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The Sunday Next Before Lent

Exodus 24.12–18

2 Peter 1.16–21

Matthew 17.1–9

The mountain, the glory, the fear. The old story thunders around the crags of scripture, and we hear it echoing from every side, rolling on down the valleys. Moses on the mountain with God. Joshua (‘Jesus’ in Greek) there with him. Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. Peter on the mountain with Jesus and Moses and Elijah. We beheld his glory, as of God’s only son. The prophetic word made more sure. The cloud and the fire. The booths in the wilderness. No one has seen God; this one has revealed him.

Whatever else it means, it means we have to listen to the thunder and ponder what it says. Peter implies that the way to faith is to hold firm to the great old stories, and treat them with the respect they deserve. They are a candle to see you through the night; attention to them will be rewarded as day breaks (always slightly later than you thought, or wanted) and the morning star rises in your hearts. Eager for the day, we often spurn the candle, and wonder why we bump into things while waiting for light to dawn.

Today’s candle flickers to and fro. Themes glint and sparkle. God’s glory rests on the mountain for six days; on the seventh Moses is summoned. Is the giving of the law a new creation? Yes and no: forty days and nights on the mountain, alone with the glory, and meanwhile Aaron and Hur are left behind to keep charge – but did they? Maybe this is like a new Genesis 1 and Genesis 3? Jesus waits six days, and on the seventh takes Peter and James and John up the mountain. Who meets whom? What did it mean for Moses and Elijah? The candle sets light to time and space, the devouring fire blazes out like the sun, the cloud swallows them up, and the word echoes around the disciples’ hearts ever afterwards.

There are strange old stories, and some not so old, of those who watched the candle, and then the morning star, with such intensity that their own faces started to change. Sometimes it’s in the eyes. Sometimes, perhaps, the whole face. Our Western consciousness, and perhaps self-consciousness, denies us so much. Transfiguration was not meant to be a private experience for Jesus only. When he appears, we shall be like him; we shall see him as he is.

The Israelites saw the cloud and fire. Aaron saw it. And yet … Peter saw Jesus’ face shine like the sun. He heard the words. And yet … Memory is a great antidote to temptation. Whatever mountain you have to climb in the coming forty days, whatever words you have to hear, remember where you came from and where you are going. Remember how the thunder sounded. Remember what you saw in the candle’s flickering light. Joshua was with Moses. He saw, and remembered. ‘As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.’ And so …