it in our Christians lives.

The giving of the gift of tongues at Pentecost was a dynamic sign from God that He was birthing a new movement, the Church.
A new movement to take His message of love and reconciliation out into all the world, out to all races and languages, and the timing of this gift was no accident. It is celebrated as the ‘birthday of the Church’, and of the Church’s mission.

That timing was no coincidence. As we Christians see Pentecost as the birthday of the Church, so Jews today see the feast of Shavuot, Pentecost, as the birth of Judaism. It is the time they look back to and celebrate the giving of the Torah, the giving of the law, to Moses by God at mount Sinai during the exodus from Egypt. As such it was perhaps also the time when the Hebrew nation becoming a separate people and were called apart to serve God.

The gift of tongues is only one of the many gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has for us now that He has breathed on us the promised Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Helper. You will remember that the Lord Jesus promised to his disciples in the upper room that God would send the Holy Spirit if they waited. And God kept His promise to them, and to us as well.

St John tells us in his first epistle (1Jn3) that God has given us such love that we can be called “children of God”, and because we are now God’s children, God has many gifts still to reveal to each one of us. It is through the gift and work of the Holy Spirit in us that God makes this revelation possible, and especially at times when we read our bibles, and when we meet together as God’s people for prayer and meditation.

One of the amazing things that God reveals to us is that when Jesus is to be made known at some time in the future, revealed for all the kingdoms of the world to see and acknowledge Him, we His children will also become like Jesus as we share in His glory. Doesn’t that get you excited?

I would suggest that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the beginning of a great journey and a great adventure with God. An adventure that God has called you and I to share with Him. An adventure to share with God as we continue our pilgrim path here on this earth, and as we grow in faith as disciples and witnesses to our risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:
Almighty God,
you have given your Holy Spirit to the Church to lead us into all truth:
may we manifest your glory and show forth the way of your kingdom to all peoples; through Jesus Christ our Lord and coming King. Amen

Sermon St E Sunday 9.45 2 May 2021                  5th Sunday of Easter Year B
Psalm 22v25-end            Acts 8v26-end                        John 15v1-8                        1 John 4v7-21
Let us pray:- May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Have you ever thought that life has been unfair or unkind to you, and then blamed God for it?

In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus was speaking to the disciples in the upper room on the occasion of the last supper and gave to them, and we should also say to us, a clear indication that we should look positively on the things that happen to us who are Christians.

Jesus, in using the analogy of the vineyard, describes God the Father as ‘the vinegrower’, showing that God looks for, and enhances, what is necessary to produce a vintage crop by tending caringly to his vines. God does that, as the keeper of the vineyard would do, by pruning his vines, by pruning us, you and me, and sometimes that pruning may seem pretty drastic if the crop is to form at its best.

The words used by Jesus can only draw a simple picture of how the owner of the vineyard, the vine grower, deeply cares. Cares to see his pruning of the vines result in an abundance of fruit, and that may mean the drastic snipping off of branches from the vine; but the branches that remain, that have not been pruned away, remain firmly attached to the ‘true vine’ itself, and in our case that is to our Lord Jesus.

And God has to prune our lives. God cares for and loves, each one of us as individuals, so much that He longs to see our lives glorify Him and bring to each one of us an abundance of blessings.

In fact Jesus gave that as one of his prime reasons for coming to tabernacle, to dwell, among us. A little earlier in John’s gospel (10v10), when Jesus was describing how he was the ‘door of the sheep’, how he was the ‘good shepherd’, Jesus tells us that he had come so we his sheep might have life, and have that life in abundance, and have life in all its possible fulness.

Do you, do I, feel that we are experiencing a fulness and abundance of life?

For that to happen, God in His love, mercy and grace, may have to lop off a few of our branches; change a few of our habits, our thoughts, our desires, and also some of our prejudices, just as Rosie drew our attention to last week.

Can you begin to see just why, and just how important it was for Jesus to tell us we have to ‘abide in him’, and to let him abide in us, to guide, direct and change us. And Jesus told the disciples that it was through the words he had spoken to them that made that possible. How important then for us, some 2000 years on, to follow those same words, to get to know and understand the scriptures that have been handed down to us.

