Date Sunday 18th February 2007

Luke 9: 28-36 Personal Metamorphosis

How easy it is to move around the country, or the world and see things, places and people. We come home with photos, souvenirs, objects to help us recollect how good the place was. Humans seem to have a propensity to acquire things or hang onto past experiences. At home or in church, we glorify the past or elevate the experience. Young people have come back to their small home congregations from NCYC wanting to replicate the experiences of 1000's in worship in a place where there are 10 or 100. Heon and his family come from a Church in Korea whose number at worship each week totals around 800,000. Ask him about Yonggi Cho’s Full Gospel Church and how in such a large place individuals are still valued.

Peter, James and John are no different. They’d been taken up a mountain to pray. As Jesus was praying the appearance of his face was changed, his clothes became dazzling white, the envy of any washing powder! Two other men appeared. Were the boys dreaming? They saw Moses, who had been dead for a good 1000 yrs or so, and Elijah, talking with Jesus about an exodus. Not the one from Egypt through the waters to freedom for the people of Israel, but of Jesus through death on a cross which was to mean freedom for all people.

They could have been dreaming because they were quite sleepy. But they soon became fully awake and Peter spoke to Jesus saying "It is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters one for each of you and stay here."

If it were today, Peter may well have said. Wow, what a great experience, stay there Jesus while I get the video camera and record the whole thing so we can show it to the others or better still, put it on our website!.

But something frightening happened. Not so unusual when high up a mountain. A cloud came all around them. Maybe they felt a little chilly as the cold whisps of fog swirled around and their goosebumps stood out. They heard a voice "This is my Son whom I have chosen. Listen to him." Then they were alone. It was over. Only Jesus was there, alone with them.

What had happened? Well whatever had happened they told nobody. Maybe it was too incredible! Maybe people might have thought they were hallucinating, making it up. Mad. Today, some people think that this is only a made up story with little factual basis to tell of a great spiritual experience.

The good news is that through Jesus we can begin to glimpse the glory of God. Through Jesus the veil of mystery is lifted and we can dare to approach God. Through the death of Jesus and the gift of His Spirit, we reflect God's glory at work within us. When we look at things, at people, at situations, they are not always as they first appear. Our eyes, our minds are veiled, Jesus wants to lift the veil from our faces, from our heart. Jesus still invites us to come aside with him to commune with Him, to pray, for great and high experiences. And these are good.

David comes from a country town and wrote to me a few years back asking if our Prayer Ministry team would pray with him. This we were happy to do. David was feeling very bruised, unwanted. Experiences as a boy and as an adult had fed this negative feeling of rejection. He now struggled with depression. But that aside. As we were praying, we had a strong sense of David standing in his Christian armour at the entrance of a big room. A beautiful mosaic floor was covered by a rich carpet runner. A large angel stood just inside the door holding a very white translucent gown which, as David walked in was placed round his shoulders. Ahead of him was a dazzling light towards which he was invited to walk: none of us could dare look for the light was so bright. God's word to David was an invitation at some time in the future to approach the throne of God in worship where he would have a personal audience with the Lord who would tell David about the meaning of his life - the purpose of His being and how all his life's experiences would come together. Then he would know what the ministry was for which he had been born. It was a powerful experience for all.

Such experiences are good, and they are good for us. For us all!

Our tendency is to fall into the trap of wanting to stay in the high, to keep replicating the experience. To worship the gift of the experience rather than its Giver. The purpose of high experiences with Jesus is so Jesus can bring us down from the mountain to join Him in His work of salvation. Reading on in Luke, Jesus is immediately confronted with the work of evil.

Sometimes our good and high experiences may also be followed by something bad or hurtful. We try to rationalise the whole thing. We can claim them to be symbolic, without meaning and without presence. Just as whenever we gather around the table or, as next week, share in the sacrament of Baptism. But in God's presence we are transfigured. Our faces are unveiled and we reflect the glory of God.

We don't fully understand. We never will. Though we want to hold onto peace, serenity, joy, the world awaits God's chosen people to tell of God's love, God's choice of us and them to be children of his kingdom. We are to tell the truth plainly and people are free to receive, reject, make up their own minds. There is now a difference. Whereas God had said to Moses, "you cannot see my face for no-one may see me and live", Jesus, Son of God, chosen by Him to reveal the full nature of God to us calls us to turn our face to wards him and look and look full into his wonderful face. For as we look at Jesus, we see God, and in believing, we will truly live.