Eve of the Transfiguration – evening
Sunday 5th August 2018
Eve of the Transfiguration – evening
Exodus 24. 12 – 18
John 12. 27 – 36a
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
I have departed a little from the usual readings that we follow here in St Chad’s –, because tomorrow – 6th August, is the feast of the Transfiguration (and also Hiroshima Day – the day when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in WWII). So tonight we are marking the eve of the Transfiguration.
This is one of the events that are recorded a little differently in John’s Gospel, as opposed to the other three.
No mountain; no appearance of Moses and Elijah. No confused disciples wanting to build booths on the mountain; but we do have the same voice from heaven – coming to affirm Jesus and his special relationship with the Father. A voice that came for the benefit of the crowds – even though many could only hear it as thunder…
To us the words about Glory and glorifying sound a bit strange and difficult. But Jesus is talking about his death. A time when he would indeed be lifted up – not in triumph, but on a cross. Dying the death of a criminal and outcast.
Death is something we understand only too well. And it is not usually something we speak of as being ‘glorious’. But Jesus – and the voice from heaven – are not only speaking about his death, but about his resurrection and ascension also. That is rather harder for us to grapple with and understand. For, unlike death, it lies outside our experience here on earth. But for him, death would lead to resurrection; would lead to ascension and transfiguration.
This passage in John’s Gospel comes just after Jesus hears that some Greeks have arrived, seeking audience with him. That in itself was enough to make Jesus rejoice; that other nations were enquiring about the new and outward-facing version of Judaism that he taught. This was the moment God was waiting for, when Jesus would be glorified. Only paradoxically, by glory Jesus meant death and burial.
Why? Because nobody listens to a live prophet; they suspect their motives. But if a preacher is willing to die rather than recant their teachings, everyone knows they really mean it!
But Jesus would go on to turn our notions of death and burial on its head. Death is not defeat – not the end, but a victory and a beginning. That is the message we try to bring to every funeral that we take, even though of course we acknowledge the place of grief and sadness at such a time. Our grief is principally for ourselves, because we miss and mourn the loved one whose voice we hear no more and whose affection we crave. That is wholly understandable and appropriate. But if we ask God to give us strength, we can be brought through this time of feeling loss, to a moment of hope and reconciliation, knowing that at some point we shall go to a new and happy life. We call that ‘heaven’ because we have no words to describe a life free from the constraints of time and space, where we live eternally with those whom we love, and with Jesus. A time of Transfiguration if you will, when pain and sorrow are transformed into joy.
Yesterday marked the start of a special national time of prayer for peace and reconciliation. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of a call made by George V, in the middle of 1918 and just before the decisive Battle of Amiens which was to prove the pivotal point in defeating the forces of the Kaiser. And exactly 100 days later – on 11th November, the armistice was declared.
True peace and reconciliation took a lot longer of course – in fact it can be argued that it did not come until after the next war, and after the horror that was visited on Japan at Hiroshima and then at Nagasaki. A horror that appalled many, but which arguably brought about the end of hostilities.
In the book of Exodus we are told that ‘the glory of the Lord is like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain’. Sometimes it seems that we cannot have transfiguration and transformation without the devouring fire… Could it be because too often we still walk in the darkness, without knowing where we are going, as Jesus warned us about? And how would the world be transformed and transfigured if we truly did believe in the light and become children of light?
We could begin by heeding that call to prayer I mentioned. 100 days between now and Remembrance Sunday. If you want to see the special information and prayers being used by all the churches across several denominations, then do look at the website Remembrance100. You will find it all there and it is easy to access.
And we are still in need of peace and reconciliation. There may no longer be trenches disfiguring the farmland of Northern France, but there are many other corners of the world where human beings are suffering untold torment due to the actions of other human beings. There is nothing divine about such warfare, nothing glorious about these deaths but they still need our compassion and our prayer.
PRAYER Heavenly Father, as we grieve for those who have sacrificed their lives in so many wars, we thank you for the greatest sacrifice of all – your Son Jesus. Help us to live in the power of the resurrection this day and every day.
Amen.