The veiling of our Gospel – The Transfiguration -19-02-2012
We currently live in a time when Paul’s words in chapter 4 of
his second letter to the Corinthians appear to hold more meaning than ever.[1] At the present moment, the
veiling of the Gospel in our modern society seems more acute than it has ever
been. The revelations this week that Christians have no right to begin council
meetings with an agendered prayer is very troubling indeed. An atheist’s right
not to hear a prayer that they feel has no substance any way appears to take
precedence over a Christian’s right to pray to a God they believe might help.
So why is it so very important to begin and end all of our
meetings with prayer?
We live in a very messy world. A world where the complexities
and pressures of our lives intrude upon our decision making at every stage. It
is impossible for us to lay aside all of our self-interest and prejudices when
debating things that will have deep consequences for the way we live and behave
towards one another. Prayer not only asks God for his guidance but also opens
our minds to alternative possibilities and other peoples’ needs. It helps us
realise that not everything is about us, it is also about others too. So having
prayers on the agenda of meetings has a very important concept at its core
which goes far beyond simple self indulgence of the Christians within the
assembly: the hope that it may encourage councillors to look beyond their own
self-interest and consider the needs of everyone under their charge.
When prayer is removed, and with it the opportunity to take
stock, the pressures of our broken world can become too much and trying to
resist negative worldly influences filled with personal greed and self-interest
is far more difficult.
The story of the transfiguration that we heard from St Mark’s
Gospel gives us a supernatural account of another way.[2] We are told of just three
disciples, Peter, James and John, accompanying Jesus up the high mountain. These
would appear to be the chosen few. At the point of transfiguration, Christ
becoming dazzling white, we hear overtones of Moses and Elijah. This is
undoubtedly intentional and binds this episode into the prophetic tradition of
the Israelite story. The three disciples would likely have recognised this.
Understandably, the disciples are terrified as things unfold and
then, as with Moses in the tent of meeting centuries earlier, a cloud descends
and God speaks out of it affirming Jesus’ status as Son of God.
The full meaning of this episode was veiled from the
disciples, as with so much that they witnessed in their journeying with Christ.
As time passed things will have began to make more sense. Only after long,
faithful and holy lives proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, would the full
meaning of all that they experienced in those hallowed days be revealed.
Things are no different for us today. There are but a few of
us in this world chosen to see a glimpse of Christ’s relevance and as with
those three very blessed disciples, it is our job to try and make sense of all
we see and reveal it to those around us. Often we will feel foolish when trying
to compete against modern secular agendas. Those anti-theists who see it as
their job to persecute believers wherever they find them will use every trick
in the book to try and make Christianity appear a problem and not the solution
we know it to be. If we have chosen to sit in these pews, then we have chosen
to believe in the truth of Jesus and if He is the truth then we must find ways
of revealing it so that others may discover a glimpse of it too. Looking after
our church buildings and all the many assets that we have inherited is an
important part of this, but we must not allow the society around us to
fabricate a false reality that stops our message being heard, or worse still
convinces our society that our faith is everything we claim to speak out
against.
A cornerstone of the atheistic communism that swept Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Block during the twentieth century was the repression of
religion and all who spoke out against the governmental forces. Hundreds of
thousands of Christians were massacred over a relatively short space of time
simply because they believed in a God who called for justice and equality. The
world looked on and did little.
In the Daily Mail this week, Lord Carey painted a picture
that suggested we are not a million miles from this position in Britain today.
At first I considered this to be slightly overstating the case, but then I did
some investigations of my own in the popular media and the press.
Following this week’s court case, I read many blogs and
newspaper articles and I was very concerned with much of what I read. There
seemed to be a venom of hatred against Christianity that was very troubling
indeed. This included many writers completely re-writing world history
according to their own anti-Christian rhetoric and much of this was in top
selling publications that attract huge audiences.
Although I may not choose to use his language, perhaps Lord
Carey is not so far from the truth after all, but we should not be too foolish
or hasty in our response. We are Christians and as such we hold all the
responsibility of the Gospel upon our shoulders. This does not mean that we
have to lay down and let our heritage and future be torn from beneath us, but
it does require us to conduct ourselves in the most upright of ways. St Matthew
records Jesus telling us to be as wise as Serpents and as innocent as Doves.[3] Wise words are pure,
peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, unwavering and without hypocrisy.
Many of you may feel the need to speak out to local and national politicians or
the press. If so, do it with grace, but fortitude correcting the
misinterpretations and manipulations that are so evident in a kindly and loving
manner. Attract them to Christ’s cause with your charm!
Many of you may feel that the appropriate response is at the
grass roots, volunteering for ministries in our church, town and locality. This
may be in schools, at youth group, on the streets or amongst the poor and
disadvantaged of our society. Any service that clearly proclaims the love of
Christ and His Church to a disenchanted generation is perfect. Some of you may have initiatives bursting to
get out, ideas of ways to proclaim Christ’s love and welcome to a society so
often told that they are worthless. If so, let us hear them, fuel them and go
forth together in the love of Christ.
There are a hundred different responses that we can offer to
the current spiritual illness sweeping our nation and each and every one of us
is compelled to do what we can through the Gospel of our Lord. The only thing
that it is inappropriate for us to do, is to do nothing.
We are those disciples on the mountaintop; seeing a little in
order that we may proclaim much. The love of Christ enfolds us every step of
the way, so we need not fear. His shinning radiance, brilliant white before our
eyes, embraces us, draws us home and He calls us to ensure that it continues to
shine even in the darkest of places and most difficult of times.
Amen