So how do we encourage that abundance of fruit that God our Father, the vinegrower, desires to see forming in us? How are we to foster and grow that fruit in our lives for the glory of God? What does ‘abiding in Christ’ mean?

Deep questions that we all have to face up to if we desire to become disciples of our Lord Jesus, and to receive God’s abundance of blessings; it is not possible to explore that in depth in the short time we have. You will all know by now that is why to me time spent together in small groups reading and studying scripture, and in prayer and meditation, are so important. Please talk to me if you would feel this would be of value to you and would like to join us.

The Ethiopian eunuch, reading from the prophet Isaiah, needed Philip to interpret and explain that scripture, and so do we need one another to help us understand and work out God’s intentions for us.

The scriptures are central to our growth as Christians and you and I take our bibles for granted, with many different versions available to us in our mother tongue of English. But according to the Wycliff Bible Translators, there are still 1.5 billion people around the world still waiting for a Bible in a language they understand. There are 7353 known languages in the world today, but of those only 698 have a complete Bible.

There are many devoted believers around the world, often in isolation and in fear of persecution, working to translate scripture into the ‘heart languages’ of those still waiting for a portion of the Bible in their native mother tongue.

But let us have a quick look at what Saint John had to say in our reading from his first letter. John takes up the theme of ‘abiding in him’ (1Jn4v13), that is ‘abiding in Christ’ and gives us some guidance as to how to make that our practice.

John clearly tells us that we do indeed ‘abide in God’, and that God does abide in us, if we are those who believe that God sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. But John says it is more that just a ‘belief’; John tells us that we have to confess that Jesus is the Son of God. I trust that is something we will all openly do from our hearts as we declared in a moment our faith through the words of  the creed; but are we prepared to let that belief be openly known to our family, to our friends and to our neighbours?

If we have then John points to three amazing results in our lives. Have you picked up what they are from our reading? So what are they?

The first is that love should now dominate our lives and our behaviour. As we love one another, not just those we like and agree with, we know that we have been born of God and know God (1Jn4v7). That love in us follows as God first loved us (1Jn4v19), not because we deserved His love, not because we can earn God’s love, but through His grace and mercy, for God created us to be a people in His own image, a people designed to have fellowship with him.

The Apostle John stresses that it was a commandment from God that we love one another (1Jn4v21). We cannot truly love God who we have not seen John tells us, if we do not love our brothers and sisters whom we have seen. Perhaps those are some of the most challenging words we can read in our scriptures. They are words that each one of us must take time to reflect upon, and to ask for God’s help in understanding and then in implementing that command.

The second is that we know we abide in God, and that we have a relationship with Jesus our Lord and Saviour, because God has given to us His life giving Holy Spirit (1Jn4v13).

That Holy Spirit that we can recognise as the fire that burns deeply in our hearts. Can you recognise that burning of the Holy Spirit in your heart just as  the two disciples did on the road to Emmaus as Jesus walked with them?

And the third is that we possess a boldness to face the coming day of judgement (1Jn4v17). No longer are we in fear of that day for we are promised that God’s perfect love in us will cast out any fear.

Have you recognised that we Christians are of all people the most blessed. We have the assurance of the love of God, the assurance that Jesus is with us as we walk our pilgrim path, and that we have the power and presence of God’s life giving Holy Spirit within us. With such in our lives, we are meant to reflect God’s glory to this needy world, and as God has opened to us the gate of everlasting life, they also give to us a hope that transcends all that we could possibly desire as we look for life with our Lord in the coming new creation.

Let us pray: The shorter Collect for this 5^th Sunday of Easter

Risen Christ, your wounds declare your love for the world and the wonder of your risen life: give us compassion and courage to risk ourselves for those we serve, to the glory of God the Father. Amen

Sermon St Paul’s Gulworthy Sunday 18 April 2021 Easter 3 Year B
Acts 3v12-19         Psalm 4         1 John 3v1-7         Luke 24v36b-48
Let us pray:- ………..         Amen

Let us this morning journey back in time and join with those disciples, and I suspect Jesus family, the women and some others, assembled together on the first and second Easter Sunday evenings. As we do so may we now be overjoyed and rejoice, as did those disciples, as we sense the Lord coming into our midst. May we with the psalmist say “Put your trust in the Lord.”

