Rev Hugh Perry

Theme: Transfiguration

Readings

2 Kings 2:1-12

Today’s reading is about Elisha succeeding Elijah and we should note that Elijah has to cross over the Jordan to fulfil his destiny then, in the passage immediately following today’s reading, Elisha crosses back to fulfil that promised ministry.

Moses led the people across the Red Sea to leave Egypt and Joshua leads them across the Jordan to enter the Promised Land.

As we listen to the crossing of the Jordan bringing new promise in today’s reading remember that earlier this year we looked at John the Baptizer appearing as the new Elijah by the banks of the Jordan.  We also read that in baptism Jesus comes up out of the Jordan and instead of the waters parting the heavens parted, a truly new beginning.

Andrew notes that all biblical religion depends on succession and that understanding not only helps us cope with our world but helps us understand the message the Gospel writers bring us as they explain Jesus as a continuation of their religious tradition.

Mark 9:2-9

Context is always important because so much of the gospel writer’s message is delivered in the way the story is assembled.

Chapter 8 begins with a great crowd following Jesus to the point where, if they went back to their homes for food, they would collapse on the way.

We learned in our first reading that new beginnings have got something to do with crossing water and dividing things.  However, with Moses as the model we also know that when people of God take people away from home on the way to something new they are expected to feed them.  Jesus does that by feeding four thousand. (Mark 8:9)

Then the Pharisees come and ask for a sign and the disciples worry about not having bread and we are left with the impression that neither the Pharisees nor the disciples can see what is happening.  Jesus then heals a blind man who sees very well.

That brings us to the turning point of the Gospel at the return from Caesarea Philippi where Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah but does not understand about Jesus’ death.

In today’s reading a representative group of disciples are taken to a secluded place and have a spiritual experience of Jesus’ identity.

Sermon

Through their understanding of their religious tradition and scripture Peter, James and John had formed a reasoned understanding of who Jesus was.  That framed the spiritual experience described in our reading and was the structure Mark used to describe it.

So are our spiritual experiences also constructed in our minds by our religious tradition and scripture, and if so can they still guide us to our best possible future.

Maurice Andrew writes that ‘All biblical religion depends on succession.  What comes feeds on the past, and what is past leads to what comes’[1]  A very wise comment from a very astute biblical scholar but it goes further than simply acknowledging biblical structure.  Innovation in the human society also feeds on the past.  Practices and understandings from the past help to build new knowledge, structures, organisations and ways of living in the future.  The rapid development of the covid vaccine was based on years of vaccination science and practise.

The Bible is built on a structure that recognises that experience and spiritual insight from the past informs the future.  The reason why Christians put so much emphasis on reading the Bible is this reality that spiritual insight from the past will not only inform our lives now but guide us to the future.

The Bible is a collection of books, that’s why it is called the Bible. It is not a book of rules called Spiritual Direction for Dummies.

The Bible has a collection of rules but also, history and stories.  All of which are assembled in a pattern of succession where the past informs the future and episodes in one time are reflected in earlier times.

Therefore, the Bible reflects real life and offers us both a foundation and a framework to build our own religious response to our world.

Our gospel reading is built on a previous episode and the imagery in the vision described reflects past scripture and religious tradition.

Jesus and the disciples took time out in the gentile resort of Caesarea Philippi.  That was not Jewish territory, but it was a place of considerable ancient religious significance.  Building on the past is an interfaith experience.

On the way back from Caesarea Philippi Jesus instigates a discussion about his identity.  Where does he fit in their religious tradition and perhaps other religious traditions?

Mark’s Gospel gives us two prompts from Jesus.  Who do people say he is, and who do the disciples say he is?  After going through a number of significant figures from their religious and cultural tradition Peter finally proclaims Jesus as the Messiah.

That was a reasoned conclusion based on the religious tradition of the past. It was also a conclusion derived from the difficulties people experienced in the disciples’ time.

Through reasoning they were led to believe that God would send new leadership in the future.  God would send a messiah.  The disciples concluded Jesus’ actions and teaching came so close to what tradition said about a messiah that he must be the expected messiah.

In today’s episode Jesus takes three disciples onto a mountain to pray and significantly Peter is one of them.

Mountains have a spiritual significance in many, many religious traditions.  Mountains are religiously significant to Maori and they are certainly significant to Judaism with the law being given to Moses on a mountain.

There are also biblical references to Jerusalem and the Temple being on the highest mountain although neither Kiwi nor Sherpa would classify it has such.

However, tourist operators certainly highlight the unique feelings of being isolated in the Mountains of Aotearoa.

