St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by The Reverend Sarah Rowland Jones in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr on the Feast of the Transfiguration – Sunday 6 August 2006

The Transfiguration is one of the strangest feasts in the Anglican calendar. What does it mean, and why does it warrant a special celebration?

Luke tells us that 'about eight days later' Jesus goes up a mountain with his closest followers, who, when he prays, see him become shiny and glowing – they see him 'in his glory.' They see him talking with Moses and Elijah. Then a voice from the terrifying dark cloud, which signifies the presence of God the Father, says 'This is my son, my beloved, my chosen one: Listen to him.' Then Jesus tells them not to tell anyone until after he has been raised from the dead.

Well, I am sure they had no idea what to make of all this at the time! And even after the resurrection, this remains a strange event. What are we to make of it today?

To answer these questions we have to begin with the context of this mysterious event. What had happened 'about eight days' before – at a point about ¾ through Jesus' ministry?

Jesus had asked the disciples who people said he was, and then asked them, 'Who do you say I am?' Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of God.' And from that point, Scripture tells, us, he began to teach them that the Christ, the Messiah, must suffer and be killed, and on the third day raised to life. He told them, 'If anyone wants to come after me, they must take up their cross.'

Eight days before, Jesus accepted Peter's description that he was the Messiah, the Christ, God's chosen, anointed one. But he had reinterpreted their idea of what this meant. It was not about winning military victories, throwing out the Romans, and re-establishing the Kingdom in the tradition of David and Solomon. Rather, it was about walking with the outcast, the exile, the marginalised, the despised, the poor, the powerless; it was about the way of suffering; it was about overcoming the power of evil by subverting it through weakness.

Eight days later, God the Father affirms that Jesus has correctly understood what it is to be the Messiah.

This shining glory comes to those who are very, very, close to God – as Moses was. It is confirmation that Jesus, in his praying, in his whole life, is very, very close to the Father.

And now Peter, James and John see him talking with Moses and Elijah. We don't know what exactly happened, but we don't need a physicist's explanation to be able to take hold of what this means for us.

In the Old Testament, Moses was seen as standing for Law, and Elijah as representative of the prophets. The disciples would have remembered Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, when he said 'Do not think I came to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.' (Matt 5:17) This is the purpose for which the Messiah comes.

So what is it that Jesus is fulfilling? I like to think of the law and the prophets as God's Plan A and Plan B for rescuing humanity!

Let's face it, human beings go off the rails and need to be rescued from the mess we fall into. We are not the people God meant us to be – far too often we do not even live up to our own standards, let alone his! So God started out with a two-pronged plan, to help us out: stick and carrot; hard cop, soft cop. Plan A, the law, is the stick, the hard cop. Plan B, prophecy, is the carrot, the soft cop!

Will Plan A and Plan B work? Can God get us into the kingdom by being tough with us to make us behave? Can God get us into the kingdom by inspiring us to behave?

First Plan A: Authoritarian Approach: God's rules and regulations on how we should live. Frankly, we should recognise that we are in a pretty bad state, if we need rules to tell us 'thou shalt not commit murder.' Surely everyone knows that murder is wrong – so why do we need a law to tell us? We are so hopeless that we need rules for every part of life. We know we should not steal, but we like to bend the rules, so we have to be told – don't cheat at business, don't swindle the tax-man, don't deceive your customers, and so on, and so on.

Most of this is quite obvious, but we still need it spelt out. According to Rabbinic Tradition, there are, I think, 629 laws in the Hebrew Scriptures. But we also need yards and yards and yards of legislation to govern our society – together with clear punishment for wrong doing. Yet still we don't behave! We may not be hardened criminals, but we fall short of God's commands – we fail fully to love both God and our neighbour.

St Paul wrestles with this in the first half of his letter to the Romans. He insists that God's law itself is good, and that it points to what is good. But at the same time it brings condemnation, and spiritual death, because we break God's law. He is in turmoil, both wanting to keep the law, and tempted horribly to break it. 'Wretched man that I am! – Who will rescue me from this body of death?'

And he continues, 'Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!' (Rom 7:24,5) Plan A fails, says Paul, but Plan C – the Christ Plan – will solve our problems! But we had better deal with Plan B and come to Plan C in turn!

So, Plan B – the carrot – the Beatific vision presented to us by the prophets of what God intended life should be like, to encourage and inspire us!

For example the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 65, tells us that the Lord will create a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be no more weeping or cries of distress. No more shall there be an infant who lives but a few days; or an old person who does not live out their life times. He says they will build houses and inhabit them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. And the wolf and the lamb shall feed together

In other words, he gives us a vision of a world where there is no more infant mortality; healthy and dignified old age for all; and economic security for all, where everyone has a home; where everyone eats of the fruit of their labour, and has enough. And everyone will be nice to each other and even the lion will eat straw like the ox.

Can we be inspired to live up to this picture that the Lord offers us? Can we heck! We fail and we just get depressed at our shortcomings. Plan B down drain, just the same as Plan A! Where does the problem lie? The verses from Isaiah continue, 'the lion will eat straw like the ox – but the serpent, its food shall be dust!

Ahah, the serpent! (You all know the old joke about God and the apple: Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and the serpent didn't have leg to stand on.) That was where the trouble all began. That's when life went pear-shaped! Fr.Bruce talked last week about the heresy of scarcity, that begins with the serpent. We have an abundant God, who promises to do more for us than we can ever ask or imagine, but we live as though there is not enough to go round – whether love, or time, or resources. We struggle and fight for our share, because we don't trust God or anyone else. Fr.Bruce's heresy is only the tip – today we are looking at the whole great iceberg.