But what questions I wonder arise in your minds when you ponder that  room on the first Easter Sunday evening when the disciples met in secret for fear of the Jewish authorities? Maybe they gathered in the same upper room as for the last supper, but now with its doors securely locked. The disciples present had heard the stories from the women, and from Simon Peter and John, of the empty tomb, and maybe also from Simon, and from James-the brother of our Lord, who told them that Jesus was indeed alive and that he had met with each of them earlier that day. And then appeared the two disciples who had returned hurriedly from their journey to Emmaus, and they shared how Jesus had also met with them, and related how Jesus had revealed himself to them in the breaking of the bread. A prayer that each of us can make, that Jesus will again reveal himself to us, as we gather round our Lord’s table to remember him as we break bread together this morning.

When we put together the accounts of that evening from John and Luke’s gospels, we can get a more complete view of that special time. So let us become a fly on the wall of that upper room as the disciples came together on the first Easter Sunday, to discuss what all this could possibly mean.

What’s this? Here’s Jesus standing before us, and he does look real, not like a ghost, but how did he get in through those locked doors? Are we hallucinating?

But he’s speaking “Peace be with you”. “Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts.”

Look, He is showing us his hands and side. Those look like awful wounds Lord, what did they do to you. And now He is inviting us to touch him, so he can’t possibly be a ghost, He has real flesh and bones. If only Thomas were here to see them as well, I wonder what he would make of all this, after all he is a pretty good realist.

If Jesus got in here through those locked doors, then there has to be something very different about his body, I wonder what is it?

But what is Jesus saying now? “Have you anything to eat?” What; are you hungry Lord? Oh I see, you can’t be a ghost as ghost’s don’t eat.

Now what’s He saying. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you”. Has Jesus then just come from the Father? That means after he was buried he must have gone back into heaven. Well, he used to tell us that he had come from the Father when we were with him on those endless walks through the Galilean countryside; and what did he say to Nathaniel, “You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”.

But what does he mean “so I send you.” Send us to where, and to do what? Did I hear Him right? But what is he doing now?

He’s breathing on us and what’s that he’s saying? “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Ou, that’s a bit tingly; but Oh, its so very warm and comforting.
I rather like that feeling; wonder why he did that? What’s it meant for?

What! Did I just hear you correctly Jesus? Can’t be. You have said some pretty challenging things in the past, but “forgive sins”. I need some time to digest that one.

And now He’s talking about Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, and saying they all speak of Him, and they show that He is the Messiah, and so he had to suffer and die and rise from the dead. I think I will need to read those scriptures more deeply in the future to grasp all that. What Lord? You are going to help us do that by opening our minds, wonder how that will work?

And what’s Jesus saying now. That we are to be his witnesses to all these things. Well we have certainly spent enough time with him these past three years so I suppose we are witnesses to him. And now, where’s he gone?

Perhaps that is what went through the minds of some of those gathered that evening, and what they then shared during the following week with Thomas. Those disciple told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas’s reply then gave to him his nickname of ‘doubting Thomas’ as he replied, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

I wonder if some of us are like Thomas in that respect? We need to see some sign, some proof that Jesus really did rise from the dead and is alive today.

But what are we told by Saint Paul in Romans? ‘The just shall live by faith’ (Rom1v17). Paul was here repeating a theme, that started with Abraham, and that then runs throughout the Old Testament by quoting from the prophet Habakkuk (2v4), ‘the righteous shall live by faith’. Our hope as Christians is firmly based upon our faith in the risen Christ. The writer of Hebrews (6v12) reminds us that we are to be ‘imitators of those who through faith and patience shall inherit the promises.’