It is within an atmosphere of prayer combined with the mountaintop sense of sacred space that the disciples feel the presence of Jesus as a spiritual presence.  For a moment he is more than the Jesus they are with everyday.

To describe that experience Mark uses traditional imagery from their religious texts.  So Jesus is joined by significant figures from the past, Moses and Elijah, both of whom had been mentioned in the discussion on the road to Caesarea Philippi.  Moses, Elijah and Jesus glow dazzling white, the description of heavenly messengers in Hebrew scripture.  All three of them are surrounded in a cloud as Moses was when he received the Decalogue on Mount Sinai.  They also hear the divine voice proclaiming Jesus’ divinity which was first encountered at Jesus’ baptism.

So in this vision Jesus is connected with the disciples’ religious past and the reader’s previous reading of Mark’s narrative.

This episode is a spiritual experience in the world of Mark’s Gospel that builds on its past and creates a platform for greater spiritual understanding for the journey through Mark’s narrative.

The episode also challenges the reader to reflect on their own intellectual response to Jesus.  The reader is invited to reflect on any of their own otherworldly or mystical experiences.  Moments that might create a starting point for their own spiritual growth and a discovery of the Christ within themselves.

Many of us came into the church at birth and grew up with church attending families and our understanding of Jesus’ identity and significance grew through Sunday School and youth group.

For some that intellectual growth in the faith will be enhanced by some form of spiritual experience that moves faith from something we know to spiritual certainty.

Some branches of the church demand such an experience and insist that it manifest itself publicly.

However, today’s reading describes a spiritual experience involving just three disciples in a secluded place.  Furthermore, the disciples concerned were instructed not to tell anyone about it.

So, exhibitionism is at least optional.

There are a few of us however who did not grow up in church attending households and mission outreach would seem to assume that people without previous church affiliation can be brought into the church.

As an un-churched teenager, I used to hear about gigantic crusades and wondered what the point was when all the people who went to these events already belonged to a church.  Of course, I was invited to such events from time to time but didn’t go.

What eventually impressed me were people I knew, and was involved in activities with, who were caring, ethical people who made a positive contribution to life. Their ethical response to life seemed to be driven by their Christian conviction.

Those people were friends becase we were involved in similar activities and without specific intent their lives and actions presented an example of who I wanted to be.

They did not make friends with me to lure me into the church.  That’s called friendship evangelism, and I had a cynical response to such activity, as I still do with telephone selling.

I also gained an introduction to Biblical Stories through early education at a Church School and Bible in Schools.  That biblical background allowed me to be engulfed by two spiritual experiences that overcame my condition as a cynical, stubborn and shy teenage boy.

The first was more a thin place that left me with a certainty and resolve to join the church.  However, my stubbornness and shyness meant knocking on a vicarage door and asking how to sign up happened in the fullness of time.

Following joining the church I did have a mountain top experience which I have always regarded as more of the verification of a commitment made.

That experience had mist, sunset and my shadow projected into a circle of rainbow.  All things that happen in the mountains except for the Wesleyan strange warming of the heart bit.

I did not see shining white figures of Jesus, Elijah and Moses.  But in as much as they represent a continuing faith in the world of Mark’s Gospel that same faith provided the religious framework in my mind.

Just as the disciples had reflected on their religious tradition on the road to Caesarea Philippi, and that reflection provided the imagery for their mountain top experience, so it was Christian imagery and the example of people living as Christ to others  that fired my mystic experiences.

Both those experiences were certainly formational but happened a very long time ago.  As a Presbyterian my Church experience has simply been decent and in order.

What has stayed with me has been this image of growing our faith through Biblical study and theological discussion as a process that builds a framework for a confirming spiritual experience.

Over the years I have been moved forward by the people I have met and the risky choices I have taken that brought unbelievable blessings.

I am also aware that spiritual experiences may well be a blinding vision on a mountain, but it could also be a feeling of empowering warmth while singing a favourite hymn or Wesley’s heart being strangely warmed at a meeting in Aldersgate Street.  Just the comfortable knowing from a lifetime of loyal faith is also a reality.

But as any experience warms our heart it is our tradition and scripture that gives meaning to the moment and moves us toward who we are becoming.

Peter, James and John had formed an understanding of Jesus’ place in their world from their religious tradition and scripture.  It was that understanding that combined with the unique location to form a spiritual certainty that sent them into the future to change the world.

We are called by todays readings to understand that our faith is fed by the tradition and scripture of the past that can both inspire the special moments of the journey and carry us into the future.

[1] Maurice Andrew The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand  (Wellington: DEFT 1999) p.254