Sucked Into The Glory Of God
2 Cor 4:3-6 Mark 9:2-9
Is there a lovelier verse of scripture than this:
“He made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ”
It’s 9.30 in the morning and it’s February, nevertheless most of the sun beds around the swimming pool are taken. Equipped with the latest Richard and Judy recommended novel the sunbathers are smothering themselves in cream and then baring as much of their bodies as they dare to the hot morning sun.
I suspect they dream of striding into work the following week and hearing everybody gasp “Where did you get that tan, in February”
I slide nervously onto the last remaining sun bed. I remove my shirt and put on my sunglasses. I take out the latest John Grisham court room thriller.
There is an unattached lady on the sun bed next to me. She glances nervously over her copy of “Hello” magazine.
My daughter Megan appears in front of me with her hands on her hips and sighs
“Dad, I’m sorry, but you just don’t look right” she says.
And it’s true, I don’t look right or feel right, lying there in the sun.
Waiting to be transformed into some bronzed hulk.
Megan and I were in the Gambia. Me to preach at the ordination of only the second woman priest in that country, a tremendous privilege, and Megan to visit schools and look at children’s work.
This was a morning off, a chance to be like any other old tourist.
But it just wasn’t working.
I have no commitment to sunbathing, you see.
I just can’t lie there getting all hot and sticky. I don’t know where it all leads or why people do it.
I suppose its about transforming ourselves – making us look attractive and feeling good about ourselves.
And we live in a world that has been grasping hold of any opportunity to do just that.
And we live in a world that in these days – is beginning slowly to see the futility of it.
Can you hear the footsteps of Lent approaching.
The call to give something up, come face to face with our sin, and oh yes, be ready to worship by five to ten – starting here next Sunday.
So why on earth do we have the story of the transfiguration on the Sunday before all this begins? Why do we go to a vision of Christ’s glory when in a few days time it’s wilderness all the way up to Holy Week?
Maybe it’s a call to see Lent as the transfiguring time for us.
That we might do something in these coming forty days that will get us sucked in to the glory of God.
Not like sunbathers building ourselves up that we can glory in ourselves.
But doing something that can get us sucked in to his glory, his light, his love.
Our Gospel reading is the Epistle reading come to life.
The disciples had been having a good time of it with Jesus.
Their lives were changing – miracles and stories and personal status- everything was on the up. But until now it was only skin deep – it was all about what was happening to them.
Now there was a hard slog to get to the top of that mountain.
Trying to keep pace with Jesus as he strides out.
A half day’s journey or more – but bound to be worth it.
They had not anticipated that on the summit they would get sucked in to the glory of God.
That their following would no longer be about themselves – but all about Jesus.
Faced with this glory, Peter wants to put up three shelters.
To preserve this moment of glory for as long as possible.
It did not occur to him that this was a glory not to preserve – but to get sucked into – that Peter James and John could have crawled forward and immersed themselves in that moment until their lives became one with it.
Our observance of Lent then must be about coming into touch with his glory and having the faith to get sucked in and seeing our lives change as a consequence. Some see spirituality as nothing more than skin deep sun tan, this glory, this Christ, cuts right to the heart and shines and burns from there.
This can happen for us if we use our time well – and Lent is where we can examine our priorities
In the quiet times, alone or together. In the times of our reading and reflecting. In our sharing and discussing. In laughter and in tears – to open ourselves up to the light – and then feel it to be the joy we must share.
The next day is the Ordination Service which we came to the Gambia for.
The Service starts at 10 and finishes at 2 (including a forty minutes sermon by me) but the time flashes by because this was the thing on the agenda.
That when you try to love God and when you try to love each other – and these two principles are at work – you get sucked in to the glory of God.
Those four hours were amazing. The Lord is here, they seem to be saying in the Gambia and we’re going to take everything we have to throw it at Him – like confetti over a wedding couple. It may be chaotic, it may be imperfect, it may be all over the shop – but we will hold nothing back.
In that service we had the Prayer book litany, hymns ancient and modern, and stacks of incense. We also had spontaneous choruses and chants, drums, trumpets and synthesizers – and the dancing.
And in the mellay – you were sucked in to the glory of God.
These readings, this sermon and the coming season of Lent asks the question as to why we are here. Topping up our spiritual tan for our own glory – or forming our lives into a shape which proclaims his glory.
We made some friends back at the hotel “Poor you!” they exclaim as they hear about our day. We’ve not moved from beside this pool. It’s been glorious here”
For a moment, I just don’t know where to start.
RH 22.2.09