But as we read in last weeks gospel, Thomas was soon to be enlightened when one week later the disciples once again gathered together, but now with Thomas present, and in that same upper room. Once more through locked doors the Lord appeared, and greeted them all with those comforting words, ‘Peace be with you’. Those comforting words are words that we still use some 2000 years on, as we remember that we Christians are called to be a people of peace.

In his grace Jesus then gave Thomas the opportunity to “Put his finger in Jesus hand and to reach out and put his hand in Jesus side, and as Jesus did so Jesus gave to Thomas, and to all of us also, the words, perhaps we should say almost a command, “Do not doubt but believe.”

We do not read that Thomas any longer needed the opportunity to put his finger or hand in the marks of Jesus passion, but instead Thomas replies with words of complete belief, “My Lord and my God.” A reply that I trust, you and I can also make as we gather in the presence of our risen Lord this morning.

John’s gospel records that Jesus then had a word for each one of us, and a word that he has had for all Christians down through the ages, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

It is through our faith in our unseen, but risen Lord, that we are now-in this present time, and continuing on into the future, to accept the promise that we are to receive the manifold blessings of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Apostle John reminds us in his first epistle that we can look and see what love the Father has given to us, and through that love rejoice in the knowledge that we are truly God’s children. As God’s children we do not yet know what further blessings God has prepared for us who love him, for those blessings have not yet been revealed. But what we do know is that we are promised that we shall be like God, like our Lord Jesus, when we finally see him as he is, in all his glory.
Now that is a good reason in this Easter season to shout ‘Alleluia’.

I guess that when we shall see Jesus in his glory, as we inhabit our new resurrection bodies, we shall then understand more of that resurrection body of our Lord that was able to enter the upper room through those locked doors. As a Physicist that is a burning question I long to have answered.

So with that hope of seeing Jesus as he is, we have a call to purify ourselves, for we serve a pure, righteous and Holy God. Let us now with obedient hearts, look with those early disciples to respond to Jesus words spoken in that upper room, “I send you”. What that means will differ for each one of us, but we know from Jesus teaching that we are all called to be ‘salt and light’, salt and light to all those around us, as we seek to dispense the love of God through the fragrance of our Lord Jesus Christ in us, through his indwelling Holy Spirit.

Let us pray:         The shorter collect for this 3rd Sunday of Easter:

Risen Christ,
you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life
and fill us with your Holy Spirit and with peace,
to the glory of God our Father.
                  Amen

Sermon St E Sunday 9.45 21 March 2021         5th Sunday of Lent Passiontide begins

Psalm 51v1-13            Jeremiah 31v31-34                        John 12v20-3                        Hebrews 5v5-10

Let us pray:- May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Have you noticed that there are certain scriptures which can be a bit of a puzzle? I am sure you have, and today we have at least three of them.

The first is when the prophet Jeremiah refers to ‘a new covenant’. Is that the new covenant we are familiar with, or does it refer to something different? The second is where the writer of the letter to the Hebrew Christians refers to Jesus having been made ‘perfect’. That raises the question, ‘was not the Son of God always perfect’? And the third is, just who was the elusive Melchizedek with which the priesthood of our Lord was compared?

So how are we to explain these texts?

Well, you all know by now that for me context is all important. Jeremiah was clearly writing about a new covenant that would be established in the future following the Hebrews return from their 70 year deportation to Babylon. Jeremiah specifically refers to this covenant as being between God and the house of Israel and Judah, so he was referring to the Jewish people, but just when in the future was that new covenant to be?

As Jeremiah specifically says that it will be a time when all of the house of Israel and Judah shall know Him, and that His laws will then be written upon their hearts, it must be speaking of a time that is still in the future, as at present the Jewish people do not yet fulfil that description.

Some suggest this is referring to us, and to the new covenant spoken of by our Lord at the last supper (Lk22v20), and by Paul in his Corinthian epistles (1Cor11v25, 2Cor3v6-7) and also by the writer of Hebrews (Heb8v8,13, 9v11,15, 12v24), but does that fit with the context?