And it goes back to the snake in the Garden: Three little words 'Did God say …' Did God really say??

Can God be trusted? Will he keep his promises? Is he really the God of love – when life seems so hard, and there is so much pain and suffering?

This is the heart of the matter – can we trust God? OR do we have to rely on ourselves? Do we have to look out for number one – put ourselves first, because if we don't, then nobody else will, and we will be trampled and crushed by everyone else fighting for their corner, for their needs, for what they want in life – because God cannot be trusted to give them what they want, what they think they need.

All of sin begins when we decide that God is not to be trusted, and we take matters – we take our life – into our own hands. Who is in control? When the chips are down, who is in the driving seat of your life?

We know what the Bible says, don't we?

The Prophet Isaiah tells us that the Lord's word to us is this: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine' (Is 43:1)

'Fear not!' says the Lord. But we are afraid, and we are afraid he won't save us from our fears. So we hide our fears - often with anger (the best form of defence is attack!). We take refuge in quarrelling, cliques and rivalries, righteous indignation, taking issue with the messenger rather than the message, rather than letting God help us face what we feel threatens us.

Next time you get angry, ask yourself, ask God, 'is this about that other person, or is it about something in me?' What fear within you is being stirred up? What fear does God want to help you face?

God says 'I have redeemed you.' You are safe in my hands, says the Lord. But we don't trust him, and we are not prepared to wait and see how he works his salvation out – and we take matters into our own hands. Which never helps.

God says 'I have called you by name. You are mine.' But we don't realise how significant we are to God. We are not prepared to 'be still and know that I am God' and to hear him tell us that we are special and precious. So we try to make a name for ourselves and throw our egos around, and put others down to make sure we are in the spotlight – or at least getting things our own way.

Here is a great paradox. Deep within we cry out for what God intended us to enjoy, what we know we ought to have and enjoy – yet, which we only receive in limited ways because of the brokenness of sin. So we try to compensate by taking control, acting through our own effort. This just make it worse, and cuts us further off from God.

Instead – we need Transfiguration answer – we need Plan C – Christ, Messiah.

Peter, James and John are terrified when the cloud comes over them – the cloud of the presence of God the Father.

They hear the voice 'This is my beloved, my chosen: Listen to him.'

This is the answer to those three little words 'Did God say?' Three new words 'Listen to him.'

Listen to Jesus. Put your hand in his. Then you will be able, gradually, bit by bit, learn more, more how to trust God and live as he wants us to. Big sticks or carrots won't do all that is needed. Nor right understanding, nor intellectual effort, nor any philosophy of life. Nor being nice, nor getting our attitude straight.

We can't be pushed from below by rules, we can't be pulled from above by vision. What we need is Jesus, who offers to walk with us, every step of the way.

We can't do it on our own – we need that living relationship with him, every minute of every day. Only Jesus can bridge the gap between our human fallibility and the promise of heaven.

Relationship

We have to be dependent on Jesus, trust him, and let him lead us one step at a time. He is the one who told his followers 'I am with you always, to the end of time' (Matt28:20). Coming alongside us, he guides us to do what is right without the big stick of law, or the overwhelming vision of prophecy. This is how he fulfils both the law and the prophets. Walking with him means that we will be on the right path.

This is not just fancy theology. I can tell you this is how God works because of my experience while my husband, Bishop Justus, was dying of cancer. So there we were, a bishop and a priest, and we had studied what faith is about, we had preached it, we had taught it – and now the time had come to live it all to the fullest.

So we said to God, 'Well, these are all your promises, and you are God, and you know best, so: Over to you!' We realised that we did believe that the best possible outcome would be for God's will to be done, to the fullest possible amount – and that we were prepared to trust God to fulfil his will in us. Of course that did not mean that we sat back and did nothing. We were conscientious in doing what we ought to be doing – but our attitude was that the ball was in his court, and we surrendered all control to him.

Of course, it was still hard – Justus still died. But we had the most amazing experience of the peace of God, his Shalom that passes all understanding, all rational reason, all common sense. It always felt that we were safe within God's arms. It never felt that life was spinning out of control. The Psalmist says, 'Taste and see that the Lord is good!' (Ps 34:8). We tasted, and we were not disappointed. We took God at his word. We listened to Jesus.

Finally, I have to say that there is even more to the Transfiguration than this. The Transfiguration is not just about Jesus.

Because when we turn to the Lord, says Paul in our epistle, all of us, with unveiled faces, see the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror – and we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

But all of us should – and can – reflect Jesus more and more – not just in our words, but in our actions and out attitudes, the whole of our lives.

This is God's promise. This is why we have a feast. Trusting God makes a real difference, to us and to the building of God's kingdom.

Do you believe this? As we say in the Baptismal Creed, do you really believe and trust (in both head and heart) that these words are true? I hope so – because God is to be trusted. And on days when you do not feel so sure, don't worry about waiting to feel like it, just go straight ahead and act as if you do.

I am sure that many of you have seen Jesus reflected vividly in other Christians. Often you encounter it when faithful Christians are dying, coming closer to Jesus – suddenly you see in them, every now and again, a sort of glow. Justus had it. So did another friend who died at 43. So did my grandfather. Sometimes people who have been on retreat and spent long concentrated periods with Jesus have that shininess – Mr Dean, je t'accuse!

Our epistle had these words 'Such is the confidence we have through Christ towards God … Since we have such a hope, we act with great boldness'

And we know that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So let us live in liberty, and act with boldness. Let us be people who are prepared to reflect God's glory in our lives.

Let us not be those who say 'Did God say …?' But let us be those who 'Listen to him' and life with 'such confidence … through Christ towards God …'

Amen.

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