This is a big topic, but having studied in Israel, I am not one to believe in what is called ‘replacement theology’, that the church replaces the Jewish people as ‘the new Israel’ of God and that the Old Testament promises made to Israel now apply to the Church. So to me Jeremiah’s reference is to a new covenant still to be enacted between God and the Jewish people; and the reference by Jesus and Paul, is clearly to the present new relationship that Jesus has made possible between all people who will put their faith and trust in him, following the shedding of Jesus most precious blood at Calvary.

Perhaps Jeremiah’s reference to ‘a new covenant’ is an early prophetic reference to the time Paul refers to in Romans 11 when he says of the Jewish people, ‘And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sin’. Paul goes on to say it will be the time when ‘the fulness of the Gentiles has come in and then all Israel will be saved’. That time will be when the church is complete, and Paul says in Ephesians (3v16) that through the cross of Jesus we shall then, both Jew and Gentile, be made one. I suggest at that time there will indeed be a New Covenant that embraces both Jews, and us the Gentile church.

In the meantime for us believers, the cup of wine that we drink, is to remind us of Jesus blood of the new covenant, shed for each one of us for the forgiveness of our sin.

So what of those verses from Hebrews (5v8-9) that we have read? “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

Again very deep questions are raised here, so we can barely scratch the surface this morning. But let us look at the phrase ‘he-Jesus- learned obedience’. Throughout his earthly life I believe that Jesus was obedient to the will of his, and our God and Father. The gospels contain many references to Jesus referring to the will of his Father; in John 4 (v34) Jesus says “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work”, and later in John 5 (v30) Jesus says “I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent me”. Both these sayings show Jesus’ complete obedience to the will of God. Yet we also know that Jesus could have chosen to just follow his own human desire as we read in our gospel (Jn12v27), “Father, save me from this hour. No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.” And again Luke describes (Lk22v42) how in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from Me-nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done”.

Understandably, Jesus’ human nature longed for release from the agony of the cross that He knew lay ahead for Him, but Jesus remembered that His specific purpose for being here on earth was to go to the cross, and to show that complete obedience to the will of God the Father was indeed possible. In not giving in to that final temptation Jesus showed how He had learned obedience.

And here of course is a most profound lesson for all of us to take on board as we reflect at the start of passion-tide. Can we say that our lives have taught us to bow to, and become obedient to, the will of God? That perhaps is one of the major purposes for our earthly pilgrimage, and it is never too late for us to learn that same obedience as did our Lord and Master, and we have the promised Holy Spirit to help us.

But what then are we to make of that phrase “and having been made perfect”? I do not believe that Jesus was ever ‘not perfect’. He was the spotless lamb of God who, as a result, was the only one able to take away our sin. No, the word ‘perfect’ is to my mind perhaps better rendered as ‘complete’.

Jesus’ life of complete obedience to the will of God, showed that His life was complete; in all his ways Jesus fulfilled, completed the Torah. Remember in the sermon on the mountMatthew (5:17-18) records Jesus as saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law, the Torah, or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to complete them.”

Because Jesus accomplished all that God the Father had asked of Him, he becomes the source of eternal salvation, of eternal life, for you and for me.

But there is also that little phrase completing the sentence that needs our attention where we read, ‘eternal salvation for all who obey Him’. And that is yet another lesson for us all this passion-tide, and part of our pilgrim existence here below. As Jesus’ desire was always to ‘obey the Father’s will’, so our desire should be to learn to also obey the will of our Lord and Master Jesus. Surely that is what gives our Lenten fast its special significance.

In a lovely passage from the prophet Hosea chapter 6 (v6) we read, “For I, speaking of God, desire loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings”.

From the beginning when God created human kind, He has looked for us human beings to know Him, and to walk with Him in companionship. God has only ever wanted us to be in an intimate and personal relationship with Him. But sadly we have all followed in Adam’s footsteps and disobeyed God’s commands, and so we have all became estranged from Him.

But we can now all rejoice, and even in Lent shout Alleluia, that through the obedience of Jesus to the will of God, and that did require His sacrifice at Calvary, we have the opportunity of a complete restored relationship with God through our faith in Jesus, and with it the hope of eternal life in the coming new creation.

So to our final puzzle, just who was that elusive priest Melchizedek? We first come across him as blessing the patriarch Abraham in Genesis 14(v18), then he is mentioned in psalm 110, and a number of times in Hebrews.

There in Hebrews chapter 7 (v3) we are told that this Melchizedek was a king of peace, and also a priest of the Most High God, without father or mother, and having neither beginning of days nor end of life. You can see how a clear parallel with Jesus is being drawn as the writer to Hebrews describes Melchizedek as ‘resembling the Son of God’. But just who was this elusive Melchizedek? We really do not know. My guess is that he was indeed Jesus in one of Jesus’ preincarnate manifestations, but I leave it to you to speculate, and as with all I have said this morning, to draw your own conclusions.

So what can we gain from our readings this morning especially as our period of Lent draws to its close? Perhaps as the writer of Hebrews draws our attention to how Jesus offered up prayers and supplications to God the Father, so we can be encouraged to be fervent in our prayers, and never to lose heart.

God heard Jesus’ prayers, and He will also hear ours.

Let us pray: The shorter Collect for this 5th Sunday of Lent:

Gracious Father, you gave up your Son out of love for the world:
lead us to ponder the mysteries of his passion,
that we may know eternal peace through the shedding of our Saviour’s
most precious blood, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Sermon St E          9.45 14 February 2021         Year B         Transfiguration
2 Kings 2v1-12         Psalm50v1-6         2 Cor 4v3-6                  Mark 9v2-9

Let us pray:

Perhaps one of the foundational beliefs of our Christion faith are the words spoken by God the Father at the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus, “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to Him”. A lesson for all of us as believers that we must always be ‘listening to Jesus’ if we are truly to become His disciples. So let us take a look at this important, and theologically significant, story of Jesus’ transfiguration recorded in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and referred to by St Peter in his second epistle (2Pt1v16), saying “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty”.

The first question we may have is why did Jesus only take three of his disciples with him up that high mountain to witness his glory? We read in our gospel that this event took place six days after Jesus had been with his disciples at Caesarea Philippi in the north of the Galilee. There Jesus had asked the disciples a searching question “Who do you say that I am?” A question that Jesus still askes of all people today, and a question that each one of us has had to make an answer to, so can we, have we, said like Peter, “You are the Messiah”, you are the anointed one from God. Perhaps it was in recognition of this great confession from Peter that Jesus took him, together with James and John, his closest three disciples, up the high mountain to witness His glory.

So where was that high mountain? If you visit Israel the tour guides will take you to mount Tabor in the Galilee, where there is an easily accessible commemorative church, but in Jesus time there was a Roman garrison at the top. The more probable true location is on the slopes of the towering mount Hermon, in the north, and not so accessible for the average tourist.

Then it was there on Hermon’s holy slopes that Jesus was transfigured, changed in appearance, in the presence of Moses and Elijah, and clothed in ‘dazzling white raiment’, in Luke’s words, or as Matthew says, ‘white as light’, and this reclothing of Jesus was a clear indication of His divinity.

You will remember that throughout the scriptures we see descriptions of God surrounded by light, and as the Hebrew people made their exodus from the bondage of Egypt, what accompanied them? Yes, the shekinah glory, the pilar of dazzling light that hovered over the Tabernacle, the tent of meeting between God and Moses, and signified that God was travelling with them on their journey to freedom in the promised land. And we as Christians have that same light of God, the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, travelling with us along the path of our present earthly pilgrimage.

But why Moses and Elijah? And of course you know the answer to that. Because they signified how both the Jewish law, the Torah, and all the Prophets, pointed to the coming of Jesus as Messiah. The Torah and the Prophets had maintained throughout Jewish history, a testimony to the coming of Messiah, the anointed One from God the Father. Do you remember the words Jesus spoke to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, that the words of the prophets spoke of him, and of his suffering. Jesus takes up that same theme, in Luke’s account of the transfiguration, speaking to those three disciples of, ‘his departure which was soon to be accomplished at Jerusalem’, through his death on Calvary’s tree.

We then read of what I take as some often misunderstood words from Peter, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”, and Mark adds, ‘for he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid’. Clearly the three disciples had recognised who was with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, but were they afraid, or were they in exceeding awe at the majesty and person of their Lord being transfigured before their eyes in this spectacular way?

I think Peter’s words held in them a pointer for us to indicate the time of year when this event actually took place. Can you make that link?

In speaking of booths the thought that may have flashed into Peter’s mind may have been the upcoming Jewish festival of booths, or Tabernacles. A time when the people still dwelt in temporary shelters for a week, a time to remember their ancestors who had dwelt in tents, or booths, as they moved across the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan during the 40 years.

If that was the case then the transfiguration may have been in late summer of AD 29 just before the celebration of Tabernacles in the September.

But then we have recorded the ultimate testimony to the divinity and person of our Lord Jesus in the words of God coming from that voice from the bright cloud that had overshadowed them all on the mountain slopes.

Matthew records those words more fully than Mark saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him”. What do you notice? There are three short, but very significant, phrases. And just where did each of those phrase come from?

Maybe you already know that the Jewish bible, our Old Testament, is divided into three sections, ‘the Torah’, the law of Moses; the Prophets, the Nevi’im; and the Writings, the Ketuvim. These three divisions form the acronym Tanakh, the name describing the Hebrew Bible.

The three phrases spoken by God’s voice from the cloud, each have their origin in one of those three sections of the Tanakh, showing how God was specifically affirming the person of His beloved Son Jesus from the ancient scriptures.

‘You are my Son’, is a quotation from the great psalm two where God says, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”. This now forms part of our creedal statement, so here reference was being made to the writings.

Then we had, ‘with whom I am well pleased’, a quote from the great prophet Isaiah, where at the start of chapter 42 God says, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights”. Clearly God took great delight, and was well pleased, with the obedience shown by Jesus in doing the will of his heavenly Father. A delight God still experiences as we his children today chose to obey His commandments and statutes.

And finally, the little phrase ‘listen to him’, comes from the Torah, the first five books of the bible, it is a quote from Deuteronomy chapter 18 (v15). There Moses makes a prophetic promise to the people saying, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, from among you, from your brethren-him you shall heed”, or listen to.

I guess Moses when he also heard the voice from the cloud thought, ‘I told you so, and here he is’, the prophet like me God promised to raise up.

What clearer witness could there be from God the Father in heaven to the person of our Lord than reference to all three sections of the Hebrew scripture, references that would not have been missed by those three disciples. Reference that we, and all humankind, neglect at our peril.

Jesus was indeed shown to be greater than all the law and the prophets.

No wonder Matthew tells us that the disciples hearing that testimony ‘fell on their faces and were filled with awe’. Jesus then went to those three disciples and touched them saying, “Rise and have no fear”, the cloud with Moses and Elijah vanished, and the disciples looked, and saw ‘no one but Jesus only’

What an encouragement for us that at all times and through all our various situations, we only need to look and to see Jesus for us to be able to move along our path with no fear as we exercise our faith and trust in him.

But just why, after such a transformational encounter, as they came down from the mountain to meet up with the other disciples, did Jesus instruct them to tell no one of their experience till after He had been raised from the dead?

Perhaps it was to avoid any possible misunderstanding that such an early revelation of his true and unmistakable identity as the Messiah, could have if too many people shared in that knowledge before his resurrection.

The writer to the Hebrews (1v3) may have seen in the transfiguration a clear indication that Jesus reflects ‘the glory of God, and bears the very stamp of God’s nature, upholding the universe by his word of power’.

That is the Jesus we have been called to love and to serve. The Jesus who  not only fulfilled all that was written of him in the Tanakh to be the Messiah and to be ‘the lamb of God who was to take away our sin’, but also the very word who in the beginning was with God the Father.

That is the Jesus who has promised to you and to me an ‘eternal life’, and the hope of a future together with him in the coming new creation. Now that should bring about a transfiguration of our lives and our ways.

Let us take a moment of quiet as we reflect upon the awesome nature of Jesus our Lord, our Saviour and our coming King. Amen